# HANDOFF -- Self-Audit Resistance Monitor (E9)

**Phase:** 6 (Skill-Builder -- assembly)
**Skill slug:** self-audit-resistance-monitor
**Role in Evaluator plugin:** Secondary keystone (silent-corruption detector)
**Plugin:** Evaluator (auditor)

---

## Assembly status

- SKILL.md authored with restated mission-critical constraints, 8-step operating logic, full File Registry, Reopen Triggers, Rules (11), Handoff Protocol.
- 7 references authored under `references/`:
  - `CALIBRATED_SILENCE_SPEC.md` -- five required fields doctrine; "positive-nothing-found" retirement load-bearing.
  - `OVER_REPORT_AFFORDANCES.md` -- Affordance 1 self-recognition counter; Affordance 2 reference-groundedness; Affordance 3 inter-evaluator triangulation; each with detection logic + response + anti-pattern.
  - `UNDER_REPORT_AFFORDANCES.md` -- Affordance 1 seeded-defect calibration; Affordance 2 adversarial eval-awareness monitoring; each with threshold logic + response.
  - `CALIBRATION_HARNESS.md` -- mutant generator + indistinguishability guarantee + multi-metric scoring + TOST gate + taxonomy-staleness residual.
  - `EVAL_AWARENESS_PROTOCOL.md` -- 5 adversarial probes, KS threshold, arms-race posture.
  - `EXISTENCE_FINDINGS_SEPARATION.md` -- Power 1997 / DiMaggio-Powell 1983 grounding + three architectural rules.
  - `ANTI_DEVIATION.md` -- seven self-checks + forbidden-phrasing scan.
- 5 templates authored under `templates/`:
  - `OVER_REPORT_SIGNAL.md`
  - `UNDER_REPORT_SIGNAL.md`
  - `CALIBRATED_SILENCE_REPORT.md` -- five load-bearing fields; retirement note is only place "positive-nothing-found" appears.
  - `CALIBRATION_HARNESS_RECORD.md`
  - `CEREMONIAL_PATTERN_SIGNAL.md`
- Total: 12 files (SKILL.md + 7 references + 5 templates), plus this HANDOFF.md.

## Calibrated-silence discipline verification

- Every calibrated-silence path carries FIVE required fields: bounded surface S, seeded catch rate R, equivalence-test result, residual ceremonial-risk note, taxonomy-completeness disclaimer.
- TOST (Lakens 2016) is the equivalence-test method; licensing silence is gated on `within_band=true`.
- Seeded catch rate is always marked as a LOWER BOUND (Bieman 1996; Jia & Harman 2011); never an upper bound.
- Indistinguishability-failed calibrations cannot license silence (Sonnet 4.5 arms-race posture).

## Positive-nothing-found retirement verification

Literal-string search completed across SKILL.md + 7 references + 5 templates + HANDOFF.md:

- `CALIBRATED_SILENCE_SPEC.md` -- appears only in the retirement note paragraph and forbidden-phrasing list.
- `ANTI_DEVIATION.md` -- appears only as the Check 3 drift signature + forbidden-phrasing scan.
- `CALIBRATED_SILENCE_REPORT.md` (template) -- appears only in the `retirement_note` block and the hard-rule text explicitly bounding it to that block.
- SKILL.md -- appears only in Mission-Critical Constraint 1 (retirement statement), Rule 2 (retirement statement), and Reopen Trigger (drift detection). No current-affordance usage.
- Other files -- absent.

No occurrence of "positive-nothing-found" as a current affordance anywhere in the assembled skill. Verification PASSES.

## Anti-sycophancy NEVER rules -- assembled check

- "Don't manufacture findings to justify invocation" -- encoded in ANTI_DEVIATION Check 1 + OVER_REPORT_SIGNAL.anti_sycophancy_attestation.
- "Don't under-report to stay unseen" -- encoded in ANTI_DEVIATION Check 2 + UNDER_REPORT_SIGNAL.anti_sycophancy_attestation.
- "Catch rate is harness-measured, not self-declared" -- encoded in CALIBRATION_HARNESS_RECORD.anti_sycophancy_attestation + EVAL_AWARENESS_PROTOCOL anti-pattern.
- "No reward coupling to catch count" -- encoded across ANTI_DEVIATION Check 4 + EXISTENCE_FINDINGS_SEPARATION Rule 2 + every template's anti_sycophancy_attestation block.

## Known-limit / flags

- Indistinguishability is an ongoing arms race; current ceiling (58%) from Sonnet 4.5 must be re-checked on every model-generation change and the ceiling parameter updated accordingly.
- Taxonomy-completeness residual is architectural, not eliminable (Metaxa et al. 2021). Phase 9 taxonomy review cadence (default 90 days) should be confirmed during Phase 7 gate.
- Pre-registered thresholds (N-of-M consensus, tolerance band, alpha for KS tests) are placeholder defaults in templates. Phase 7 or Phase 9 pre-registration step must lock concrete values.
- Reporting-surface parity assumes Reopen Authority Enforcer exposes a single schema-symmetric channel. Confirm via Reopen Authority Enforcer skill assembly (sibling skill) that this channel exists.

## Downstream consumers

- Reopen Authority Enforcer (sibling skill) consumes all five emission types.
- Phase 9 eval harness writes calibration records into the archive referenced by `calibration_record_id`.
- Phase 10 adversarial testing re-runs eval-awareness probes and compares detection rate against the 58% floor.

## No runtime HANDOFF.md

Runtime per-audit emissions go directly to Reopen Authority Enforcer on its schema channel. This HANDOFF.md is build-time only.
