# Charter Amendment Ceremony (E6)

**Owner:** Audit Charter Lock. Private Evaluator.
**Purpose:** specify the sequence for a valid amendment. Amendment is a ceremony with non-trivial re-baseline cost -- NOT routine. If amendments outnumber audit cycles, the charter design is wrong -- escalate to redesign rather than repeated amendment.
**Non-goal:** ceremony does not decide WHETHER to amend (operator authority); it enforces HOW a granted amendment is enacted.

## Preconditions
1. `amendment-request` envelope received from operator with proposed delta.
2. Triggering condition recorded: Signal 3 / Signal 4 resolution by amend-rather-than-refuse, or operator-initiated.
3. Existing charter still locked (no prior unresolved halt).

If any precondition fails, refuse.

## Steps (ordered, gating)

### Step 1 -- Re-intake
Treat the proposal as a brand-new charter. Re-run Phase A end-to-end: envelope completeness, section completeness, VICTORE declaration across all seven dimensions, cross-section consistency. Same rigor as initial lock. Partial amendment is not a thing. If intake fails, ceremony aborts; prior charter remains locked; operator redrafts.

### Step 2 -- Version bump
- Increment `charter_version` monotonically (v1 -> v2).
- Compute new content hash over the amended document.
- Persist structural diff against prior version.

**Conventions:**
- Changes to `target_ram_artifacts`, `evidence_classes_admissible`, `stakeholders`, `audit_questions`, `mode_per_question`, or VICTORE bounds -> major bump.
- Amendment-policy-internal changes -> minor bump (v1 -> v1.1).
- Typographic / commentary-only changes are NOT amendments.

### Step 3 -- Re-baseline (load-bearing)
1. Tag prior findings, scores, blind-spot entries `pre-amendment-v{N-1}`.
2. Tag in-progress operations `interrupted-by-amendment`; halt; restart under new charter with fresh IDs.
3. Write `charter-amended` Ledger entry: `{ audit_id, prior_version, new_version, diff_artifact_id, operator_id, timestamp, re_baseline_tags_applied_count, triggering_signal }`.
4. Notify Self-Audit Resistance Monitor; amendment frequency enters its honesty diagnostics.
5. Notify downstream: pre- and post-amendment findings **do not aggregate**. Attempts trigger `aggregate-across-amendment-versions-attempted` HARD ERROR.

### Step 4 -- Lock the new charter
Only after Step 3 does the new version become active. Emit `charter-locked`; operations may proceed.

### Step 5 -- Amendment-frequency check
If amendment count exceeds `amendment_ceiling` (default: 1), emit diagnostic:

> "Amendment frequency ({N}) suggests the original charter design is wrong. Recommend pausing and redesigning rather than amending further. Beyond-ceiling amendments process but flag for integrity review."

Does NOT block further amendments (operator authority preserved) but is recorded and visible to the Self-Audit Resistance Monitor.

## Required audit trail

Every ceremony produces:
- `amendment-request` record.
- `charter-amended` Ledger entry with diff and re-baseline counts.
- `charter-locked` record for the new version.
- N `pre-amendment-v{N-1}` tags on prior findings.
- Zero or one `amendment-frequency-warning`.

Fewer artifacts -> HARD ERROR `amendment-without-rebaseline-attempted`.

## What amendment is NOT
- Not a way to rewrite the charter to match observed work (Anti-Example 3).
- Not a way to avoid Signal 3 / Signal 4 escalation -- operator may choose amendment-with-re-baseline as resolution, but the amendment still runs full ceremony.
- Not a way to retroactively bless out-of-scope evidence already consumed. Pre-amendment findings stay tagged regardless of scope change.
