# C03 — Independent Coverage Verification

## Operative patterns (identified independently via facet retrieval)

Facet retrieval (search_by_facets, 6 structural facets) returned, by per-facet rank:
- irreversibility facet → **irreversible_commitment_management** (0.802, top)
- decide=act / no independent check facet → **checks_and_balances_architecture** (0.728, top)
- proportional-scrutiny facet → **checks_and_balances_architecture** (0.709, top); also tiered_escalation, oversight_span_calibration, proportionality_calibration
- rare-catastrophe-in-routine-stream facet → **fail_safe_default** (0.701, top)
- hidden-dependencies facet → **dependency_exposure** (0.746, top)
- no-rationale-record facet → accountability_chain_design (0.623), layered_record_accumulation

Two PRIMARY operative archetypes (the design's logic rests on both):
1. **Irreversible Commitment Management** — supplies the success-criterion logic: separate irreversible residue from reversible risk, gate before the point of no return, scale scrutiny to finality, stage exposure, keep a finality record.
2. **Checks-and-Balances Architecture** — supplies the "no single mistaken judgment is final" structure: a checker independent of the actor, with real review power, plus an accountability record.

Two SUPPORTING patterns whose components also matter: **fail_safe_default** (safe holding state) and **dependency_exposure** (consequence-scope mechanism). Both are surfaced and instantiated by the design; I check the two primaries component-by-component below and confirm the supporting components within them.

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## COVERAGE MAP A — Irreversible Commitment Management (13 components)

| Component | Status | Witness / Reason (one clause) |
|---|---|---|
| Irreversibility Check | instantiated | "is this the only copy... will the underlying storage be overwritten... an action is treated as destructive if a faithful restore does not exist" |
| Consequence Scope | instantiated | reverse-dependency probe "who reads this data, who calls this service," plus last-copy check, before teardown |
| Point-of-No-Return Marker | instantiated | true finality is the separate reclaimer's purge, pushed past the retention window; "Permanence is reached only by... an elapsed window and confirmed non-recall" |
| Consent or Review Gate | homolog | no per-action human owner exists, so independent-reviewer AUTHORIZATION (separate policy engine / second agent, "authority to refuse, not merely advise") discharges the gate function in lieu of consent |
| Staged Commitment Path | instantiated/homolog | two-phase delete (recoverable holding state now → purge after window) stages finality in time; blast-radius rate-limit/per-shard scoping stages in population |
| Simulation or Pilot Probe | homolog | "drain or shadow step: stop serving traffic and observe whether anything breaks, without yet destroying" — a rehearsal yielding evidence without finality |
| Exposure Limit | instantiated | "destructive batch is rate-limited and scoped per shard or tenant, so one faulty rule cannot fan out across the fleet" |
| Compensation Rule | homolog | recoverable holding state + restore-within-window = residual mitigation; abort-on-breakage repairs. (Over-lift guard: monetary/restitution framing inapplicable to data ops; the restore path IS the residual remedy.) |
| Finality Record | instantiated | "durable, append-only record: what was acted on, the reason, the scope evidence, which reviewer authorized it, what would remain changed after a restore, scheduled purge time... contemporaneous and tamper-evident" |
| Cooling-Off Period | instantiated | retention window between holding-state and purge ("longer for higher stakes") is the cooling-off interval |
| Independent Review Panel | instantiated | independent reviewer separate from acting agent; highest tier escalates to a human |
| Impact Monitoring Signal | instantiated | "During that window the system watches for dependents erroring; if breakage appears, the purge is automatically aborted" |
| Rollback Residue Assessment | instantiated | "what would remain changed after a restore"; distinguishes overwrite-with-residue (strongest tier) from zero-residue soft-delete |

**Pattern A: 0 missing.** 9 instantiated, 3 homolog, 1 instantiated/homolog hybrid. 0 declined.

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## COVERAGE MAP B — Checks-and-Balances Architecture (11 components)

| Component | Status | Witness / Reason (one clause) |
|---|---|---|
| Power Map | instantiated | design names the concentrated power explicitly ("the agent decides and acts in the same motion") and splits decision from execution; the four-actor model (agent, reviewer, reclaimer, monitor) is the redistributed map |
| Separated Function | instantiated | "the agent may no longer finalize its own judgment"; separate reviewer authorizes, separate reclaimer purges — proposer ≠ authorizer ≠ finalizer |
| Checking Actor | instantiated | "an independent reviewer that is not the acting agent — a separate policy engine or a second, differently-configured agent instance" |
| Review Power | instantiated | reviewer has "the authority to refuse, not merely advise"; checks scope evidence and stated reason; aborting monitor can stop a purge |
| Veto or Remedy Rule | instantiated | reviewer can refuse; monitor auto-aborts purge on breakage and restores holding state — both veto and remedy present |
| Capture or Stalemate Monitor | instantiated | "A monitor watches the whole destructive lane for two opposite failures — reviewers that approve everything without scrutiny, and actions that stall" — explicitly both capture and gridlock |
| Independence Safeguard | instantiated/homolog | reviewer is "differently-configured," operates on a separate lane, and reads independently-gathered scope evidence; for top tier escalates outside the agent to a human (independence of substrate rather than org-chart) |
| Coordination Interface | instantiated | gate routes evidence from dependency-probe to reviewer; reviewer authorization flows to commit step; the destructive lane is the defined coordination path |
| Escalation Interface | instantiated | "the reviewer escalates to a human" for highest-stakes tier; tiered weighting routes by consequence |
| Accountability Record | instantiated | the same durable append-only finality record (reason, authorizing reviewer, scope evidence) serves the accountability-record component |
| Emergency Override Protocol | correctly_declined | no urgency/emergency-bypass need is present — the problem's failure mode is unilateral haste, not blocked-emergency; an override path would re-open the very decide=act-now hole the design closes. Gridlock is instead handled by the reversible fast lane + bounded reviewer window + auto-progression, so no emergency bypass is warranted. |

**Pattern B: 0 missing.** 9 instantiated, 1 instantiated/homolog, 1 correctly_declined.

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## Supporting-pattern spot-checks (confirmed within the above)
- **fail_safe_default**: safe_default_state = recoverable holding state (tombstone/quarantine/reserve-not-overwrite); recovery_policy = restore-within-window + auto-abort; status visibility = the record + monitor. Instantiated.
- **dependency_exposure**: dependency map + criticality tiering + failure-path observation (drain step) all present in the reverse-dependency probe. Instantiated.

## Anti-signature / failure-condition walk against THIS scenario
- IrrevCommitMgmt — *ordinary_reversible_change*: not tripped (reversible lane untouched — this is the speed guarantee). *generic_approval_without_finality*: not tripped (gate fires only on true irreversibility). *failure_response_after_event*: not tripped (gate is pre-commit). *rollback_illusion* symptom: directly answered by residue assessment. None disqualifies.
- ChecksAndBalances — *low_stakes_single_owner_work*: not tripped (only destructive tier is gated). *only_participation_missing*: correctly distinguished — affected-party voice (due_process) is not the operative need; concentrated decide=act+finalize power is. *rubber_stamp*: guarded (reviewer must read scope evidence; capture monitor). *gridlock_by_veto*: guarded (fast lane + bounded window). None disqualifies.

## Special-attention checklist (per instructions)
- Independent confirmation at the moment of an irreversible action: PRESENT — independent reviewer authorizes before commit; finality only after window+non-recall.
- Durable record of why: PRESENT — contemporaneous, append-only, tamper-evident finality/accountability record including reason, evidence, authorizing reviewer.
- Authority/scrutiny scaled to consequence: PRESENT — explicit three-tier weighting (reversible: no gate; low-consequence destructive: auto review + short window; high-consequence: dependency proof + human escalation + long window + aborting monitor) + blast-radius cap.

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## VERDICT: PASS

All 13 components of Irreversible Commitment Management and all 11 of Checks-and-Balances Architecture are accounted for (instantiated, discharged via a named homolog, or — for Emergency Override only — correctly declined with a stated reason). No component is missing. The three high-stakes requirements (independent confirmation at the irreversible moment, durable why-record, proportional authority) are each instantiated. No anti-signature disqualifies the design.

**Missing components: none.**
