diff --git a/decisions/decisions.md b/decisions/decisions.md
index c45b9cb..799f9c0 100644
--- a/decisions/decisions.md
+++ b/decisions/decisions.md
@@ -488,3 +488,85 @@ decided_by: Bernd Worsch
 created: '2026-09-05T23:28:23.931441Z'
 updated: '2026-09-05T23:28:23.931441Z'
 ```
+
+## Context
+
+`GH-DEC-2026-003` settled the consumption sequence and named step 1 by endpoint and
+by field: `GET /v1/approvals/{id}/claim` → `valid_now` (a fact, not permission).
+`approval-engine` serves the approval-claim at that endpoint
+(`approval-engine/docs/approval-claim.md`). `secrets-engine`'s PEP validator
+(`validate_action_authorization`, `src/secrets_engine/authorization.py`) calls the
+same endpoint but expects a flex-auth `ActionAuthorization`. Two different objects
+were being assumed on one path, and the divergence would have surfaced at first live
+consume rather than at deployment.
+
+`ActionAuthorization` originates in `flex-auth/docs/action-bound-authorization-contract.md`
+as a proposed shape for durable approval storage that the same document assigns to
+`approval-engine`. It was never ratified, appears nowhere in this repository's
+doctrine, and has no `valid_now` field. `GH-DEC-2026-003` was issued after it without
+reference to it. There is therefore nothing to reconcile: the claim was the step-1
+artifact all along, and this record says so where implementers will find it.
+
+`approval-engine` raised the question rather than guessing, which is the behaviour
+§12 asks for. The three substantive assertions in the request were checked here
+independently before confirmation.
+
+## Decision
+
+**1. The approval-claim is the step-1 artifact on the `GH-DEC-2026-003` path.**
+It carries the approval fact: binding digest, validity window, consumption state,
+observation freshness, and issuer. Holding one with `valid_now: true` remains not
+authority to act.
+
+**2. `ActionAuthorization` is not required on that path.** `approval-engine` is not
+expected to serve it and MUST NOT serve it from the claim endpoint. A step-1 response
+cannot contain a step-2 decision; any composed post-decision artifact would be a new
+artifact at a new endpoint. The proposal is shelved on this path, not withdrawn.
+
+**3. A PEP validates across the two artifacts it already fetches.** The claim is
+checked for the approval fact; the flex-auth `DecisionEnvelope` from step 2 is checked
+for exact `CheckRequest` match and policy package/version pin. This is doctrine, not
+merely an implementation convenience: **each artifact is validated against the layer
+that owns its data.** A PIP republishing the PDP's decision would put a copy of the
+authority decision in a repository that did not render it — the same shape of error
+the re-cut removed from Gate House itself. No safety property is lost, because
+`ActionAuthorization` is a bundle of exactly these two checks.
+
+**4. The `provenance.authority == "state-hub"` requirement is struck.** State Hub is
+a read model. It is not the runtime approval authority and never was; flex-auth's own
+contract says so. A validator that requires it would fail closed against every
+correctly issued claim. `secrets-engine` removes the constant with the validator split.
+
+Consequent changes: `approval-engine` none — the claim schema stands as published;
+`secrets-engine` splits its validator and drops the authority constant; `flex-auth`
+records that the proposal is shelved on this path. Nothing here gates
+`APPROVAL-WP-0002-T03` — `secrets-engine` is fail-closed until its own gates land,
+and this record governs first live consume, not deployment.
+
+## Deferred
+
+A ratified post-decision `ActionAuthorization` — one composed, signed, forwardable
+object — remains coherent and is recorded here so it is not rediscovered as new. It
+is not adopted now because it has no named issuer or lifecycle owner and the sequence
+is already settled without one. Revisit on any of: a third or fourth PEP-shaped
+consumer; a requirement for a single signed forwardable artifact (offline
+verification, or an audit that must replay one object rather than a join); resolution
+of flex-auth's open G3 finding by composition rather than by adding a lifetime to the
+envelope; or assent of the statute §17 Taxonomy request-claim schema
+(`APPROVAL-IN-0001`) — in which case converge there and do **not** revive this
+separately.
+
+Also rejected, so they are not re-proposed: serving `ActionAuthorization` at the claim
+endpoint (structurally impossible for step 1, and it would assert an authority
+`approval-engine` does not hold); and extending the claim with `approvals.required_count`
+or `entries` (publishing approver identities is a deliberate least-disclosure non-goal,
+and it would still not satisfy the validator).
+
+## Reversal
+
+Revert this record and the amendment to `docs/contracts/approval-consumption.md`. The
+falsifier is a demonstrated check that two-artifact validation cannot perform and a
+single composed artifact can — most plausibly offline or forwarded verification with
+no access to the PDP. That is a trigger for the deferred option above, not for
+returning `ActionAuthorization` to the claim endpoint, which stays forbidden on
+structural grounds regardless.
diff --git a/docs/contracts/approval-consumption.md b/docs/contracts/approval-consumption.md
index 1860eb8..5837e4d 100644
--- a/docs/contracts/approval-consumption.md
+++ b/docs/contracts/approval-consumption.md
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@
 **Owner:** gate-house
 **PIP:** approval-engine
 **PDP:** access-engine (currently flex-auth)
-**Status:** normative for GH-WP-0002-T06; recorded as `GH-DEC-2026-003`
-**Date:** 2026-08-29
+**Status:** normative for GH-WP-0002-T06; recorded as `GH-DEC-2026-003`,
+amended by `GH-DEC-2026-005` (step-1 artifact and split validation)
+**Date:** 2026-09-06
 **Statute:** `net-kingdom/canon/standards/security-layer-model_v0.7.md` §9.4, §9.7.3–4, §16
 **Blocks:** `APPROVAL-WP-0001-T05`, `FLEX-WP-0017-T05`
 
@@ -30,6 +31,35 @@ companion §5 already treats as PEP-shaped.
 Holding a claim with `valid_now: true`, or an ALLOW against that claim, is not
 authority to act. The consume is.
 
+## What each step's artifact is
+
+Amended by `GH-DEC-2026-005`.
+
+**Step 1 serves the approval-claim** (`approval-engine/docs/approval-claim.md`).
+That is the artifact `valid_now` belongs to, and it is the only object the claim
+endpoint serves. flex-auth's proposed `ActionAuthorization` is **not** required
+here, is not served here, and MUST NOT be served from this endpoint: a step-1
+response cannot contain a step-2 decision.
+
+**A PEP validates across both artifacts it already fetches**, and each against
+the layer that owns its data:
+
+| Artifact | Source | What the PEP checks |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| approval-claim | step 1, `approval-engine` (PIP) | binding digest, validity window, consumption state, observation freshness, issuer |
+| `DecisionEnvelope` | step 2, `access-engine` (PDP) | exact `CheckRequest` match, policy package and version pin |
+
+A PIP MUST NOT republish the PDP's decision, and a PEP MUST NOT accept the
+approval fact from the decision artifact or the decision from the approval
+artifact. Composing the two into one served object is a separate, post-decision
+artifact at a separate endpoint if it is ever ratified — not a change to the
+claim.
+
+**Claim provenance is not State Hub.** A PEP MUST NOT require
+`provenance.authority == "state-hub"` on the claim. State Hub is a read model and
+holds no runtime approval authority; the issuer to check is the engine that
+served the claim.
+
 ## Why consume is before the side effect
 
 §9.7.3 says consumption MUST NOT be inferred from a decision record. That
diff --git a/intakes/intakes.md b/intakes/intakes.md
index 428e8ad..971fd14 100644
--- a/intakes/intakes.md
+++ b/intakes/intakes.md
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ state_hub_intake_id: "01a04b04-dd82-73a4-a8bf-9aeba5ef575f"
 id: GH-IN-0002
 kind: intake
 title: Claim envelope on the PEP consumption path — which artifact is step 1 of GH-DEC-2026-003
-status: open
+status: closed
 origin: cross-repo
 origin_ref: approval-engine APPROVAL-IN-0002 (decision request)
 priority: high