repo.work.create_decision GH-DEC-2026-009

correlation_id: b5a1db81-fa81-4449-878f-206dce74ceaf
reason: rmgr CLI
source: repo-manager

Assistant: claude-code
Assistant-Model: opus
Assistant-Process: 425128@bnt-lap001
Assistant-Session: f5944d8b-dac4-4e1a-87eb-8b3d8f314a63

decisions/decisions.md

@@ -1072,3 +1072,43 @@ workflow, not the possibility of one. The expected resolution is that such a cas
 needs a *class* binding with its own contract, not a relaxation of this one to an
 optional field, because an optional correspondence is indistinguishable at the
 consumer from no correspondence at all.
+
+## GH-DEC-2026-009 — Unknown is not a zone and fails closed; stance maps declare their scoping axis
+
+```yaml
+id: GH-DEC-2026-009
+kind: decision
+title: Unknown is not a zone and fails closed; stance maps declare their scoping axis
+status: resolved
+owner: Bernd Worsch
+repo: gate-house
+standard: net-kingdom/canon/standards/security-layer-model_v0.7.md
+source_note: flex-auth/docs/stance-register-review.md
+requested_dispositions:
+- approved
+- revised
+- rejected
+affects:
+- gate-house
+- net-kingdom
+- ops-warden
+- secrets-engine
+- user-engine
+- tenant-engine
+- ops-mason
+- access-engine
+- zone-engine
+rationale: 'Raised by access-engine on the first occasion the §13.1 register held
+  enough rows to diverge. Two rulings. First: an unreachable engine and an unclassifiable
+  subject are different failure cases, and §9.3''s per-zone availability trade is
+  only available for the first. Trading openness for a zone requires knowing the zone;
+  where the scope is unknown the trade cannot have been made for it, and fail_open
+  on unknown hands the most permissive stance to exactly the request an attacker can
+  most easily make unclassifiable. unknown is therefore not a zone and MUST fail closed.
+  Second: the register cannot aggregate across incommensurable scoping axes, so each
+  map declares its axis and its relationship to zone, and the register states what
+  it cannot answer rather than implying it can.'
+decided_by: Bernd Worsch
+created: '2026-09-06T12:17:19.104531Z'
+updated: '2026-09-06T12:17:19.104531Z'
+```