gate-house/history/2026-09-01-conformance-loop-handoff.md

# Conformance-loop handoff

**Repository:** gate-house
**Project family:** NetKingdom
**Status:** First posture return reviewed; whitehat return pending
**Date:** 2026-09-01
**Workplan:** GH-WP-0001-T06
**Artifact commit:** `8cb7250`

## What Gate House published

- `docs/assurance/asm-t01-t10-executable-targets.md` — hostile setup,
  observable oracle, evidence, and known-bad calibration for every Canon test;
- `docs/assurance/asm-targets.yaml` — machine-readable T-01…T-10 index;
- `docs/contracts/conformance-reporting.md` — outcome and doctrine-disposition
  return contract;
- `docs/contracts/posture-findings-return.md` — posture asymmetry, origin
  linkage, stream completeness, and findings return path;
- `docs/conformance/README.md` — Gate House review-register rules and honest
  `not_run` initial state.

## Agreement already in force

King's Guard accepted the Staff placement, posture asymmetry, and Engine-only
actuation boundary in `KG-DEC-2026-001`. Its `KG-WP-0003-T06` requires
containment proposals to retain observation/signal origin, and T07 requires the
first live observation to be reported to Gate House. The return-path contract
consolidates those accepted and planned obligations; it does not assign a new
responsibility.

Whitehat-security's layering review note and open `WHITEHAT-IN-0001` name the
split: Gate House specifies T-01…T-10; whitehat-security attacks and judges
whether controls held. The executable-target handoff supplies the missing
specification detail without changing whitehat-security's targeting and
authorization rules.

## Durable handoffs

### Whitehat-security

State Hub message:
`8229c9a4-862f-4d55-842c-5c95702f79d9`

Requested disposition:

- triage all ten tests as applicable, not applicable, or pending;
- map or extend whitehat's target representation in its own repository;
- name target surface, known-bad calibration, and report route;
- preserve Canon IDs when revising or splitting a target;
- return every outcome under `conformance-reporting.v1`;
- treat the handoff as no authorization for any fixture or live probe.

### King's Guard

State Hub message:
`50d392ad-b342-4e90-85e7-d4c5495f3671`

Requested disposition:

- apply or contest the consolidated contract through existing
  `KG-WP-0003-T06/T07`;
- preserve posture's restrictive asymmetry and Engine-only actuation;
- return origin-linked posture/findings via the named State Hub envelope;
- report stream completeness separately from record richness.

## Why T06 is waiting

Publication and handoff are necessary but do not make the conformance loop
turn. At this point:

- whitehat-security has not returned a triaged ASM target or calibrated run;
- kings-guard T06/T07 are still open and no live-observation result has
  returned under this contract;
- `docs/conformance/` therefore truthfully records `not_run`.

T06 can move from `wait` to `done` after:

1. whitehat-security records disposition for the target set and returns at
   least one known-bad-calibrated fixture or authorized target outcome;
2. kings-guard confirms or revises the return-path contract and reports the
   status of its origin-link/live-observation lane;
3. Gate House records the first returned report's doctrine disposition and
   routes every residual to a live owner.

Anything less would establish document flow, not a conformance loop.

## Progress — 2026-09-02

King's Guard accepted the contract without revision, finished
`KG-WP-0003-T06/T07`, and returned the first live observation under the
`[GH-POSTURE]` envelope. Gate House disposition:
`docs/conformance/2026-09-02-kings-guard-qonto-live-observation.md`.

The qonto-assistant lane is now staffed for observation, not proven complete.
The load-bearing deny stream has no heartbeat/cadence or reconciliation view,
so completeness is `unknown`. Residual messages to qonto-assistant,
net-kingdom, and info-tech-canon were delivered and remain unread.

The whitehat handoff `8229c9a4-862f-4d55-842c-5c95702f79d9` also remains
unread. Whitehat separately accepted the responsibility boundary with one
useful correction: Gate House specifies invariants and targets; whitehat
authors probes. The published target pack already assigns attack design and
verdict to whitehat, and Gate House explicitly accepted the correction in its
follow-up.

Coordination receipts:

- Gate House acknowledged King's Guard by reply to posture return
  `23480b81-bc34-4df4-92cc-840fbc8514fd`, linked the recorded `no_change`
  disposition at commit `feff576`, and preserved the qonto/Taxonomy residuals
  as pending.
- Gate House marked the supporting contract-acceptance and cadence-draft
  messages read after incorporating them into the disposition.
- Gate House accepted whitehat's correction and requested target triage plus
  one fixture-safe, known-bad-calibrated result in reply
  `c33c3a72-5bf3-4693-8861-9e9ad37d5908`. The request explicitly authorizes
  no live probe.

Gate House then received a concrete, fixture-safe T-06 candidate from
secrets-engine in message `99bf84bf-18d2-4e63-a7ac-25078e1c72d5`. Its focused
unit suite passed 17/17 in the then-current working tree at observed repository
revision `465c0d7`. Whitehat later corrected the immutable implementation
revision to `4b4d556`; `3cd9955` did not contain the module. This is
target-suitability evidence only. Candidate record:
`docs/conformance/2026-09-02-secrets-engine-t06-candidate.md`.

Coordination receipts for the candidate:

- Gate House acknowledged secrets-engine's implementation in reply
  `118135d2-bf53-41c5-8bfb-11582359f1c3`.
- Gate House handed the bounded fixture surface to whitehat-security in message
  `cc19a1c4-2acf-448d-b90f-e9843a57a7d4`, preserving Whitehat ownership and
  explicitly authorizing no live target or effect.

Whitehat-security then created open intake `WHITEHAT-IN-0002` and returned
message `f9fab770-d840-4709-bb07-8e14a3e4db3f`. Gate House accepted the intake
as an accurate transcription with no contract correction in reply
`311e6d65-4e4c-4481-9506-9a758103f43b`. Intake is acknowledgement and triage,
not an execution report, so the whitehat completion gate remains open.

Gate House also routed the qonto-assistant completeness finding through the
required risk-nexus path in message
`53645a75-0215-4261-a700-f7aedf09e7e8`. The route leaves severity and
finding-versus-note classification to risk-nexus and leaves remediation with
qonto-assistant. A resulting risk record or explicit rejection is pending.

Whitehat-security subsequently promoted and closed `WHITEHAT-IN-0002` into
`WHITEHAT-WP-0007` at triage revision `5384f05`. T-01 through T-10 have
individual registrations, known-bad designs, blockers, and result routes. Gate
House accepted the triage and Whitehat's `fixture-asm` / `asm` class split
without revising either Gate House contract. All ten registrations remain
`pending`, so no conformance result exists.

The T-06 blocker did not account for the already-supplied secrets-engine
candidate. Gate House requested a Whitehat-owned sufficiency decision in
message `418fe53b-4a4b-4ebb-909e-62d206cd005f`: admit T-06 as fixture-only and
author the calibration, or preserve `pending` and name the smallest missing
artifact. Review:
`docs/conformance/2026-09-02-whitehat-asm-triage-review.md`.

Whitehat-security admitted the fixture-only T-06 surface at revision `75deaf0`
and returned a passing known-bad calibration in message
`568d7092-f365-4b30-a5ba-1526b6db6893`. Gate House reproduced its focused
suite (53 passed). The substantive calibration is accepted for review, but the
reply is not yet the standalone `conformance-reporting.v1` envelope required
by the contract; Gate House requested that reporting-only correction in reply
`07572202-c855-4235-8289-5a3d9c8f28ae` without asking for a rerun or live
target.

Risk Nexus registered the qonto completeness residual as `RISK-F-0011` under
`RISK-RULING-2026-09-02-A`: medium, public, open, no escalation, with
qonto-assistant as fix owner. Its source check correctly narrowed Gate House's
initial rationale: the emitted audit stream does not drive the in-process
lockout; it is load-bearing for estate observation. Gate House accepted the
ruling in reply `0b37297c-9231-4d72-a2dd-66b5ba142031` and corrected its review
without changing the `no_change` doctrine disposition.

Whitehat-security then completed in-process known-bad/known-good calibration
for T-01 through T-10 at revision `6f1ca0b` and returned aggregate message
`32926191-4ca1-46ad-8eec-0d499036d66b`. Gate House reproduced the current
focused suite (53 passed) and recorded `no_change` to the executable target
specification. These are fixture harness calibrations, not ten live system
results; every live `asm-tNN` remains `pending` / `not_run`. Review:
`docs/conformance/2026-09-02-whitehat-asm-fixture-calibrations.md`.

## Closure — 2026-09-02

Whitehat-security supplied the corrected standalone T-06 envelope in message
`a1ebf012-bd1e-43d2-843c-ba3ddecb8c82`. It confirms engagement
`fixture-asm-t06`, authorization `docs/rules-of-engagement.md v0.2 §1`, stable
report/run id, target revision `4b4d556`, invariants, evidence references,
limitations, and returned time. No rerun or live target was used.

Gate House recorded Whitehat's fixture outcome `pass` without regrading it and
set doctrine disposition `no_change`. Final review:
`docs/conformance/2026-09-02-whitehat-t06-fixture-return.md`.

All GH-WP-0001-T06 completion conditions are satisfied:

1. T-01 through T-10 are triaged and their fixture probes are calibrated;
2. a contract-complete Whitehat T-06 result returned;
3. King's Guard accepted the posture contract, staffed one live observation
   lane, and preserved completeness separately from richness;
4. Gate House recorded and returned explicit doctrine dispositions;
5. the qonto implementation finding is tracked as `RISK-F-0011`;
6. live ASM residuals are owned by `WHITEHAT-WP-0008` and remain explicitly
   `pending` / `not_run`.

The conformance loop is staffed. It is not declared estate-wide green.