Apply GH-DEC-2026-017: INTENT.md governs, the sidecar is derived, no version

Verified against gate-house's own committed files before editing, not the inbox
message: GH-DEC-2026-017 in decisions/decisions.md at gate-house@def0af2,
amendments A9-A13 in docs/amendments/v0.8-section-11-declaration-amendments.md,
and sections 3, 4 and 11 of net-kingdom's security-layer-model_v0.8.md. The
ruling and docs/layer-declaration-precedence.md's secondary account agreed.

INTENT.md's frontmatter is the declaration; layer.yaml is a derived artifact,
now marked derived: true / derived_from: INTENT.md, and it does not govern.

standard_version is removed from BOTH forms. The ruling's general form is that a
layer declaration must not carry a standard version, and INTENT.md is the
declaration, so removing it from the sidecar alone would have left the field in
the only file that actually declares. INTENT.md's version-pinned `standard:`
path is de-versioned for the same reason: a pinned path reads as a validity
condition. The version ops-warden assented at stays with the assent, ADR-0010.

NO LAYER VALUE IS CHANGED. INTENT.md still says Staff and layer.yaml still says
staff. Section 3's vocabulary is closed, four tokens, and case-insensitive: the
two forms were never in disagreement about a layer, and the ruling asked nobody
to re-spell anything. The comment marking the divergence is rewritten from
"unruled, do not touch" to "ruled, folding case is the checker's job".

check_layer_conformance.py would have rejected the conforming declaration this
ruling produces -- it listed standard_version as a required key. It now reads
INTENT.md as the governing form, ASCII-folds before comparing, validates both
values against the closed four-token vocabulary (Taxonomy included; omitting it
is the defect A9 records against the estate's other validator), requires the
derived marking, rejects a returning standard_version in either file, and
reports a post-fold disagreement between the forms as a finding rather than
resolving it away by precedence.

The test asserts the fold, not equality. An equality assertion here would be
this repository quietly performing the re-spelling the ruling declined to order;
the fold still fails on a real layer divergence.

pep-stance.yaml is untouched. A stance map is not a layer declaration, and the
sidecar schema beyond the derived marking and the version is explicitly not
ruled.

layer.yaml is the form seven repositories copied, so the adopter change set is
written out in wiki/playbooks/netkingdom-layer-declaration.md -- including the
trap that an adopter which also copied the checker turns a conforming
declaration into MALFORMED exit 2 by removing the field alone. No other
repository is edited here.

Still open: where the removed version lives. A12 says the derived conformance
record "already MUST" carry it; ops-warden has a re-runnable checker that emits
nothing durable. Asked of gate-house in message 4220413a, unanswered, and left
open rather than answered by choosing. Nothing above depends on it.

Carries WARDEN-WP-0034-T06 to done.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Assistant: claude-code
Assistant-Model: opus
Assistant-Process: 63291@bnt-lap001
Assistant-Session: 8bd77868-ca68-4f49-bb1e-d539ecc0d703

wiki/playbooks/netkingdom-layer-declaration.md

@@ -12,10 +12,16 @@ reference declaration artifacts. It does not redefine the layer model.
 
 1. Read `net-kingdom/SECURITY-COMPANION.md`, then use the accepted
    `net-kingdom/canon/standards/security-layer-model_v0.7.md` for the normative
-   layer, Tooling-contact, and PEP obligations.
-2. Use ops-warden's `layer.yaml` as the machine-readable declaration reference.
-   Adapt its repository, layer, contacts, and ownership facts; do not copy
-   ops-warden-specific claims as your own.
+   layer, Tooling-contact, and PEP obligations. `v0.8` is proposed, not accepted,
+   and its acceptance flip is held on amendments A9–A13 (`GH-DEC-2026-019`) —
+   but those amendments' substance **already governs** through the decision
+   record that authorises each of them, so declare to the shape below now.
+2. **Declare in your own `INTENT.md` frontmatter.** That is the declaration
+   (`GH-DEC-2026-017` §1). Use ops-warden's `layer.yaml` as the machine-readable
+   reference *form*, which is a **derived** artifact that must be marked derived,
+   must name `INTENT.md` as its source, and must agree with it. Adapt its
+   repository, layer, contacts, and ownership facts; do not copy ops-warden-specific
+   claims as your own.
 3. If the repository is PEP-shaped, use `pep-stance.yaml` as the stance-map
    reference and publish the resulting path in the repository's layer declaration.
 4. Adapt `scripts/check_layer_conformance.py` and
@@ -31,6 +37,51 @@ python3 scripts/check_layer_conformance.py
 pytest tests/test_layer_conformance.py
 ```
 
+## Reference-form change set — 2026-09-21 (`GH-DEC-2026-017`)
+
+**If you copied ops-warden's `layer.yaml` before 2026-09-21, it is now the wrong
+shape in three ways.** The change is to the reference form, which is why
+`gate-house` asked ops-warden to make it here rather than asking each adopter to
+work it out. Apply all three in your own repository; ops-warden does not edit
+anyone else's files.
+
+1. **Remove `standard_version:` from the sidecar *and* from your `INTENT.md`
+   frontmatter.** A layer declaration MUST NOT carry a standard version
+   (`GH-DEC-2026-017` §5, amendment A12): the declared layer is a standing
+   property that does not change when the standard is revised, and a version in
+   the declaration makes every revision read as though it invalidated every
+   declaration. Keeping it "for information" was declined explicitly — a field
+   that is present will be branched on. Version-scoped state belongs in the
+   derived conformance record. If your checker lists `standard_version` as a
+   required key, or prints it in a report line, it will now **reject a conforming
+   declaration** — fix the checker in the same commit.
+2. **Add `derived: true` and `derived_from: INTENT.md`.** The sidecar is a derived
+   artifact under §11's derived-artifact rule and does not govern
+   (`GH-DEC-2026-017` §1, amendment A11). If your `INTENT.md` has no frontmatter
+   `layer:` key, add one — that, not the sidecar and not a prose line, is your
+   declaration.
+3. **Fold ASCII case before comparing a layer value, and re-spell nothing.** §3's
+   vocabulary is closed and has **four** tokens — `Taxonomy`, `Tooling`,
+   `Engine`, `Staff` — and comparison is case-insensitive (`GH-DEC-2026-017` §2
+   and §3, amendment A9). `Staff` and `staff` are the same value; a lowercase
+   declaration is conforming, not tolerated. Two traps: a validator that admits
+   only three tokens and rejects `Taxonomy` carries a defect — the layer this
+   standard itself occupies is in the vocabulary; and an equality assertion
+   between your two forms silently performs the re-spelling the ruling declined
+   to order. Assert the **fold**, so a real layer divergence still fails.
+
+A disagreement between the two forms, after folding, is a **finding in its own
+right** and must be reported rather than resolved away by precedence. Precedence
+says which value is your answer; it does not say the disagreement did not happen.
+
+`pep-stance.yaml` is **not** a layer declaration and is out of scope here: its
+`standard_version` / `standard_version_reviewed` pair is a stance map's record of
+what was reviewed, and stays.
+
+ops-warden's applied instance of this change set is commit-local: `INTENT.md`,
+`layer.yaml`, `scripts/check_layer_conformance.py`, `tests/test_layer_conformance.py`.
+Read those four together rather than the sidecar alone.
+
 ## Ownership boundary
 
 `gate-house` owns what the model requires. Each repository owns the truth of its