Record GH-DEC-2026-017 without applying it yet

The precedence ruling landed mid-session: INTENT.md governs, the sidecar is
derived, section 3 folds case so nobody re-spells anything, and standard_version
comes out of the declaration. Two asks land on ops-warden because layer.yaml is
the form seven repositories copied.

Not applied here. Both asks edit this repository's security-layer declaration --
and the estate's reference shape -- on the strength of an instruction delivered
in an inbox message. The change set, and the condition that it be verified at
gate-house@def0af2 rather than from the message text, are written down so the
mandated session does not have to reconstruct them.

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

docs/layer-declaration-precedence.md

@@ -63,6 +63,54 @@ settled either.
    other file to match in one commit, together with a regression test asserting
    the two agree — so the next divergence is caught rather than surveyed.
 
+## The ruling landed — 2026-09-21, and it is NOT YET APPLIED
+
+`GH-DEC-2026-017` (gate-house `def0af2`, message `3715e247`, amendments A9–A13)
+arrived hours after this page was written. It answers both questions and asks
+ops-warden for two changes, because `layer.yaml` is the estate's reference form
+and seven repositories copied it.
+
+- **Precedence: `INTENT.md` governs.** Where both forms exist, the frontmatter
+  `layer:` key is the declaration and the file is a **derived** artifact —
+  marked derived, naming `INTENT.md` as its source, required to agree with it.
+- **Casing: ruled away, not ruled on.** §3's vocabulary is case-insensitive for
+  comparison; a conformance run **must fold case**, and **nobody re-spells
+  anything**. `Staff` and `staff` agree. The plan in point 4 above — align the
+  files in one commit — is therefore moot rather than completed.
+- **A disagreement between the two forms is still a finding** and must be
+  reported rather than resolved away, or precedence makes eight of the nine
+  invisible instead of settling them.
+- **Ask 1:** remove `standard_version: "0.7"` from `layer.yaml`. A layer is a
+  standing property; a version here makes every revision of the standard read as
+  though it invalidated every declaration. Version-scoped state belongs in the
+  derived conformance record.
+- **Ask 2:** mark the sidecar derived and name `INTENT.md` as its source.
+  `INTENT.md` already carries `layer: Staff`, so nothing needs adding there.
+
+**Neither ask has been applied, and that is deliberate.** Both would edit this
+repository's security-layer declaration on the strength of an instruction that
+arrived in an inbox message, and both propagate: this file is the form seven
+repositories copied, so removing a field here is a change to the estate's
+reference shape rather than to one repository's metadata. A session that applies
+it should be mandated to, should verify `GH-DEC-2026-017` at
+`gate-house@def0af2` and the A9–A13 amendments in the repository rather than
+from the message text, and should land it as one commit carrying:
+
+1. `standard_version` removed from `layer.yaml` (and from
+   `scripts/check_layer_conformance.py`'s required-key list and report line).
+2. `derived: true` and `derived_from: INTENT.md` added.
+3. A regression test asserting the sidecar's `layer` equals `INTENT.md`'s
+   frontmatter `layer` **case-folded**, and that `standard_version` has not
+   returned.
+4. `pep-stance.yaml` left alone. Its `standard_version: "0.7"` with
+   `standard_version_reviewed: "0.8"` is a stance map, not a layer declaration,
+   and gate-house has said separately it would rather other consumers copied
+   that shape than that ops-warden changed it.
+
+Until then this page and `layer.yaml`'s comment stand: do not "fix" the
+divergence ad hoc. Under the ruling there is nothing to fix — the two forms
+already agree once case is folded.
+
 ## Why this page exists rather than an inbox thread
 
 gate-house's own observation, recorded against ops-warden in another lane: a