---
domain: capabilities
repo: policy-nexus
updated: "2026-10-19"
---

# Scope

Policy Nexus publishes estate policy from its owning repositories at stable,
versioned addresses. It owns publication and currency; policy content and
ratification remain with the source owners (see `INTENT.md`).

## Provided capabilities

- Generate policy pages and indexes from `publication.json`, retaining source
  revision, review status, superseded versions and immutable publication paths.
- Inventory canon and ADR sources and detect unpublished or changed source
  documents with `tools/source_inventory.py` and `tools/check_currency.py`.
- Build and verify release artifacts with `make build` and `make release-check`;
  verify source provenance before publishing a release.
- Extract the build-mode authorization rule from the Custodian canon YAML block
  into `/guardrails/build-mode-change-authorization.json`, with visible lifetime
  on the generated policy page. `tools/guardrails.py` validates and evaluates the
  restricted rule format, failing closed for unknown categories and malformed
  inputs. This is local lane classification, not a runtime authorization token.

The discovery declaration is
`registry/capabilities/capability.security.policy-publication.md`, indexed by
`registry/indexes/capabilities.yaml` for reuse-surface consumption. Consumers
should use the publication contract in `docs/publication-contract.md` rather
than copy policy into this repository.

## Boundaries and current acceptance

Policy Nexus does not author or ratify policy, interpret external regulations,
implement identity or credential custody, or enforce downstream authorization.
Workplans, evidence, runbooks and general documentation are not publication
content. Source owners retain control of publication disposition.

The build-mode guardrail and canon-derived machine-readable JSON were published
under founder-approved proposal POLICY-PUB-20261019-BUILD-MODE-GUARDRAIL-R1 on
2026-10-19. PNEX-WP-0006 is complete: Helm revision 10, 1/1 ready, exact release
hashes and all 150 page/artifact responses verified. See
`docs/evidence/2026-10-19-build-mode-publication/receipt.json`. This proves the
pinned public release, not downstream enforcement or a fresh native CI run.
The two discovery rows remain metadata-pending without publication admission.


## Staged work-record generator adoption

The tracked `.generated-work-records.json` opts this repository into the shared
pre-commit generation lane. `make generated-work-records` uses the isolated
`.generated-work-records.mk` recipe and the Custodian adapter to render from
staged Markdown with the existing State Hub renderer. `make
generated-work-records-check` verifies the staged result without writes.
Unstaged source edits are preserved; unstaged generated-file edits and unresolved
conflicts stop the commit. The existing generated-only guard and secret scan
remain in place. This adoption covers WORK-RECORDS.md only; other owner indexes
retain their own generators. It makes no schedule or public-release change.


## Inventory source and generated publication evidence

`source-inventory.config.json`, `publication.json`, and the disposition/reason
rows in `source-inventory.json` are authored review inputs. They must not be
blindly refreshed by a hook. The existing scheduled Forgejo publication workflow
fetches the configured source revisions and builds generated source inventory,
source-lock and publication manifests inside the immutable candidate image.
The scheduled workflow is source automation; no fresh successful run or public
release is claimed by this declaration.

`make source-inventory-review` invokes `tools/staged_source_inventory.py` to
review the exact staged inputs with the existing owner refresh implementation
in a temporary snapshot. It emits only an ignored `build/` discovery delta,
preserves authored dispositions and Git staging, and fails on unresolved discovery
changes. This optional review command does not apply candidate rows, publish,
or bypass source-audit. The source inventory remains an explicit owner gate;
WORK-RECORDS pre-commit generation does not reinterpret it as disposable output.


## Local orientation brief

`.custodian-brief.md` is a generated local orientation snapshot. It remains on
disk for offline use and is root-ignored rather than versioned. Regenerate it
with the State Hub brief renderer; workplans and other authored repository
records remain authoritative. Brief refreshes must not create Git commits.