Adaptive check cadence: the interval is earned, not assigned

Operator ruling 2026-08-20. Severity no longer sets the review interval.
A check that comes back clean climbs one rung — instant, 1h, 8h, 24h,
48h, 96h, 7d, 14d, 1mo, 1q — and anything wrong drops straight back to
instant. A quarter is the ceiling. The operator may defer an instant
finding to a stated date; that is the only other way off the bottom rung.

The rung is the point: it says how stable the estate has been on that
matter, which is information severity does not carry. Volatile things get
attention automatically; quiet things stop consuming it; neither
judgement has to be made by a person who might be busy.

Escalation trigger 5 rebased onto the ladder — fourteen days at the
bottom rung, whether that is failing checks or no checks.

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

tools/register_index.py

@@ -22,14 +22,19 @@ def date(value) -> dt.date | None:
     return None
 
 
-def review_cell(f: dict) -> str:
-    due = date(f.get("review_by"))
-    if due is None:
+def check_cell(f: dict) -> str:
+    when = lib.moment(f.get("next_check"))
+    if when is None:
         return "—"
-    late = (TODAY - due).days
-    if late > 0:
-        return f"**{due} (overdue {late}d)**"
-    return str(due)
+    if lib.now() >= when:
+        return "**due**"
+    return when.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%MZ")
+
+
+def cadence_cell(f: dict) -> str:
+    rung = f.get("cadence", "instant")
+    streak = f.get("clean_streak", 0)
+    return f"{rung} ({streak})"
 
 
 def sev_cell(f: dict) -> str:
@@ -50,23 +55,23 @@ def esc_cell(f: dict) -> str:
 def render() -> str:
     fs = lib.findings()
     ns = lib.notes()
-    open_fs = [f for f in fs if f.get("status") == "open"]
+    open_fs = [f for f in fs if lib.watched(f.get("status"))]
 
     out = [
         "# Register",
         "",
         f"Generated by `tools/register_index.py` from `findings/`. Do not edit by hand. Last built {TODAY}.",
         "",
-        f"{len(open_fs)} open of {len(fs)} findings; {len(ns)} notes below the floor.",
+        f"{len(open_fs)} live of {len(fs)} findings; {len(ns)} notes below the floor.",
         "",
         "## Findings",
         "",
-        "| ID | Finding | System | Severity | Disclosure | Escalation | Fix owner | Status | Review by |",
-        "| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |",
+        "| ID | Finding | System | Severity | Disclosure | Escalation | Fix owner | Status | Cadence | Next check |",
+        "| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |",
     ]
     for f in fs:
         out.append(
-            "| [{id}]({path}) | {title} | {system} | {sev} | {disc} | {esc} | {owner} | {status} | {review} |".format(
+            "| [{id}]({path}) | {title} | {system} | {sev} | {disc} | {esc} | {owner} | {status} | {cadence} | {check} |".format(
                 id=f["id"],
                 path=f["_path"].relative_to(lib.REPO),
                 title=str(f.get("title", "")).strip('"'),
@@ -76,7 +81,8 @@ def render() -> str:
                 esc=esc_cell(f),
                 owner=f.get("fix_owner", "—"),
                 status=f.get("status", "—"),
-                review=review_cell(f),
+                cadence=cadence_cell(f),
+                check=check_cell(f),
             )
         )
 
@@ -112,7 +118,9 @@ def render() -> str:
 
     out += ["", "## How to read this", "",
             "Severity is `docs/method/severity.md`; disclosure `docs/method/disclosure.md`;",
-            "escalation `docs/method/escalation.md`; review dates `docs/method/review.md`.",
+            "escalation `docs/method/escalation.md`; the check cadence `docs/method/review.md`.",
+            "Cadence is the ladder rung and the count of consecutive clean checks — a finding at `1q (9)`",
+            "has held still for a long time; one at `instant (0)` moved recently. Anything wrong resets it.",
             "A constraint may be graded higher than the finding that carries it — read both.",
             ""]
     return "\n".join(out)