---
id: RISK-METHOD-REVIEW
type: method
title: "Review and expiry: what happens when nobody looks"
status: adopted
owner: risk-nexus
adopted: "2026-08-19"
workplan: RISK-WP-0001-T04
review_interval: 180d
---

# Review and expiry

`INTENT.md`: a finding that has sat untouched past its review date is itself a
finding. Silence is not resolution. This document makes that operable.

## Intervals

Set from the headline severity at grading time, and reset at each review.

| Severity | Interval | Stale (2×, escalation trigger 5) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `critical` | 7 days | 14 days |
| `high` | 30 days | 60 days |
| `medium` | 90 days | 180 days |
| `low` | 180 days | — (ages out through review) |

A finding graded `critical` is being looked at weekly or it is not being
managed. If weekly is unbearable, the honest response is to re-grade it, not
to let the date slide.

## What a review is

Five questions, answered in writing on the finding. It takes minutes; it is not
an investigation.

0. **Has the inbox said anything?** Read the messages addressed to this repo
   before anything else. This is question zero because on 2026-08-19 the
   register graded `RISK-F-0001` `critical` while two messages sat unread in
   its own inbox — one narrowing the exposure, one reporting the fix. Both
   changed the grade. A register that does not read its own inbox is guessing
   with a straight face.
1. **Is the grade still right?** Re-read impact and likelihood against what has
   changed. New facts move the grade in both directions.
2. **Is the blocker still true?** This is the one `RISK-F-0002` bought with
   evidence: *a blocker is a claim about the world at a date*. Its own stated
   blocker — "`flex-auth` is not deployed yet" — was invalidated within a day
   by `RISK-F-0001`, and nothing would have re-checked it. Every review
   re-checks every stated blocker.
3. **Has the fix moved?** Read the owner's tracking record, not our memory of
   it. Confirm the record still exists and still refers to this defect.
4. **Is the disclosure state still right?** An embargo whose condition has
   been met is published; an embargo whose condition has not moved in two
   reviews is a stall.

The finding gets a dated line under `## Reviews`, `last_reviewed` is updated,
and `review_by` is pushed by one interval. A review that changes nothing still
writes the line — "checked, nothing moved" is the evidence that the silence was
observed rather than accidental.

## When a review is missed

Overdue is not a status change on the finding. It is a fact about *this repo*,
and it surfaces in three places:

- `make check` reports it (`tools/register_check.py`), always, unconditionally.
- `REGISTER.md` shows the finding as overdue with the day count.
- At **twice** the interval, escalation trigger 5 fires for `critical`,
  `high` and `medium`. That is the point at which the register's own silence
  reaches the operator.

The register does not auto-escalate severity for lateness, and it does not
auto-close anything. Both would be the register lying about its own state to
make a number look better.

## The production re-score

Every finding carries `severity_at_production` alongside `severity`
(`docs/method/severity.md`). Where the two differ, the finding is flagged
`production_rescore: true`.

On the day any part of the estate declares production readiness, every flagged
finding is re-scored before that declaration completes. This is not a review
date — it is an event, and it fires regardless of where the review dates
happen to sit.

Until then, `make check` lists the flagged findings so the size of that
obligation is visible rather than discovered on the day.

## Front-matter this adds

```yaml
last_reviewed: "2026-08-19"
review_by: "2026-08-26"
production_rescore: true
```

`review_by` is what the nag reads. It is a date, never a duration, so that
nothing has to recompute an interval to know whether a finding is late.

## Closing a finding

A finding leaves `open` for exactly one of:

- `fixed` — the owner's record shows the defect gone, and this repo has read
  something concrete rather than been told. Publication follows if the
  disclosure state was `embargoed`.
- `accepted` — the estate is deliberately carrying it. Requires who accepted
  it, why, and a re-review date. `accepted` is not `closed`; it keeps a review
  interval forever.
- `withdrawn` — the finding was wrong, or the defect never existed. Say which.

There is no `stale`, no `wontfix` and no silent expiry. A finding that nobody
will fix and nobody will accept stays `open` and keeps arriving in the nag,
because that is the true state.