risk-nexus/docs/method/review.md

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

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.