docs: finish zone reference hardening workplan

Assistant: codex
Assistant-Model: gpt-5.6-sol
Assistant-Session: 01a0291a-1e87-7151-9934-fcbfe3f65eb1

INTENT.md

@@ -6,13 +6,25 @@
 
 ---
 
+## Current disposition — 2026-08-23
+
+The argument below is retained as design history. Its desired sentence is now
+sayable: the standard is in net-kingdom canon, ops-warden and flex-auth have
+adopted it, the repo-wide switch is retired, and exception expiry is enforced
+at each owning decision or enforcement point.
+
+The runtime hypothesis was falsified. zone-engine is retained only as an
+offline reference-conformance repository while canon v0.1 remains proposed; it
+is not an engine, PDP, exception service, or consumer policy owner. Current
+capability is `SCOPE.md`, and the retain/archive triggers are in `GOAL.md`.
+
 ## 1. The sentence this repo exists to make sayable
 
 > *"This control is enforced **there**, advisory **here**, and relaxed **in this
 > band until Friday** — and all three of those are written down, reviewable, and
 > expire on their own."*
 
-NetKingdom cannot say that today. It can say how exposed a workload is
+At inception NetKingdom could not say that. It could say how exposed a workload was
 (environment posture), how ready it is (`M0`–`M3`), and what state the
 organization is in (`organization_posture`). Every one of those **describes**.
 None of them **decides**. So every enforcement control in the estate has been a
@@ -21,7 +33,8 @@ boolean over a whole repo.
 ## 2. Where that bit
 
 ops-warden built a pre-sign authorization gate, flex-auth enforced its side, and
-the gate verified clean. Then it was deliberately not switched on.
+the gate verified clean. It was deliberately not switched on until the zone
+model replaced its global scope.
 
 `policy.enabled` is one boolean over the entire repo. With `fail_closed: true`
 it makes flex-auth a hard dependency of *every* `warden sign` — including the
@@ -74,11 +87,11 @@ it decides something, so the model must carry:
   the bite is; `fail_closed` is what turns a dead tunnel into an outage.
 - **Exceptions that expire without anyone remembering them.**
 
-The last is the reason this is a repo rather than a document. A standing
-classification needs no engine — canon plus a declaration file covers it, which
-is exactly how tenancy posture works. **A relaxation with an expiry is state**,
-and state wants an owner, an audit trail, and something other than good
-intentions enforcing the deadline.
+The last was the runtime hypothesis. A standing classification needs no engine
+— canon plus a declaration file covers it, which is exactly how tenancy posture
+works. The implementation proved that exception state can remain with the
+control owner when `not_after` is evaluated where the effect occurs. That gives
+it an owner, audit trail, and enforced deadline without a central service.
 
 ## 5. The line this repo must not cross
 
@@ -102,6 +115,8 @@ point is neither.**
 
 ## 6. What success looks like from outside
 
+These conditions are now met for the adopted v0.1 path:
+
 Someone who has never read this repo should be able to:
 
 - open a service's `tenancy.yaml`, read its `zones:` key, and know which
@@ -120,11 +135,10 @@ failed at being a standard and has succeeded only at being a service.
 Stated up front, because a repo created on a recommendation should say what
 would falsify it:
 
-- **The exception lifecycle turns out not to need a runtime.** If reviewed
-  declarations in git, with expiry evaluated at decision time, are sufficient,
-  then the honest outcome is a canon standard and no engine — and this repo
-  should be archived rather than kept for the sake of existing. `GOAL.md` gate 5
-  and `ZONE-WP-0001-T04` both hold that door open deliberately.
+- **The exception lifecycle turns out not to need a runtime.** This falsifier
+  triggered. Reviewed owner records plus decision-time expiry are sufficient.
+  The honest outcome is canon plus offline conformance tooling, not an engine.
+  Retention is bounded to the proposed-standard reference need in `GOAL.md`.
 - **The zones do not partition the real estate.** If the model needs a residue
   of special cases to cover today's 27 routing lanes and actor inventory, it is
   describing an aspiration, not a structure.
@@ -152,3 +166,7 @@ called adopted, the first being ops-warden retiring `policy.enabled`.
 
 A runtime only if `ZONE-WP-0001-T04` proves the exception lifecycle needs one —
 and the cheaper answer is a legitimate result, not a disappointment.
+
+That direction is delivered. `ZONE-WP-0002` hardened the offline contracts and
+made canon lineage, owner provenance, revision/delta evidence, and exception
+fixtures executable without reopening the runtime decision.