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# β close-out — #370

## Review Summary

Cycle #370 ships `src/packages/cnos.cdd/skills/cdd/COHERENCE-CELL-NORMAL-FORM.md` — the kernel-layer companion doctrine to `COHERENCE-CELL.md` (#364) and `RECEIPT-VALIDATION.md` (#367). The doc names the substrate-independent recursion algorithm of a coherence cell at scope `n` in five typed steps, pins the evidence-binding rule, types the four closed-cell outcomes by `(verdict × decision)`, separates the two recursion modes (within-scope repair-dispatch vs cross-scope scope-lift), and names the three scope-lift projections with the β/γ-no-upward-projection clause. The kernel sections (`## Kernel`, `## Cell Outcomes`, `## Recursion Modes`, `## Scope-Lift`) contain no substrate-tooling references — substrate-independence enforced by AC7 (section-bounded `awk` + `rg` oracle).

**Verdict trajectory:**

| Round | Verdict | Review SHA | Build CI | Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | REQUEST CHANGES | `aa10f902` | red (run `25990518085`) | F1 — `## CDD-Trace` (hyphen) used as section header in `.cdd/unreleased/370/self-coherence.md`; `cn-cdd-verify` requires `## CDD Trace` (space). Mechanical convention drift; B-severity, classification `ci-status` per rule 3.10. |
| 2 | APPROVED | `a2c3693f` | green (run `25990929728`) | F1 closed by α at `846800e8` (rename + manifest comment alignment). cn-cdd-verify --unreleased: 6 passed / 0 failed / 3 warnings (warnings are expected close-out files). Merge-test green. Pre-merge gate rows 1–4 PASS. |

**Merge commit:** `0d9f7498` — `git merge --no-ff cycle/370` into `main` with `Closes #370` in the merge body. Surface containment intact: six files in the diff stat — one new doctrine file under `src/packages/cnos.cdd/skills/cdd/` (435 lines, status `A`) plus five cycle-evidence files under `.cdd/unreleased/370/` (γ-scaffold, α/β codex prompts, α self-coherence, β review). No edits to `COHERENCE-CELL.md`, `RECEIPT-VALIDATION.md`, `CDD.md`, `schemas/cdd/`, `cn-cdd-verify`, `operator/SKILL.md`, `gamma/SKILL.md`, `epsilon/SKILL.md`, `ROLES.md`, or CI workflows.

## Implementation Assessment

**All nine ACs PASS** under the per-AC oracles defined by the issue body. β independently re-executed AC1 (`test -f`), AC7 (`awk` kernel-slice extraction + word-bounded `rg` substrate scan: 275 lines, exactly four canonical headers, zero substrate matches), and AC9 (`git diff --stat`), and verified AC2–AC6, AC8 by prose evidence with verbatim quotes against named sections.

**α deliverable shape:**

- **Single new doctrine file** — `COHERENCE-CELL-NORMAL-FORM.md` at the canonical path next to `COHERENCE-CELL.md` and `RECEIPT-VALIDATION.md`. 435 lines (9% over the 200–400 line target; kernel slice itself is 275 lines, well within target).
- **Eight sections** — Preamble, Kernel, Cell Outcomes, Recursion Modes, Scope-Lift, Two-Layer Separation, Non-goals, Closure. Manifest comment at the top of the file enumerates sections; α landed the doc section-by-section with one commit per section per `CDD.md` §1.4 large-file authoring rule (verifiable from the cycle-branch commit graph).
- **Authoring discipline executed against γ-scaffold's nine pre-flagged failure modes** — including the substrate-leakage scan that caught a single `[#369](https://github.com/...)` URL leak in §Cell Outcomes during authoring; α replaced it with a bare `#369` reference before review-readiness signal. The AC7 mechanism worked as designed during authoring, not just at review.

**AC3 signature variant.** The issue body's AC3 oracle listed `γₙ.close(contractₙ, matterₙ, reviewₙ)` (3 args) and `V(contractₙ, receiptₙ, evidenceₙ)` (3 args). The doc commits to `γₙ.close(contractₙ, matterₙ, reviewₙ, evidenceₙ)` (4 args) and `V(contractₙ, receiptₙ)` (2 args), justified at doc lines 110–116: V dereferences evidence from the receipt; γ binds it at close-out. The variant strengthens the evidence-binding rule — α records it explicitly. β recorded this as observation #1 in R1 (not a finding) because all binding AC3 properties from the dispatch prompt and the issue body's Positive/Negative oracle hold under the variant. γ may revisit at PRA if the variant should be reconciled with the issue body's signature notation.

## Technical Review

**Pre-merge gate (β/SKILL.md):**

| Row | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Identity truth | PASS | `git config --get user.email` returned `beta@cdd.cnos` at every β-authored commit. R1 surfaced a worktree-config-leak pattern when the merge-test enabled `extensions.worktreeConfig` on the shared `.git/config`; β re-asserted at worktree scope (`git config --worktree user.name beta && git config --worktree user.email beta@cdd.cnos`) and verified before commit. R2 merge-test was set up with explicit `--worktree` flags from the start to avoid the leak. |
| 2 — Canonical-skill freshness | PASS | `origin/main` SHA `704365d2` unchanged across R1 and R2 sessions. No mid-cycle main advance; no skill re-load required. |
| 3 — Non-destructive merge-test | R1 fail (validator surfaced F1 on the merge tree) → R2 PASS | R1: `cn-cdd-verify --unreleased` on the merge tree reproduced the CI failure (`❌ self-coherence.md sections — missing required sections: CDD Trace`) → β raised F1 and held merge. R2: merge tree built cleanly, zero unmerged paths, validator green, AC7 awk-scan green. The merge-test caught the issue *before* the destructive merge, exactly per its design intent. |
| 4 — γ artifact completeness (rule 3.11b) | PASS | `.cdd/unreleased/370/gamma-scaffold.md` present (140 lines). γ coordinated this cycle through the canonical triadic protocol; nine pre-flagged failure modes all enumerated; α executed against all nine. |

**Rule 3.10 (CI-green gate) trajectory.**

- R1 review SHA `aa10f902` — Build CI `failure` (run `25990518085`); validator's grep at `cn-cdd-verify:495` is literal `^## CDD Trace`; α used `^## CDD-Trace` in `self-coherence.md`. β held merge per rule 3.10. Convention precedent established by `#367` (released self-coherence at `.cdd/releases/docs/2026-05-15/367/self-coherence.md` uses `## CDD Trace`).
- R2 review SHA `a2c3693f` — Build CI `success` (run `25990929728`). Validator passes locally and on CI. β re-emitted verdict.

**Honest-claim verification (rule 3.13).** All four sub-checks PASS:

- (a) Reproducibility — β re-executed AC1, AC7, AC9 oracles independently; all reproduce α's reported values.
- (b) Source-of-truth alignment — terms (closed cell, receipt, verdict, decision, evidence, `V`, repair-dispatch, scope-lift, projection-under-scope-lift) align with canonical predecessor definitions in `COHERENCE-CELL.md` and `RECEIPT-VALIDATION.md` and with #369's in-flight verdict × action × transmissibility framing.
- (c) Wiring claims — four realization peers cited by the doc (`RECEIPT-VALIDATION.md`, `schemas/cdd/`, `cn-cdd-verify`, `CDD.md`) all exist or are in flight per documented phases; direction-of-dependency rule (realization → kernel) holds in the kernel sections.
- (d) Gap claims — γ-scaffold §Gap's claim that the algorithm is "implicit across these four surfaces but stated nowhere" verified by α's empirical anchor commands and β's re-run (`rg -i 'normal form|coherence-cell normal|CCNF' src/packages/cnos.cdd/skills/cdd/` excluding the new file returns no matches).

## Process Observations

1. **The merge-test caught F1 before the merge** — exactly the failure mode `beta/SKILL.md` §pre-merge gate row 3 exists to prevent. Without the merge-test row, β would have approved on the strength of the cycle-branch artifacts alone and the merge would have shipped a CI-red commit to `main`. The row is doing real work.

2. **Convention drift was the binding driver** — F1 was mechanical (one character: `-` → space) but it was load-bearing because `cn-cdd-verify` (the I6 validator) grep-checks the literal section header. Mechanical findings reaching review are process bugs per `review/SKILL.md` Finding Taxonomy; γ may consider whether the α-side authoring discipline should include a pre-review `cn-cdd-verify --unreleased` step against the new self-coherence file, or whether the dispatch prompt should explicitly cite the section-header convention. The validator at line 495 is the authority; the convention is not currently documented in `alpha/SKILL.md` or `gamma/SKILL.md`.

3. **R1 worktree-config-leak repeated the cycle #301 O8 pattern** — even though `beta/SKILL.md` §pre-merge gate row 3 explicitly names the risk (`any worktree-local git config set during the merge-test must be set with the explicit --worktree flag`), the R1 merge-test enabled `extensions.worktreeConfig` without setting `user.email --worktree` from the start, and after teardown the main-worktree `user.email` reverted to a stale shared value. β re-asserted at worktree scope before committing the R1 verdict. R2 merge-test was set up with `git config --worktree user.email beta@cdd.cnos` from the first invocation. Recommendation: `release/SKILL.md` §2.1 worked example could include the `--worktree` flag in the recipe verbatim, not just in the prose warning.

4. **AC3 signature variant** — α's decision to strengthen the typed signatures of `γ.close` and `V` (evidence as a typed input to γ; receipt as the only evidence source for V) is a coherent strengthening of the issue-body's notation. The variant is not a finding because it satisfies all binding AC3 properties. γ may want to reconcile the issue-body signature notation with the doc's at PRA time to remove the divergence-of-record.

5. **Length-discipline overage (435 vs 200–400)** is concentrated in the non-kernel sections (preamble + two-layer separation + non-goals + closure: 160 lines), which carry AC2 (predecessor citations), AC8 (realization-peer enumeration), AC9 (non-goals enumeration), and the phase-inheritance table. α self-identified this as observation in §Debt #1. β reading: each non-kernel paragraph load-bears for an AC; the overage is structural, not editorial. Recorded as observation only.

## Release Notes

**Mode:** docs-only disconnect (per `release/SKILL.md` §2.5b). No tag. No version bump. `VERSION` unchanged. `scripts/check-version-consistency.sh` not required.

**Cycle-directory disposition (γ-acting-as-δ's responsibility per dispatch).** β does not move the `.cdd/unreleased/370/` directory; γ-acting-as-δ executes the docs-only disconnect at PRA time by moving the directory to `.cdd/releases/docs/{ISO-date}/370/` where `{ISO-date}` is the merge commit's date (`0d9f7498`'s commit date is `2026-05-17`, so the target path is `.cdd/releases/docs/2026-05-17/370/`).

**Release-signal handoff to γ:**

- Merge commit hash: `0d9f7498`
- Merged into: `main`
- Closes: #370
- Cycle artifacts on main: `.cdd/unreleased/370/{alpha-codex-prompt,beta-codex-prompt,gamma-scaffold,self-coherence,beta-review,beta-closeout}.md` + this file.
- Outstanding for γ: write `gamma-closeout.md`, write `alpha-closeout.md` (if not already produced by α), move cycle directory to `.cdd/releases/docs/2026-05-17/370/`, write PRA at `docs/gamma/cdd/docs/2026-05-17/POST-RELEASE-ASSESSMENT.md`.

**Coherence delta (β reading, for γ's PRA reference):**

- The kernel layer of CDD is now a typed surface — not an emergent property of three independent doctrine files. Subsequent phases (#369 schemas, Phase 3 validator, Phase 4 δ split, Phase 6 ε relocation, Phase 7 CDD.md rewrite) can cite the kernel doc as the load-bearing source-of-truth rather than re-deriving the recursion from across `COHERENCE-CELL.md` + `RECEIPT-VALIDATION.md` + `#366` roadmap mid-implementation.
- The two-layer separation (kernel vs realization) is named as load-bearing doctrine — direction-of-dependency rule explicit (realization cites kernel; kernel does not cite realization).
- Substrate-independence is mechanically enforceable on this kernel layer (the AC7 `awk` + `rg` recipe is now a doctrine-level CI shape, not just a per-cycle oracle).

**β close-out complete.** γ owns PRA and docs-only disconnect from here.
