## Post-Release Assessment — 3.53.0

### 1. Coherence Measurement
- **Baseline:** 3.52.0 — alpha A, beta A, gamma A-
- **This release:** 3.53.0 — alpha A, beta A, gamma A
- **Delta:** alpha held (manifest-based package display is clean, types pure, 6 tests cover all paths). beta held (status display reads installed state from manifests — design doc and implementation agree on source/artifact/installed boundary). gamma improved from A- to A (1 review round, 0 blockers, MVA sprint fully closed — all 4 steps shipped).
- **Coherence contract closed?** Yes. `cn status` now surfaces truthful package and command state from cn.package.json manifests. The broken `name@version` vendor path parsing is eliminated. Version drift uses `engines.cnos` from manifest, not directory names. The gap between what's installed and what's displayed is closed.

### 2. Encoding Lag

| Issue | Title | Type | Design | Impl | Lag |
|-------|-------|------|--------|------|-----|
| #192 | Runtime kernel rewrite (Go) | feature | converged | Phase 4 complete (AC4 met this release), Phase 5 remains | low |
| #216 | Migrate non-bootstrap commands to packages | feature | converged | depends on Phase 4 (now unblocked) | growing |
| #193 | Orchestrator llm step execution | feature | converged | not started | growing |
| #186 | Package restructuring (lean cnos.core) | feature | converged | not started | growing |
| #218 | cnos.transport.git (Rust provider) | feature | converged | not started | growing |
| #190 | Agent web surface | feature | design exists | not started | growing |
| #189 | Native change proposals + reviews | feature | design exists | not started | growing |
| #230 | cn deps restore version upgrade skip | feature | design exists | not started | low |
| #199 | Stacked post-release assessments (3.39+3.40) | process | converged | not started | growing |

**MCI/MCA balance:** **Freeze MCI** — 6 issues at "growing" lag (#216, #193, #186, #218, #190, #189). Exceeds the >=3 threshold.
**Rationale:** Design frontier remains far ahead of implementation. The MVA sprint (#228) is complete — the next MCA should target reducing growing-lag issues. #192 Phase 5 or #216 are the highest-leverage next moves. No new substantial design docs until growing-lag count drops below 3.

### 3. Process Learning
**What went wrong:** Tag push blocked by sandbox environment (403 on refs/tags/). Release commit is on main but lightweight tag `3.53.0` could not be created via `git push origin 3.53.0`. Same environmental constraint as 3.52.0.

**What went right:** Review completed in a single round with zero blockers. The §2.0 issue contract gate caught all 5 ACs before reading the diff — each was verified against specific code evidence. The architecture check (§2.2.14) confirmed all 7 design-principles questions passed. The decision to reuse `cli.Registry` instead of re-calling `discover.ScanPackageCommands` was a net improvement — it avoids duplicate scanning and shows actual registered state.

**Skill patches:** None needed this cycle.

**Active skill re-evaluation:**
- F1 (Registry vs discover.ScanPackageCommands): The PR improved on the issue's suggestion. The review skill's §2.2.11 (architecture leverage check) would flag this as a positive deviation — the author found a higher-leverage boundary. Skill adequate.
- F2 (ContentClasses 5/8 coverage): The pkg types detect 5 content classes that have JSON schema fields. Doctrine, mindsets, templates lack cn.package.json fields — this is a known schema limitation, not a code gap. Review skill §2.2.9 (module-truth audit) was applied and found no stale assumptions. Skill adequate.

**CDD improvement disposition:** No patch needed. Zero review findings above A-level. Both A-level notes were identified by existing skill rules and represent expected limitations (positive design choice and schema coverage boundary), not gaps. No recurring failure class.

### 4. Review Quality
**PRs this cycle:** 1 (PR #234)
**Avg review rounds:** 1.0 (target: <=2 code)
**Superseded PRs:** 0 (target: 0)
**Finding breakdown:** 0 mechanical / 2 judgment / 2 total
**Mechanical ratio:** 0% (below 20% threshold)
**Action:** none

### 4a. CDD Self-Coherence
- **CDD alpha:** 3/4 — Code, tests, CHANGELOG, RELEASE.md all present. Tag push blocked (environmental). No separate SELF-COHERENCE.md (bugfix class, not required).
- **CDD beta:** 4/4 — Issue contract, PR body, code, CHANGELOG, and assessment agree. Architecture check passed all 7 questions. No authority conflicts.
- **CDD gamma:** 4/4 — 1 review round (within target). 0 superseded PRs. 0% mechanical ratio. All immediate outputs executed. MVA sprint closed in 3 releases (3.51.0–3.53.0).
- **Weakest axis:** alpha (tag push blocked — environmental, same as 3.52.0)
- **Action:** none — environmental constraint, not a CDD process gap.

### 5. Production Verification

**Scenario:** `cn status` displays installed packages and command registry from manifests.
**Before this release:** `cn status` parsed vendor dirs as `name@version` — broken since #229 changed to `name/`. No content class display. No command registry.
**After this release:** `cn status` reads cn.package.json from each vendor dir, shows name/version/content classes, lists commands by tier.
**How to verify:** In a hub with `cn deps restore` completed: `cn status` should show "Installed packages:" with check marks, content class brackets, and "Commands:" grouped by kernel/repo-local/package.
**Result:** Verified via test suite (6 test functions cover all paths). Production verification deferred — requires a running hub with installed packages.

### 6. CDD Closeout

| Step | Artifact | Skills loaded | Decision |
|------|----------|--------------|----------|
| 11 Observe | PR #234 diff + CI state | review, go | All 5 ACs met, architecture preserved |
| 12 Assess | POST-RELEASE-ASSESSMENT.md | post-release | Assessment completed, no skill patches needed |
| 13 Close | Issue comments on #228, #192 | post-release | Cycle closed, MVA sprint complete |

### 6a. Invariants Check

| Constraint | Touched? | Status |
|---|---|---|
| INV-003 Commands/providers/skills distinct | Yes | preserved — content classes displayed separately, no surface conflation |
| T-002 Kernel remains minimal | Yes | preserved — cmd_status.go is thin wrapper, domain logic in hubstatus/ |
| T-004 Source/artifact/installed explicit | Yes | preserved — hubstatus reads installed state (vendor manifests), not source |

### 7. Next Move
**Next MCA:** #192 Phase 5 — runtime contract in Go
**Owner:** to be assigned
**Branch:** pending branch creation
**First AC:** runtime contract types and rendering extracted to Go
**MCI frozen until shipped?** Yes
**Rationale:** Growing-lag count at 6, well above freeze threshold. Ship implementation before new designs.

**Closure evidence (CDD §10):**
- Immediate outputs executed: yes
  - CHANGELOG ledger row added (1f76f932)
  - RELEASE.md written (1f76f932)
  - #233 closed by merge (972a3ff)
  - #228 comment: all 4 MVA steps complete
  - #192 comment: AC4 met
- Deferred outputs committed: yes
  - Tag `3.53.0` creation deferred (sandbox 403 on tag push)

**Immediate fixes** (executed in this session):
- None needed — zero findings above A-level

### 8. Hub Memory
- **Daily reflection:** deferred — no hub memory repo access in this session
- **Adhoc thread(s) updated:** deferred — no hub memory repo access in this session
