Revision and supersession must be defined
A current instrument must preregister how attempts, revisions, and supersession preserve the original evidence and decision lineage.
FDE-S/1.0 · Qualification constitution
Qualification is not completion.It is governed entrustment.
Capability is trained. Standing is earned through production work, independent judgment, and a complete evidence chain.
10current gates
FDE-S/1.0 · 1.0.1AUTHORED · NOT PREREGISTERED
Issuance unavailable
The gate register
Ten gates. No compensating score.
EG-00 records the baseline. EG-01 through EG-09 are conjunctive: strength elsewhere cannot average away an unsafe or unsupported decision.
01 · diagnostic
Unassisted baseline work sample
A time-bounded mission fragment establishes how the engineer discovers, scopes, architects, and verifies before instruction begins.
DIAGNOSTIC · COMPLETION ONLY02 · performance
Discovery and outcome contract
The engineer resolves an ambiguous client brief through live discovery and produces a traceable workflow diagnosis and falsifiable wedge.
CONJUNCTIVE · MUST PASS03 · performance
Enterprise integration slice
A production-shaped vertical slice crosses real-shaped identity, data, tool, and human-control boundaries with reversible failure behavior.
CONJUNCTIVE · MUST PASS04 · performance
Provider-portable system
One behavioral contract operates across two materially different provider or runtime configurations and exposes non-equivalent behavior honestly.
CONJUNCTIVE · MUST PASS05 · performance
Evaluation and reliability control
The engineer detects a seeded behavior regression, holds release, repairs the cause and coverage, and reruns invalidated gates.
CONJUNCTIVE · MUST PASS06 · live-defense
Security and authority review
The engineer defends the threat model, data boundary, control evidence, residual risk, and authority envelope under adversarial questioning.
CONJUNCTIVE · MUST PASS07 · performance
Production, adoption, and incident command
The engineer runs a staged release, reads outcome and adoption signals, and leads containment through a changing incident scenario.
CONJUNCTIVE · MUST PASS08 · supervised-field
Supervised field mission
In a real client boundary, the engineer owns one bounded mission from discovery through a separate candidate-owned production release and observed operation while a supervisor retains escalation authority.
CONJUNCTIVE · MUST PASS09 · live-defense
Ownership transfer and field learning
A named owner operates, changes, and recovers the system while the engineer defends known limits and submits permission-bounded field learning.
CONJUNCTIVE · MUST PASS10 · live-defense
Integrated qualification defense
The engineer defends the complete evidence chain, handles a live scope change, diagnoses an injected failure, and explains the mission to technical, risk, operator, and executive audiences.
CONJUNCTIVE · MUST PASS
Evidence mapping
Each gate names the proof and the examiner.
This is an authored specification, not a candidate scorecard. Open a gate to inspect its required evidence and pass conditions.
10 gates mapped32 evidence requirements31 pass conditionsGate decisions loaded · NONEIssuance · UNAVAILABLE
CURRENT INSTRUMENT NOT PREREGISTERED · NON-ISSUING
EG-00Unassisted baseline work sample+
REQUIRED EVIDENCE
- Original response and immutable task version
- Decision trace, assumptions, and self-identified uncertainty
- Published rubric result with reviewer provenance
PASS CONDITIONS
- The submission is complete enough to locate strengths and gaps; no minimum score converts this diagnostic into qualification.
- Assistance, time, and tool conditions are recorded.
Examiner authority: Calibrated reviewer or live provider scorer for diagnostic feedback; an offline heuristic cannot verify work.
Portability check: The task names behavior and evidence, not a provider interface, and permits equivalent tools under recorded conditions.
SPECIFICATION ONLY · NO GATE DECISIONEG-01Discovery and outcome contract+
REQUIRED EVIDENCE
- Discovery record and current-state workflow map
- Outcome contract, baseline, guardrails, kill criteria, and adoption condition
- Decision log showing how contradictory evidence and scope change were handled
PASS CONDITIONS
- Every material claim traces to observation, source evidence, or a labeled assumption.
- The wedge can reach production-shaped evidence without requiring a full transformation.
- A reviewer can reject the mission from its explicit guardrails or kill criteria.
Examiner authority: Calibrated human reviewer against the published mission rubric.
Portability check: The selected approach includes a documented deterministic alternative and does not define success as use of a named model.
SPECIFICATION ONLY · NO GATE DECISIONEG-02Enterprise integration slice+
REQUIRED EVIDENCE
- Working repository and repeatable run instructions
- System, data-lineage, identity, and authority diagrams
- Interface tests, error paths, rollback demonstration, and architecture decisions
PASS CONDITIONS
- A clean evaluator can reproduce the slice without undocumented manual intervention.
- External writes are idempotent or compensated, permission-bounded, and observable.
- The reviewer injects at least one integration failure the engineer must diagnose and contain.
Examiner authority: Technical reviewer using executable checks plus architecture review.
Portability check: Business logic, identity, data, and tool contracts remain outside the model adapter.
SPECIFICATION ONLY · NO GATE DECISIONEG-03Provider-portable system+
REQUIRED EVIDENCE
- Provider-neutral specification, harness, and typed adapter boundary
- Two runnable adapters with normalized traces and errors
- Comparison of task success, critical failures, retries, latency, review burden, and accepted-outcome cost
PASS CONDITIONS
- The unchanged harness runs against both configurations.
- Provider-specific features are isolated and documented rather than hidden in shared logic.
- The engineer makes and defends a selection or non-equivalence decision from evidence.
Examiner authority: Technical reviewer reproducing both configurations from the submitted contract.
Portability check: Passing requires a real adapter swap and rerun, not a document asserting vendor neutrality.
SPECIFICATION ONLY · NO GATE DECISIONEG-04Evaluation and reliability control+
REQUIRED EVIDENCE
- Versioned cases, graders, thresholds, held-out boundary, and baseline
- Failure-cluster analysis and trace inspection
- HOLD, remediation, full rerun, and final SHIP or HOLD record
PASS CONDITIONS
- Task, trajectory, outcome, safety, and operational checks are proportionate to mission risk.
- The seeded regression is found without disclosing the scoring key.
- No threshold or expected result is edited merely to turn a failure green.
Examiner authority: Independent evaluator holding private cases and scoring keys.
Portability check: The same case and grader contract can evaluate either provider adapter, with provider-specific graders clearly separated.
SPECIFICATION ONLY · NO GATE DECISIONEG-05Security and authority review+
REQUIRED EVIDENCE
- Threat model, abuse cases, data boundary, and authority matrix
- Control tests, evidence references, residual risks, and accountable owners
- Live response to an injected prompt, tool, identity, or data-boundary attack
PASS CONDITIONS
- Every consequential action has an identity, bounded authority, observable record, and tested denial or recovery path.
- Human approval steps name the decision, evidence, timeout, fallback, and accountable person.
- The engineer narrows or stops the system when evidence does not support authorization.
Examiner authority: Qualified human security and delivery reviewers when examiner coverage is active.
Portability check: Controls attach to data, actions, identities, and consequences rather than to one provider's safety setting.
SPECIFICATION ONLY · NO GATE DECISIONEG-06Production, adoption, and incident command+
REQUIRED EVIDENCE
- Readiness review, SLOs, telemetry, rollout, support, and rollback plans
- Promotion decisions from shadow through limited authority
- Incident timeline, containment, communications, recovery, and regression updates
PASS CONDITIONS
- Promotion depends on accepted outcomes and critical-failure bounds, not infrastructure health alone.
- The engineer separates containment from remediation and communicates uncertainty without delay.
- The incident changes at least one test, control, runbook, or ownership decision.
Examiner authority: Operations reviewer and stakeholder role-player using a changing scenario.
Portability check: Service indicators and incident procedures continue to function when provider telemetry fields change.
SPECIFICATION ONLY · NO GATE DECISIONEG-07Supervised field mission+
REQUIRED EVIDENCE
- Client-ratified mission and review standard kept separate from the shared assessment
- Exact candidate-owned repository, commit, build artifact, production deployment, and environment identity
- Real-user or real-operator observation plus health, outcome, guardrail, cost, adoption, and incident evidence
- Verified rollback or recovery exercise plus named-owner handoff and teach-back
- Supervisor observation record covering judgment, communication, escalation, and technical ownership
PASS CONDITIONS
- A separate candidate-owned release reached a real production environment and was observed in real use; simulation or production-equivalent rehearsal cannot satisfy this gate.
- The work uses the client's actual constraints and a named decision owner.
- The engineer changes course when field evidence contradicts the plan.
- A named owner can operate and recover the released system without hidden candidate intervention.
- Client-specific material remains inside the agreed rights and retention boundary.
Examiner authority: Named field supervisor plus the client's designated technical or operational owner; this gate is inactive without both.
Portability check: The mission record distinguishes portable method, provider adapter, and client-owned evidence.
SPECIFICATION ONLY · NO GATE DECISIONEG-08Ownership transfer and field learning+
REQUIRED EVIDENCE
- Complete transfer package and known-limits register
- Owner-executed change and recovery record
- Field memo with provenance, permissions, reusable pattern, and product feedback
PASS CONDITIONS
- The named owner completes the run without hidden FDE intervention.
- Open risk, debt, and deferred decisions carry owners and dates.
- Reusable learning excludes client-confidential evidence unless separate permission exists.
Examiner authority: Client-designated owner and qualified human program reviewer.
Portability check: The transfer package explains how to replace the provider adapter and rerun acceptance evidence.
SPECIFICATION ONLY · NO GATE DECISIONEG-09Integrated qualification defense+
REQUIRED EVIDENCE
- Indexed evidence chain spanning all nine competency domains
- Live architecture, evaluation, security, delivery, and transfer defense
- Time-bounded change request and incident response with decision record
PASS CONDITIONS
- Every competency is supported by independently reviewed evidence rather than completion metadata.
- The engineer can explain tradeoffs, limitations, and contradictory evidence without scripts.
- Critical-failure criteria are conjunctive: strength in one domain cannot average away unsafe failure in another.
Examiner authority: Independent qualified human panel when examiner coverage and calibration are active; no automated score can satisfy this gate.
Portability check: The panel changes at least one model, tool, interface, or operating constraint and evaluates adaptation against the same mission contract.
SPECIFICATION ONLY · NO GATE DECISIONGoverned judgment
The system must earn the right to decide.
These controls describe what a future instrument must preregister. They are requirements—not current operating authority.
REVIEW
Independent human review required
The new instrument must preregister reviewer authority, independence, calibration, and decision binding before review can operate.
CURRENT INSTRUMENT NOT PREREGISTEREDWhat must be fixed
- Exact reviewer count is not preregistered
- Calibration and coverage thresholds are not preregistered
- The frozen v2 review policy is historical, not current
CONFLICT
Conflict handling required
The new instrument must preregister how conflicting decisions are retained, resolved, and superseded.
CURRENT INSTRUMENT NOT PREREGISTEREDWhat must be fixed
- No current adjudication mechanic is registered
- Original decision lineage must remain inspectable
- Insufficient or conflicting evidence must fail closed
FIELD
Real field authority required
The new instrument must bind current field authority to candidate-owned work that reached production and was observed in real use.
CURRENT INSTRUMENT NOT PREREGISTEREDWhat must be fixed
- Exact field-authority composition is not preregistered
- Simulation and production-equivalent rehearsal cannot satisfy EG-07
- Release, recovery, observation, and named-owner transfer are mandatory
DEFEND
Integrated defense required
The new instrument must preregister independent defense authority, evidence binding, conflict rules, and a conjunctive decision.
CURRENT INSTRUMENT NOT PREREGISTEREDWhat must be fixed
- Exact panel size and composition are not preregistered
- No automated score can replace the required human judgment
- A failed critical gate cannot be averaged away
Before issuance
The instrument still has work to do.
Current instrument not preregistered. Reviewer authority, field authority, decision mechanics, and due process must be preregistered against the current standard before any standing can issue.
Current instrument · NOT SETDecision mechanics · NOT SET
- 01
STANDARD GOVERNANCE
Current instrument binding
- Accountable authority
- Program governor
- Required preregistration record
- A separately preregistered instrument that binds the exact current standard code, version, digest, gate definitions, decision mechanics, and change policy.
- Acceptance rule
- The record binds FDE-S/1.0 v1.0.1 and its current digest to a new immutable instrument version and digest; the frozen v2 instrument is historical evidence only and cannot be reused.
- 02
REVIEW SYSTEM
Current review authority and calibration
- Accountable authority
- Reviewer authority
- Required preregistration record
- A current authority and calibration record that defines independent review, conflict handling, integrated-defense roles, coverage, lapse, and removal for the new instrument.
- Acceptance rule
- The new instrument preregisters its exact reviewer roles, counts, independence rules, calibration threshold, and decision mechanics before any candidate evidence opens for review.
- 03
FIELD AUTHORITY
Production and field authority
- Accountable authority
- Field and client-owner authority
- Required preregistration record
- A current evidence-admission and authority record for candidate-owned work released to a real production environment, observed in real use, recovered, and transferred to a named owner.
- Acceptance rule
- The record binds the real production release and operating evidence to the current instrument and verifies the supervisor and client-owner authority required by the current field gate; simulation remains preparation only.
- 04
DUE PROCESS
Current due process and lifecycle authority
- Accountable authority
- Qualification control authority
- Required preregistration record
- A current policy and authority record for holds, appeals, revision lineage, issuance, expiry, suspension, reinstatement, revocation, retention, and public verification.
- Acceptance rule
- Every decision and standing transition is preregistered, independently authorized, fail-closed, and append-only before the new instrument can admit a candidate case.
Lifecycle authority
Appeal authority must be defined
A current instrument must preregister eligibility, evidence access, resolver independence, decision windows, and final disposition.
Critical-risk holds must fail closed
A current instrument must preregister hold triggers and a separately authorized, evidence-bound release path.
Standing lifecycle must be defined
A current instrument must preregister issuance, expiry, suspension, reinstatement, revocation, retention, and public verification authority.
Signals that never qualify
Attendance
Attendance records participation; the current standard requires observed, independently reviewed performance evidence.
Content Completion
Content completion records learning progress and cannot satisfy a qualification gate.
Tool Usage
Tool usage does not establish provider-portable capability or field entrustment.
Multiple Choice Recall
Recall evidence cannot replace executable work, live defense, or supervised field evidence.
Automated Review
Automated or heuristic review cannot satisfy the current supervised-field, ownership-transfer, security-defense, or final qualification gates.
External Credential
A provider or third-party credential cannot substitute for evidence admitted and judged under the current FDE standard.
Current authority ceiling
The standard is inspectable. Qualification issuance is not active.
FDE-S/1.0 v1.0.1 cannot activate through the frozen v2 instrument. A separately preregistered instrument, exact digest binding, reviewer calibration, field authority, and lifecycle controls are required before any qualification decision can operate.