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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -21,7 +21,18 @@ One-line justification: Build passes and all RFC-011 invariants hold structurall

## Structured Fields

verdict: concerns
verdict: weakens

<!-- Was `concerns` until 2026-09-07. That is a review STATUS, not an evidence
DIRECTION, and the scorer had no such value — it silently resolved to
`supports` and scored 1.0, so a review saying "three issues require coder
attention before merge" was counted as full confirmation of the thing it
objected to. PRD-086 FR-008 closed that fall-through; this pack is the one
artifact in the graph it exposed.

`weakens` is the honest reading: the review does not refute PRD-079, it
lowers confidence in the state reviewed. The three HIGH findings below are
the substance of that. -->
congruence_level: 3
evidence_type: audit

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -84,3 +95,4 @@ evidence_type: audit




Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
---
depth: tactical
id: NOTE-052
kind: note
links:
- target: PRD-086
relation: informs
status: draft
title: 'verdict: is a direction, not a review status'
---

---
assigned_number: 52
created: 2026-09-07
predicted_number: 52
slug: note-verdict-is-a-direction-not-a-review-status
updated: 2026-09-07
---

# `verdict:` is a direction, not a review status

## What happened

`EVID-136` — a code review of the blog scaffold — declared `verdict: concerns`.
There is no such value. The scorer accepted three: `supports`, `weakens`,
`refutes`.

Until PRD-086 FR-008 the unrecognised value fell through to `supports` and
scored **1.0**, so a review whose own summary read *"three issues require coder
attention before merge"* counted as full confirmation of the thing it objected
to. `PRD-079` and `RFC-011` carried that 1.0 for three weeks.

FR-008 made the fall-through fail closed, which is what surfaced it. Fixed by
setting `weakens`: the review does not refute the PRD, it lowers confidence in
the state reviewed. Scores now read 0.30 / 0.30 / 0.20 — the first honest
numbers those three artifacts have had.

## The trap worth naming

`CONCERNS` is a real word in this project: it is one of the three verdicts a
Profile-B reviewer returns (`PASS` / `CONCERNS` / `BLOCKER`). The author wrote
their review status into a field that wants something else, and both vocabularies
are correct in their own place.

The pack's `## Verdict` heading said `CONCERNS` too, which is right — that is
prose about the review. The structured field beneath it is a different question:
**which way does this evidence push the claim.** A review can be CONCERNS and
still be `weakens`; it could equally be CONCERNS and `supports` if the concerns
are cosmetic.

Rule of thumb when writing an EvidencePack:

- `supports` — the claim is more likely true because of this
- `weakens` — less likely, or true only under narrower conditions
- `refutes` — the claim as stated is wrong

Review verdicts, test outcomes and CI statuses belong in the prose, not in this
field.

## Scale

One pack in 173. The discipline holds — which is exactly why nobody noticed the
one that did not, and why the gate had to exist rather than the convention.

Related: PRD-086 FR-008, PROB-101.


Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -141,3 +141,4 @@ GitHub: #325, #392, #393, #330.




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