Pilot: buyer-gated product agent and local union fringe proof

[azender1]

Goal

Test a paid operational-control use case with contractor payroll and union remittance operators. This is a research hypothesis, not evidence of product demand.

What this branch does

• Adds PRODUCT_AGENT.md, a buyer-evidence gate and a reviewable branch/PR build loop.
• Adds a local, read-only fringe proof pilot that compares provided payroll hours, approved effective-dated rates, worker-level remittance, and aggregate fund acknowledgments.
• Saves input digests and a report digest; flags missing/ambiguous rates, amount and hour deltas, and receipt gaps.
• Uses synthetic fixture data only. No employer data or external API calls.

Verification

python -m unittest discover -s products/fringe_proof -p 'test_*.py' -v — 5 passed.
Sample CLI exits 2 and reports 3 synthetic discrepancies (expected), including a fund receipt that matches a submitted amount while payroll-derived amounts differ.

Limits before a real pilot

• A fund-level acknowledgment does not prove worker allocation or compliance.
• The operator must validate each fund's rate, coverage and rounding rules.
• SafeAgent Control's reported factorial matching path needs scale hardening before large periods.
• The current n8n community node is capped at 10 test calls per IP.
• No buyer has yet committed to a paid pilot. Keep this PR in draft pending market and domain review.

Next buyer gate

An outside payroll operator, using authorized records and existing tools, confirms a previously unknown actionable discrepancy or recurring review time saved and pays for continued use. No automatic merge or deployment.