Sprint 63 · Assembly Frame · Governance Rules

How the founders'-witness document is assembled

The rules that govern how founder Q&A returns become the source-of-truth document at /founders-professional-witness. Nine rules. No exceptions. Any deviation requires Board minute.

Why this frame exists

Voice-capture documents fail when the editor "improves" the founder's answer. Every act of paraphrase, tidy-up, or invented connective tissue erodes the credibility the whole document was built to establish. This frame is the discipline that keeps the source-of-truth actually true to source.

These rules were drafted before either founder returned their brief, so they cannot be shaped around what the answers happen to say. That is deliberate.

The nine rules

FRAME-01 · VERBATIM

Founder answers are used verbatim.

The editor's edits are limited to: (i) typographical correction; (ii) formatting (paragraph breaks, list structure) where the original was clearly intended as prose; (iii) minimum-necessary grammar fixes where the original would confuse a reader. No paraphrase. No re-ordering of sentences. No "clearer" restatement.

FRAME-02 · NO INVENTED CONNECTIVE TISSUE

The editor may not add sentences to bridge gaps.

Where the founder did not answer a question, or answered partly, that is preserved as a gap, not smoothed over. See FRAME-05.

FRAME-03 · TICK-BOX + PROSE MERGE

Tick-box answers are quoted alongside prose answers, not summarised into prose.

If Lisa ticks 4 of 6 boxes and adds a sentence in the "other" field, the doc records the 4 selections as a list AND quotes the "other" sentence verbatim. It does not synthesise them into a single paraphrased summary.

FRAME-04 · FOUNDER ATTRIBUTION IS PER-CLAUSE

Every paragraph in Parts 1 and 2 is attributed to its founder-source, either by heading (Part 1 = Laurence, Part 2 = Lisa) or by inline attribution ("Lisa says:", "Laurence says:").

The Part 3 pairing synthesis is the ONLY section drafted by the editorial team. It is explicitly labelled as synthesis, not as founder voice.

FRAME-05 · GAP-FLAG DISCIPLINE

Unanswered or partly-answered questions become explicit gap flags in the doc.

Format: [GAP · founder · brief-question-ref · escalation-code]. Example: [GAP · Lisa · Q2.3 named palliative-care contacts · S63-LISA-Q2.3-CAPTURE]. These remain visible until the founder returns to fill them or explicitly opts out (in which case the opt-out is recorded).

FRAME-06 · FLAG-FOR-DEEN ROUTING

Any Laurence answer marked FLAG FOR DEEN is routed to G2 (Legal Advisor) before publication, not attempted-answered by the editorial team.

These items appear in the doc as [G2-PENDING · brief-ref · summary] until Deen's review is complete. Deen's resolution may be: (a) publish as-is with legal caveat, (b) rephrase within legal boundary, (c) omit entirely, (d) escalate to Board. Whichever choice is made is minuted.

FRAME-07 · FINANCIAL CLAIM CFO REVIEW

Any founder statement making a specific numerical claim (case volumes, dollar figures, hardship-outcome percentages) is CFO-flagged at G3.

Carla's review confirms the number is either (a) documented from a source that can be cited, or (b) marked as founder professional estimate. If neither, the number is downgraded to a qualitative claim ("many cases" not "8,400 cases") before publication.

FRAME-08 · REVISION IS APPEND-ONLY UNTIL LOCK

Between G1 and G5, edits are recorded as changelog entries, not silent overwrites.

Every version of the SCAFFOLD document carries a "Change log" section at the bottom listing what changed, on what date, at whose direction. Post-G5-lock, changes require a new sprint number.

FRAME-09 · DOWNSTREAM SWEEP IS MANDATORY

Locking the source-of-truth triggers a mandatory downstream sweep of every artefact that quotes founder voice.

The sweep list is maintained in the "Downstream dependencies" table on /founders-professional-witness. Any inconsistency between the locked witness and a downstream artefact is treated as a bug in the downstream artefact, and reconciled to the witness, never the reverse.

Escalation code registry

Machine-readable tags used in gap flags, so future audits can trace every gap back to a specific brief question. Format: S63-{FOUNDER}-{PART-Q}-{TAG}.

Live registry: see the "Voice-capture pending" blocks on /founders-professional-witness and /board-advisor-charter. Every code there matches a specific brief question. When the answer arrives, the code is closed and moved to a "Resolved" section in the change log.

Exception protocol

Any deviation from FRAME-01 through FRAME-09 requires a Board minute recording (a) the specific rule waived, (b) the reason, (c) the founder(s) consenting to the waiver, (d) the date. Waivers are exception, not norm.

Cross-references