AGENTS.md

@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ Prefer a **single `INV-NNN-slug.md`** when the finding fits in one file. When da
 Altering a component that is documented in `guidebooks/` **requires updating that guidebook page in the same change**. A code/infra change that leaves its guidebook stale is incomplete.
 
 ### Milestone closure & doc freshness
-Docs describe intent; **STATUS.md + git describe reality**. Writer's half: a milestone is closed only after the closure sweep, which **opens with a QA gate** (acceptance criteria re-verified with evidence, test suites green, status flips backed by eval results — nothing documented as done before it is proven done) and **ends with doc-surface QA** (link/anchor check, deprecation grep for the claims the milestone retired, fresh-reader smoke test by a context-free subagent); in between: flip the PRD `STATUS.md` phase row, re-baseline the roadmap at the boundary, truth-pass every leaf/`AGENTS.md`/`SKILL.md` claim the increment invalidated (no-tombstone, bump Last Updated on changed files only). Canonical checklist: the [ai-back-office STATUS closure protocol](vibe/PRD/ai-back-office/STATUS.md). Continuously: a PR that makes a documented claim false updates that doc **in the same PR**. Reader's half: before acting on any versionable claim, verify in trust order — **live system > code/git log > STATUS > leaves > memories/plans**; a page whose Last Updated predates the newest closed milestone in its area is suspect.
+Docs describe intent; **STATUS.md + git describe reality**. Writer's half: a milestone is closed only after the closure sweep, which **opens with a QA gate run by an independent, context-free verifier subagent prompted to refute** — the closer never self-certifies (acceptance criteria re-verified with evidence, test suites green, status flips backed by eval results — nothing documented as done before it is proven done) and **ends with doc-surface QA** (link/anchor check, deprecation grep for the claims the milestone retired, fresh-reader smoke test by a context-free subagent); in between: flip the PRD `STATUS.md` phase row, re-baseline the roadmap at the boundary, truth-pass every leaf/`AGENTS.md`/`SKILL.md` claim the increment invalidated (no-tombstone, bump Last Updated on changed files only). Canonical checklist: the [ai-back-office STATUS closure protocol](vibe/PRD/ai-back-office/STATUS.md). Continuously: a PR that makes a documented claim false updates that doc **in the same PR**. Reader's half: before acting on any versionable claim, verify in trust order — **live system > code/git log > STATUS > leaves > memories/plans**; a page whose Last Updated predates the newest closed milestone in its area is suspect.
 
 ### Language policy
 **English** for everything in `vibe/` and for `AGENTS.md`/`CLAUDE.md` (this tree is for LLM agents). The single exception: **shareouts handouts are FRENCH**.

vibe/PRD/ai-back-office/STATUS.md

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Every phase is decomposed into **self-contained issues** (context, deliverables,
 
 The resume protocol tells a session where to pick up work; this one keeps the doc surface **currently true** when work lands. Docs describe intent; **this file + git describe reality**. A Gitea milestone is closed only after the sweep — and the sweep starts with QA, because nothing gets documented as done before it is *proven* done:
 
-1. **QA gate — verify before documenting.** (a) Every closed issue's **acceptance criteria re-verified** with evidence linked (eval scores, run journals, exit-gate results — not memory of them); (b) the milestone's **test suites green**: golden-set regressions at their bars, injection fixtures quarantined, linter suites behaving (forbidden manifests rejected, seeded-wrong provenance fixtures FAIL), idempotency replay no-op, watchdog/heartbeat checks where the milestone ships standing loops ([QA strategy](qa-strategy.md)); (c) any 🧪→✅ flip in the [agent-catalog](agent-catalog.md) backed by its proving-protocol evidence. A milestone that can't pass its own QA doesn't close — it sheds scope back into open issues.
+1. **QA gate — verify before documenting, and never by yourself.** The gate is run by an **independent verifier subagent**: context-free (no conversation inherited from the closer), prompted to *refute* — "find why this milestone is NOT actually done" — with the repo, the issues and the run journals as its only inputs ([no self-grading](qa-strategy.md#independent-verification--no-self-grading)). It checks: (a) every closed issue's **acceptance criteria re-verified** with evidence linked (eval scores, run journals, exit-gate results — not memory of them); (b) the milestone's **test suites green**: golden-set regressions at their bars, injection fixtures quarantined, linter suites behaving (forbidden manifests rejected, seeded-wrong provenance fixtures FAIL), idempotency replay no-op, watchdog/heartbeat checks where the milestone ships standing loops ([QA strategy](qa-strategy.md)); (c) any 🧪→✅ flip in the [agent-catalog](agent-catalog.md) backed by its proving-protocol evidence. Its verdict is posted on the milestone before closure; a refutation the closer cannot resolve **with evidence** blocks. A milestone that can't pass its own QA doesn't close — it sheds scope back into open issues.
 2. **Flip the phase row** above (✅ + date + PR links) and prune the backlog map of closed issues.
 3. **Re-baseline the [roadmap](roadmap.md)** at the boundary: mark the stream done, re-date downstream engineering bars if they slipped — regulatory diamonds never move; slips shed scope instead. Bump its Last Updated.
 4. **Truth-pass the affected leaves** (no-tombstone — rewrite as currently true, no "previously/now"): the [task inventory](task-inventory.md) `Today:`/`Target:` lines the milestone changed; the agent-catalog matrix; `not yet`/candidate claims in [architecture](agent-architecture.md), [model-fleet](model-fleet.md), [compliance](compliance.md). Bump Last Updated **only on files whose claims changed**.

vibe/PRD/ai-back-office/qa-strategy.md

@@ -54,6 +54,10 @@ Per atom, mechanical, recorded in the registry ([ladder](README.md#the-autonomy-
 - **Quarterly game-day:** deliberately take one tier down (revoke the cloud key, cordon the inference node, sleep the laptop) and verify the [degraded-mode table](model-fleet.md#degraded-modes) holds in practice — same philosophy as the [safe-prod-like-environment](../safe-prod-like-environment/README.md) drills.
 - **Weekly ops review (human, ~10 min):** escalation/quarantine/disagreement rates, DLQ age, digest accuracy spot-check, and the standing question: *which atom cost more than it saved this week?*
 
+## Independent verification — no self-grading
+
+Work is never attested by the session that produced it. **Milestone closures** ([closure protocol](STATUS.md#closure-protocol--per-milestone)), **POC exit gates**, and **autonomy promotions** are verified by a *context-free subagent prompted to refute* ("find why this is NOT done / NOT at the bar"), whose only inputs are the repo, the issues, and the run journals — never the author's conversation. A refutation the author cannot resolve with evidence blocks the gate; the verifier's verdict is attached to the artifact it gates (milestone, registry autonomy field, POC record). This extends to the process level the principle the pipelines already run at the data level (dual independent extraction, seeded-wrong fixtures that must FAIL) and that the PRD itself was built with (fresh-reader review before first publication).
+
 ## Evidence trail
 
 Every month yields an audit pack: the coherence audit ([T15](task-inventory.md#t15--monthly-coherence-audit)), the month's run journals, snapshot content-hashes, approval-card decisions, and fiscal sheets — archived in git + GED. This pack is deliberately shaped as the documented-control set of the **piste d'audit fiable** (CGI art. 289 VII — [compliance](compliance.md#obligations--fleet-mechanisms)): the invoice ↔ service ↔ payment linkage is evidenced continuously, not reconstructed under audit. The pack is written for a third party (expert-comptable, auditor, or a future operator): it must let them reconstruct *what the fleet did and why* without access to this PRD or any chat history. A distilled summary of each pack also lands in the second brain ([T17](task-inventory.md#t17--knowledge-capture--retrieval-second-brain)), so institutional memory outlives both chat logs and this repo.