WP 7.4 — Acceptance review + M3 release gate (operator checkpoint)

[AJ-EthereaLogic-ai]

Work package: WBS 7.4 · Phase: 7.0 — Integration Drills & Acceptance · Milestone gate: M3 · Traces: all US, SC-4, R-7 · Depends on: WP 7.1, 7.2, 7.3

⚠️ Operator checkpoint — human acceptance sign-off, not an ADWS coding run. The solo operator is
also the accepting reviewer (A-4); acceptance rests on replayable drill evidence plus a recorded human
sign-off. This is the M3 / Release 1 release gate. Do not run this through the ADWS pipeline.

Problem statement

WP 7.4 is the aggregate acceptance gate for release 1 (milestone M3). It requires all 3.0–6.0
exit criteria met and all drills (WP 7.1–7.3) complete, then walks every AC- against the retained
drill evidence, records the model tiers the drills covered, retains fresh-context Critic / Advocate
findings as advisory input (A-4 — the independent perspective a solo operator otherwise lacks, R-7),
files any gaps as scope items rather than waving them through (P2: missing evidence blocks completion
claims), and records the human sign-off. The M3 gate is SC-1 through SC-4 demonstrated with replayable
drill evidence; recording the sign-off closes M3 / Release 1.

Requested change (operator)

Author drills/acceptance/M3-signoff.md (the release-1 sign-off note) that:

• walks every AC- defined in the user-stories document against the drill evidence, marking each
  demonstrated (with an evidence pointer) or a gap;
• records the model tiers the end-to-end drill (WP 7.1) covered;
• records the SC-1..SC-4 disposition, each pointing to the drill (7.1 / 7.2 / 7.3) and evidence that
  demonstrates it;
• retains the fresh-context Critic / Advocate findings verbatim, as advisory input (A-4);
• files unresolved gaps as recorded scope items;
• records the human sign-off (actor + UTC date), closing M3 / Release 1.

Acceptance criteria

• drills/acceptance/M3-signoff.md exists and contains one row per AC- identifier defined in
  docs/design/CADENCE_AUTOMATION_USER_STORIES.md, each marked demonstrated (with an evidence pointer) or
  gap.
• It records the model tiers the WP 7.1 drills covered (Haiku / Sonnet / Opus).
• It records the SC-1..SC-4 disposition, each pointing to the drill (7.1 / 7.2 / 7.3) and the
  evidence that demonstrates it (the M3 gate condition, SC-4).
• Critic / Advocate findings are retained verbatim as advisory input and explicitly marked
  non-blocking (A-4, FR-13).
• Every unresolved gap is filed as a recorded scope item, not waved through; a NOT RUN /
  missing-evidence item is never counted as passed (P2, NFR-6).
• A recorded human sign-off with actor + UTC date closes M3 / Release 1.

Non-goals

• Building or fixing anything — this is acceptance, not implementation; gaps are filed, not repaired
  here.
• Codex parity (WBS 8.0) and the pilot re-measure (WBS 9.0); both are later milestones and out of this
  gate.

File hints

• docs/design/CADENCE_AUTOMATION_PROJECT_PLAN_WBS.md (SC-1..SC-4, §8 WBS 7.0 exit criteria, §9 milestone M3,
  A-4, R-7), docs/design/CADENCE_AUTOMATION_USER_STORIES.md (all US- / AC-).
• Drill evidence from WP 7.1 (drills/end-to-end/), WP 7.2 (drills/gate-failure/), WP 7.3
  (drills/advisory-drafting/).
• Write: drills/acceptance/M3-signoff.md.