Align WORKFLOW.md's Verdict Clause With Section 5's Assessment

[ptr727]

First pull request of the #1311 reshape sequence recorded in
this comment.
It is one sentence, and the reason it is one sentence is the useful part.

The change

The preamble's verdict clause said a scenario's "observed" output, where 5B is headed "No
Execution, Deterministic from the YAML" and tells the reader to "emit the predicted ... table".
It also dropped the "applicable" qualifier that N/A handling depends on, omitted the third
conjunct section 5's own Assessment carries, and called a mismatch a defect "not a style nit"
while D9.1 through D9.5 state style rules as applicable guarantees whose failure is a defect by
definition.

Conjunct 1 keeps "every applicable guarantee holds" rather than Assessment's "every
applicable 5A item passes". Those are not the same set, since a guarantee can be applicable
while its 5A check is recorded N/A, and section 1 uses the guarantee form. Left as it was
rather than settled here.

Four corrections attempted and withdrawn

Review disproved the premise under each, which is worth recording because three of the four
looked obviously right when written.

• The line-ending fix acted on a tracker finding that is itself wrong. Six claims in WORKFLOW.md's preamble that the document itself falsifies #1206's L10 called
  section 2's "same line-ending policy as every other file" a misstatement. The routed-to rule
  puts YAML "workflow and non-workflow alike, no distinction needed" on the [*] default with
  no override, and .editorconfig names *.bat/*.cmd as "the one CRLF exception". Acting on
  L10 deleted a true statement. L10 should be declined.
• Widening the sibling scope to name .github/workflows/ evidence put pyproject.toml and
  the dependency manifests on this file's side of the WORKFLOW/CODESTYLE partition, which
  nothing in the tree resolves.
• Widening it to the composite actions claimed territory CODESTYLE.md holds:
  .github/actions/prose-gate/prose_lint.py is the real 78 KB implementation, with
  scripts/prose_lint.py a ten-line shim, and it is linted by ruff and on the mypy path.
• Rewriting the two preamble framing sentences drew 7 findings in one round and 7 in the
  next, including a dangerous one: dropping D1.3's layer binding would let a reader write
  inputs.smoke != 'true' at the workflow layer, where the operand-type cast to NaN makes
  the smoke gate pass on every smoke run.

Two decisions this needs from the maintainer

None of #1206's ten structural preamble items are settled, because both questions under them
have the repository asserting both answers.

1. Does D9 bind as a MUST? GOVERNANCE.md "Workflow YAML Conventions" opens "These
conventions describe the target state ... The rest of the repo is expected to be brought up to
the same standard." Section 4's preamble says "A workflow that violates any applicable
guarantee is not operational." An unswept legacy workflow gets opposite verdicts. Four
findings (P1, P2, L3, L6) are downstream of this.

2. What is this document authoritative for? The blanket "GOVERNANCE.md is authoritative
wherever this document overlaps it" decides a live conflict the wrong way: that file's
boolean-inputs bullet requires comparing against both forms, D7.3 says the opposite and calls
the second comparison dead, and 5A tells the auditor the both-forms shape is "redundant rather
than a finding". GOVERNANCE.md claims precedence only for its own section. Six findings (P4,
P5, P10, P11, L8, L9) are downstream of this.

Verification

Full local gate set from OPERATIONS.md "Local Verification": build_dist --check,
canonical_review check, repo_gate (eol, eol-coverage, sha-pin), prose_lint over 324
files, the JSON parse loop, spec/validate.py, and docker_lint (7 linters, markdownlint over
178 files). All green. A carried-content pass over the changed unit's whole text and a local
strict review of the diff are both recorded.

Refs #1206, #1311

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🟢 Approval recommended

The change is a narrow documentation consistency fix that makes the preamble’s verdict definition match the already-defined Assessment clause without altering any behavioral contract logic.

Pull request overview

Updates WORKFLOW.md's preamble verdict clause so it matches section 5's Assessment language, including the "predicted output" framing for 5B and the optional 5C probe contradiction check.

Changes:

• Adjust the preamble’s “Assess” verdict definition to use section 5’s “predicted output” + “5C probe” conjuncts and applicability scoping.
• Refresh the canonical-review digest metadata for the WORKFLOW.md > (preamble) unit.

File summaries

File	Description
WORKFLOW.md	Aligns the preamble’s operational/not-operational verdict wording with section 5’s Assessment clause.
reports/canonical-review.json	Updates the recorded digest/findings metadata for the WORKFLOW.md preamble unit.

Review details

• Files reviewed: 2/2 changed files
• Comments generated: 0
• Review effort level: Lite

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