Evidence: the motivating scenario, end-to-end

A doc-fix work item walked through the rebuilt channel (owner review, PR #178): the phase-selection gate, an authorized reply, and the resulting skips. Run against the shipped pdlc-work-item-loop in a temp repository with a fake GitHub integration serving the ticket's comments — nothing here touched the network. (The one warning line the run emits is the best-effort set-phase-label hook failing against a fictitious repo and being ignored, exactly as designed.)

1. Entry posts the checklist, and the loop stops

🤖 _the-loop_ — **which phases does this work item need?**

Before the loop starts, tell it what this item actually needs. Copy the list below
into a reply, **untick anything this work item does not need**, and add
`the-loop execute` to start.

```markdown
- [x] brainstorming
- [x] requirements-definition
- [x] requirements-approval
- [x] design
- [x] design-approval
- [x] tasks-breakdown

These phases always run and are not selectable — they are what keeps a lighter work item honest:

• test-planning
• implementation
• verification
• self-review
• critic-review
• security-review
• evidence
• capability-docs
• reviewer-briefing
• human-approval

A doc fix usually needs none of the selectable phases; a feature usually needs all of them. Reply with the-loop execute and no list to run the full process.

Only an authorized user's reply is read — ticking boxes on this comment does nothing, because GitHub does not report who edited a comment.

<!-- the-loop:phase-selection -->

🤖 the-loop, autonomous comment <!-- the-loop:agent-comment -->

The floor is named in full — every non-skippable node the item will walk, including the
review-chain nodes that carry no phase label.

## 2. An unauthorized reply changes nothing

A `@random` commenter unticking `design` and `test-planning` with `the-loop execute`:

```text
gate: wait; node: phase-selection; skips: {}

3. The authorized reply

Doc fix — no spec chain needed.

- [ ] brainstorming
- [ ] requirements-definition
- [ ] requirements-approval
- [ ] design
- [ ] design-approval
- [ ] tasks-breakdown
- [ ] verification        ← deliberately unticked: a protected phase

the-loop execute

the-loop's confirmation:

🤖 _the-loop_ — **phase selection recorded**

Skipping, as declared by @owner: `brainstorming`, `requirements-definition`,
`requirements-approval`, `design`, `design-approval`, `tasks-breakdown`

These are declarations, not verdicts: `the-loop check` reports each as *skipped by
declaration*, and every other phase still gates this work item.

**Refused** (these phases are not selectable and will run): `verification`

Starting the loop.

🤖 _the-loop, autonomous comment_
<!-- the-loop:agent-comment -->

The attempt on verification is refused and named — not silently honoured, and not silently dropped either.

4. What was recorded

"currentNode": "test-planning",
"skips": {
  "brainstorming":            {"via": "selection", "token": "brainstorming",            "by": "@owner", "reason": "", "at": "…"},
  "requirements-definition":  {"via": "selection", "token": "requirements-definition",  "by": "@owner", "reason": "", "at": "…"},
  "requirements-approval":    {"via": "selection", "token": "requirements-approval",    "by": "@owner", "reason": "", "at": "…"},
  "design":                   {"via": "selection", "token": "design",                   "by": "@owner", "reason": "", "at": "…"},
  "design-approval":          {"via": "selection", "token": "design-approval",          "by": "@owner", "reason": "", "at": "…"},
  "tasks-breakdown":          {"via": "selection", "token": "tasks-breakdown",          "by": "@owner", "reason": "", "at": "…"}
}

The pointer landed on test-planning — the first node of the never-skippable floor. The spec-chain nodes were routed around without running a single hook (no loop:requirements-definition label was ever applied; the only label sync attempted is for the node actually entered).

5. the-loop check --recompute

  ok     phase-selection
  --     brainstorming
         · skipped by declaration — via selection, token 'brainstorming', by @owner
  --     requirements-definition
         · skipped by declaration — via selection, token 'requirements-definition', by @owner
  --     requirements-approval
         · skipped by declaration — via selection, token 'requirements-approval', by @owner
  --     design
         · skipped by declaration — via selection, token 'design', by @owner
  BLOCK  test-planning
         · required artifact is missing (docs/specs/issue-999/testing-plan.md)
  --     design-approval
         · skipped by declaration — via selection, token 'design-approval', by @owner
  --     tasks-breakdown
         · skipped by declaration — via selection, token 'tasks-breakdown', by @owner
  ok     implementation
  BLOCK  verification
         · required artifact is missing (docs/specs/issue-999/testing-plan.md)
  BLOCK  self-review        · required section is missing: Review cycles …
  BLOCK  critic-review      · required section is missing: Review cycles …
  BLOCK  security-review    · required section is missing: Security review (gate) …
  BLOCK  evidence           · required section is missing: Final validation evidence …
  BLOCK  capability-docs    · required section is missing: Capability docs …
  BLOCK  reviewer-briefing  · required section is missing: Pull requests …
  wait   human-approval

Four things worth the reviewer's eye:

• Every skipped node reports who and how, never pass (R3.2).
• phase-selection reads ok, not wait — check passes no event by design, so the answered-ness is a durable decision in graph state. Self-review round 4 caught this: without it every work item would have reported as stuck at its first node forever.
• test-planning still blocks for its missing plan: even the lean lane keeps its proof (R1.6), and the phase the reply tried to untick is among the gates still red.
• implementation reads ok because its tasks.md re-gate treats the declared absence as planned (R3.4) and its other gates pass vacuously here; its proof burden sits with verification and the review chain, which are all still red until earned.

6. The tamper case: a forged skip on security-review

  security-review status: block (not 'skip')
         · required section is missing: Security review (gate) (…/execution-log.md)
         · graph state declares a skip on this node, which is not skippable —
           the declaration is refused and has no effect

The hand-written declaration is inert — the node is evaluated on its artifacts alone — and the report says so on the node it tried to touch (R3.3).