Rendered from docs/obligations/0011-one-document-has-been-promoted-out-of-the-synthesized-tier-and-no-rate-says-whether-the-tier-drains.md in the Headwater corpus. Every document on this half of the site is typed by the taxonomy the descriptor names: corpus.json.

One document has been promoted out of the synthesized tier, and no rate says whether the tier drains

Context

Q15 rules that a synthesized tier exists and that its content carries the asserted warrant. Asserted content should move to accepted rather than accumulate.

Obligation

The promotion rate against the asserted count is the instrument.

Discharge

Half of the instrument now runs. taxonomy audit reports the warrant of every classified document over the closed set, and it names the asserted count as the denominator a rate divides by. This record states no figure for that count. Run the verb and read the warrant section. A number copied into prose is a claim that no run re-derives. The population is not empty. Every document in it was written on or after 2026-08-14. The measurement of this record before that date was 0, which was true of the corpus it measured.

The numerator now runs, and it runs in another verb. A promotion is a lifecycle transition, from the asserted warrant to accepted. warrant.promoted declares the needs_prior input that spec 12 designs, and headwater check --change is where a caller supplies one. The count is change-scoped for that reason, so it cannot live in taxonomy audit, which reads one working tree.

What this record waits on is a rate rather than a first promotion. #1425, which merged as 40d08a1d, moved HW-DR-0078 from asserted to accepted. It is the first promotion in this repository. On 2026-09-30, headwater check --change against 40d08a1d^ counted one promotion under warrant.promoted, and no other. Before that change, the count was zero on every run of the instrument, over the last 120 commits.

One promotion shows that the act happens. It does not show whether the asserted population drains or grows. So this record discharges on a reading over a window of changes. The reading is the promotions in the window, against the asserted count at each end of it. If promotions stay rare while the asserted population grows, the tier is a place documents go and do not leave. The honest response is to say so.