OCT Ex-Ante Proxy Gate Policy v0.1

Date: 2026-05-01
Status: active for all cycles started after this date

Purpose

Prevent structural anti-patterns in theorem validation by enforcing an ex-ante gate before benchmark execution.

Binding rule

No cycle can start without a PASS decision on:

• templates/OCT_PROXY_PREVALIDATION_SHEET_v0_1.md

If gate status is FAIL or HOLD, execution is blocked.

Mandatory controls

1. Logical type declaration: existential/comparative/taxonomic/universal must be explicit.
2. Concept-to-observable mapping: every proxy term must map to OCT concept with chapter/definition rationale.
3. Falsifiability reachability: both expected-pass and expected-fail configurations must be concretely reachable.
4. Role separation: proxy designer and proxy auditor must be distinct.
5. Preregistration seal: immutable hash+timestamp before run.
6. Evidence class declaration: L1/L2/synthetic classes must be explicit and non-collapsed.
7. Cycle budget declaration: each claim must declare max_independent_cycles before execution.

Anti-pattern lock clauses

Clause A - No level-shift (comparative claims)

Comparative claims must be tested at process level when process is the claim target.
Output-only proxies are non-decisive unless explicitly constrained and justified.

Clause B - No post-hoc rescue (taxonomic claims)

After first fail on preregistered criterion, no threshold/criterion change is allowed on same data within the same cycle.
Any revision requires:

• new preregistration
• new cycle identifier
• documented rationale

Clause C - No vacuum-pass (existential claims)

Existential claims must include at least one reachable disconfirming configuration under the proposed proxy.
If no disconfirming configuration is reachable, gate must return FAIL.

Clause D - No false accumulation across evidence classes

Formal pilot pass, synthetic pass, and empirical pass are separate evidence classes and cannot be auto-summed as independent confirmations.

Clause E - No sequential preregistration p-hacking

Repeated reformulation of the same claim is bounded by an explicit cycle budget:

• each claim ID must declare max_independent_cycles ex ante (recommended default: 3)
• once budget is exhausted, the claim must be either:
  • redefined with a new claim ID and explicit rationale, or
  • escalated to external higher-level audit before any additional cycle

Enforcement

Minimum artifacts required per theorem-cycle:

1. Filled pre-validation sheet
2. Preregistration artifact with seal
3. Gate-entry signature (pre-run)
4. Gate-exit signature (post-run review)
5. Link to planned cycle spec
6. Auditor independence declaration (identity + co-authorship + affiliation)

Missing any artifact -> automatic gate FAIL.

Governance integration

Decision state changes in matrix artifacts (validated/revise/reject) must reference:

• proxy sheet path
• preregistration path
• cycle report path
• code path

Effective date and migration

Effective date: 2026-05-01.
Historical cycles remain unchanged as historical record, but are interpreted under this policy when reassessed.