The diff adds a new edition protocol (v10) that tightens, not loosens, the epistemic checks: an evidence record may be cited only for a proposition it is attached to (§3.2, §3.6, §3.8), and case-level fields such as `whatIsClaimed` may not present anchor-only claims as things the case shows. The v10 file carries forward the v8 anchored-is-not-evidenced and v9 provisional-carries-no-weight rules verbatim in its own sections, and v9 is merely moved to protocols/archive/ with a 100%-similarity rename, so no prior constraint is dropped. The new `assessmentEvidenceErrors` helper walks every string at any depth and pushes errors into the existing fail-closed path in `assembleEdition`, with tests covering pass, disclosed-basis, unknown/refused/provisional ids and foreign prefixes — this is check-strengthening under §3.15, not dodging. AGENTS.md is untouched; the only doc change is an append to docs/DECISIONS.md, stamped with date and channel ("founder direction in session, 2026-09-19"), which §3.15 expressly permits for founder directions. No citations are added (verification tooling found none), no confidence material appears, and nothing is presented as ratified. The PR body's forward-looking note about rebasing #357 is a plan, not a claim of ratification, and does not bear on this diff.

The change strengthens rather than weakens epistemic checks: `assessmentEvidenceErrors` rejects assessment references to nonexistent, refused, or provisional evidence records across nested assessment strings. Protocol v10 explicitly prevents a record attached to one proposition from being spent on another in synthesis or component notes, and requires anchor-only propositions to remain identified as such. Its disclosed parent-or-sibling basis exception is transparent rather than silent and preserves the distinction between the record’s attachment and the inference drawn from it. The tests cover live, unknown, refused, provisional, cross-case, and deeply nested references, and neither AGENTS.md nor published content is altered.

The change promotes protocol edition-v9 to v10 and adds mechanical validation in `src/pipeline/edition.ts` via `assessmentEvidenceErrors`. This ensures that every evidence ID cited within an assessment candidate exists in the case and is neither rejected nor provisional, directly upholding §3.6, §3.8, and §3.15. The accompanying tests in `src/domain/assessmentEvidence.test.ts` thoroughly exercise these error conditions across arbitrary fields and prefixes. The decision is documented in `docs/DECISIONS.md` under recorded founder direction without modifying `AGENTS.md` or weakening existing validation gates.

The diff strengthens edition protocol and the edition verb without touching AGENTS.md: v9 is archived, v10 requires citing an evidence record only for a claim it is attached to and keeping case-level fields honest about anchor-only claims (§3.2, §3.6, §3.8), and assessmentEvidenceErrors walks every string at any depth so named ids must exist in the case and not be refused or provisional. Attachment across parent/sibling claims is left to protocol and the panel (disclosed basis from v8), so the mechanical check does not over-refuse or dodge. DECISIONS.md records the founder-supervised rule; tests cover pass, disclosed-basis, unknown/refused/provisional, deep fields, and foreign prefixes. No content citations, runs, or omitted files.

The change strengthens rather than weakens the checks: it adds a mechanical, any-depth scan of assessments for evidence-id tokens, refusing ids that do not exist in the case, are refused, or are provisional (§3.6, §3.8, v9's provisional rule), with tests covering pass, disclosed-basis, and failure cases. Deliberately leaving attachment (which claim a citation serves) to the protocol and panel reading is documented and defensible — the live ledger's claim reasonings legitimately lean on parent/sibling records under the already-adopted v8 disclosed-basis rule, and the protocol now explicitly confines cross-claim citation to that disclosed case while barring component notes and the synthesis from spending one claim's record on another (§3.2). AGENTS.md is untouched; the DECISIONS.md entry is an append-only log record stamped with date and channel, which the constitution permits for founder directions. No citations are added (verification section empty), so no fabrication question arises. Minor gaps — the regex only matches three-digit evidence ids and uppercase prefixes — are ordinary imperfections in a new check, not a loosening of an existing one, and the error paths fail closed (repair once, then refuse).