Author review for approval-gated research protocols

Owner and intended author: Arhan Canli

Current state: two hash-bound blank packets; zero author protocol approvals

Why this exists

The merger-announcement and Treasury-auction redesigns have passed their no-return structural tests, but software cannot decide that Arhan understands or approves them. A chat reply also should not silently authorize the next research stage without binding the exact protocol and evidence versions being reviewed.

Each tracked packet therefore freezes the protocol SHA-256, evidence-file SHA-256, evidence content hash, six author questions, six technical checks, the exact approval decision, and the narrow next stage it would authorize. Every answer and judgment remains blank. The packets are preparation, not approval.

Current packets

• merger-announcement-identity-v2 binds the disjoint no-return confirmation design. Its governed approval would authorize only acquisition and freezing of the 2006–2015 SEC confirmation corpus.
• treasury-auction-state-machine binds the no-return schedule state machine. Its governed approval would authorize only writing a separate return preregistration.

Neither decision authorizes a return run, sleeve admission, external submission, independent-review claim, or performance claim.

Workflow

Prepare a private response outside the tracked publication tree:

uv run python scripts/verify_author_protocol_approval.py prepare \
  --review-key merger-announcement-identity-v2 \
  --output var/author_reviews/merger-announcement-identity-v2.json

or:

uv run python scripts/verify_author_protocol_approval.py prepare \
  --review-key treasury-auction-state-machine \
  --output var/author_reviews/treasury-auction-state-machine.json

Arhan must personally complete every answer, confirm every technical check with evidence, disclose all AI assistance, review every retained claim, record corrections, and bind the decision to the current protocol and evidence hashes. He must also change the response status to AUTHOR_COMPLETED_RESPONSE. Automation may explain a prompt but may not write, paraphrase, or approve Arhan's response.

Verify a completed response without writing a tracked receipt:

uv run python scripts/verify_author_protocol_approval.py verify \
  --input var/author_reviews/merger-announcement-identity-v2.json

Only after Arhan explicitly authorizes importing the verified result may an unused output path be provided. The verifier refuses to overwrite an existing receipt.

uv run python scripts/verify_author_protocol_approval.py verify \
  --input var/author_reviews/merger-announcement-identity-v2.json \
  --output artifacts/governance/author_protocol_approvals/merger-announcement-identity-v2-v1.json

Fail-closed rules

Verification fails when a bound file changes, a question or technical check is absent, evidence is missing, the AI-assistance declaration is incomplete, the decision differs from the registry, any blocking issue remains, or the approved hashes do not match the current files.

A passing receipt is still self-attestation. It does not independently prove who typed the answers, does not count as external review, and does not establish alpha, Sharpe, drawdown, diversification, or sleeve admission.