Remove reader gates from domain lifecycle

DOMAINS.md

@@ -47,13 +47,13 @@ The initial five domain leaves are independent method rewrites inspired by [emil
 
 `design-engineering/consumer-migration-readiness.md` is the separately declared StyleGallery-local leaf. It uses `provenance_kind: local`, carries no external source fields, and remains experimental. Its presence does not change the external-adaptation inventory or make its consumer-local method universal policy.
 
-## Promotion And Staleness
+## Lifecycle And Staleness
 
-External adaptations begin `experimental`. Promotion to `stable` requires a demonstrated reader or review task, evidence that the document improves that task, a named review owner, and no unresolved provenance or platform-version debt. Remove or revise a page when its source revision changes materially, a platform claim becomes stale, a local quality gate contradicts it, or a reader test shows the route is misleading.
+External adaptations begin `experimental`. Domain lifecycle changes are repository-owner decisions based on whether the bounded scope remains coherent, provenance and platform-version obligations are current, and machine-checkable contracts have relevant validator coverage. User studies, reader tasks, adoption counts, and attestations are neither required nor sufficient for a domain lifecycle change. Remove or revise a page when its source revision changes materially, a platform claim becomes stale, a local quality gate contradicts it, or its route or boundary no longer matches the domain contract.
 
 ### Consumer Reference Promotion
 
-Consumer-reference promotion does not add a domain. The [canonical promotion contract](consumer-reference/contract.md#promotion-boundary) owns the full human-readable boundary, and the [canonical JSON promotion policy](consumer-reference/policies/shared-experimental.json) owns machine policy. As a boundary summary: the `>=2` gateway applies only to consumer-local → shared-experimental invariant eligibility; Editorial and terminal are related examples in one fixture set; Shared stable has no numeric adoption threshold; and Normative correctness may waive adoption count only. A failed stable contract is never silently relabeled experimental. Promotion records are JSON-only, and the committed examples remain synthetic with zero adopter attestations.
+This separate contract governs consumer-reference invariant sharing only; it does not govern domain or page lifecycle. Consumer-reference promotion does not add a domain. The [canonical promotion contract](consumer-reference/contract.md#promotion-boundary) owns the full human-readable boundary, and the [canonical JSON promotion policy](consumer-reference/policies/shared-experimental.json) owns machine policy. As a boundary summary: the `>=2` gateway applies only to consumer-local → shared-experimental invariant eligibility; Editorial and terminal are related examples in one fixture set; Shared stable has no numeric adoption threshold; and Normative correctness may waive adoption count only. A failed stable contract is never silently relabeled experimental. Promotion records are JSON-only, and the committed examples remain synthetic with zero adopter attestations.
 
 ## IA Navigation
 

design-engineering/index.md

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ This domain proposes product-layer questions. [Quality Gates](../quality/index.m
 
 ## Domain Contract
 
-See [StyleGallery Domains](../DOMAINS.md) for lifecycle, provenance, page membership, and promotion rules.
+See [StyleGallery Domains](../DOMAINS.md) for lifecycle, provenance, page membership, and staleness rules.
 
 ## IA Navigation
 

examples/stylegallery-homepage/README.md

@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+---
+type: Example Guide
+title: StyleGallery Homepage Example
+description: Static product-layer homepage built as an end-to-end npm package usage test.
+---
+
 # StyleGallery Homepage Example
 
 Static product-layer homepage built as an end-to-end npm package usage test.

motion/index.md

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ Out of scope: universal timing or easing rules, unmeasured performance claims, a
 
 ## Domain Contract
 
-See [StyleGallery Domains](../DOMAINS.md) for lifecycle, provenance, page membership, and promotion rules.
+See [StyleGallery Domains](../DOMAINS.md) for lifecycle, provenance, page membership, and staleness rules.
 
 ## IA Navigation
 

motion/vocabulary.md

@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ The terms are implementation-neutral. A framework, operating-system behavior, or
 
 ## Opinionated Guidance
 
-The family ordering favors what a reader can observe before implementation details. It is useful for retrieval, but it is not a complete ontology. Add a term only after a reader task demonstrates that existing terms and aliases cannot express the distinction.
+The family ordering favors what a reader can observe before implementation details. It is useful for retrieval, but it is not a complete ontology. Add a term only when contrastive repository cases show that existing terms and aliases cannot express the distinction.
 
 ## Platform-Specific Guidance
 
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ Names tied to iOS, macOS, a browser API, Motion, Framer Motion, React, or a comp
 
 ## Verification Contract
 
-A vocabulary lookup should exercise exact, ambiguous, and unknown cases. Pass requires one justified term, an ordered candidate set with a stated distinction, or `unknown`; invented winners fail. A new term also requires a findability task showing the current route cannot reach an adequate term within two hops.
+A vocabulary lookup should exercise exact, ambiguous, and unknown cases. Pass requires one justified term, an ordered candidate set with a stated distinction, or `unknown`; invented winners fail. A new term also requires contrastive exact, ambiguous, and unknown cases showing that the current vocabulary cannot express the distinction.
 
 ## Source, License, And Attribution
 

platform-guides/index.md

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ A platform guide names the platform, source authority, version or review date, w
 
 ## Domain Contract
 
-See [StyleGallery Domains](../DOMAINS.md) for lifecycle, provenance, page membership, and promotion rules.
+See [StyleGallery Domains](../DOMAINS.md) for lifecycle, provenance, page membership, and staleness rules.
 
 ## IA Navigation
 

scripts/domain-validation-checks.mjs

@@ -121,11 +121,24 @@ export function createDomainValidationChecks({
     }
   }
 
+  function checkDomainLifecycleBoundary() {
+    const relative = "DOMAINS.md";
+    const content = stripFencedCodeBlocks(read(relative));
+    const required = [
+      "## Lifecycle And Staleness",
+      "Domain lifecycle changes are repository-owner decisions",
+      "machine-checkable contracts have relevant validator coverage",
+      "User studies, reader tasks, adoption counts, and attestations are neither required nor sufficient for a domain lifecycle change.",
+    ];
+    for (const clause of required) if (!content.includes(clause)) failures.push(`${relative}: missing lifecycle boundary ${clause}`);
+  }
+
   function checkPromotionBoundary() {
     const relative = "DOMAINS.md";
     const content = stripFencedCodeBlocks(read(relative));
     const required = [
       "### Consumer Reference Promotion",
+      "does not govern domain or page lifecycle",
       "applies only to consumer-local → shared-experimental invariant eligibility",
       "Editorial and terminal are related examples in one fixture set",
       "Shared stable has no numeric adoption threshold",
@@ -137,5 +150,5 @@ export function createDomainValidationChecks({
     for (const clause of required) if (!content.includes(clause)) failures.push(`${relative}: missing promotion boundary ${clause}`);
   }
 
-  return { checkIndex, checkLeaf, checkReferenceDocuments, checkPromotionBoundary };
+  return { checkDomainLifecycleBoundary, checkIndex, checkLeaf, checkReferenceDocuments, checkPromotionBoundary };
 }

scripts/test-validate-domains.mjs

@@ -152,8 +152,14 @@ const baseFiles = {
     "",
     "[Consumer Reference](consumer-reference/index.md) is shared infrastructure outside the five-domain contract and cannot add a sixth domain row.",
     "",
+    "## Lifecycle And Staleness",
+    "",
+    "Domain lifecycle changes are repository-owner decisions when machine-checkable contracts have relevant validator coverage.",
+    "User studies, reader tasks, adoption counts, and attestations are neither required nor sufficient for a domain lifecycle change.",
+    "",
     "### Consumer Reference Promotion",
     "",
+    "This separate contract governs consumer-reference invariant sharing only; it does not govern domain or page lifecycle.",
     "The gateway applies only to consumer-local → shared-experimental invariant eligibility.",
     "Editorial and terminal are related examples in one fixture set.",
     "Shared stable has no numeric adoption threshold.",
@@ -200,6 +206,8 @@ const cases = [
   { name: "manifest_extra_domain", mutate: ["DOMAINS.md", "| Platform Guides | [Platform Guides](platform-guides/index.md) | `experimental` |", "| Platform Guides | [Platform Guides](platform-guides/index.md) | `experimental` |\n| Other | [Other](other/index.md) | `experimental` |"], expect: "DOMAINS.md: missing canonical domain contract" },
   { name: "consumer_reference_sixth_domain", mutate: ["DOMAINS.md", "| Platform Guides | [Platform Guides](platform-guides/index.md) | `experimental` |", "| Platform Guides | [Platform Guides](platform-guides/index.md) | `experimental` |\n| Consumer Reference | [Consumer Reference](consumer-reference/index.md) | `stable` |"], expect: "DOMAINS.md: missing canonical domain contract" },
   { name: "consumer_reference_four_domain_contract", mutate: ["DOMAINS.md", "five-domain contract", "four-domain contract"], expect: "DOMAINS.md: missing canonical domain contract" },
+  { name: "domain_lifecycle_reader_gate", mutate: ["DOMAINS.md", "User studies, reader tasks, adoption counts, and attestations are neither required nor sufficient for a domain lifecycle change.", "User studies and reader tasks are required for a domain lifecycle change."], expect: "DOMAINS.md: missing lifecycle boundary User studies, reader tasks, adoption counts, and attestations are neither required nor sufficient for a domain lifecycle change." },
+  { name: "consumer_promotion_claims_domain_lifecycle", mutate: ["DOMAINS.md", "does not govern domain or page lifecycle", "also governs domain and page lifecycle"], expect: "DOMAINS.md: missing promotion boundary does not govern domain or page lifecycle" },
   { name: "promotion_stable_by_count", mutate: ["DOMAINS.md", "Shared stable has no numeric adoption threshold.", "Shared stable uses a numeric adoption threshold."], expect: "DOMAINS.md: missing promotion boundary Shared stable has no numeric adoption threshold" },
   { name: "promotion_related_as_independent", mutate: ["DOMAINS.md", "Editorial and terminal are related examples in one fixture set.", "Editorial and terminal are independent consumers."], expect: "DOMAINS.md: missing promotion boundary Editorial and terminal are related examples in one fixture set" },
   { name: "promotion_yaml_route", mutate: ["DOMAINS.md", "Promotion records are JSON-only", "Promotion records may use YAML"], expect: "DOMAINS.md: missing promotion boundary Promotion records are JSON-only" },

scripts/validate-domains.mjs

@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ export function validateDomains({ root: nextRoot = process.cwd(), domains: nextD
   root = nextRoot;
   domains = nextDomains;
   failures = [];
-  const { checkIndex, checkLeaf, checkReferenceDocuments, checkPromotionBoundary } = createDomainValidationChecks({
+  const { checkDomainLifecycleBoundary, checkIndex, checkLeaf, checkReferenceDocuments, checkPromotionBoundary } = createDomainValidationChecks({
     domains,
     failures,
     read,
@@ -218,6 +218,7 @@ export function validateDomains({ root: nextRoot = process.cwd(), domains: nextD
   }
   failures.push(...collectDomainBoundaryFailures(root, boundaryRegistry(domains)));
   checkReferenceDocuments();
+  checkDomainLifecycleBoundary();
   checkPromotionBoundary();
 
   const result = { ok: failures.length === 0, checkedDomains: domains.length, checkedLeaves, failures: [...new Set(failures)] };