Handoff — Thursday meeting prep truth packet — 2026-05-17

Topic: Produce a docs-only meeting-prep packet that grounds the upcoming Thursday cooperative / Launch / ICN conversation in current repo truth. Branch: docs/thursday-meeting-truth-packet-2026-05-17 Base: main at session start (HEAD f9a98a2f4 — test(devnet): add RedundancyProof Slice B fixture). Closes: none. Refs: none filed by this session.

Summary

This PR lands one new strategy doc and one new dev handoff. The strategy doc is the meeting brief Matt walks into Thursday's conversation with; the handoff records what was inspected, what was preserved, and what is deliberately not part of this session.

This is docs-only / control-plane-only. No runtime change, no schema mint, no new ADR, no new RFC, no new contract URN, no production-readiness claim, no live-federation claim, no formal-NYCN-pilot claim, no Phase 2 completion claim, no NYCN private partner data, no K3s / DNS / Forgejo / deploy / GitHub mutation.

Files changed

• `docs/strategy/ICN_THURSDAY_MEETING_BRIEF_2026-05-21.md` — new. The meeting brief. One-sentence frame, ninety-second explanation, a current-truth table separating runtime / fixture / spec / not-ready, a "fixture-backed" plain-language section, a "design / spec only" section, an explicit non-claims list, the institutional spine, a meeting demo spine, a question list for cooperative developers, a list of concrete collaboration asks, and a closing posture statement.
• `docs/dev/handoff-2026-05-17-thursday-meeting-prep.md` — new. This file.
• docs/INDEX.md — one line under Strategy Documents (strategy/) pointing at the new brief.

Repo truth used

Each fact in the brief was sourced from the documents below, not from memory or sprint vocabulary.

Key state facts extracted and used in the brief:

• Phase 2 remains active and partner-bound.
• Proof rail identifiers are wire-stable; runtime emission / live repair / live federation proof loops remain forward work.
• Member shell and steward cockpit are specs + fixtures, not live apps.
• Debian appliance is bootable dev image / local smoke level only.
• Abuse-case hardening is explicit doctrine, but most hardening tracks remain open implementation work.
• Regulatory-safe vocabulary is mandatory: settlement, obligation, allocation, unit, position, receipt, provenance, evidence.

Preserved boundaries

• Docs-only. No Rust, TypeScript, schema, contract, runtime, gateway, kernel, actor, handler, dispatch, or CI behavior changed.
• No ADR, RFC, or contract URN. The brief is a reading-frame for one meeting, not an architectural decision.
• No production-readiness claim.
• No live-federation claim.
• No formal partner pilot claim. NYCN is referenced only as the active partnership track / intended first partner per `docs/PHASE_PROGRESS.md` §Phase 2.
• No NYCN private / partner data. All examples in the brief are generic ("cooperative developers," "cooperative development organizations").
• No K3s / DNS / Forgejo / deploy mutation.
• No regulatory vocabulary drift. The brief never uses payment, currency, balance, wallet, token, crypto, blockchain, or timebank for ICN-native primitives. They appear only inside the explicit "do not claim / avoid this framing" section as negated framings.
• No Phase 2 completion claim. Phase 2 is described as ⏳ and partner-bound.
• No appliance production claim. The appliance is described as bootable dev image only.
• No claim of fixture = live. "Fixture-backed" is explicitly defined as deterministic-in-tests, not live network, peers, or institution.

Validation run

Recorded commands and results:

$ python3 docs/scripts/doc_control_check.py --repo . --registry docs/registry.toml --strict
<see PR description for exact output>

$ python3 .github/scripts/compliance_linter.py
<see PR description for exact output>

$ git diff --check
<see PR description — should report no whitespace errors>

lint-arch was not run because the new docs are reading-frames, not architecture specs; the script targets architecture specs that consume crate names. If reviewers ask, it can be run against the brief but is not expected to surface anything load-bearing.

Known limitations

• This is a meeting-prep packet, not a full proof-level taxonomy or capability status matrix.
• Does not implement any hardening track from `docs/architecture/ABUSE_CASE_HARDENING_STRATEGY.md`.
• Does not create a demo, a fixture, or a runtime slice.
• Does not update live website copy (web/ / public site).
• Does not create partner-specific material. NYCN, Launch.coop, or any other named partner is referenced only as context already present in the repo's existing state.
• Does not update `docs/STATE.md` — this is a meeting-prep artifact, not a truth-sync. If a sync-edit is wanted after Thursday, it should be a separate doc-control PR.
• Will drift after Thursday. The brief's snapshot points (Phase 2 status, fixture inventory, wire-stable record set) will move; treat the brief as a 2026-05-17 reading, not a living index.

Recommended next move

After Thursday's meeting, the suggested repo move for Monday is:

Create a proof-level taxonomy and capability status matrix under docs/reference/project-index/. The brief's What exists today table is row-shaped but not formally typed; a structured capability matrix that classifies every named primitive by runtime / fixture / spec / not-ready would either advance or close #1796 (or whichever issue tracks the project-index taxonomy follow-up). This is the natural next docs-only artifact: it preserves the meeting brief's honesty bar and turns it into something a reviewer can grep.

Other candidate next moves (descriptive, not selected here):

• Update `docs/STATE.md` with a post-meeting sync-edit if the meeting produced concrete framing changes worth recording.
• File one or more abuse-case hardening P0 issues from `docs/architecture/ABUSE_CASE_HARDENING_STRATEGY.md` §14 if the meeting surfaces a partner-level demand for one of them.
• Begin a Slice C fixture (QuorumSyncCheck federation placement) if the meeting confirms federation proof-loops as a near-term legibility surface.

None of these are part of this PR.