Governed reconciliation and closeout

Governed closeout is an evidence chain, not a single completion switch. Governed reconciliation preserves task implementation summaries as source evidence. Each layer keeps its own canonical record, each review stays read-only, and every accepted transition is performed by a separately selected write command. Use this advanced path only for a numbered Governed slice with the full slice → phase → milestone → task hierarchy. It is not part of the Basic journey or ordinary Structured onboarding.

Preserve the canonical evidence owners

The task definition owns approved scope and validation commands. Its paired implementation summary owns changed paths, acceptance results, validation receipts or exceptions, deviations, discovered work, residual risk, and review concerns. A milestone reconciliation consumes the completed task summaries in declared order and owns the milestone verdict. The slice-level project-review.md owns the accepted or rejected project-review decision. Parent overview metadata records administrative state only; it never substitutes for those bodies.

Partial completion must remain visible. An incomplete declared task, deferred acceptance criterion, validation waiver, accepted residual, or unresolved exception stays attached to its canonical task or reconciliation evidence. A waiver records the blocked command, substitute evidence, residual risk, and follow-up validation path; it does not manufacture a pass. Reporting discovered or deferred work does not create a child task or widen the current contract.

Close tasks before reconciling the milestone

For each declared task, build and complete its implementation summary, then run implementation-summary review as a read-only gate. Record implementation completion with task implementation-complete. Use the current zero-blocker review receipt to authorize task disposition, re-run the review after disposition, and use the fresh receipt for task close. Disposition and close are distinct writes; neither review command performs them.

Do not close a task whose summary is pending, placeholder-heavy, missing required Runtime or Hybrid evidence, or bound to an earlier task attempt. Resolve the evidence through the selected task contract, rebuild the summary, and obtain a fresh review. Exceptions and waivers remain explicit evidence rather than shortcuts around current-attempt identity.

Build, review, and accept reconciliation

After every declared task is closed with a complete non-placeholder summary, run reconciliation build for the selected milestone. The build is an explicit draft write. Complete the acceptance review, validation review, classification sections, accepted residuals, review concerns, final notes, and verdict in the canonical reconciliation.md.

Run reconciliation review against the saved artifact. Review is read-only: it cannot repair prose, accept the verdict, mutate milestone metadata, or close the slice. Resolve blockers through a separately authorized artifact update and review the new revision. When the receipt is current and blocker-free, reconciliation accept is the dedicated receipt-bound acceptance write. If administrative metadata still lags accepted evidence, preview and apply metadata sync-status-from-review separately.

Persist project review and close separately

Run work review only after the selected Governed slice has current accepted reconciliation evidence. It reports project-level evidence without writing project-review.md, applying its recommendations, changing status, or demoting the slice.

Persist the decision with work project-review create. That command is the explicit canonical project-review write. Generic repair or recommendation apply remains a separate receipt-bound mutation with its own preview, exact receipt, target scope, and authority; accepting project review does not grant permission to perform it. Re-run the read-only project review after persistence, then use work close as the separate terminal overview write only when current accepted project-review evidence authorizes it.

The complete ordering is task evidence and closeout → milestone reconciliation build → human completion of reconciliation → read-only reconciliation review → reconciliation acceptance → read-only project review → explicit project-review persistence → fresh read-only project review → separate work close. No step silently performs the next one.

Recover stale or incomplete closeout

Treat a stale receipt, changed summary, changed reconciliation, changed overview, or mismatched attempt identity as evidence that the previous authorization no longer applies. Stop before the write, inspect the reported revision or fingerprint, rebuild only the selected canonical artifact if needed, and run the matching read-only review again. Apply only a new exact receipt or plan for the current bytes.

If the milestone is incomplete, preserve declared order and return to the first inadequate task rather than editing reconciliation into a passing verdict. If project review finds a genuine follow-up, record it first as review evidence and create planning artifacts only through a separately authorized planning workflow. Automatic review mutation, implicit status synchronization, silent demotion to Structured or Basic, and unrequested migration are unsupported recovery behaviors.

For the operational sequence, continue with Evidence review and reconciliation. Command postures and hierarchy ownership are detailed in Core workflow commands and Governed hierarchy.