Comic Cross Layer Gate

comic-cross-layer-gate — the Universal Authoring Score-Fuser + the Zero-Credit P0 Proof (Phase 1)

The acquittal organ of the comic-author suite. Every authoring step (intent → style → outline → asset → storyboard → blueprint → continuity → the compiled comic.json) is a generator; none of them acquits itself. They each emit their node(s), fan out independent reviewers, and then defer to this one skill to fuse the scores into a verdict, mint the audit trail, and flip the target's status. It is the image-comic port of aris_movie's 6-gate adversarial decision skill — but folded into one parameterized fuser (Codex's single-fuser design, against the per-layer split that drifts: six near-copies diverge, one fuser stays honest). The downstream per-panel panel_gate / page assembly_gate are NOT this skill — those live in packages/core/spiral_engine.js and run at bake time; this skill is the authoring-side, pre-bake gate that decides whether a spec may advance.

Cardinal lesson, landed as a guard not prose: identical scores across rounds = the judge is broken — audit the rubric, do not regenerate the artifact (memory: feedback_gate_identical_scores_judge_broken). Concretely: this gate carries a _score_fingerprint in every decision node; if round N's fused per-dim vector equals round N−1's after the artifact changed, the gate HALTS and flags judge_suspect — the rubric (this skill), not the spec, is the suspect. A gate that emits the same verdict regardless of the work is worse than no gate.

  upstream step emits node(s) + fans out independent reviewers (writes review:* score-nodes + `reviews` edges)
                              │
   comic-cross-layer-gate <target_node_id> --gate <kind>
                              ▼
   ⓪ PRE-CHECK   structural facts the GATE computes (asset-resolve / policy / count-band / continuity) — RAW, not opinion
                              ▼
   ① COLLECT     reviewer score-nodes via `reviews` edges — NEVER re-run a reviewer; hard-fail if none
                              ▼
   ② THRESHOLD   per-dim min-fuse (max for inverted dims); SKIP missing dims (NEVER 0-substitute); per-gate floor → threshold_verdict
                              ▼
   ③ ADJUDICATE  Codex xhigh (no model pin — local codex config) — sees ONLY {scores + failure_mode tags + threshold_block + raw PATHS + ≤200w verbatim source + verbatim rubric}
                              ▼               (NEVER reviewer prose / notes / overall — that is the contamination vector)
   ④ ASYMMETRIC  threshold HARD-VETO over "advance"; Codex SOFT-VETO over everything else
                              ▼
   ⑤ WRITE       decision node (full audit) + (on FAIL only) a positive-invariant failure_mode the NEXT step preloads as a banlist
                              ▼
   ⑥ FLIP        target status → locked (advance) · under_review (needs-work) · rejected (terminal) ;  stdout last line: VERDICT=<v> GATE=<kind> TARGET=<id>

The --gate p0_proof branch is a different shape (a text-only adversarial review of the pipeline machinery, not a score-fuse over a spec) — it is documented in its own section below. It is the single most important contract this skill owns: it runs AFTER comic-json-compiler and BEFORE any metered image bake (the agent mcp__codex__codex sidecar), costs zero generation credits, and must clear all blockers in BOTH non-author families and then MINT the digest-bound decision:p0_proof_* certificate via scripts/run_p0_proof.py — or the spiral is forbidden to spend a credit.

Constants

• GATE KINDS = intent | outline | asset | storyboard | blueprint | continuity | p0_proof | compile. The legal verdict set is per-gate (below) and enforced — a verdict outside a gate's set is a hard error (the intent gate can never emit keep; the asset gate can emit locked, the intent gate cannot). The legal node status tokens a FLIP may write are ONLY {draft, pending, under_review, locked, rejected, superseded, active, complete, final} (schema enum) — a verdict (revise/regenerate/fallback) is never a status.
• REVIEWERS (collected, never re-run here): the Codex CLI at model_reasoning_effort: xhigh with NO model pin — it follows the local codex config (currently gpt-5.6-sol) — for every gate's ambiguity / correctness / logic pass; Gemini auto-gemini-3 wherever a second family or a visual read is needed (image inputs, UX/design). Never downgrade the effort tier (reviewer-routing). (The one place a model IS pinned is the metered BAKE, not this skill: gpt-5.5 + xhigh as the single compat default in run_comic.get_bake_plan() — config-driven override plumbing is planned, not yet implemented.)
• ADJUDICATOR = the Codex CLI at xhigh (same no-model-pin rule — local codex config), fed ONLY structured inputs (§③). Its effort is always xhigh — effort widens fan-out, it never weakens the judge. (run_comic.py exposes only --review-effort; there is no --effort flag.)
• FUSE RULE = min per dimension (most-pessimistic), EXCEPT inverted dims (artifact_severity, *_severity, anything where higher = worse) use max; SKIP a dim no reviewer scored (filter the nulls) — NEVER substitute 0 (the v1.0 bug: a lite reviewer leaving a dim unscored must neither slip an advance nor force a fail).
• ASYMMETRIC TRUST = the deterministic threshold has HARD VETO over "advance" (Codex cannot overrule approve/locked if the deterministic floor failed); Codex has SOFT VETO over everything else (a Codex revise overrules a threshold approve). Structural facts (§⓪) also hard-veto advance.
• CAPS — MAX_ASSET_REGEN = 4 then escalate the asset gate to the outline gate (abandon_shot); re-gate (re-vote) caps fold into the calling step's attempt budget. The 准 ×3 convention (asset gate, owned by comic-asset-review-loop): a locked verdict requires cross-model UNANIMITY in the SAME round — CC and Gemini and Codex all approve the asset that round (≥3 distinct reviewer families lock-pass together). Fewer than 3 families approving → regenerate --another-voter (re-vote to reach the third family, not re-bake); a family's hard-fail → re-bake. (NOT "three consecutive rounds" — that aris_movie video port is wrong for this repo; the owner is same-round unanimity.)
• P0 GATE THRESHOLD = blockers.length == 0 in BOTH non-author families {openai, google} on the SAME comic_sha, then the certificate is MINTED by scripts/run_p0_proof.py — a HARD HALT until the digest-bound decision:p0_proof_* node exists (a timed-out/missing family does NOT count toward quorum; quorum unmet = no certificate = baking stays blocked). Zero image-generation credits are spent before the mint. The review is deliberately text-only → not rate-limited → free.
• CODEX UNAVAILABLE → emit the threshold-only provisional verdict with _confidence: "low", exit code 2, and skip failure_mode compilation. Malformed adjudicator JSON → codex-reply retry ×2, then fall back to threshold-only.
• OUTPUT — a decision node in wiki/nodes/, the decides edge, a review-tracing entry per collected reviewer + the adjudicator, and (on a FAIL verdict only) a failure_mode node. Final stdout line is EXACTLY VERDICT=<v> GATE=<kind> TARGET=<id> for the caller to parse.

Input contract — what the gate is given, what it refuses

The direct input is a target_node_id + a --gate <kind>. The gate reads from the wiki, it is not handed prose:

• It NEVER re-runs a reviewer. The upstream step already fanned out and wrote review:* score-nodes with reviews edges → the target. The gate collects those nodes; if zero reviews are attached, it hard-fails (no reviews — gate is a score-fuser, not a reviewer). This is the load-bearing separation: the executor that authored the spec must not also be the one whose read of it acquits it.
• The adjudicator sees scores + failure-mode tags + raw artifact PATHS + a ≤200-word VERBATIM source slice + the VERBATIM rubric — and NOTHING else. It never sees a reviewer's prose, notes, evidence, overall_assessment, or rationale (reviewer-independence). Reviewer prose is the contamination vector; forwarding it re-introduces the correlated blind spot cross-model review exists to break. (Structural facts in §⓪ are an exception — they are RAW artifacts the gate itself computed, not reviewer opinion, so forwarding them does not violate independence.)
• The upstream gate state machine is verdict ∈ {approve, locked, revise, regenerate, fallback} (plus the asset-gate-only abandon_shot). Each reviewer call that feeds this gate gets file paths + an explicit === EXTERNAL CONTEXT (advisory) === fence around any cross-cutting context — never the author's interpretation. The fence is what keeps "here is the situation" from becoming "here is what to conclude".

The universal architecture (every --gate except p0_proof — which has its OWN write path, the deterministic minter, §p0_proof below)

Ported verbatim from the aris_movie 6-gate skill; the deterministic-JS fuse pattern is the same one the engine already proves in packages/core/spiral_engine.js:59 (panelVerdict).

Honesty note: the six universal score-fuse gates ship NO runner today — the agent executes this SOP directly (collect → fuse → adjudicate → write → flip, by hand, per the steps below); a parameterized run_gate.py is planned, not shipped. The only executables this skill owns/shells today are scripts/run_p0_proof.py (the p0 certificate minter) and the deterministic --gate compile scripts. The worked-example workflows below are the pattern to copy.

⓪ Pre-check — the structural facts the gate computes

Before touching reviewers, compute the raw artifacts (filesystem facts, not opinions) the gate hard-vetoes on. These differ per gate (see each rubric) but the shape is constant: resolve every referenced asset_id, every asset is status: locked, policy fields match expected, count in band, continuity links well-formed (no dangling / out-of-order / cycle). Any non-empty violation set → revise regardless of reviewer scores OR Codex ("structural failures cannot be voted-around"). Record each as _unresolved_asset_refs / _policy_violations / _count_band / _continuity_breaks in the decision audit.

① Collect — reviewer score-nodes, never re-run

Walk reviews edges into target_node_id; load each review:* node's payload.review_scores. Build per_reviewer = {reviewer: {dim: score, ...}, failure_mode_tags: [...]}. Hard-fail if the set is empty.

② Threshold — deterministic per-dim fuse

For each rubric dimension, fuse across reviewers with min (or max for an inverted dim), skipping any reviewer that left it null. Apply the per-gate floor (each rubric below). Yield threshold_verdict ∈ {advance, revise} + a _cited_dimensions map of every fused value. This is mechanical and reproducible — a fresh reviewer can re-derive it from the table alone.

③ Adjudicate — Codex, structured inputs only

Call the Codex CLI at xhigh (no model pin — local codex config) with EXACTLY: per_reviewer scores, failure_mode_tags, the threshold_block (the fused values + the floor), the raw artifact PATHS, a ≤200-word verbatim slice of the source node (not a summary — a literal excerpt), and the verbatim rubric for this gate. Ask for a verdict in this gate's legal set + a one-line confidence + the single most important fix. Trace the call (review-tracing).

④ Asymmetric cross-check

• threshold_verdict == revise → the final verdict is a FAIL verdict no matter what Codex said (threshold hard-vetoes advance).
• threshold_verdict == advance AND Codex returns a FAIL verdict → Codex's FAIL wins (Codex soft-vetoes advance).
• threshold_verdict == advance AND Codex advances → ADVANCE (approve / locked, per gate).
• Record _threshold_verdict, _codex_verdict, _disagreement (bool), _confidence.

⑤ Write — decision + (on FAIL only) a positive-invariant failure_mode

Write a decision node (full audit). On any FAIL verdict, compile one failure_mode node whose repair_pattern is a POSITIVE INVARIANT ("force a status:locked ref for every must_show asset", NOT "no draft assets") — diffusion and the next authoring step focus on what you mention, so state the desired target, not the ban (negative patterns are only for explicit banlists). Default scope is movie-local; engine-global needs explicit grounding (an over-broad failure_mode poisons cross-project banlists). The next authoring step preloads this node as its banlist — the spiral's learning loop.

⑥ Flip + emit

Flip target.status (locked on advance for asset/storyboard/etc.; leave/rejected on a terminal fail). Exception: a PROVISIONAL-stage storyboard approve never flips — the node stays under_review (see --gate storyboard). Append the decides edge. Print the parse line.

EXACT gates (dimensions · thresholds · vetoes) — ported from the aris_movie source

Every reviewer scores each dim 0–5. "ADVANCE" verdict in CAPS. Advisory dims do NOT block advance; they ride into the decision audit and the adjudicator's context.

--gate intent → verdicts {approve, revise}

• ADVANCE (APPROVE) iff completeness ≥ 4 AND safety_flag_coverage ≥ 4.
• Advisory: clarity, scope_feasibility.
• EXTRA veto: if the intent_spec.payload.confidence < 0.6, OR any unresolved high-impact uncertainty remains, downgrade approve → revise even when both floor dims pass (low-confidence / unresolved intent must not lock silently). This is the EXACT predicate comic-intent-parser must quote — no 0.5/0.6 drift between the parser's stated gate and the gate that actually runs.
• Note: the user-approval gate for intent is a separate HARD human gate owned by comic-intent-parser step ⑥ — this gate is the cross-model adjudication, not the human sign-off.

--gate outline → verdicts {approve, revise} — two checkpoints: OUTLINE_DRAFT_VALID, then OUTLINE_FINAL_LOCK

The outline acquittal is deliberately split in two. A single-stage "outline needs locked assets" contract deadlocks a fresh project: assets are produced from the storyboard's consolidated_asset_requests, the storyboard needs an approved outline, so the outline can never see a locked asset first. The Phase-1 DAG is:

OUTLINE_DRAFT_VALID → human outline approval → provisional storyboard (structural pass, may
reference draft assets) → consolidated_asset_requests → asset generation + review → assets LOCKED →
OUTLINE_FINAL_LOCK (cheap re-check) → storyboard FINAL asset-resolution validation → blueprints

• OUTLINE_DRAFT_VALID (this gate, pre-assets): validates NARRATIVE + CONTINUITY + safety only — it does NOT require any referenced asset to be locked.
  • Pre-check (HARD): every referenced asset_id (scene / character / prop / must_show in the *_asset_ids lists) must be DECLARED with a complete, generatable request (enough spec for the asset pipeline to produce it), else hard-fail with the missing-declaration list. Declared-but-draft is fine; undeclared or unrequestable is not.
  • ADVANCE (APPROVE) iff coverage ≥ 4 AND safety_ip ≥ 4.
  • Advisory: asset_promptability, audio_plan.
• OUTLINE_FINAL_LOCK (after assets lock): the cheap re-check that the now-locked assets still match the approved outline — this is where identity_lock_feasibility ≥ 4 and scene_lock_feasibility ≥ 4 are scored (they are meaningless before real locked refs exist). The hard locked-asset barrier lives at the storyboard FINAL asset-resolution validation + the blueprint gate, before blueprint authoring — not at the draft outline.

--gate asset → verdicts {approve, regenerate, locked, abandon_shot}

• LOCK (LOCKED) iff identity_lock_satisfied ≥ 4 AND ref_quality ≥ 4 AND bg_isolation ≥ 4 AND safety_ip ≥ 4 — and the 准 ×3 rule holds (cross-model unanimity in the SAME round: CC AND Gemini AND Codex all lock-pass that round; fewer than 3 families approving → regenerate --another-voter = re-vote to reach the third family, not re-bake; a family's hard-fail → re-bake). See Constants.
• Advisory: reuse_readiness.
• Cross-check (RAW): output_ref exists on disk AND its sha256 matches the node AND the data_url is non-empty — any mismatch hard-vetoes lock.
• Cap: MAX_ASSET_REGEN = 4 → escalate to the outline gate (abandon_shot).

--gate storyboard → verdicts {approve, revise} — STRUCTURAL, CC-only (no visual reviewer; no pixels yet)

This is the comic.json structural validator (it supersedes the lone check_asset_collisions.py) — and it is a TWO-STAGE contract: the gate runs TWICE per storyboard (the N1 DAG under --gate outline; comic-storyboard-creator ⑨.0 quotes this same ordering):

• PROVISIONAL stage (right after authoring, pre asset-lock): structural pass only — declared-but-draft assets are allowed; panel_assets_referenceable is unscorable, left null, and the fuser SKIPs it (the verdict rides on the other three dims; only an UNDECLARED ref — no whitelist entry, no complete asset_request — vetoes). A provisional approve does NOT lock the storyboard node — no ⑥ FLIP; it stays under_review.
• FINAL stage (after the asset layer locks everything + OUTLINE_FINAL_LOCK): all four dims scorable — the full asset-resolution predicate applies (every panel asset ref resolves AND is locked; an un-locked ref hard-vetoes via _unresolved_asset_refs), and approve flips the storyboard to locked on advance.

The four structural dims are FILE-SYSTEM FACTS the gate computes, not reviewer opinion:

• panel_assets_referenceable — every asset ref in each panel resolves and is locked. (Scored at the FINAL stage only — the storyboard's FINAL asset-resolution validation, the hard locked-asset barrier of the Phase-1 DAG; at the PROVISIONAL stage it is null/SKIPped and the declared-check applies instead.)
• global_policies_valid — global_policies fields match expected (e.g. text-mode rules present; mirror-lock policy present; page-order authority declared).
• panel_count_band_aligned — panels-per-page in band per target tier {mvp:(2,2), demo:(4,6), longform:(10,12)} (in-range = 5, off-by-one = 3, further = ≤2), AND the TOTALS line reconciles (Σ panels-per-page == panel count; NEW + reused == total).
• continuity_chain_well_formed — the MOTIF STATE TABLE has one row per panel; links have no dangling / out-of-order / cycle; every per-panel motifs field agrees with its table row.
• ADVANCE (APPROVE) iff ALL FOUR ≥ 4 — at the PROVISIONAL stage, all scorable dims (panel_assets_referenceable is SKIPped, never substituted with 0).
• STRUCTURAL HARD VETO: any non-empty _unresolved_asset_refs (FINAL stage; at the PROVISIONAL stage declared-but-unlocked refs are expected — only an UNDECLARED ref vetoes) / _policy_violations / _continuity_breaks, or an out-of-band _panel_count_band, forces revise regardless of reviewer scores OR Codex. (Plus the comic-specific structural vetoes the storyboard step also asks for: DDL non-monotonic; bounce-uniqueness broken; the two metric columns co-mingling; a DONE panel retro-edited; the storyboard page order disagreeing with the compiled comic.json page order — the storyboard is the authority.)

--gate blueprint (the IMAGE analog of aris_movie's frame_condition gate) → verdicts {approve, revise, fallback}

aris_movie's frame_condition gate is VIDEO-flavored (action_freeze, harmonization); the IMAGE analog drops the motion dims and asks instead: "is this panel's condition.content_svg + identity_ref + scene buildable?"

• ADVANCE (APPROVE) iff refs_present ≥ 4 AND spatial_correctness ≥ 4 AND blueprint_renders ≥ 4 (the SVG rasterizes to a non-empty PNG — a RAW pre-check, not a vote).
• text_preservation required only when the panel has whitelisted baked text.
• safezone_quality (html panels) < 3 while the floor otherwise passes → fallback = route the panel's text to the HTML overlay (a route switch, not a regen).
• Cap: MAX_BLUEPRINT_REGEN = 3 → escalate to rewrite the panel_spec.

--gate continuity → verdicts {approve, revise}

Adjudicates the comic-continuity-audit read against the motif_ledger. Dims (all ≥ 4 to ADVANCE):

• ledger_row_complete — one MOTIF-table row per panel; no missing variable.
• invariants_hold — the declarative predicates verify against the table: ddl_monotonic_non_increasing, bounce_single_max (S02 = the film's ONLY MAX; no post-fall peak), metric_columns_disjoint (no claim_delta value in the exact_parse column or vice-versa).
• mirror_locks_paired — each paired constraint (REJECT ↔ ACCEPT same stamp geometry; S02-MAX ↔ S21-smallest; S16b labeled star-map ↔ S22 wordless twin from the same node JSON, 禁目测) is present and consistent.
• design_aware — MOTIF-vs-ENV disambiguation is honored: only continuity-bearing instances are tracked; an intended absence / a tagged env prop is not flagged as drift (absence ≠ drift).
• Structural HARD VETO: any invariant violation forces revise (invariants are machine-checkable predicates, not vibes).

--gate compile → verdicts {approve, revise} — DETERMINISTIC (no reviewer fan-out; the scripts ARE the judge)

The compiled-comic.json acquittal that comic-json-compiler defers to. Unlike every other gate this one is purely deterministic — NO review:* nodes, NO Codex adjudication, so §① (collect) is skipped and the "hard-fail if zero reviews" rule does NOT apply. It PASSES (approve) iff both real scripts exit 0, else revise carrying their stderr as the blocker list:

• python3 skills/comic-director/scripts/run_comic.py --project <dir> --page <P> --panels <ids> --dry-run — validates the comic.json shape, that every text_mode:"baked" figure-panel carries ascii condition.expected_literals, and prints each concrete bake prompt (no placeholders). --panels is required by run_comic.py (argparse required=True), so run this once per page in pages[] with that page's panel ids — omitting --panels exits non-zero (a false blocker).
• python3 cli/validate_wiki.py <dir> — node/edge/payload/privacy/node_id conformance against node_schema.json. There is no reconcile_pages.py (it never existed) — these on-disk scripts are the entire deterministic core. PASS (approve) iff EVERY per-page run_comic.py AND validate_wiki.py exit 0. Record all exit codes + any stderr in the decision audit. The §⑥ FLIP target is the schema-valid decision:compile_<slug> wiki node this gate writes (status: final) — NOT comic.json, which is a file, not a wiki node (it has no legal node_id prefix, carries no wiki_node_id, and can never be an edge endpoint).

--gate p0_proof → verdict {advance} — MINTED, never hand-written

The one gate whose decision node comes from a script: scripts/run_p0_proof.py mints verdict: advance after verifying the two-family same-digest quorum itself (full contract in the dedicated section below). Its target_node_id is the compile/intent anchor NODE (e.g. decision:compile_<slug>) — never comic.json, which is a file, not a wiki node.

The bake-time panel_gate (spiral_engine.js panelVerdict: KEEP iff narr ≥ 4 AND minIdent ≥ 4 AND styleOK AND compOK AND NOT artifactBad AND textOK AND NOT anatomyDefect AND disagree < 2, where narr = min(narrative_beat_fidelity, composition_story), artifactBad is corroborated — both visual reviewers must flag it, a lone pixel-purist cannot single-veto — and disagree is the two visual reviewers' identity-score gap) and the page assembly_gate are NOT re-implemented here — they run at bake time inside packages/core/spiral_engine.js. (Provenance note: the engine's narrative "cc" reviewer slot currently shells the codex CLI and is honestly recorded as openai in the wiki; a configurable --narrative-reviewer is planned, not yet implemented — cross-family acquittal vs the Claude author still holds via gemini + codex.) This skill is the authoring-side gate; the engine is the artifact-side gate. They share the same fuse discipline.

--gate p0_proof — the zero-credit code proof + the digest-bound spending certificate

Runs AFTER comic-json-compiler, BEFORE any metered image generation. It is a text-only cross-model adversarial review of the pipeline machinery the executor authored solo — distinct from experiment-integrity (audits results after the fact) and from the per-unit panel gate (audits generated artifacts). It is a pre-production correctness proof that is deliberately free (text review, not image generation → not rate-limited). The fan-out shape is ported from examples/comic_m3_audit/workflows/p0-review.js; the certificate is minted by the shipped deterministic scripts/run_p0_proof.py — the agent never hand-writes the decision node.

Step 1 — compute the digest, fan out. comic_sha = sha256(<project>/comic.json BYTES). Fan out 3 watchdog-bounded CLI reviewers, each cat'ing the REAL files into its prompt (never a Claude summary), each a DIFFERENT model family from the Claude author — and inject the comic_sha digest into every reviewer prompt with the instruction to echo it back in the review output; the echo is what binds each review to the exact compiled version it read:

1. codex on CODE — the build script + the viewer: base64 inlining, </ escaping in the JSON-in-<script> blob, missing-image handling, path resolution, the locale (T()) toggle, bubble positioning, XSS via innerHTML of T(), ?p= bounds.
2. codex on ENGINE LOGIC — spiral_engine.js: the panelVerdict formula (deadlock / wrong-keep / skip-missing-dim / disagree gate), the retry/rollback/caps state machine (infinite-loop risk, rollback target math, kept[] filtering, localByPanel reset), generatePanel's bake seam + the gen_failed/rate-limit path, the gate prompts eliciting parseable JSON, the REPO + "/" + REPO path hack, Promise.all races.
3. gemini on DESIGN / CONTRACT / UX — is ART_BIBLE.md an executable convergence target for the panel_gate? Does the comic.json IR scale to 24 panels + bilingual + 3 text_modes? The viewer reading experience? Drift from the design doc? (This google-family review may come from the legacy gemini CLI OR from Antigravity via the shipped shim, cli/gemini_agy_shim.py — the shim pins a Gemini model, so the family recorded stays google either way.)

Gate schema FIND (required [reviewer, blockers, should_fix, overall]): blockers[] and should_fix[] are arrays of {file, issue, fix} — all three required per item (a blocker with no concrete fix is not a blocker, it is a complaint); plus nice[] and a one-line overall. Synthesis dedups, drops invalid/duplicate points (noting the drop), orders BLOCKER > SHOULD > NICE, adds blocker_count / should_count, and returns the single-most-important fix.

Step 2 — write one review JSON per family. From the CLEARED fan-out (every blocker fixed and re-reviewed) the agent writes ≥2 review files, one per non-author family — e.g. p0_codex.json for openai, p0_gemini.json for google — each carrying {family, verdict, blockers, comic_sha} (extra fields are tolerated; these four are what the minter checks). A review COUNTS toward quorum only if family ∈ {openai, google, anthropic}, blockers == [] (the literal empty list), verdict ∈ {pass, clean, approve, advance}, AND its comic_sha equals the digest of the CURRENT comic.json. Parseable alone is NOT quorum — a review that acquitted a different comic.json version, a non-empty blocker list, a missing file (reviewer timeout/skip) or unparseable JSON simply does not count. NEVER proceed on timeout: for this gate a timed-out family means quorum unmet, which means NO certificate, which means baking stays BLOCKED — fail-closed. ("Note the timeout and proceed" is legal ONLY for ADVISORY fan-outs, e.g. the pivot-design consult — never for the spending gate.)

Step 3 — MINT the certificate (deterministic, fail-closed).

python3 skills/comic-cross-layer-gate/scripts/run_p0_proof.py \
  --project <dir> --target <anchor_node_id> --reviews p0_codex.json p0_gemini.json

The minter re-verifies everything itself (it never trusts the agent's account of the fan-out): it recomputes comic_sha from the comic.json BYTES, computes bake_plan_sha = pickup_image.bake_plan_digest(run_comic.get_bake_plan()) (the resolved bakereq/v1 spend plan — model/effort/include_image_gen_tool/sandbox/min_bytes/aspect/bake_timeout), discards every review that does not count (stderr notes why), and requires BOTH non-author families {openai, google} among the counted reviews — the Claude author family can drive, never acquit. Any violation → clear stderr reason + exit 1 + no node. On success it atomically writes wiki/nodes/decision_p0_proof_<slug>_<utcstamp>.json: node_id decision:p0_proof_<slug>_<utcstamp> (slug from comic.json comic_id), node_type: decision, status: final, real-UTC created_at, payload {gate_kind: p0_proof, verdict: advance, target_node_id, comic_sha, bake_plan_sha, reviewer_quorum, review_files}.

The legal p0_proof verdict is advance — minted by the script, never hand-written. What run_comic.py's _p0_clean() preflight then verifies before spending a credit: a decision:p0_proof_* node with gate_kind == p0_proof and an accepted status/verdict, AND payload.comic_sha == sha256 of the CURRENT comic.json AND payload.bake_plan_sha == the digest of get_bake_plan(args). Edit comic.json after minting and the cert is stale → REJECTED (the log points back at run_p0_proof.py); the mint binds the argparse-DEFAULT plan, so a run with non-default --min-bytes/--bake-timeout also needs a fresh cert. This kills the "a certificate once existed somewhere in this directory" hole: the cert acquits ONLY the exact bytes + spend plan it audited.

(Operational hardening kept from the source: MCP is forbidden inside this fan-out — an unbounded hang would freeze it — so every external call is a watchdog-bounded CLI: codex sleep 540-600s, gemini sleep 300-360s, kill -9 on timeout, unique temp file per branch. A killed reviewer simply produces no counted review file — see step 2: no quorum, no cert, no spending.)

Two engine contracts the gate enforces (fail-closed)

These mirror the engine's own fail-closed checks — cfgUsable (L422) and generatePanel's content_svg shell-safety guard (L273) in packages/core/spiral_engine.js — the gate refuses to ADVANCE a spec that would later make the engine refuse to run:

1. Every panel needs a blueprint SVG — but the field name differs by artifact (do NOT conflate them): the wiki blueprint.payload.content_svg (top-level on the payload), the panel_spec.payload.content_blueprint (the panel_spec's own field — there is NO content_svg on a panel_spec), and the comic.json panel's condition.content_svg (the RUNTIME field the engine reads at spiral_engine.js .condition.content_svg). Any of these null / empty / not a project-relative *.svg is a structural hard-veto at the blueprint and storyboard gates (the engine rejects condition.content_svg: null in comic.json outright). Do not let a planned panel through with no blueprint.
2. A baked figure-panel MUST declare expected_literals (exact numbers / keys, verbatim, ASCII- tokenizable). The engine's cfgUsable refuses to run an ungated baked figure (a baked content_svg with an empty expected_literals is a fail-closed refusal). So the storyboard/blueprint gate hard-vetoes a text_mode: "baked" figure-panel that carries no expected_literals; a scene panel with no audited numbers must be text_mode: "html" (its text moves to the overlay). This is the plausible-unsupported- success guard — a beautiful panel with a WRONG number must never keep, so the gate must be able to token-diff it later, which requires the literals authored now.

Node it reads / writes (schemas/node_schema.json)

Reads:

• The target_node_id — one of intent_spec / outline_spec / asset / storyboard_spec / blueprint / (for continuity) motif_ledger / (for p0_proof) the compiled comic.json + pipeline files. Read its required payload (per the schema) — and a ≤200-word verbatim slice is the only source text the adjudicator sees.
• Every review node attached via a reviews edge → the target. Required payload target_node_id, reviewer, gate_kind; the per-dim scores live in the optional review_scores map this skill fuses. (Edge reviews may carry the optional reviewer ∈ {cc, codex, gemini} + weight.)
• The wiki banlist of prior failure_mode nodes (so the adjudicator's context includes what already failed at this layer).

Writes (one JSON file each under wiki/nodes/, created_at ISO-8601):

• decision (node_id decision:<gate>_<slug>) — payload required target_node_id, verdict, gate_kind; this skill additionally writes the audit fields _threshold_verdict, _codex_verdict, _disagreement, _confidence, _cited_dimensions, _score_fingerprint (+ the structural sets _unresolved_asset_refs / _policy_violations / _count_band / _continuity_breaks when computed). status: "final". Append a decides edge (decision → target, optional verdict on the edge).
• EXCEPTION — p0_proof decisions are never hand-written: scripts/run_p0_proof.py mints decision:p0_proof_<slug>_<utcstamp> (verdict advance, status: final, payload adds comic_sha, bake_plan_sha, reviewer_quorum, review_files) atomically, fail-closed, after verifying the two-family same-digest quorum itself. Every OTHER gate's decision node is written by the agent per this section.
• failure_mode (node_id fail:<gate>_<slug>) — only on a FAIL verdict. Payload required layer, affected_shot_ids, active; repair_pattern is the positive invariant; default scope movie-local. status: "active". Append a failure_of edge (failure_mode → target).
• No failure_mode on an advance verdict, and none when Codex was unavailable (provisional verdict).

Worked example (the pattern to copy)

The canonical exhibits are the three historical orchestration scripts + the engine that ground this skill:

• The P0 proof — examples/comic_m3_audit/workflows/p0-review.js. Copy the FIND schema (required: ['reviewer','blockers','should_fix','overall'], each blocker/ should_fix item {file, issue, fix} — all three required), the 3-reviewer fan-out (codexReview('code', [BUILDER, TEMPLATE], …) ‖ codexReview('engine', [ENGINE], …) ‖ the inline gemini design reviewer), the cat-the-real-file rule (files.map(f => 'echo "===== ${f} ====="; cat "${f}"') — never a summary), and the synthesis reducer that dedups → orders BLOCKER>SHOULD>NICE → returns blocker_count/should_count. Its watchdog hardening (codex … & P=$!; ( sleep 540; kill -9 $P ) & WD=$!; wait $P; kill $WD) is exactly the MCP-forbidden discipline — but note where the LIVE contract diverges from the exhibit: p0-review.js noted a timeout and proceeded; the shipped minter makes a timed-out family not count toward quorum, so the spending gate stays blocked. The contract is blockers.length == 0 in both non-author families on the same comic_sha, then the run_p0_proof.py mint, before any credit.

• The cross-model adjudication shape — examples/comic_m3_audit/workflows/pivot-design.js. Copy the typed gate schemas that force the gate to be real: DESIGN_SCHEMA (required: ['recommendation','codex_take','gemini_take','open_decisions'] — a branch cannot claim a cross-model review it did not do, the codex_take/gemini_take fields are the evidence), and CRITIQUE_SCHEMA (required: ['model','biggest_flaws','missing','risks','verdict'], prompt forbids softening: "pass through the sharpest valid points"). The "form your OWN take FIRST → get codex → get gemini → reconcile/judge → surface only genuine human forks" loop is the adjudicator discipline; the unique temp file per branch + note-a-timeout-and-proceed is the operational guard — legal here because this consult is ADVISORY; the p0_proof spending gate must fail-closed on timeout instead.

• The deterministic fuse — packages/core/spiral_engine.js:59 (panelVerdict). This is the exact min-fuse / skip-missing / max-for-inverted / single-vote-veto pattern to port into §②: idents = [gem?..., cdx?...].filter(x => x != null); minIdent = idents.length ? Math.min(...idents) : 0 (skip-missing, never 0-substitute when some reviewer scored it); `artifactBad = (gemArt >= 4 && cdxArt >=

  3. || …(inverted dim, corroborated — a lone pixel-purist can't single-veto a by-design background glow);anatomyDefect = … === true(a single-vote veto for a clear defect the literal-diff is blind to); and the **fail-closed** guardif (![gem,cdx].every(r => visCore(r).every(x => x != null))) return retry` (a reviewer that returned incomplete core scores must not slip an advance). The authoring gate inherits this verbatim so reviewer-independence + min-fuse + positive-invariant failure_modes come for free.

Hard do / don't (earned lessons)

• DO treat this gate as a score-fuser, never a reviewer — collect the review:* nodes the upstream step already wrote; hard-fail if there are none. Re-running a reviewer here would make the gate part of the thing it judges.
• DO feed the adjudicator scores + tags + raw PATHS + ≤200-word verbatim source + verbatim rubric and NOTHING ELSE. Forwarding any reviewer prose/notes/overall is a CRITICAL independence violation (reviewer-independence).
• DO SKIP a dim no reviewer scored — **NEVER substitute 0

…(truncated)