process-verification-gate

Run a structured pre-merge checklist that evaluates reliability, scalability, security, observability, and maintainability. Mark each pillar PASS, CONCERN, or FAIL with a one-line justification, then apply the ship or no-ship decision rules before merging.

A pre-ship checklist should cover the five engineering pillars: reliability, scalability, security, observability, and maintainability. It should also add lane-specific checks, such as acceptance criteria for contract-driven work or micro-plan-to-diff matching for direct delivery.

Skip the full gate only for trivial changes like a one-line typo fix that already passed guardrails and typecheck. For small direct-delivery tasks, you may evaluate only the pillars that touch the changed files and note N/A for the rest.

Any FAIL verdict, or more than two CONCERNs, blocks the merge until the issue is fixed. If the work followed the HRC lane, the failure is escalated to the Harness Runtime Controller for re-evaluation before proceeding.

Yes, if all pillars pass and only one or two minor CONCERNs exist, you can merge with a SHIP WITH NOTE verdict. Document each concern in the PR description and create a follow-up ticket for the mitigation.