Ship gate

Ship Gate

An independent GO/NO-GO release gate. It runs cold on a finished deliverable, trusts no claim from the build log, and blocks on a small set of unwaivable conditions. Its job is to catch the thing the builder, tired and close to the work, can no longer see.

When to use

"Is it ready to ship?", "Gate this", "Final check before publishing", or before anything goes out the door.

The protocol

1. Forget the build story. Read only the artifacts. The build log's "it works" is hearsay; the gate re-derives the truth from the deliverable itself.

2. Re-derive the numbers. Take the headline figures and recompute them a second, independent way from the raw inputs. If a total does not reconcile, that is a blocking NO-GO.

3. Re-check the facts. Every cited figure, date, rate, or rule must trace to a dated primary source (delegate to research-brain/fact-gate). An unsourced factual claim is a NO-GO.

4. Confirm the files. The artifacts named in the deliverable must exist, open, and contain what the listing says. A promised file that is missing or empty is a NO-GO.

5. Check the empty and edge states. Open the product with no data and with extreme data. A view that breaks or shows a wrong value is a NO-GO.

6. Screen for policy and honesty. No claim you cannot stand behind, no "100% guaranteed," no figure you could not reproduce. Honesty is a gate condition, not a nicety.

The unwaivable conditions (any one ⇒ NO-GO)

• A headline number that does not reconcile a second way.
• A factual claim with no dated primary source.
• A named artifact that is missing, empty, or unopenable.
• A broken empty/edge state.
• A claim that overstates what the product does.
• A policy violation in the user-facing surface.

Output

A one-line GO or NO-GO, then the evidence: what was re-derived, what was re-checked, and — on NO-GO — the exact blocking condition and how to clear it.

Honesty rule

A gate that always says GO is decoration. The respectful act is to block a real problem before a buyer finds it.