When a Basis Goes Stale: Routing Consequence Through Admissibility

When a governance basis becomes stale, the question facing any consequence-bearing system is what form of continuation is permissible. Binary suspend-or-proceed models collapse a multi-dimensional decision into a single bit, discarding information that determines whether continuation is ungoverned, admissibility-controlled, or structurally prohibited. This paper specifies a routing matrix for consequence resolution after admissibility failure, grounded in a six-state continuation taxonomy (pass, contain, refuse, suspend, escalate, require re-attestation) with HARD_STOP as a terminal veto, keyed by a base matrix of failure kind against consequence grade, and modified by authority state, reversibility, escalation availability, and policy reference. The specification is drawn from the Aurora-Lens runtime epistemic governance architecture, where the base matrix and modifier pipeline are implemented and tested. Two extension points — absent ownership as a canonical failure kind, and compound staleness composition rules — are named as open and given intended design direction without overclaiming implementation status.