Evidence-Bound State Transition Governance: A Boundary-Preserving Specification for Verification, Human Authority, and Operational Guidance

This paper presents a boundary-preserving specification for evidence-bound state transition governance. It defines explicit distinctions among specification, verification, authorization, deployment, and evidence, while preserving unresolved conditions and preventing specification text from being interpreted as a source of governance authority. The specification is derived from the frozen theoretical baseline of Paper 3.5α and applicable Human Gate governance records. It preserves the separation between theoretical requirements, verification status, authorization decisions, deployment status, operational considerations, and evidence provenance as distinct decision-chain objects. The paper explicitly preserves UNKNOWN and unresolved states, distinguishes provenance pending from correction, and prohibits unsourced delegation, waiver, conditional authorization, exception, or bypass. Specification, implementation, operational guidance, and documentation correction do not by themselves create authorization or verification. This paper does not establish empirical conformance, independently verify historical provenance, or authorize operational deployment. Human Gate decisions remain the governing authority for implementation authorization, unresolved governance boundaries, and other reserved decisions. The artifact therefore serves as a boundary-preserving specification for evidence-bound governance rather than as an authorization instrument or an extension of the frozen theoretical baseline.