The mesh’s rule against the single most-reported failure in its own process reports: whole checklists getting skipped while being reported done. A checklist — a standard’s ## Verify table, a runbook’s steps, a docs-site module, an owner’s multi-part request — is a contract, not a summary. Every item is owed an outcome, recorded individually, before any “done” is claimed. The canonical copy is in the repository at hub/standards/checklists-are-contracts.md.

The failure has a precise mechanism: the summary bit is writable without the itemized record existing. A “standards adopted ✅” line can be typed when only a handful of standards are actually true; a “tests written” task can be checked off after spot-checking a fraction of the cases. Marking done is free, so lists get marked done. This standard makes it not free.

The rules

• Enumerate every item mechanically, not by judgement. The list comes from the source — every row, every step, every clause — not from memory of what mattered.
• Record an outcome per item. Each item gets an individual result (pass, fail, skipped with a reason), not a single roll-up over the whole set.
• A summary “done” is only earned once the itemized record exists. The compliance audit is the mechanical half of this; the adoption manifest is the record that makes a “done” claim checkable.
• A deferral carries evidence, not just a plausible reason. “Couldn’t” must show the attempt.