# External Review Status

Last updated: 2026-07-10

This ledger records review history and the author's current publication policy.
It is not evidence and does not change a support state.

## Current policy

Corben Sorenson has decided that **no external-human review, outreach, or reader approval is a prepublication gate**. The book will be completed through
the author-controlled source, evidence, proof, validation, render, and release
process. Other people may read or critique the work after the author declares
it complete; any later finding can reopen the affected living-book artifact.

The three specialist packets remain preserved for optional post-publication
use:

- `docs/reviews/formal_methods_review_packet.md`;
- `docs/reviews/safety_governance_review_packet.md`; and
- `docs/reviews/systems_editorial_review_packet.md`.

Their reviewer-capacity roles are `deferred_postpublication` in
`governance/reviewer_capacity_registry.json`. Packet existence does not create
reviewer competence, availability, independence, review quality, evidence, or
approval.

The machine policy is `governance/external_review_program.json`; capacity is
`governance/reviewer_capacity_registry.json`; structured record validation is
`scripts/validate_external_review_intake.py`.

## Historical request state

Before this policy decision, the repository opened a generic public request at
<https://github.com/corbensorenson/asi-stack-book/issues/1>, followed by the
supplemental consolidation request at
<https://github.com/corbensorenson/asi-stack-book/issues/1#issuecomment-4835627101>
and the full consolidation queue request at
<https://github.com/corbensorenson/asi-stack-book/issues/1#issuecomment-4837313658>.
No independent external review was accepted.

The historical request updates are
`external_reviews/request_updates/consolidation_review_request_2026-06-29.json`
and
`external_reviews/request_updates/full_consolidation_review_request_2026-06-29.json`.

`external_reviews/blockers/no_named_external_reviewer_2026-07-01.json`
truthfully records the earlier state: there was no named independent reviewer response or approved direct outreach target. It remains historical rather than
being rewritten. The author-only completion policy supersedes that blocker as
a release gate; it does not transform the blocker into a review result.

The public issue was closed as `not_planned` on 2026-07-10, superseded by the
no-prepublication-outreach decision. Its URLs and structured request-update
records remain lineage evidence only.

## AI-assisted critique intake

A user-supplied browser-assisted ChatGPT review was audited on 2026-07-10 and
routed to `docs/external_ai_review_remediation_program.md`. It is machine-
assisted review input, not an accepted independent human review, source
evidence, proof, or support-state transition.

## Routing for any later post-publication review

If the author elects to ingest a post-publication review, record:

- reviewer capacity or anonymized expertise;
- reviewed artifacts and date;
- independence, conflicts, attribution, and publication boundary;
- findings and severity;
- counterexample, objection, or adequacy argument;
- recommended disposition; and
- exact claim, evidence, proof, chapter, source, or release artifact reopened.

Review input remains separate from evidence. It may create a task, blocker,
demotion, narrowing, or explicit rejection, but cannot by itself promote a claim or approve a release.

## Non-claims

- The repository records that no independent external review has been accepted yet.
- No external-human review is required for prepublication completion.
- The author-only policy does not create independent review, external evidence,
  legal review, proof adequacy, reader approval, or support-state movement.
- All chapter-core claims remain at their separately recorded support states.