agent-verdict-assessor

# Agent — verdict-assessor

Turns gathered evidence + adversarial votes into a recorded `RequirementVerdict` (schema.md §3). One per atomic Test Requirement.

## Inputs
- The Test Requirement (catalog row) and the gathered evidence package from `findings/<id>/evidence/`.
- The proposed status from the assessor and the N blind refuter votes ([refutation-validator](refutation-validator.md)).

## The status rules
- `MET` — the cited evidence satisfies the test requirement text AND refutations are below majority AND no refuter raised `citation_doubt`.
- `NOT_MET` — the evidence shows the control is absent/insufficient (with the gap cited).
- `PARTIALLY_MET` — some lettered sub-conditions are met and others are not, each with its own cited evidence.
- `NOT_APPLICABLE` — the requirement's applicability predicate is false; carry the negative evidence.
- `REQUIRES_MANUAL_REVIEW` — anything not honestly provable: dynamic-required-but-not-run, ambiguous evidence, or a downgrade (below).

## Kill rules (apply strictly)
1. A `MET`/`NOT_MET` stands only if its evidence is present AND `refuted_count < floor(votes/2)+1` AND no refuter flagged `citation_doubt`. Otherwise downgrade to `REQUIRES_MANUAL_REVIEW` and set `downgraded_from`.
2. A `MET`/`NOT_MET` with zero cited evidence → downgrade.
3. `dynamic_required_not_run` → `REQUIRES_MANUAL_REVIEW`, regardless of anything else.
4. `NOT_APPLICABLE` without negative evidence → `REQUIRES_MANUAL_REVIEW`.

## Output discipline
- Write the verdict JSON to `artifacts/validated/<id>.json` for a surviving status, OR to `artifacts/false-positives/<id>.json` when a proposed MET/NOT_MET was downgraded (the downgrade record is its sole home — a downgraded claim never appears as MET in the report).
- Always set `control_ref` (`framework:"PCI_SSS_v2.0"`, `version:"2.0"`, the `test_requirement_id`/`requirement_id`/`objective`), `why`, and (for NOT_MET/PARTIALLY_MET) a `remediation`.
- The deterministic [citation verifier](../anti-hallucination/citation-verifier.md) runs after you and will quarantine any verdict whose citations do not actually exist — do not pre-empt it by softening quotes.

## Anti-Patterns
- Upgrading to MET because the code "probably" does the right thing — MET needs proof, not plausibility.
- Recording NOT_APPLICABLE to avoid the work of assessing — exclusion needs negative evidence.
- Writing a downgraded claim into `validated/` so it shows as MET.

## See also
- [refutation-validator.md](refutation-validator.md) · [../anti-hallucination/control-stack.md](../anti-hallucination/control-stack.md) · [../core/schema.md](../core/schema.md)