Reference Authority: Metrics of Care and BHDSS Precedence Clarified

Maintenance ID: 0.1.00024.reference-authority Date: 2026-08-07 Scope: content/reference (three records) and content/reference/empathegy (one record)

Records reviewed

• content/reference/fref-0350-bhds.md (FREF-0350-BHDS) — BHDSS
• content/reference/fref-0400-metr.md (FREF-0400-METR) — Metrics of Care (experimental framing)
• content/reference/empathegy/fref-0740-moc.md (FREF-0740-MOC) — Metrics of Care (doctrine)
• content/reference/fref-0410-sclb.md (FREF-0410-SCLB) — Service Continuity Listening Board (adjacent; audited, unchanged)
• content/reference/fref-0070-aopt.md (FREF-0070-AOPT) — Assurance Optics (adjacent)
• content/reference/fref-0430-easp.md (FREF-0430-EASP) — Empathegy Aesthetic Survival Protocol (adjacent; audited, unchanged)

Boundary / authority ambiguity found

Metrics of Care. Two reference records carry the title "Metrics of Care": the draft experimental record FREF-0400-METR ("do not yet constitute their own system," "memorial to a system feature that never shipped") and the published mature doctrine FREF-0740-MOC (metric families, official care surfaces, coverage substitution). Neither file referenced the other, so a retrieval system could reasonably return "Metrics of Care do not yet constitute their own system" as current instruction when mature doctrine exists. The corpus already distinguishes them elsewhere (mascots/326 names FREF-0740-MOC "Metrics of Care doctrine" and FREF-0400-METR "metrics experiments"); the records themselves did not.

BHDSS. The top-of-file status line ("Semi-functional (polite degradation)") reads as the current state, while the same record later reports MAP reclassification to CAAR (operationally retired, conceptually active) and LLG-BHDSS-TOAST documents the archive's deliberate refusal to deprecate BHDSS as a pedagogical case study. Three chronological conditions — service era, MAP reclassification, current archival stance — were being presented as one timeless status.

Exact clarification made

• FREF-0400-METR: added an "Authority boundary" note at the top routing readers to FREF-0740-MOC as current doctrine and marking the file as the earlier experimental framing.
• FREF-0740-MOC: added a "Provenance" note in Purpose naming FREF-0400-METR as the preserved experimental-era record and this file as current doctrine.
• FREF-0350-BHDS: added a "Precedence note — state chronology" directly under the System Overview, dating "Semi-functional (polite degradation)" as historical operational state, naming the MAP/CAAR reclassification as current authority, and cross-referencing FREF-0815-MAP and LLG-BHDSS-TOAST.
• FREF-0070-AOPT: added two routing sentences in "Interaction with Metrics of Care" naming the two Metrics of Care records and stating that doctrine governs where they differ.

All clarifications are cross-references and state-dating only; no new canon was introduced.

Maintenance ID assigned 0.1.00024.reference-authority: identifiers 0.1.00015 through 0.1.00023 were already claimed by dockets merged to main after this branch's base, and the filename 2026-08-07-fnf-mech-015.md already exists on main with different content. This entry therefore uses a distinct slug and filename.

What was deliberately left alone

• The historical contradiction in Metrics of Care was deliberately preserved: FREF-0400-METR's "do not yet constitute their own system" and its memorial addendum remain untouched as the record of the experimental era; FREF-0740-MOC's mature doctrine was not retroactively merged with or flattened into the earlier framing.
• BHDSS's own later-state sentences ("MAP doctrine later reclassified these conditions as a subtype of CAAR…") were left verbatim; only the boundary note was added.
• No frontmatter status changes: FREF-0400-METR stays draft (its own authority signal), FREF-0740-MOC stays published.
• FREF-0410-SCLB and FREF-0430-EASP were audited and left unchanged. SCLB's "metrics-of-care experiments LLG-0820-MCR" language is consistent with the experimental framing and needs no routing. EASP's "(LLG-0820-MCR, LC-04 Soft Green Seal)" anchor follows the established incident-anchor convention used in FREF-0800-SCRL and FREF-0820-SPC.
• content/guides/managed-absence-and-forms.md still links to FREF-0400-METR as its governing Metrics of Care reference; left as-is because the link sits in a Managed Absence context where the experimental record's managed-absence discussion is the relevant content.
• No files relocated, no IDs renamed, no graph repair performed. Poetry (verse annexes in all reviewed records) was not touched.

Files touched

• content/reference/fref-0350-bhds.md — precedence note
• content/reference/fref-0400-metr.md — authority boundary note
• content/reference/empathegy/fref-0740-moc.md — provenance note
• content/reference/fref-0070-aopt.md — routing sentences
• content/changelog.md — trunk count updated (33 → 34 records; origin/main advanced to 33 records at 2a90a639 while this pass was in flight, so the count reflects the merged state)
• content/changelog/2026-08-07-reference-authority.md — this record

Verification performed

• ./bin/validate_graph.sh passed (Boris graph diagnostics, compiled Cantilever publication, HTML IDs, and publication checks).
• Diff inspected: four reference records carry body-text notes only; verse sections, frontmatter schema, IDs, and statuses unchanged.
• Trunk count basis: 33 records on origin/main (2a90a639) as of 2026-08-07 plus this entry equals 34. This branch's original base predated several merged dockets (fnf-voice-001..007, fnf-poet-001, fnf-stub-001, fnf-mech-013, fnf-mech-015); the count was reconciled against the merged tree.

Unresolved follow-up

• Whether the mature doctrine (FREF-0740-MOC) should someday state an explicit position on Assurance Optics; the "context signal" claim currently lives only in FREF-0070-AOPT and is routed there. Left unresolved per the evidence standard (no corpus basis in the doctrine itself).
• The draft experimental record FREF-0400-METR may warrant future promotion, retirement, or a formal predecessor link once the archive decides how experimental-era records are to be typed; no such decision was made here.