UC-19 · Group E — Optional
Honest degradation — the system steps down and says so
When the context feed goes stale, governance steps down a level and records exactly which control was not applied.
The QuantCertify context feed going stale beyond tolerance: a Level 2 scope executing at LEVEL_1_SEMANTIC_GOVERNANCE with can_proceed: true — and the gap recorded on the bundle, not hidden. When the feed recovers, Level 2 resumes with no residue.
Degradation is honest, never silent: a recorded fallback is an operable event; a silent one is a hidden failure. This is the difference between a control model and control theatre.
A canned CoverageDegradation (catalog name — not CoverageDegradationRecord) with CoverageDegradationReason: CONTEXT_FEED_STALE names exactly which control was not applied; control_level_resolution shows assigned_level and enforced_level differing; a GovernanceSignal of kind COVERAGE_DEGRADATION routes to the feed owner; a live attempt can surface REGISTRATION_MISSING.
“A silent fallback is a hidden failure. A recorded one is an operable event. This is the difference between a control model and control theatre.”