# Evidentiary Record Standard

- **Artifact ID:** CHQ-D-2026-ERS
- **Version:** v1.0
- **Status:** ACTIVE
- **Public record:** https://record.cybersecurityhq.com/doctrine/chq-d-2026-ers
- **Machine-record SHA-256:** `b95b4eab969160e9c1958ac5b9d36d3c1c608d67cb0f961c965def5fc49f63e2`

## Complete structured record

```json
{
  "id": "CHQ-D-2026-ERS",
  "title": "Evidentiary Record Standard",
  "version": "v1.0",
  "issued": "2026-07-24",
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "doctrine_class": "EVIDENCE_RULE",
  "doctrine_scope": "EVIDENCE",
  "governed_artifacts": [
    "Exhibits",
    "Evidence Dockets"
  ],
  "related_doctrine": [
    "CHQ-D-2026-ESG",
    "CHQ-D-2026-PIG",
    "CHQ-D-2026-SS"
  ],
  "purpose": "This document establishes the lifecycle, mutability, and binding rules governing the two artifact classes that carry CHQ's evidentiary record: Exhibits and Evidence Dockets. The Evidentiary Sufficiency Gate governs whether evidence is sufficient to support a Position. This document governs how that evidence is recorded, bound, and preserved once admitted.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "SCOPE",
      "content": [
        "This standard applies to Exhibits (CHQ-EX series) and Evidence Dockets (CHQ-ED series). It does not govern Positions, Conditions, Assumptions, Memoranda, or Constraints, each of which is governed elsewhere. It does not establish evidentiary sufficiency thresholds, which remain the province of CHQ-D-2026-ESG."
      ],
      "type": "paragraph"
    },
    {
      "heading": "RATIONALE",
      "content": [
        "The evidentiary record is the layer against which every CHQ claim can be checked. Its authority depends on two properties: that recorded evidence does not change after the fact, and that the binding between a claim and its evidence is verifiable. Both properties are structural rather than editorial. A record that can be silently revised is not a record, and a citation to evidence that has since changed is not a citation.",
        "These rules have been in continuous operation since the first Exhibit and Docket issuances. This document states them; it does not alter them."
      ],
      "type": "paragraph"
    },
    {
      "heading": "EXHIBIT RULES",
      "content": [
        "1. Errata only. An Exhibit is amended only to correct factual error. Analysis, interpretation, and structural reading are fixed at issuance.",
        "",
        "2. No supersession. Exhibits are not superseded by later artifacts unless explicitly invalidated for factual error. A later Exhibit documenting related activity does not diminish an earlier one.",
        "",
        "3. Temporal boundedness. Each Exhibit declares a temporal scope. Facts outside that scope do not belong in the Exhibit and are recorded in a separate artifact.",
        "",
        "4. Adjacency statement. Where an Exhibit shares actor lineage, toolkit, or mechanism class with an existing Exhibit, it must state the boundary explicitly: what distinguishes it, and what is recorded as continuity rather than as a new claim. Shared lineage recorded without an adjacency statement risks counting one campaign as several.",
        "",
        "5. Non-judgment. Exhibits carry no present applicability and make no evaluation of any organization, vendor, or security posture. Findings are recorded as reported by named research organizations, not as established fact."
      ],
      "type": "paragraph"
    },
    {
      "heading": "EVIDENCE DOCKET RULES",
      "content": [
        "1. Append until freeze. A Docket accepts additional claim-to-source mappings until its declared evidence freeze timestamp, after which it locks permanently.",
        "",
        "2. Locked is final. A locked Docket accepts no further evidence. New evidence supporting an already-docketed Position requires issuance of a new Docket at the next sequential identifier. Amendment of a locked Docket is prohibited.",
        "",
        "3. Version binding. Each Docket is bound to a specific version of its associated Position. A Docket issued against a Position at v1.0 remains bound to v1.0 and remains valid when the Position advances; it does not follow the Position forward.",
        "",
        "4. Two-layer integrity. Each Docket carries a hash covering both the evidence record (Layer 1, the claim-to-source mapping) and the position text it is bound to (Layer 2). Both layers are computed at issuance.",
        "",
        "5. Independence recorded, not assumed. Each Docket states whether source independence is established. Where it is not established, that fact is recorded explicitly. A Docket resting on a single source states so; absence of an independence claim is not equivalent to independence.",
        "",
        "6. Supplementary dockets. A Docket that extends an existing evidentiary basis rather than establishing one must identify the primary Docket, state that primary mappings are not restated, and state whether the Position's evidence state is altered. A supplementary Docket does not silently modify a Position's canonical evidence basis."
      ],
      "type": "paragraph"
    },
    {
      "heading": "SEQUENCING REQUIREMENT",
      "content": "Where a Position amendment and a supporting Docket issue in the same cycle, the Position amendment is published first and the Docket is issued against the amended version. Issuing a Docket against a Position whose text changes afterward invalidates the Docket's Layer 2 hash.",
      "type": "paragraph"
    },
    {
      "heading": "RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER DOCTRINE",
      "content": [
        "• CHQ-D-2026-ESG governs whether evidence suffices to support a Position. This standard governs how that evidence is recorded and preserved. ESG is a threshold rule; ERS is a lifecycle rule.",
        "• CHQ-D-2026-PIG governs Position issuance. Dockets are bound to Positions issued under PIG and inherit their version identity.",
        "• CHQ-D-2026-SS governs stability status. Docket locking is a distinct mechanism and does not confer or reflect stability status."
      ],
      "type": "paragraph"
    },
    {
      "heading": "ENFORCEMENT",
      "content": "An Exhibit amended beyond errata, or a locked Docket modified after freeze, constitutes a record integrity failure and requires disclosure in the next issued artifact referencing it. Integrity failures are not corrected silently.",
      "type": "paragraph"
    },
    {
      "heading": "GOVERNANCE",
      "content": [
        "This doctrine document is maintained by CHQ editorial governance.",
        "Amendments require version increment and explicit changelog.",
        "This document does not expire. It remains in force until superseded."
      ],
      "type": "paragraph"
    }
  ]
}
```