Governing principle (V5 §0). The assistant may decompose, scan and check for completeness. It may never pass a gate, rule on language, or issue a verdict. Sanctified Judgement (Axis IV) remains a human act — every level below is closed by your attestation, and the trail is printed in the report.
Who is sovereign is the prior question, not a conclusion. Declaring it here stops a method converting its own authority into sovereignty later, unnoticed.
The audit runs against your own statement of the two claims above. Asymmetric language is the commonest way a comparative adjudication is decided before it begins. Rule STRIKE or ADMIT on every flag.
Every cell must be filled for both claims, in parallel form. The verdict stays locked until it is complete — that lock is the Symmetry Rule made mechanical rather than remembered.
| Requirement | Claim A | Claim B |
|---|
Epistemic Posture Audit
Each posture is put to both claims. A posture audit run against one side only is not an audit — it is the verdict arriving early. Scientism, flattening and fideism are rival postures the Sonar weighs against each other. Immanentism is not: it is a rejected category, and a claim carrying it is disposed of, not weighed.
| Posture | Claim A | Claim B |
|---|
Inversion tests
Four ways an argument inverts the epistemic axis while appearing to argue properly. Put each to both claims; a failed test needs a written note.
| Test | Claim A | Claim B |
|---|
No assistance is available at this level, by design. The instrument offers no suggestion, ranking or draft verdict. This is Axis IV.