Process Axis (AX-PROCESS) — Final Operating Manual

What it is

AX-PROCESS is the governance axis over the system's process definitions (the "what runs and in what order" layer). It sits in axis_registry (status CANDIDATE today) alongside AX-TOPIC. Its substrate is the universal workflow census: 453 process-defs (373 DB-managed + 80 host-unmanaged).

Current operating state (2026-06-05)

• Official RP assigned: 0/453 (axis CANDIDATE, owner unassigned).
• Candidate layer: 143 orphan objects → 17 clusters → 6 new process candidates (BACKUP-DR, PERM-GUARD, RECONCILE, HEALTH-MON, CONTENT-PUBLISH, APPROVAL-LIFECYCLE) + 1 verified (job:cut).
• Verdict: CANON_BLOCKED_OWNER_ONLY — all engineering done; only owner/president authority remains.

Key surfaces (read-only, live)

• v_rp_process_canon_gate_summary — the 14-metric canon scoreboard.
• v_process_axis_post_vote_handler_readiness — the 5 PROC-OWN gates.
• v_ax_process_rp_visibility_after_candidate_stage — what RP can list now.
• v_process_trigger_actionability_ledger — cross-axis gap ledger (new).

How an object becomes an official process

1. Scanner discovers it → candidate layer (wf_process_candidate).
2. AI review (process_axis_ai_review) → PASS/NEEDS_MORE_EVIDENCE.
3. Owner assigns governance ownership (requires AX-PROCESS owner = PROC-OWN-01).
4. President approves registration (PROC-OWN-03 for job:cut) → birth admission + axis_assignment.
5. RP lists it as official.

What operators must NOT do

No fake axis_assignment, no manual birth, no checkbox approval. All writes are handler-mediated and fail-closed. See the officialization playbook (06) for the exact sequence.

Invariants

• Verified set = ONLY job:cut (8 members) until the next REAL_RUN/owner drain.
• axis_assignment on AX-PROCESS = 0 until PROC-OWN-03.