03 — A3 · Owner / Quorum Proof (separate from capability)

Result: FAIL — owner/high-risk quorum NOT available. This is the BINDING HOLD. C1_W7_PREAPPLY_HOLD_OWNER_QUORUM_NOT_AVAILABLE

The requirement (high-risk action)

authorize_build_step has risk_level = high. Its governed approval requires a multi-party quorum: 1 human president + 2 ai_council approvals (per runbook; corroborated by the live approver-type vocabulary below).

Live evidence (governed RO query_pg, db=directus)

Check	Value	Meaning
approval_requests WHERE proposed_action_code='authorize_build_step'	0	No approval request has ever been raised for the W7 action
apr_approvals total (all actions)	42	The quorum mechanism exists and is exercised for other actions
apr_approvals distinct approver_type	ai_council, human	Confirms the two-party model (human president + ai_council)
apr_approvals JOIN approval_requests WHERE action=authorize_build_step	0	Zero approvals exist for the W7 action

Why the agent cannot satisfy this gate

1. Human president approval — does not exist for this action, and the agent cannot manufacture one (the agent is not a human president; fabricating a human approval row would be a governance bypass).
2. 2× ai_council approvals — do not exist, and a single agent cannot self-certify as a 2-member ai_council quorum (single AI ≠ multi-party council; self-quorum = bypass).
3. No approval_request to attach to — appr_abs = 0, so there is no governed proposal for authorize_build_step against which approvals could even be recorded.

Capability ≠ authority (explicit separation)

The T2 SHELL preflight proved capability (real SSH to vmi3080463, /opt/incomex/dot/bin readable, DOT/APR tools invocable, SYNC_SECRET present in /opt/incomex/docker/.env line 41 — value masked/never read, GCP project ownership). None of these is quorum. Per macro: "Root SSH and SYNC_SECRET prove capability only. They do not replace owner/high-risk quorum." No SYNC_SECRET value was printed or accessed. No explicit president authorization for a W7-only apply exists in this run (a macro instruction to RUN is not a governed president vote inside the system).

A3 gate: FAIL (binding). Owner must marshal the 1-president + 2-ai_council quorum out-of-band before any apply.