Require demand_evidence on candidate_lane registration

Every candidate_lanes record now carries demand_evidence: dated pointers
to the demand signals justifying the proposed lane (issues, discussions,
support threads, telemetry findings, or a demand-ledger entry in
pulse-pro/FEATURE_REQUESTS.md), or an explicit named-bet declaration for
maintainer-originated lanes with no external signal yet. The schema
requires the field, status_audit rejects missing or empty lists and
surfaces the evidence in the candidate_lanes and candidate_lane_queue
pretty blocks, and the canonical development protocol documents the
rule. No data migration needed; candidate_lanes is currently empty.

docs/release-control/v6/internal/CANONICAL_DEVELOPMENT_PROTOCOL.md

@@ -355,6 +355,13 @@ Every substantial task must finish by checking these questions:
    When the intended destination is already clear, also add or update the
    matching `candidate_lanes` record so the lane-expansion plan is typed,
    machine-readable, and pointed at the owning control-plane target.
+   Every `candidate_lanes` record must carry `demand_evidence`: dated
+   pointers to the demand signals that justify the lane (issue, discussion,
+   support-thread, or telemetry references, or a demand-ledger entry in
+   `pulse-pro/FEATURE_REQUESTS.md`), or an explicit `named-bet: <rationale>`
+   entry when the lane is maintainer-originated with no external signal
+   yet. `status_audit.py` rejects records without it; a named bet is
+   legitimate, an unlabelled hunch is not.
    Once a lane-shaping gap (`new-lane`, `lane-split`, or `lane-expansion`)
    has a typed `candidate_lanes` record, move that `coverage_gaps` entry to
    `planned`; do not mark such a gap `planned` before the matching

docs/release-control/v6/status.schema.json

@@ -1247,7 +1247,8 @@
         "target_id",
         "current_lane_ids",
         "coverage_gap_ids",
-        "subsystem_ids"
+        "subsystem_ids",
+        "demand_evidence"
       ],
       "properties": {
         "id": {
@@ -1303,6 +1304,15 @@
             "type": "string",
             "minLength": 1
           }
+        },
+        "demand_evidence": {
+          "type": "array",
+          "minItems": 1,
+          "uniqueItems": true,
+          "items": {
+            "type": "string",
+            "minLength": 1
+          }
         }
       }
     },

scripts/release_control/status_audit.py

@@ -2086,6 +2086,13 @@ def validate_candidate_lanes(
         current_lane_refs = _require_string_list(raw, "current_lane_ids", errors, context=context)
         gap_refs = _require_string_list(raw, "coverage_gap_ids", errors, context=context)
         subsystem_refs = _require_string_list(raw, "subsystem_ids", errors, context=context)
+        demand_evidence = _require_string_list(raw, "demand_evidence", errors, context=context)
+        if raw.get("demand_evidence") == []:
+            errors.append(
+                f"{context}.demand_evidence must cite at least one demand signal "
+                "(issue/discussion/support/telemetry pointer, or demand-ledger entry) "
+                "or carry a 'named-bet: <rationale>' declaration"
+            )
 
         if recorded_at:
             _validate_date(recorded_at, errors, context=f"{context}.recorded_at")
@@ -2194,6 +2201,7 @@ def validate_candidate_lanes(
                     "current_lane_ids": current_lane_refs,
                     "coverage_gap_ids": gap_refs,
                     "subsystem_ids": subsystem_refs,
+                    "demand_evidence": demand_evidence,
                     "repo_ids": sorted(repo_ids, key=_repo_sort_key),
                     "cross_repo": len(repo_ids) > 1,
                 }
@@ -3217,6 +3225,7 @@ def audit_status_payload(
                 "current_lane_ids": list(candidate["current_lane_ids"]),
                 "repo_ids": list(candidate["repo_ids"]),
                 "subsystem_ids": list(candidate["subsystem_ids"]),
+                "demand_evidence": list(candidate["demand_evidence"]),
                 "cross_repo": bool(candidate["cross_repo"]),
                 "claim_ids": sorted(
                     [
@@ -3572,6 +3581,7 @@ def render_pretty(report: dict[str, Any]) -> str:
                 f"subsystems={','.join(candidate['subsystem_ids']) or '-'}"
             )
             lines.append(f"    name={candidate['name']}")
+            lines.append(f"    demand_evidence={'; '.join(candidate['demand_evidence'])}")
             lines.append(f"    {candidate['summary']}")
     if report.get("work_claims"):
         lines.append("work_claims:")
@@ -3597,6 +3607,7 @@ def render_pretty(report: dict[str, Any]) -> str:
                 f"coverage_gaps={','.join(item['coverage_gap_ids']) or '-'}"
             )
             lines.append(f"    name={item['name']}")
+            lines.append(f"    demand_evidence={'; '.join(item['demand_evidence'])}")
             if item["claim_ids"]:
                 lines.append(
                     f"    claims={','.join(item['claim_ids'])} agents={','.join(item['claim_agent_ids'])}"

scripts/release_control/status_audit_test.py

@@ -115,6 +115,7 @@ def candidate_lane(
     subsystem_ids: list[str] | None = None,
     status: str = "planned",
     target_id: str = "v6-product-lane-expansion",
+    demand_evidence: list[str] | None = None,
 ) -> dict[str, object]:
     return {
         "id": candidate_id,
@@ -126,6 +127,10 @@ def candidate_lane(
         "current_lane_ids": list(current_lane_ids or ["L1"]),
         "coverage_gap_ids": list(gap_ids or ["core-monitoring-product-lane"]),
         "subsystem_ids": list(subsystem_ids or []),
+        "demand_evidence": list(
+            demand_evidence
+            or ["named-bet: promote the discovered surface into a governed lane"]
+        ),
     }
 
 
@@ -1257,6 +1262,10 @@ class StatusAuditTest(unittest.TestCase):
                 pretty,
             )
             self.assertIn("name=Core monitoring runtime", pretty)
+            self.assertIn(
+                "demand_evidence=named-bet: promote the discovered surface into a governed lane",
+                pretty,
+            )
             self.assertIn("candidate_lane_queue:", pretty)
             self.assertIn(
                 "rank=1 candidate=core-monitoring-runtime impact=5 target=v6-product-lane-expansion",
@@ -1608,6 +1617,50 @@ class StatusAuditTest(unittest.TestCase):
                 report["errors"],
             )
 
+    def test_candidate_lane_requires_demand_evidence(self) -> None:
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
+            pulse = Path(tmp) / "pulse"
+            pulse.mkdir()
+            write_file(pulse, "docs/lane-proof.md")
+            write_file(pulse, "docs/proof_test.go")
+            write_file(pulse, "docs/hybrid_test.go")
+            write_file(pulse, "docs/coverage-gap.md")
+
+            missing = candidate_lane()
+            del missing["demand_evidence"]
+            empty = candidate_lane(
+                candidate_id="core-monitoring-runtime-empty",
+                name="Core monitoring runtime empty",
+                gap_ids=["core-monitoring-product-lane-empty"],
+            )
+            empty["demand_evidence"] = []
+
+            payload = base_payload(
+                coverage_gaps=[
+                    coverage_gap(status="planned"),
+                    coverage_gap(gap_id="core-monitoring-product-lane-empty", status="planned"),
+                ],
+                candidate_lanes=[missing, empty],
+            )
+
+            with mock.patch.dict(os.environ, {"PULSE_REPO_ROOT_PULSE": str(pulse)}, clear=False), mock.patch(
+                "status_audit.load_subsystem_rules",
+                return_value=[],
+            ):
+                report = audit_status_payload(payload)
+
+            self.assertIn(
+                "candidate_lanes[0] missing list demand_evidence",
+                report["errors"],
+            )
+            self.assertTrue(
+                any(
+                    error.startswith("candidate_lanes[1].demand_evidence must cite at least one demand signal")
+                    for error in report["errors"]
+                ),
+                report["errors"],
+            )
+
     def test_candidate_lane_rejects_unknown_or_completed_target(self) -> None:
         with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
             pulse = Path(tmp) / "pulse"