[IanFrelinger]

Summary

Adds the Learning Harness design document and integrates it into the long-term roadmap as milestone M7 (post-M6). This is a docs-only PR that sketches the architecture for autonomous experience-driven improvement without implementing any production code or weakening existing certification requirements.

Changes

• New: docs/LearningHarness.md — comprehensive design sketch covering:

  • Core principle: "Agents can learn freely. They cannot trust their own learning freely."
  • Four-loop harness architecture (Experience Record → Reflect → Propose → Gates → Promote/Quarantine)
  • Learning ladder: 9 rungs ordered by blast radius (episodic memory → trust-kernel changes)
  • ILearningHarness port interface with AgentExperience and LearnedRule schemas
  • Replay validation as promotion gate for strategies
  • Fleet learning (federated, distributed trust model)
  • Commercial positioning HOLD until dogfood scorecard unlock

• Updated: docs/audits/2026-09-completion-roadmap.md

  • New M7 section: Learning Harness (Long-term)
  • 6 work streams with exit criteria (experience store, reflector, replay gate, promotion orchestrator, ladder enforcer, unification)
  • Dependencies: M1–M6 complete + dogfood continuous proof operational
  • Autonomy marketing HOLD: no "autonomous learning in production" claims until thresholds met
  • Executive Summary updated to note M7 as post-M6 long-term feature

• Updated: docs/DocsIndex.md

  • Added link to LearningHarness.md under "Trust loop / certification" section
  • Clearly marked as long-term design (roadmap, not live claim)

Testing

N/A — documentation only, no code changes.

Testing strategy (blast radius)

N/A — docs-only PR.

• make kernel-coverage-gate (if touching src/Ashlar.Core.* or src/Ashlar.Infrastructure)
• make kernel-gate (if touching kernel hosting / pipeline / profiles)
• make test-prod-style (if touching production DI / API / routing)

Checklist

• make test passes locally (docs-only, no code to test)
• Documentation updated (entire PR is documentation)
• No TODO or NotImplementedException left unresolved (none added)
• Breaking changes are documented (no breaking changes — docs only)

Release (only when this PR ships a versioned NuGet/GHCR release)

• Not a versioned release — skip
• Preflight: dotnet run --project application/src/Ashlar.CLI -- release preflight <semver> (or make release-preflight VERSION=<semver>)
• Track: open a Release checklist issue (GitHub → New issue → Release checklist form) or link an existing release issue
• After merge: tag v<semver> and push (runs release.yml) — see docs/RELEASE_RUNBOOK.md

Design Constraints Met

• ✅ Docs only — no production code
• ✅ No cert-gate weakening — design explicitly relies on existing gates (M1–M6 dependencies)
• ✅ No autonomy marketing unlock — HOLD until dogfood scorecard met
• ✅ Clear roadmap positioning — M7 is post-M6, long-term feature