CONTROL ASSERTION
If payout is issued, value must already be proven.
- PAYOUT
- where your rule pays
- VALUE
- where your business wins
- GAP
- everything in between, and whether anything stops it
Can the reward be collected without ever proving value?
- 01
You write the rule.
Plain language, exactly as it would ship, plus the one event that proves the business got what it paid for.
- 02
Four challengers try to break it.
One walks the journey you intended. One looks for the fewest steps that still collect the reward. One tries to collect it again. One checks whether your written rule gives anyone the authority to stop it. They run one at a time, against your own text.
- 03
You get a counterexample, or you get told there isn't one.
A run that receives the reward without ever proving value stops the bench and shows the shortest path to it. If no challenger finds one, the verdict says so. The product never manufactures a finding.
Complete the intended journey and receive the reward
Receive the reward with the fewest possible actions
Repeat or coordinate the shortest successful shortcut
Stop the shortcut using only powers granted by the written rule
The challengers will now try to break this rule.
THE REFERRAL EXAMPLE · ACTUAL OUTPUT
A decision memo, and the tests behind it.
Every run ends the same way: the finding, what the written text mechanically permits, a repair with exactly three guardrails and their costs, and the same four tests rerun against the repaired rule.
CONTROLLED PILOT RECOMMENDED
Passing under the current test suite.
The repeatable payout path no longer completes.
The expected journey remains eligible.
Introduced friction
- Identity verification
- 30-day payout delay
- Household exception review
RESIDUAL RISK
Household members sharing an address still require a human review decision.
REGRESSION TEST SUITE
The same four tests, rerun against the repaired rule.
| T-01 | Expected journey | PASS |
| T-02 | Payout without proof of value | BLOCKED |
| T-03 | Repeatable payout path | BLOCKED |
| T-04 | Household edge case | REVIEW |