— builder drives the loop; the referee adjudicates fidelity in a separate fresh session
INTAKE
EXTRACT
ASSEMBLE
QA_LOOP
STAGING
AUDIT
LIVE
REFINE
Build & audit spec
Paste images or drop files anywhere ↑ — added as references your local agent resolves.
Design flats — siteupdates.com
No siteupdates.com project matched this build (tried the build id, repo, display name and year-stripped variants).
Client axis: the 4 things a client judges on
❌ design: Matches the approved design on every contracted route (referee-adjudicated, staging) no contracted routes (spec.pages): nothing has been matched to the approved design
❌ forms: Every form is real, routes to a real inbox, and was proven on staging dimension 19 (Forms) not green on staging: post /agent/<id>/form-config with the GF + SMTP inventory
❌ content: Zero placeholder copy, em-dashes or dead CTAs on any published route no fresh slipway content scan: run Verify on the build page
❌ signoff: Finish sign-off recorded by the owner (client-axis review done) owner finish sign-off not recorded
, you reviewed staging the way the client will: design incl. photography, forms, every word, finished feel
Evidence comes from the referee (design), dimension 19 + slipway's form scan (forms), slipway's content scan (content): run Verify to refresh scans: and the owner (sign-off). An essential is never deferred.
Action required
🧑 Gate 21 failing: Email deliverabilityowner
🧑 Gate 24 failing: Infrastructureops
🧑 Gate 25 failing: Analyticsowner
🧑 Gate 26 failing: Monitoringops
Gate board — 30 dimensions
not launch-readysystem 21/26project 3/4
Green dimensions are collapsed; anything incomplete is expanded. Launch-ready = all 30 dimensions green, verified on staging (local-only greens don't count), 0 open P0, AND the four client-axis essentials (design match · working forms · real content · owner sign-off): a query, not a call.
system tier · 21/26 green
standards
✓2. Theme infrastructure(12/13)local only — re-verify on stagingbuildout-verify
– House stack conformance: the stack the web team finishes + maintains in — opt in via spec.stack_profile (e.g. d3-house-2026)
✓ CPT body editor support ('editor' in supports)
✓ Nav menus assigned + populated in wp-admin — 6 menu locations assigned (primary/mobile/footer-about/footer-newsroom/footer-getinvolved/footer-resources), wp menu location list on staging container
✓5. Schema / structured data(1/1)local only — re-verify on stagingschema-validate
✓ JSON-LD complete + valid on every route — schema-validate.py vs staging, 13/13 routes PASS with jake-day-schema-contract.yaml (Organization emitted by theme off-production, Person+WebSite+BreadcrumbList universal, metadescs incl term archives via wpseo_taxonomy_meta)
✓8. SEO technical(0/6)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit
○ robots.txt correct
○ XML sitemap valid
○ Canonical tags
○ Redirects (no chains/loops)
○ Mobile-friendly
○ HTTPS enforced
↪ /audit Phase 9 — technical SEO
✓9. SEO on-page(0/6)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P2 1 P3 2
○ Title tags unique + lengthed
○ Meta descriptions
○ Heading structure
○ Image alt for SEO
○ Internal linking
○ E-E-A-T signals
↪ /audit Phase 9 — on-page SEO
✗10. AEO / AIO(0/5)audit · P1 1 P3 1
○ llms.txt present
○ AI-crawler stance (robots)
○ FAQ schema on /faq/
○ Direct-answer formatting
○ Topic clusters / entity coverage
↪ /audit Phase 10 — answer-engine / LLM readiness
✓12. Security posture(0/6)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P3 1
○ TLS valid (not expiring <30d)
○ WP version not exposed
○ Login / brute-force hardened
○ XML-RPC disabled
○ REST user-enum blocked
○ 2FA available
↪ /audit Phase 11 — WP hardening
✓13. Privacy & compliance(0/5)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P2 1
○ Cookie consent (EU)
○ Privacy policy present
○ CCPA notice
○ DSAR process
○ No PII leaks via REST
↪ /audit Phase 12 — GDPR / CCPA
✓14. Mobile / responsive(0/5)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit
○ Viewport meta
○ iOS 16px input (no zoom)
○ Touch targets >= 44px
○ No overflow-x
○ Hamburger nav works
↪ /audit Phase 13 — responsive
✓15. Cross-browser(0/5)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit
○ Chrome
○ Firefox
○ Safari
○ Edge
○ iOS Safari
↪ /audit Phase 13 — cross-browser smoke
✓18. i18n / l10n(0/4)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P3 1
○ Strings translation-ready
○ lang attributes
○ hreflang (if multi-locale)
○ RTL handling (if needed)
↪ /audit Phase 15 — internationalization
✓19. Forms(0/6)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P2 2
○ Gravity Forms configured
○ SMTP sending
○ Honeypot / spam
○ Validation
○ Accessibility
○ Deliverability
↪ /audit Phase 16 — forms
✓22. Code quality(0/6)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P2 2
○ WPCS / PHPCS clean
○ ESLint clean
○ Stylelint clean
○ No console.log
○ No PHP warnings
○ No dead code
↪ /audit Phase 19 — code
✓23. Database(0/5)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit
○ Autoload bloat
○ Post-type hygiene
○ No orphan meta
○ Object cache
○ No slow queries
↪ /audit Phase 20 — database
✓27. Editor experience(0/5)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P2 1
○ Customizer organized
○ Theme Options organized
○ ACF field-group organization
○ Role config
○ Image library tidy
↪ /audit Phase 23 — editor XP
✓28. Documentation(0/4)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit
○ README
○ CHANGELOG
○ Code comments
○ Client editor guide
↪ /audit Phase 24 — docs
✓30. UX states + microinteractions(0/7)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P3 1
○ Focus states
○ Hover states
○ Loading states
○ Empty states
○ Error states
○ Success states
○ prefers-reduced-motion
↪ /audit Phase 26 — UX states
infra
✓11. Security headers(0/6)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P2 4
○ HSTS
○ Content-Security-Policy
○ X-Frame-Options
○ X-Content-Type-Options
○ Referrer-Policy
○ Permissions-Policy
↪ /audit Phase 11 — ingress security headers (set at Traefik/ingress, not theme)
✓20. Media / CDN(0/6)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P2 2
○ S3 offload (AS3CF)
○ CloudFront serving
○ WebP / AVIF
○ Lazy-load
○ Aspect ratios
○ No artifacts
↪ /audit Phase 17 — media pipeline
✗21. Email deliverability(0/4)audit · P1 1
○ SPF
○ DKIM
○ DMARC
○ From-address consistency
↪ /audit Phase 18 — email DNS
✗24. Infrastructure(0/7)audit · P1 1
○ EKS pod healthy
○ EFS mounts
○ DNS at NLB (public + private zones)
○ SSL not expiring <30d
○ CloudFront
○ WAF
○ Backups configured
↪ /audit Phase 21 — EKS platform
✗25. Analytics(0/5)audit · P1 1
○ GA4 installed
○ Search Console verified
○ Tag Manager
○ Conversions tracked
○ Heatmap (if used)
↪ /audit Phase 22 — analytics
✗26. Monitoring(0/4)audit · P1 1
○ StatusCake uptime
○ Grafana dashboards
○ Slack alerts
○ Uptime SLA
↪ /audit Phase 22 — monitoring
✓29. Build / Deploy(0/4)local only — re-verify on stagingaudit · P2 1
○ GitLab CI green
○ Branch strategy (stable/main)
○ Env separation
○ Rollback path
↪ /audit Phase 25 — CI / CD
project tier · 3/4 green
spec
✓1. Editorial workflow(3/3)local only — re-verify on stagingbuildout-verify
✓ Editorial smoke test — wp-admin edit renders on front-end — sentinel JD-EDIT-SMOKE typed into /platform/ via container wp-cli rendered through the_content on staging, then restored
✓ ACF schema parity — every layout has a module template