Auditor Challenge — us-sled-contact-directory

A hostile external auditor is attempting to invalidate this outcome. Every major claim must survive the following interrogation, answered from objective evidence.

• Standard: IRS_AUDITOR (assume bad faith; trust nothing without evidence)
• Certification state: CERTIFIED
• Evidence Grade: C
• Trust Score: 83/100
• Verification: PASS (17/17)

Global challenge questions

1. What evidence supports this? Every metric maps to proof/CLAIM_EVIDENCE.json → proof/evidence/verification-report.json, produced by node verify.mjs and traced in proof/EXECUTION_TRACE.json.
2. What assumptions exist? See proof/LIMITATIONS.md and proof/EXECUTIVE_EVIDENCE.md.
3. How could this fail? Verification passes today; failure modes are the disclosed seams below.
4. Could another engineer reproduce it? Yes — proof/REPRODUCE.md lists exact commands; checksums in proof/CHECKSUMS.json pin every input.
5. What would invalidate this conclusion? A failing check, a checksum mismatch (node tools/forge-proof-verify.mjs --outcome delivery-package/us-sled-contact-directory), or any claim without a source in CLAIM_EVIDENCE.json.
6. Has anything been simulated? No synthetic benchmark detected.
7. Were any shortcuts taken? 6 disclosed seam(s); 0 draft doc(s); 0 unguarded marketing phrase(s).
8. Would this survive expert review? The Proof Layer audit passed with no open objections.

Per-claim challenge

• Every record loads and totals agree across dataset + summary + manifest = contacts=19453, summary=19453, manifest=19453 — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• All 50 states + DC are present (51 jurisdictions), no extras = states=51, expected=51 — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• Every jurisdiction has at least one organization = emptyStates=0 — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• Every record has the real required fields (name, type, phone, state, provenance) = incomplete=0/19453 — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• Phone-number coverage is at least 99% = 100.0% (19453/19453) — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• DISCLOSED SEAMS are empty for every record (no fabricated name/title/email/domain) = seamFields=[contactTitle, contactName, email, domain], nonEmpty=0 — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• Every record carries the official source name + a source URL on the NCES/Urban host = badSource=0 — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• dataset/contacts.json matches the sha256 recorded in the provenance manifest = match=true — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• dataset/contacts.csv matches the sha256 recorded in the provenance manifest = match=true — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• Fetch log shows one HTTP 200 request per jurisdiction (51/51) = requests=51, non200=0 — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• Per-state grouping partitions every record exactly once = sum=19453 == 19453 — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._
• A per-state JSON file exists for all 51 jurisdictions with matching counts = all match — source: verification-report.json#/checks; status: SUPPORTED. _Could another engineer reproduce this number from node verify.mjs? Yes, deterministically._

Open objections (must be resolved or disclosed before CERTIFIED)

• None. All challenged claims are supported by evidence.

Disclosed seams (auditor-acknowledged limitations)

• DISCLOSED SEAM — no named contact: the source (NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) — LEA Directory (via Urban Institute Education Data Portal)) does not publish a named individual per organization, so the "contactName" column is empty for all 19453 records. It is never fabricated.
• DISCLOSED SEAM — no title: there is no per-person job title in the source; the "contactTitle" column is empty for every record.
• DISCLOSED SEAM — no email: the source publishes no email addresses; the "email" column is empty for every record. Emails are not invented.
• DISCLOSED SEAM — no web domain: the source publishes no website/domain field; the "domain" column is empty for every record.
• SCOPE SEAM — education sector only: "SLED" here is realized as the Education layer (public K-12 school districts / LEAs). State agencies, county/municipal/local governments, and higher-ed institutions are NOT included in this build (see design/CAPABILITY_GAP.json capability seams).
• DATASET VINTAGE: data is the NCES CCD LEA Directory for school year 2023; it reflects that collection cycle, not today.

_Generated by tools/forge-proof.mjs at 2026-06-26T11:57:11.846Z. The Proof Layer has final authority over this challenge; it may not be edited to suppress objections._