The selection criteria are a declared, recorded discipline — a candidate is characterised and selected against criteria the record states, never criteria supplied at invocation

The rule

Selection at the gate weighs candidates against the criteria this record declares, and only these. The comparative reading characterises each candidate against each declared criterion; combining characterisations into a choice is the maintainer's act, on grounds recorded at conjecture granularity.

Declared criteria (committed 2026-08-28, maintainer; amendable only by ordinary discipline amendment, which is itself a recorded change):

• Plausibility — the conjecture could work by a mechanism we can state.
• Generativity — pursuing it opens further conjectures and questions rather than closing them.
• Cost — what building and carrying it consumes, stated before selection.
• Risk — what failing looks like, and what it would take down with it.
• Learning value — what is learned even if the conjecture fails.
• Practical importance — whether anyone's real work changes if it succeeds.

The gate

• Given a comparative reading invocation, when its object is assembled, then the criteria come from this record and no criterion arrives at invocation.
• Given a selection recorded at the gate, when its grounds are read, then they speak to the declared criteria (or record why a criterion was set aside — a visible re-decision, never a silent one).

Fit

The discipline family is the nearest existing home rather than an exact fit — these criteria govern selection rather than delivery — and this record says so deliberately, in preference to minting a record family for one record.

Staging

Lands with the record-side filings; consumed by the comparative reading's definition. Amending the slate is an ordinary discipline amendment — a recorded change, challengeable by any subsequent reading.