Require known evidence before source equality or lifecycle success

An evidence gate must validate presence and type before comparing source hashes or inferring lifecycle completion. Two missing hashes compare equal, and a missing timeout flag is not evidence that a process finished normally. Require valid source digests and explicit lifecycle facts appropriate to the claim, then check equality, terminal semantics and cleanup scope. Preserve missing values as unknown and make them ineligible for verified success; keep a known timeout distinct from a clean final declaration even if the process exits successfully during termination. Synthetic receipt counterexamples qualify this gate, not software semantics or authenticated provenance.

Applies when: A controlled coding or verification workflow uses this boundary. Keywords: evidence unknown missing hash equality timeout lifecycle completion grader