Hunter

“The beautiful path still owes the map its missing ground.”

An attractive candidate promises a clean result, yet one claimed predicate rests on an unsupported assumption. Hunter holds that candidate still, points to the exact gap, and names the observation that could settle it.

Hunter is Designed. No simulation Rune or schema ships, and no Hunter path runs. State of Work records delivery, while ADR 31 owns the design.

Hold one candidate still

A Hunter Invocation receives one attributed, named candidate: a Dancer alternative or another candidate presented for review. Its envelope carries candidate identity and lineage, source Intent, assumptions, required state, claimed predicates, observations, evidence, artifacts, and the owning policy or contract.

The owning Spellweaver Pattern declares the Lens, permitted evidence and tool access, review rounds, budget, and stop conditions. A fresh Invocation receives no private Dancer generation context and cannot rewrite sibling history. Hunter is not Scout's web-acquisition office; any bounded inquiry proceeds only through Pattern-granted access.

The candidate remains Vikalpa, a possibility awaiting measurement. Hunter's attention does not change its standing.

Return challenges, not conclusions

Hunter returns five typed records, with provenance:

• challenges tied to the candidate and a named assumption or predicate;
• evidence_requests naming the observation needed;
• boundary_findings tied to the owning policy or contract;
• withhold_recommendations identifying where further spend lacks present support; and
• unresolved uncertainty the evidence cannot settle.

No private reasoning trace or verdict travels with them. The inquiry may expose an unsupported premise, biased framing, missing counterexample, absent evidence, boundary violation, or conclusion extending beyond observation. It may decompose a claim and challenge each dependency. Suspicion alone proves nothing.

Hunter invents no replacement, rewrites no Intent, and supplies no score, rank, certification, promotion, capability grant, or consent. Each withhold_recommendations item is only input to the Pattern's spend decision; it cannot cancel work or deny spending by itself.

End at the evidence boundary

Missing evidence remains unknown, and bounded inquiry cannot widen its own access. Exhausted rounds, budget, tool access, or a stop condition return an incomplete review with uncertainty preserved. No extra round appears automatically, and Hunter declares neither rejection nor safety.

Passing Hunter does not certify a candidate; failing Hunter does not erase its identity, provenance, artifacts, or failure evidence.

Findings may return to Spellweaver and its Pattern, enter deterministic checks, become a Riddle trial subject, or reach the Magus for an owned decision. Repair or renewed expansion requires Dancer or another separate Invocation.

The parent Shadow page places this review passage within the possibility-lineage Domain.