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+# Newborn assistant validation (the publish gate)
+
+A lightweight-seed assistant (born by the Clone Agent v1 via Build's
+`clone_seed.py`) is created **private** and is not announced or flipped
+public until these legs pass. Heart owns this checklist; the CloneDecision's
+validation plan points here. Run each leg in the newborn's checkout.
+
+1. **Symbol audit** — the copied API gate against the newborn's own domain
+   library: `python autoassistant/audit_skill_apis.py` (generic tooling,
+   copied at birth). At seed stage most domain skills are PENDING, so the
+   audit's job is proving the *copied* generic surfaces reference nothing
+   stale.
+2. **Link sweep** — no dangling cross-references outside `PENDING.md`:
+   grep the wiki/skill indexes for links whose targets neither exist nor
+   appear in `PENDING.md`. Seed scaffolds legitimately point at pending
+   pages; anything else dangling is a substitution bug.
+3. **Wiki-currency check** — the copied `.github` wiki-currency workflow runs
+   green (it clones `sources/` at main — doc-pin truth, not the release
+   wheel).
+4. **Chat-surface smoke** — the reference's `modes/maintainer.md` procedure,
+   run against the newborn once public: `llms.txt` bootstrap on each
+   supported surface, confirming the assistant states its capability
+   boundary instead of pretending at the pending content.
+
+Passing 1–3 gates the repo going public; leg 4 runs post-publish (it needs
+the public URL). `PENDING.md` is the newborn's growth queue — emptying it is
+development, not validation, and never blocks the publish gate.