ADR-0128 — Mint C020 unresolvable-ref (contract 0.13.0 → 0.14.0)

Context

The blocking review checks — C012 (coverage), C013 (verify-binding), C016 (pass-needs-evidence) — key on the review's source spec, resolved from its task: → tasks/<id>.md → source: spec (or, for a 1:1 review, its spec: id). When that ref does not resolve — a typo'd/renamed task id, a review checked in an isolated/minimal repo — suspec check <review> returned a CLEAN report with no diagnostic: the checks simply could not run, so nothing fired. Measured in the round-3 enforcement-teeth stress test (suspec-works #89): a review with task: TASK-none (unresolvable) and an empty-evidence Pass row gated clean (0 errors), while the same review with a resolvable task correctly hit C016. So a dangling ref silently bypassed the honesty gate — the check comment's assumption that "the spec/workspace checks already cover a missing artifact" does not hold; the workspace checker does not validate a review file's refs.

Decision

Mint C020 unresolvable-ref (hard-error). When suspec check <review> finds the review's task: ref resolving to no local task packet (tasks/<id>.md absent), it emits C020 instead of a silent clean pass. A task packet is always local, so an unresolvable task: is unambiguously a dangling ref — a hard error at the gate face, mirroring C016 (not a judgment call). The suspec review reconcile face stays advisory (ADR-0077 D8).

Deliberately narrow. C020 does not fire when a resolved task's source: spec is unreachable, nor on a 1:1 review whose spec: does not resolve: a spec may legitimately live in another repo (cross-root, ADR-0100 — checked via the task's embedded snapshot when present), which is indistinguishable from a typo at this workspace. Firing there would break the ADR-0100 cross-root-no-snapshot case (which stays clean by design). C020 covers only the provable dangling ref — the missing task packet — which is exactly the bypass #89 demonstrated (task: TASK-none with an empty-evidence Pass gating clean). A review that names no ref at all is unchanged.

Contract version bumps 0.13.0 → 0.14.0. C018 remains reserved (ADR-0094/0097); C020 is the next minted id after C019.

Consequences

• suspec-cli's check_review_file emits C020 on an unresolvable task: or source:/spec: ref; CORE_CHECKS gains the C020 row; the drift guard reconciles version + row against canon.
• checks.yaml + checks.md carry the C020 row; the honesty gate no longer has a silent-pass hole for dangling refs.
• No change to the reconcile face's advisory posture, or to reviews that name their spec correctly.

Status

Accepted (2026-07-04).