feat: Q.Arb is held; strike C.Med-Arb entirely; dissolve the paired disclosure

Pouya's ruling, 2026-08-29. Treated as D3-class and swept accordingly.

§4
  Q.Arb becomes a HELD designation. Obtained July 2026 — recorded in the
  register, deliberately not published. Public copy carries "Q.Arb (ADRIC /
  ADRIO)" beside Q.Med and nothing more. Every stage form is struck:
  "commenced", "in progress", "pathway", "not yet".

  C.Med-Arb as a stated goal is struck. This DEVIATES FROM THE STRATEGY BRIEF,
  which made it "the explicit long-term professional narrative"; the brief is
  not in this repository, so the deviation is recorded in four places so nobody
  reinstates it from a document no reader can open. The designation stays in
  §11 as a definition — what is struck is its status as a goal of his.

  The paired-disclosure condition dissolves. It existed only because Q.Arb was
  in progress; there is no stage left to disclose, and a condition with no
  subject cannot be half-kept.

Pages
  /about/'s credentialing arc is DELETED, not rewritten — two held designations
  are not a journey. /arbitration/ loses its stage section and its "Available
  now, and open about the stage" h1. /med-arb/'s endpoint section is rewritten.
  Deleting CREDENTIALS.goal/goalName rather than emptying them turned every
  consumer into a build error, which is how the last two surfaced.

  hasCredential now maps CREDENTIALS.designations instead of indexing [0];
  _DesignationRowParity pins the visible credential row to the same constant.

check:claims
  q-arb-as-a-stage (inverted from the predecessor, which barred Q.Arb reading
  as HELD) and c-med-arb-struck. Each page is now scanned twice — as published,
  and with inline tags collapsed — because [^<] cannot cross <strong>, which
  this site sets in prose.

Two open questions for Pouya, neither blocking:
  Q55 — the acquisition date. §4 says obtained July 2026; the Change Log of
  2026-08-26 records "commenced August 2026", both stamped [verified — Pouya].
  They cannot both be true. Nothing published turns on it.
  Q56 — is the mediation offering scoped commercial? §4 leaves it unscoped;
  four surfaces say "commercial mediation"; /practice/insurance/ offers
  mediation in insured-versus-insurer SABS matters.

Two review rounds, all findings applied or declined with a stated reason.
Round 2 found ten lines in docs/03 still instructing the struck form — the
2026-08-29 sweep missed them because `git grep 'Q.Arb'` is line-anchored and
the block never names it. Sweep the vocabulary, not only the subject.

Gates, exit statuses read directly, never through a pipe:
  npm run check        exit=0  (0 errors, 0 warnings, 0 hints)
  npm run lint         exit=0
  npm run build        exit=0  (12 pages)
  npm run check:claims exit=0  (11 patterns, 26 approved strings)
  npm audit            exit=0

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Md3GndFqWPzK78xAoebsg5

src/pages/about.astro

@@ -11,11 +11,19 @@
  *   1 Portrait, name, designation line   → the hero
  *   2 Narrative biography, 400–600 words → §Background
  *   3 Credentials, structured            → §Credentials
- *   4 The credentialing arc              → §The arc
+ *   4 The credentialing arc              → REMOVED 2026-08-29, see below
  *   5 Languages and cross-cultural       → §Language
  *   6 Speaking and publications          → OMITTED, per the spec itself
  *   7 Person JSON-LD + PDF bio           → JSON-LD ships; the PDF does not
  *
+ * ⚠️ ITEM 4 IS GONE, AND IT WAS DELETED RATHER THAN REWRITTEN. Pouya, 2026-08-29:
+ * *"Two held designations, no journey… An arc invites 'where are you on it';
+ * two designations don't."* Q.Arb is held and C.Med-Arb is off the site
+ * entirely, so the section had no subject left — three pills reading Held,
+ * Held, and nothing. What it used to carry now sits in item 3, which is a list
+ * of held things and was always the right shape for it. **Do not restore it
+ * from docs/01's seven-item outline**; that item is struck there too.
+ *
  * ITEM 6 IS OMITTED ON THE SPEC'S OWN INSTRUCTION, not by oversight: "Omit the
  * section entirely until there is something in it. An empty 'Speaking' heading
  * is worse than no heading." Nothing to list.
@@ -69,7 +77,6 @@ import { Picture, getImage } from 'astro:assets';
 import BaseLayout from '../layouts/BaseLayout.astro';
 import ContactBand from '../components/ContactBand.astro';
 import Eyebrow from '../components/Eyebrow.astro';
-import Pill from '../components/Pill.astro';
 import SectionHeading from '../components/SectionHeading.astro';
 import portrait from '../assets/pouya-lajevardi.jpg';
 import ogDefault from '../assets/og-portrait.jpg';
@@ -77,7 +84,9 @@ import { aboutGraph } from '../data/schema';
 import {
   ASYMMETRY_LINE,
   CREDENTIALS,
+  DESIGNATIONS_HELD_LINE,
   PORTRAIT,
+  PRACTICE_AREAS,
   ROLE,
   SITE,
 } from '../data/site';
@@ -129,141 +138,47 @@ const ldImage = await getImage({
 });
 const graph = aboutGraph(new URL(ldImage.src, Astro.site).href);
 
+/* THE BIOGRAPHY ENUMERATES THE PRACTICE AREAS IN PROSE, which means it is the
+   one place on the site that names them without rendering `PRACTICE_AREAS`.
+   Card labels ("Insurance, SABS & LAT") do not read as prose, and a joined list
+   of them in a paragraph was worse than the duplication. So the count is
+   asserted instead: add a seventh area and this throws, which is the prompt to
+   rewrite the sentence. Same mechanism as the ground-alternation check in
+   `practice/[slug].astro`. */
+/* `: number`, NOT the inferred literal. `PRACTICE_AREAS` is `as const`, so
+   `.length` is the literal type `6`; with `AREAS_NAMED_IN_BIO` also literal `6`,
+   adding a seventh area makes the comparison `7 !== 6` — non-overlapping
+   literals — and `astro check` fails first with `ts(2367) This comparison
+   appears to be unintentional`, which reads like lint noise. Both deploy paths
+   run `npm run check` BEFORE the build, so the implementer would never see the
+   message below, and the message is the whole point of the guard. Widening the
+   left side keeps the comparison live at runtime. Measured by
+   `adversarial-reviewer` 2026-08-30. */
+const AREAS_NAMED_IN_BIO: number = 6;
+if (PRACTICE_AREAS.length !== AREAS_NAMED_IN_BIO) {
+  throw new Error(
+    `/about/'s biography names ${AREAS_NAMED_IN_BIO} practice areas in prose, ` +
+      `but PRACTICE_AREAS now has ${PRACTICE_AREAS.length}. Rewrite the ` +
+      `"I accept appointments in six areas" paragraph, then update this count.`,
+  );
+}
+
 /**
  * The designation line — docs/01 item 1. Assembled from constants so it cannot
- * drift from §4, and ordered held-first.
+ * drift from §4.
  *
- * Q.Arb IS NOT IN IT, deliberately. It is not held (§4: "Describe as newly
- * commenced, never as held or nearing completion"), and a designation line is
- * precisely a list of things held. The arc section states the stage plainly,
- * which is what §4's paired-disclosure condition requires — this page offers
- * arbitration, so the stage appears on this page and not only in the footer.
+ * BOTH DESIGNATIONS, because a designation line is a list of things held and
+ * as of 2026-08-29 Q.Arb is one of them. It was excluded while it was a stage.
+ * The issuing bodies repeat across the two entries; that is what the strings in
+ * `CREDENTIALS.designations` say, and spelling them once across a joined pair
+ * would be this file re-typing §4 rather than rendering it.
  */
 const designationLine = [
   'Mediator',
-  CREDENTIALS.designations[0],
+  ...CREDENTIALS.designations,
   CREDENTIALS.education[0],
 ];
 
-/**
- * The credentialing arc — docs/01 item 4, and docs/03: "the credentialing
- * pathway from Q.Med through Q.Arb to C.Med-Arb is stated openly, **with Q.Arb
- * described as commenced August 2026** and never as 'in progress', which is
- * looser than §4 and is barred by docs/06's cutover checklist. The brief treats
- * that arc as part of the story rather than something to obscure."
- *
- * ⚠️ THAT QUOTATION WAS STALE AND THE STALE HALF WAS THE BARRED PHRASE. It
- * quoted docs/03's pre-2026-08-28 text, which ended "...stated openly as in
- * progress" — so THIS FILE cited docs/03 as REQUIRING the phrase six lines
- * above citing it as BARRING the phrase. Found by `adversarial-reviewer`.
- *
- * **And the Q.Arb-wording sweep missed it because the phrase was line-wrapped**
- * as `as in\n * progress`: a grep for "in progress" on one line returns
- * nothing. Same defect CLAUDE.md already records for a docs/03 phrase that
- * wrapped behind a blockquote marker. Sweep the wrapped form too.
- *
- * `state` is the load-bearing column. "Commenced August 2026" is §4's exact
- * wording and the ONLY permitted wording — docs/03: not "in progress", because
- * the weaker form drifts toward "nearly complete", which §4 Forbidden bars
- * outright.
- */
-/*
- * FIVE CLAIMS CAME OUT OF THIS BLOCK, and the first was the worst thing in the
- * step-3 diff. BOTH review agents found it independently, which is the strongest
- * signal this loop produces.
- *
- *   1. ⚠️ "arbitral appointments are not gated behind it, which is why I accept
- *      them now" — **the false universal Q39 struck, on a public page.**
- *      Unscoped ("arbitral", not commercial), asserted as flat fact in the first
- *      person, and it publishes a proposition of Ontario law that §4 holds only
- *      in scoped form and deliberately does NOT stamp `[verified]`. Family
- *      arbitration is an arbitral appointment and it IS gated
- *      (`docs/reference/ontario-family-arbitration-training.md`). Q39 swept
- *      three instances of this universal on 2026-08-27; this was the fourth and
- *      the first outside a comment. §4 requires the STAGE be stated — never the
- *      register's gating rationale. Deleted rather than rescoped: this page has
- *      no business carrying the argument at all.
- *   2. "on the same institutional pathway" and
- *   3. "Three designations on one institutional pathway" (the section lede) —
- *      §4 attaches ADRIC / ADRIO to **Q.Med only**. Neither the Q.Arb row nor
- *      the C.Med-Arb row names a body.
- *   4. "The senior hybrid designation" — a ranking claim about a third party's
- *      credential structure, with no row and no source.
- *   5. The expansions — "Qualified Mediator", "Qualified Arbitrator",
- *      "Chartered Mediator-Arbitrator". Flagged as being in §11 Glossary but
- *      not in §4 Verified. **The third was also simply WRONG** — ADRIO's term
- *      is "Chartered Med-Arbitrator" — but that is not what this finding
- *      caught, and no review pass caught it either: four passes read the string
- *      and checked only whether it was *sourced*. Pouya caught it on
- *      2026-08-28. The wrong form is quoted here because it is what was
- *      flagged; it is corrected in the arc below and swept from the repo.
- *
- * ⚠️ ITEM 5 WAS REMOVED AND IS NOW RESTORED, AND IT IS THE ONE PLACE THIS
- * SESSION WENT AGAINST A REVIEW FINDING. The reason is a SECOND finding, from
- * the next audit pass, and it is a consistency point rather than a claim point:
- * this page also publishes "Provincial Offences Act", "Statutory Accident
- * Benefits Schedule" (as SABS) and "the ADR Institute of Canada and the ADR
- * Institute of Ontario" — every one of them a §11 Glossary expansion, on exactly
- * the ground the designation names were struck. *"One standard or the other."*
- *
- * ✅ **RATIFIED BY POUYA 2026-08-28 (Q46(b)), AND NO LONGER RESTING ON §11
- * ASSERTING ITS OWN CONTENT.** The standard: **§11 Glossary is the source for
- * DEFINITIONAL expansions** — what an abbreviation stands for — while §4
- * Verified remains the only source for claims ABOUT POUYA. Expanding `Q.Med`
- * says nothing about him; "he holds it" is the claim, and that has a row. His
- * words: *"the same line the Offerings ruling drew"*, and *"You were right that
- * one standard or the other had to apply."*
- *
- * The alternative standard would have required stripping POA, SABS and the
- * institute names from the prose and `recognizedBy` from the JSON-LD — making
- * the page materially worse for a reader who does not already know the acronyms,
- * in exchange for no reduction in risk.
- *
- * **R14 IS NOW SATISFIED, which it was not when this comment was first written.**
- * Pouya's ruling attached a condition — fetch and commit the source — and
- * `docs/reference/adrio-designations.md` is it: all five expansions in ADRIO's
- * own words, four independent fetches, reproducible sha256. The earlier attempt
- * had failed on the obvious URL (`adric.ca/designations/` redirects to
- * `/designations-cee/` and serves **zero** occurrences of "Q.Med", "Qualified
- * Mediator" or "Chartered Mediator" in 114,985 bytes — navigation only, body
- * assembled client-side), and that failure is why this rested on §11 alone for
- * one day. `adr-ontario.ca` serves them server-side. **The lesson is that one
- * dead URL is not a sourcing dead end** — the national body's page was
- * client-rendered and the provincial affiliate's was not.
- */
-const ARC = [
-  {
-    name: 'Q.Med',
-    state: 'Held',
-    /* NOT "the designation I mediate under". That imported a PERMISSION framing
-       onto what §4 records as a voluntary credential, in a register that says
-       no designation is required to be appointed as a mediator — the
-       credential-as-licence slip §4 says produced a wrong answer twice. */
-    body:
-      'Qualified Mediator, held through the ADR Institute of Canada and the ' +
-      'ADR Institute of Ontario. The designation I hold as a mediator today.',
-  },
-  {
-    name: 'Q.Arb',
-    state: 'Commenced August 2026',
-    body:
-      'Qualified Arbitrator. Newly commenced — not held, and not nearing ' +
-      'completion.',
-  },
-  {
-    name: 'C.Med-Arb',
-    state: 'The endpoint',
-    /* "Chartered Med-Arbitrator", NOT "Chartered Mediator-Arbitrator". The
-       second form shipped in this string until 2026-08-28 and was in
-       dist/about/index.html; ADRIO's own term is the first
-       (docs/reference/adrio-designations.md, Finding 2). Pouya's correction,
-       and it was his own error carried from the strategy brief. */
-    body:
-      'Chartered Med-Arbitrator. The designation this practice is built ' +
-      'toward.',
-  },
-];
-
 /**
  * The structured credentials — docs/01 item 3: "designations, education,
  * certifications, memberships. Every line from AGENTS.md §4 Verified."
@@ -331,8 +246,8 @@ const CREDENTIAL_GROUPS = [
 ---
 
 <BaseLayout
-  title="About · Pouya Lajevardi · Mediator, Q.Med · Toronto"
-  description="Pouya Lajevardi, JD, Q.Med — a Toronto mediator who also practises as a machine-learning and infrastructure engineer. Credentials, background, designations."
+  title="About · Pouya Lajevardi · Mediator, Q.Med, Q.Arb · Toronto"
+  description="Pouya Lajevardi, JD, Q.Med, Q.Arb — a Toronto mediator who also practises as a machine-learning and infrastructure engineer. Credentials and background."
   ogType="profile"
   imageAlt={PORTRAIT.alt}
   jsonLd={graph}
@@ -387,15 +302,24 @@ const CREDENTIAL_GROUPS = [
 
             EXPLICITLY INTERIM — AGENTS.md R1, surfaced again 2026-08-28
             precisely because this page is where the framing now does its
-            heaviest work. */
+            heaviest work.
+
+            "I MEDIATE COMMERCIAL DISPUTES" STAYS, and a round-2 finding against
+            it was declined rather than missed. The objection: the same ground
+            that struck "The matters I take are commercial" from the biography
+            should reach this sentence too. It does not. **That one was a
+            universal** — it said nothing he takes is non-commercial, which is an
+            exclusion §4 has no row for. **This one is existential**: he mediates
+            commercial disputes, which §4 Offerings' mediation row supports and
+            which excludes nothing. A narrower claim than the row grants is
+            safe; a claim the row does not reach is not. */
         }
         <p class="hero-lede">
           I am {ROLE.title} at {ROLE.at}, with {ROLE.litigationLine} across{' '}
           {ROLE.litigationAreas.slice(0, -1).join(', ')} and{' '}
           {ROLE.litigationAreas.at(-1)}. I mediate commercial disputes and I
-          accept arbitration appointments in commercial matters; the Q.Arb
-          pathway commenced in August 2026. I also work as a machine-learning
-          and infrastructure engineer.
+          accept arbitration appointments in commercial matters. I also work as
+          a machine-learning and infrastructure engineer.
         </p>
       </div>
 
@@ -519,9 +443,8 @@ const CREDENTIAL_GROUPS = [
           EVERY CLAIM TRACES TO §4 Verified: the JD, the boutique role, active
           litigation exposure and its four matter types, Q.Med, multiple
           completed sole mediations, arbitration appointments (§4 Offerings,
-          scoped to commercial), the Q.Arb pathway commenced August 2026,
-          C.Med-Arb as the goal, engineering practice, SML Company Ltd, Farsi,
-          Iranian-Canadian. Nothing here asserts or implies licensure. */
+          scoped to commercial), Q.Arb, engineering practice, SML Company Ltd,
+          Farsi, Iranian-Canadian. Nothing here asserts or implies licensure. */
       }
       <div class="prose bio-prose">
         <p>
@@ -554,21 +477,18 @@ const CREDENTIAL_GROUPS = [
             drift. */
         }
         <p>{ASYMMETRY_LINE}</p>
+        {
+          /* A SECOND PARAGRAPH HERE WAS CANDOUR ABOUT AN INCOMPLETE CREDENTIAL
+            — "I would rather say where I am on the arc". Q.Arb is held; do not
+            write another. `check:claims` q-arb-as-a-stage catches the form. */
+        }
         <p>
-          Mediation is where they meet. I hold the Q.Med designation through the
-          ADR Institute of Canada and the ADR Institute of Ontario, and I have
+          Mediation is where they meet. {DESIGNATIONS_HELD_LINE}, and I have
           completed multiple sole mediations. I accept arbitration appointments
           in commercial matters — as sole arbitrator, as a party-appointed
           arbitrator, and in co-arbitration. Where a matter turns on a technical
           question, I read the technical material myself.
         </p>
-        <p>
-          My Q.Arb pathway commenced in August 2026, and C.Med-Arb is the
-          designation I am working toward. I state the stage openly because an
-          appointing body will establish it anyway, and because a reader can do
-          more with the fact than with a hedge. I would rather say where I am on
-          the arc than leave it to be inferred.
-        </p>
         {
           /* BOTH ADDITIONS TO THIS SENTENCE CAME BACK OUT. §4 verifies exactly
             one relation — *"Operator of SML Company Ltd. alongside the
@@ -596,6 +516,25 @@ const CREDENTIAL_GROUPS = [
             `worksFor` is withheld. */
         }
         <p>I run SML Company Ltd alongside the practice.</p>
+        {
+          /* ⚠️ NO SCOPE CLAIM AND NO COVERAGE CLAIM. §4 has no row for the
+            subject matter of his ADR work, and `/practice/insurance/` ships
+            "Disputes between an insured person and an insurer" — an
+            individual-versus-insurer SABS dispute is not commercial, so this
+            paragraph must not declare the six areas a commercial class.
+            What Q35 grants is the frame used here: an area may be named where
+            he can competently accept an appointment, framed as positioning
+            rather than claimed history. "I accept appointments in" is that
+            frame; "the subject matter runs across" is not, because §Background
+            is where a reader defaults to reading history. */
+        }
+        <p>
+          I accept appointments in six areas: construction and infrastructure;
+          technology, AI and data; energy and the grid; insurance and accident
+          benefits; shareholder and family-business disputes; and cross-border
+          matters. What those have in common is a record somebody has to read
+          closely, and a dispute that turns on what is actually in it.
+        </p>
         <p>
           I have also completed the Kompass Arbitration Certificate Program and
           the Stitt Feld Handy negotiation and ADR workshop sequence. Neither is
@@ -652,62 +591,6 @@ const CREDENTIAL_GROUPS = [
     </div>
   </section>
 
-  {/* ---- 4. The credentialing arc -------------------------------------- */}
-  {
-    /* SECTION 4 BEFORE SECTION 3, and the reorder is deliberate. docs/01 lists
-      credentials (item 3) then the arc (item 4). The arc is the part a reader
-      is likely to have a question about — it is the thing this practice is
-      candid about that others are not — and burying it under a scannable list
-      of things already held reads as a footnote to them. §4's paired-disclosure
-      condition also wants the stage stated where the offering is made, and the
-      offering is made in the narrative directly above. The list follows. */
-  }
-  <section class="section section-inverse arc-section reveal">
-    <div class="wrap">
-      <div class="section-head">
-        <SectionHeading
-          eyebrow="The arc"
-          level={2}
-          lede="Three designations. Two of them are ahead of me, and saying so is the point."
-        >
-          <span slot="heading">Where the credentials sit.</span>
-        </SectionHeading>
-      </div>
-
-      {
-        /* `role="list"` RESTORED, AND THE REASON I REMOVED IT WAS WRONG ABOUT
-          ARIA. The comment here claimed that on an <ol> the role "re-announces
-          an ordered list as an unordered one". It does not: **both <ul> and <ol>
-          map to the `list` role**, so `role="list"` on an <ol> is a no-op for
-          ordering, not a downgrade. What it is actually for is the WebKit
-          heuristic that strips list semantics from a list with
-          `list-style-type: none` — and `.arc` sets exactly that.
-
-          It also left the two <ol>s on this two-page site DISAGREEING, with
-          `/`'s `.process-strip` keeping the role. That is the state that gets
-          copied seventeen times.
-
-          Not verified here: whether WebKit's heuristic covers <ol> as well as
-          <ul>. There is no Safari instrument in this environment, so the role
-          stays on the precautionary side, which costs nothing. Chrome's AX tree
-          exposes `.arc` as `list` with three `listitem` children either way. */
-      }
-      <ol class="arc" role="list">
-        {
-          ARC.map((stage) => (
-            <li class="arc-item">
-              <h3 class="arc-name">{stage.name}</h3>
-              <p class="arc-state">
-                <Pill>{stage.state}</Pill>
-              </p>
-              <p class="arc-body">{stage.body}</p>
-            </li>
-          ))
-        }
-      </ol>
-    </div>
-  </section>
-
   {/* ---- 3. Credentials, structured ------------------------------------ */}
   <section class="section section-alt creds reveal">
     <div class="wrap">
@@ -955,51 +838,6 @@ const CREDENTIAL_GROUPS = [
      page. "Provincial Offences Act" is set in roman. If a statute name ever
      needs italics here, load a face for it first. */
 
-  /* --- 4. The arc ------------------------------------------------------ */
-
-  .arc {
-    display: grid;
-    /* `min(18rem, 100%)` rather than a bare 18rem floor: a bare floor cannot
-       shrink below itself and overflows at a large default font size. The
-       credential row on `/` is the measured instance of that mistake. */
-    grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fit, minmax(min(18rem, 100%), 1fr));
-    gap: var(--space-6);
-    /* NO `padding: 0` OR `list-style: none` HERE — `global.css`'s
-       `ul[role='list'], ol[role='list']` reset already supplies both, and this
-       block was re-implementing it by hand. Two rules for one job, and the
-       hand-written copy is the one that drifts. `margin: 0` also comes from the
-       global `* { margin: 0 }` reset. */
-  }
-  .arc-item {
-    display: flex;
-    flex-direction: column;
-    gap: var(--space-3);
-    padding-block-start: var(--space-4);
-    border-block-start: 1px solid var(--line-dark);
-  }
-  /* <h3>, not <p>. These are the headings of the three arc items and they set
-     at --text-2xl serif, so marking them up as paragraphs was the fake-heading
-     pattern: a screen-reader user got no heading navigation for the one section
-     on this page a reader is most likely to jump to. `ProcessStep` on `/` uses
-     <h3> for exactly this shape. Outline stays h1 -> h2 -> h3 with no skips. */
-  .arc-name {
-    font-family: var(--font-serif);
-    font-size: var(--text-2xl);
-    line-height: var(--leading-tight);
-  }
-  .arc-state {
-    margin: 0;
-  }
-  .arc-body {
-    margin: 0;
-    font-size: var(--text-base);
-    line-height: var(--leading-body);
-    /* NOT --text-secondary. On an inverse ground `--ink-soft` measures ~1.4:1
-       against `--ink` — the inherited `--text-inverse` (cream, 16.81:1) is what
-       carries body copy here, so the colour is deliberately left alone rather
-       than set to a token that is correct only on cream. */
-  }
-
   /* --- 3. Credentials -------------------------------------------------- */
 
   .cred-grid {