Remove the configurable core boundary

Traceability

• Spec ID: remove-configurable-core-boundary
• Status: Implemented

Intent

Remove the repository-owned core-boundary configuration and its runtime contract. Core Change Watch should identify affected core paths from repository structure and bounded Git history without a hidden override file that can suppress inferred change risk.

Acceptance Scenarios

• AC-1: .better-harness/core-code is absent, and no runtime code reads, parses, accepts a CLI override for, or emits schema fields for that configuration.
• AC-2: Diff impact and evidence-pack analysis continue to mark changes to an inferred medium- or high-confidence core candidate as requiring attention, including untracked files under an inferred core path.
• AC-3: Project Harness guidance describes only inferred core boundaries, and obsolete report filtering and quality checks for the removed internal configuration are deleted.
• AC-4: Focused Core Change Watch, report-quality, maturity-model, and Markdown link tests pass, and repository searches find no active implementation or guidance references to the removed configuration.

Non-goals

• Removing the Core Change Watch module or its project, history, candidate, diff-impact, drift, or evidence-pack collectors.
• Changing core-candidate scoring thresholds, final finding eligibility, report severity, or Lead judgment ownership.
• Replacing the removed configuration with another user-authored core-path file.

Plan and Tasks

1. Delete .better-harness/core-code and remove its parser, matcher, CLI option, diff-impact schema fields, and evidence-pack sanitization/guidance branches.
2. Keep diff attention routing on inferred candidates and update focused tests for inferred tracked and untracked core changes.
3. Remove obsolete report-quality rejection logic and align Project Harness documentation with inference-only behavior.
4. Add a forward link from the historical open-source baseline spec, run focused tests and link validation, then record visible implementation evidence.

Test and Review Evidence

• AC-1/AC-3: rg -n "\\.better-harness/core-code|core-code|coreCode|coreCodePath|coreCodeRules" scripts references skills .better-harness returns no active matches.
• AC-2: node --test test/core-change-watch.test.mjs.
• AC-3: node --test test/harness-report-quality.test.mjs test/maturity-models.test.mjs.
• AC-4: node --test test/doc-link-graph.test.mjs and git diff --check.
• Risk: removing the configured allowlist means repositories that previously suppressed inferred candidates can receive additional attention signals; keep final finding judgment with the Lead and verify inferred non-core supporting files remain companion evidence only.

Implementation Evidence

• AC-1/AC-3: the tracked configuration, parser/matcher, CLI override, schema fields, evidence-pack sanitization, report-quality guard, and active guidance references were removed; the bounded implementation/guidance search returned no matches.
• AC-2/AC-4: node --test test/core-change-watch.test.mjs test/harness-report-quality.test.mjs test/maturity-models.test.mjs test/doc-link-graph.test.mjs passed 98 tests with no failures.
• AC-4: npm test completed successfully.
• AC-4: npm run pack:verify initially stopped at the root-owned global npm cache; rerunning with an isolated /tmp npm cache passed with 293 npm entries and 327 runtime-zip entries.
• git diff --check and Node syntax checks passed for the changed implementation files.