The Guardian Profession
Why the suite has five documents
The Guardian canon is deliberately modular so professional identity, competence, ethics, reliability, and practice do not collapse into one opaque credential.
| Current document | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Guardian Profession Standard Specification v2.0 | Defines professional identity, when a Guardian is required, professional functions, status lifecycle, anti-capture, continuing competence, discipline, records, and public claims. |
| Guardian Competence Coordinate System Specification v2.0 | Defines the coordinates within which competence and authorization are established and prevents title-based universal authority. |
| Guardian Code of Professional Conduct v2.0 | Governs independence, integrity, conflicts, confidentiality, evidence discipline, conduct toward affected persons, and duty to the assessment record. |
| Guardian Calibration and Reliability Standard v2.0 | Governs calibration design, inter-assessor reliability, disagreement, drift, corrective action, uncertainty, and competence maintenance. |
| Guardian Assessment Practice Standard v2.0 | Governs planning, evidence handling, judgment, findings, records, limitations, communication, escalation, and handoff in actual assessment practice. |
No one document substitutes for the others where its responsibility is material.
Coordinate-bounded authority
Authorization is expressed as G[D, F, L, E, M]:
| Axis | What it bounds |
|---|---|
D — Domain | One or more of the eight active Domain Profiles: Emotional Autonomy, Attentional Integrity, Cognitive/Epistemic Coherence, Developmental Interaction, Somatic/Embodied Interface, Relational Architecture, Ecological Stewardship, and Representational Integrity. |
F — Function | Assessment, monitoring, investigation, advisory, advocacy, or technical review. These functions are not interchangeable. |
L — Competence level | Supervised practice, independent practice, or advanced review and supervision within that coordinate. |
E — Evidence class | Documentary, data, system, observational, experimental, human, incident, or competent external evidence. |
M — Modality | Remote, on-site, laboratory, live operational, participatory, or an expressly defined hybrid. |
Source, jurisdiction, language, population, system, method, and risk limitations remain part of the authorization and engagement record even though they are not additional coordinate axes. A Guardian must not imply competence beyond that complete current record.
Conditional use
Guardians are not universal checkpoints. Deterministic checks, ordinary audit evidence, technical testing, and qualified specialists should be used when sufficient. A Guardian is selected only when irreducible professional judgment remains and the required coordinates match.
Current status boundary
The professional standards are current. Legacy tiers, pathways, oaths, direct-HVC authority, sample registries, or informal title use do not establish current Guardian status. Public reliance requires a competent authorization decision and current Registry record once the production Registry is operational.