= Cutdown Reference Parser Status Policy

== Decision

Cutdown is spec-first.

Language specification and conformance corpus are authoritative. The reference parser must follow them.

== Divergence Handling

If the reference parser diverges from accepted spec/conformance behavior:

- mark the affected behavior as reference-parser non-conformant,
- track remediation with an explicit alignment task,
- do not reinterpret spec authority to match parser behavior by default.

== Release Transparency

- Known reference-parser divergence must be disclosed in release notes.
- Disclosures must include scope, impact, and expected fix status.

== Related

- [``./conformance-policy.md``](/latest/policies/conformance-policy)
- [``./cross-implementation-validation-policy.md``](/latest/policies/cross-implementation-validation-policy)