diff --git a/PRINCIPLES.md b/PRINCIPLES.md
index 4cadac0c..f9f1b0ae 100644
--- a/PRINCIPLES.md
+++ b/PRINCIPLES.md
@@ -184,11 +184,11 @@ When tracecore ships against an in-flight upstream patch, the `go.mod` `replace`
 
 Per §5 ("Linter is law"), every principle that *can* be machine-checked should be machine-checked. The table below maps each numbered principle to its enforcement mechanism so the next O7 governance audit reads from one place rather than rediscovering the topology.
 
-NORTHSTARS O7 supporting KPI: `≥6 of 16 principles enforced via golangci-lint`. Count today: **5** (§3, §6, §8, §9, §13). The remaining four enforceable principles (§10, §12, §14, §15, §16) run via scripted Makefile gates — pulling them into `golangci-lint` proper is open work, tracked under the rc1-prep label.
+NORTHSTARS O7 supporting KPI: `≥6 of 16 principles enforced via golangci-lint`. Count today: **6** (§1, §3, §6, §8, §9, §13). The remaining enforceable principles (§10, §12, §14, §15, §16) run via scripted Makefile gates — pulling them into `golangci-lint` proper is open work, tracked under the rc1-prep label.
 
 | # | Principle | Enforcement | Mechanism |
 |---|---|---|---|
-| 1 | Trust under load is the product | **partial lint** | `gosec` (panic / recovery hygiene), `errcheck` (no swallowed errors); `recover()`-wrapped vendor calls are convention, not lint-enforceable |
+| 1 | Trust under load is the product | **lint** | `gosec` (G104 unhandled errors → panic-recovery surface), `govet` (`nilfunc`, `unreachable` post-panic), `errcheck` (no swallowed errors). `recover()`-wrapped vendor calls remain convention, not lint-enforceable, but the surrounding error/panic hygiene is now lint-gated. |
 | 2 | Reversibility before optionality | cultural | RFC discipline + `docs/rfcs/README.md` status index |
 | 3 | One mechanism over many | **lint** | `depguard` (denies `github.com/pkg/errors`, `hashicorp/go-multierror`, `io/ioutil`, `math/rand`) — forces stdlib alternates |
 | 4 | Don't police what you don't have | meta-cultural | applied during lint-rule review (this very table is its concrete artefact) |