docs(rc1): partner outreach checkpoint (Tier-2 B)

docs/NORTHSTARS.md

@@ -277,6 +277,8 @@ Seven lines of work. Each has one accountable owner role, one hero KPI, supporti
 - "Unique production organizations" is unmeasurable in full. The named methodology is partial-coverage. State this in any public adoption claim.
 - Conference acceptance is partially out of our control; we measure *submissions accepted*, not talks given.
 
+**Partner outreach plan:** the v1.0 rc1 → GA outreach package lives at [`docs/partner-outreach.md`](partner-outreach.md) — target-persona list (P1-P12 archetypes), outreach message template, live-conversation talking points, tracker shape, and numeric success criteria (≥5 contacted, ≥2 feedback-received, ≥1 pilot-deploy-attempted before GA tag). Tracks against the [v1.0-rc1 Tier-2 B](v1-rc1-cut-criteria.md#b-partner-outreach-checkpoint) cut criterion; the SC-3 pilot-deploy gate is a GA blocker.
+
 ---
 
 ### O6. Velocity

docs/RELEASE-CHECKLIST.md

@@ -89,10 +89,17 @@ All RC gates, plus:
 
 - [ ] **Third-party security audit report published** — report at
   `docs/audits/<YYYY-MM>-tracecore-v1.0.md`; all P0/P1 findings closed
+- [ ] **Partner outreach checkpoint cleared** — outreach package at
+  [`docs/partner-outreach.md`](partner-outreach.md) has accumulated
+  ≥5 contacted operators (SC-1), ≥2 feedback responses (SC-2), and
+  ≥1 pilot-deploy attempt (SC-3) in its §Tracker. Status flips on the
+  next `make cut-criteria-render` cycle once the tracker rows land.
 - [ ] **Real-operator integration verified** — at least one production
   GPU cluster operator has installed the production-preset Helm chart
   end-to-end and confirmed ≥1 pattern verdict fires against real
-  signal (write-up at `docs/case-studies/<operator>.md`)
+  signal (write-up at `docs/case-studies/<operator>.md`); this is the
+  same operator as the SC-3 pilot-deploy row in
+  [`docs/partner-outreach.md`](partner-outreach.md).
 - [ ] **Reproducibility chain externally verified** — independent
   third party runs `cosign verify-blob` +
   `slsa-verifier verify-artifact` against a published artifact; result

docs/cut-criteria.yaml

@@ -449,26 +449,72 @@
 - id: B
   title: "Partner outreach checkpoint"
   tier: 2
-  owner: ""
+  owner: "O5 (Distribution & Community) — hero KPI is unique production organizations; outreach is the on-ramp."
   rubric: |
-    A tracking issue lists candidate operators (Lambda, CoreWeave, fal.ai,
-    anyscale, hyperscaler GPU teams) and records at least three intro
-    conversations. Each conversation entry has a date, the operator-side
-    contact, and a yes/no/deferred on whether they will run the
-    production-preset chart (criterion 10) against real signal. At least
-    one operator commits to the rc1 → GA validation window before tag-cut.
+    The outreach-ready package lives at
+    [`docs/partner-outreach.md`](partner-outreach.md) — target-persona
+    list (≥10 archetypes), outreach message template (≤200 word pitch
+    with a specific ask), live-conversation talking points (the
+    15-pattern coverage story, OCB-distro pivot, why-now signal,
+    differentiation vs Prometheus + Datadog + DCGM-exporter), tracker
+    table shape, and numeric success criteria (≥5 contacted, ≥2
+    feedback-received, ≥1 pilot-deploy-attempted before GA tag). The
+    package is the falsifiable artifact; the partner conversations
+    themselves land as rows in the tracker.
   citation:
     - "[`docs/RELEASE-CHECKLIST.md`](RELEASE-CHECKLIST.md) GA gate \"Real-operator integration verified\""
     - "[`NORTHSTARS.md` §O5 hero KPI](NORTHSTARS.md#o5-distribution--community) (≥15 unique production orgs at M12)"
+    - "[`docs/partner-outreach.md`](partner-outreach.md) §Success criteria"
   rubric_check:
-    # No in-repo artifact — this is tracked on the issue tracker. Status
-    # stays ☐ (PLANNED) by hard-coding `false`; once a partner-outreach
-    # doc lands at a stable path the check flips to `test -f docs/<path>`.
-    # (The literal path was previously named here, but the YAML link-rot
-    # gate flagged it as dead — correctly — so we hard-code instead.)
-    artifact_exists: "false"
-    gate_script: ""
-  notes: ""
+    # Artifact present: the outreach-ready package exists at a stable
+    # path. File-presence alone flips this off ☐ planned.
+    artifact_exists: "test -f docs/partner-outreach.md"
+    # Binding gate: at least five real (non-placeholder) rows in the
+    # §Tracker table of docs/partner-outreach.md, where "real" means a
+    # tracker row whose Status column carries a real status token, not
+    # the placeholder enumeration string. The threshold matches SC-1
+    # (≥5 operators contacted) in docs/partner-outreach.md §Success
+    # criteria — the executable gate must not be looser than the
+    # written contract. Until at least five operators have been
+    # contacted, this gate fails → status holds at ⧗ in progress. The
+    # grep walks the tracker block and counts pipe-delimited rows
+    # whose Status cell is exactly one of the documented tokens,
+    # excluding the placeholder enumeration row that lists every
+    # token separated by ' / '. `queued` is intentionally excluded:
+    # SC-1 in docs/partner-outreach.md scopes "contacted" as outreach
+    # actually sent, and `queued` rows are merely identified — they
+    # do not count toward the 5.
+    gate_script: |
+      awk -F'|' '
+        /^## 4\. Tracker/ { in_tracker = 1; next }
+        in_tracker && /^## / { in_tracker = 0 }
+        in_tracker && /^\| / {
+          status = $6
+          gsub(/^ +| +$/, "", status)
+          if (status == "contacted" || status == "meeting-set" || \
+              status == "feedback-received" || status == "pilot-deploy-attempted" || \
+              status == "declined" || status == "deferred") {
+            n++
+          }
+        }
+        END { exit (n >= 5 ? 0 : 1) }
+      ' docs/partner-outreach.md
+  notes: |
+    [`docs/partner-outreach.md`](partner-outreach.md) shipped: 12
+    operator-archetype persona list (P1-P12 — GPU-cloud providers,
+    frontier-model labs, hyperscaler ML infra teams, OTel-adjacent
+    maintainers, mid-cap AI startups, HPC centers), ≤200-word cold-
+    outreach pitch with audit-funding + OSS-maintainer variants,
+    seven live-conversation talking points (15-pattern coverage,
+    RFC-0013 OCB-distro pivot, why-now signal, three-layer
+    differentiation, production posture, what-we-are-NOT framing),
+    tracker column shape + status vocabulary + hygiene rules, three
+    falsifiable success criteria (SC-1 ≥5 contacted, SC-2 ≥2
+    feedback-received, SC-3 ≥1 pilot-deploy-attempted). SC-3 is the
+    GA blocker; rc1 ships with all three open. The ⧗ in progress
+    marker reflects "package ready, conversations not yet started";
+    the gate script flips to ☑ when the §Tracker table accumulates
+    five non-placeholder rows (matching SC-1).
 
 - id: C
   title: "Launch artifacts drafted"