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+# Upstream integration plan
+
+## Objective
+
+Integrate useful changes from `Open-Legal-Products/mike` into ROSS incrementally while preserving the newly released production baseline.
+
+## Stable baseline
+
+- Production baseline commit: `525280ebb3b9dcb7e9f4cb4c5d12aef34089d72c`
+- Release train: completed successfully with public promotion enabled
+- Treat the resulting immutable release tag and release ledger as the rollback boundary
+
+## Current divergence snapshot
+
+The last comparison found the upstream repository ahead by 78 commits, with ROSS carrying substantial independent changes. Reconfirm the counts before each integration batch because upstream may continue moving.
+
+## Non-negotiable ROSS protections
+
+Do not weaken or replace the ROSS-specific:
+
+- release train and staging-debug workflows
+- immutable image-digest promotion
+- production rollback and failure handling
+- governed release manifest
+- data-boundary controls
+- upload and document scanning pipeline
+- Ontario legal-source integrations and health checks
+- public-beta operational evidence and policy controls
+
+## Classification framework
+
+Classify each upstream change before implementation:
+
+- **Adopt** — can be incorporated substantially as written
+- **Adapt** — useful, but must be manually ported around ROSS architecture or controls
+- **Skip** — irrelevant, superseded, incompatible, or would regress ROSS safeguards
+- **Investigate** — potentially useful but requires design, security, licensing, migration, or operational analysis
+
+## Integration sequence
+
+1. Refresh the upstream comparison and group commits by subsystem.
+2. Start with a small, low-conflict batch such as isolated tests, documentation, dependency-safe fixes, or CI improvements.
+3. Use a dedicated branch and focused PR for each coherent batch.
+4. Preserve upstream attribution with `-x` when cherry-picking isolated commits; manually port changes when conflicts or ROSS-specific architecture make cherry-picking unsafe.
+5. Run Baseline verification on every final PR head.
+6. Refresh `reports/release-manifest-v1.json` whenever governed files change.
+7. Run staging/debug when a batch affects deployment, runtime configuration, migrations, rollback, probes, legal-source operation, or release mechanics.
+8. Merge only after required checks pass and there are no unresolved blockers.
+9. Run a new production release train only after a meaningful, fully validated integration batch is ready.
+
+## Initial work breakdown
+
+- [ ] Reconfirm upstream and ROSS divergence from the current production baseline
+- [ ] Produce a commit-by-commit or PR-by-PR Adopt / Adapt / Skip / Investigate inventory
+- [ ] Identify the first low-risk integration batch
+- [ ] Open the first focused integration PR
+- [ ] Complete Baseline verification on the final PR head
+- [ ] Refresh the governed release manifest if required
+- [ ] Determine whether staging/debug is required for that batch
+- [ ] Merge and document residual risk
+
+## Guardrail
+
+Do not perform a bulk merge of all upstream commits. Every batch must be reviewable, reversible, and independently validated.