Document feedback-aware validation retries

docs/operations.md

@@ -109,6 +109,33 @@ On success, the command reports the output bundle path. A warning-bearing run
 still succeeds and reports its warning count on standard error. Errors and
 their exit classes are defined in the [CLI reference](cli.md#output-streams-and-exit-statuses).
 
+## Validation Retries And Terminal Outcomes
+
+Each producer binding has one outer **retries** budget. It covers complete
+producer attempts for operational failures, invalid structured output,
+normalizer fallback retry, and semantic correction. It is independent from
+PromptKit's structural-repair calls inside one completion and from an
+LLM-backed validator's own retry budget. A semantic correction rebuilds the
+ordinary producer request and supplies only the latest rejected model response
+plus aggregated validator guidance; it is not a conversation replay.
+
+After the applicable budgets are exhausted, the resolved
+[`validation_policy`](config.md#pipelines) determines the result. Structural
+failure and semantic rejection normally fail the run; an explicit
+`reject_output` records a rejection and allows unrelated work to finish. A
+validator execution failure normally uses `warn_continue`, which keeps an
+otherwise accepted result in the current run with `incomplete` validation
+provenance. It emits one bounded warning for every validator whose execution
+budget was exhausted. A corrected result that later passes validation does not
+retain abandoned-attempt warnings.
+
+Treat a successful process exit as a completed run, not as proof that every
+candidate was fully validated. Inspect the receipt's `validation_status`,
+`validation_summaries`, rejection count, and warning count when an orchestrator
+requires complete validation. The durable fields and their meanings are owned
+by the [run-result receipt](integrations/run-result.md) and
+[published JSON output contract](integrations/json-output.md).
+
 ## Output Bundles
 
 Each successful run receives a generated safe run identifier and writes beneath:
@@ -158,7 +185,9 @@ The configured cache mode controls one invocation:
 A reused plan is still materialized and validated against the current source.
 If a prior plan no longer gives acceptable results, use a refresh run rather
 than editing cache files. Deleting a plan is recoverable but can repeat costly
-chunking work.
+chunking work. A plan accepted only under incomplete validation is not
+published, and a rejected cache hit falls through to ordinary generation rather
+than becoming a correction candidate.
 
 ## Checkpoint Recording, Resume, And Recompute
 
@@ -183,6 +212,12 @@ Reasoning-effort inheritance, replacement, and explicit clearing are distinct
 runtime identities, so checkpoints created under one state are not reused by
 either of the others.
 
+Only accepted, completely validated chunk, extract, merge, and normalize
+results are checkpointed for reuse. Rejected, structurally invalid, and
+validation-incomplete producer results remain non-reusable, even when a
+`warn_continue` result advanced during its original run. A resumed invocation
+therefore reruns that producer rather than treating degraded state as accepted.
+
 Checkpoint state is confined below an identity-specific path:
 
 ~~~
@@ -237,13 +272,16 @@ Only a [debug-enabled run](cli.md#run) creates a bundle:
 ~~~
 
 The summary contains redacted invocation and resolution information plus run,
-warning, checkpoint, chunk-plan, and terminal reporting artifacts. The trace
-contains allowlisted application diagnostic records and can include source or
-derived application data. Neither surface is a cache input. Do not treat a
-debug bundle as safe to share merely because its configuration summary is
-redacted. Invocation metadata omits reasoning effort when it is inherited,
-records the replacement value when one is supplied, and records an empty value
-when inherited reasoning was explicitly cleared.
+warning, checkpoint, chunk-plan, and terminal reporting artifacts. Attempt
+terminal records contain bounded attempt kinds, validator outcomes, policy,
+decision, PromptKit repair count, and usage; they do not contain assistant
+responses or complete correction messages. The trace contains allowlisted
+application diagnostic records and can include source, model, and correction
+content. Neither surface is a cache input. Do not treat a debug bundle as safe
+to share merely because its configuration summary is redacted. Invocation
+metadata omits reasoning effort when it is inherited, records the replacement
+value when one is supplied, and records an empty value when inherited reasoning
+was explicitly cleared.
 
 Notarius never creates debug state without an explicit request and never
 automatically deletes a requested bundle. If allocation succeeds, the command