Document Type: Canon
Status: Canon
Version: v1.1
Authority: HeadOffice
Parent: Affiliate Brain Architecture
Applies To: Affiliate Intelligence System
Enforcement: SIT Monitored
Last Reviewed: 2026-03-15
Purpose
The Opportunity Retirement Protocol governs the formal retirement of affiliate opportunities within the MWMS system.
Its purpose is to:
• prevent repeated testing of structurally invalid opportunities
• preserve capital by blocking redundant experiments
• maintain historical learning integrity
• protect system discipline across long time horizons
Opportunity retirement ensures that failed opportunities are documented, preserved, and prevented from re-entering the testing pipeline without justification.
Scope
This canon applies to:
• retirement of affiliate opportunities inside the MWMS lifecycle
• structural, experimental, financial, and compliance-driven opportunity retirement
• documentation standards for retired opportunities
• re-entry restrictions for previously retired opportunities
• preservation of historical learning from failed or blocked opportunities
This document governs when and how an affiliate opportunity is formally retired from the active evaluation pipeline.
It does not govern:
• initial opportunity intake by itself
• Offer Intelligence evaluation by itself
• Velocity scoring by itself
• experiment methodology by itself
• capital allocation by itself
• campaign execution by itself
Those remain governed by Opportunity Queue, Offer Intelligence, the Velocity Decision Engine, Experimentation Brain, Finance Brain, and related operational documents.
Definition / Rules
Retirement Principle
Not all opportunities deserve repeated testing.
Once sufficient evidence exists that an opportunity fails structural or experimental viability requirements, it must be formally retired.
Retirement does not erase historical records.
Retirement preserves the outcome so that future decision-making benefits from past learning.
Retirement Triggers
An opportunity may enter retirement under the following conditions.
Structural Failure
The opportunity fails Velocity Decision Engine structural evaluation.
Examples:
• mechanism not credible
• compliance exposure excessive
• funnel integrity critically weak
• market demand insufficient
Output:
Velocity = NO
Lifecycle Stage → Retired
Experimental Failure
The opportunity fails structured testing.
Examples:
• multiple statistically valid losses
• no meaningful uplift across variations
• conversion economics fail under realistic traffic costs
Output:
Testing outcome recorded as LOSS
Lifecycle Stage → Retired
Capital Constraint Failure
Finance Brain blocks continued testing due to capital discipline.
Examples:
• testing economics unsustainable
• risk exposure exceeds permitted limits
• portfolio concentration risk
Output:
Finance escalation
Lifecycle Stage → Retired
Compliance Risk
The opportunity presents unacceptable regulatory or advertising risk.
Examples:
• prohibited claim category
• unverifiable vendor claims
• platform policy conflicts
Output:
Compliance escalation
Lifecycle Stage → Retired
Retirement Classification
Each retired opportunity must include a retirement classification.
Valid classifications include:
• Structural Failure
• Experimental Failure
• Capital Constraint
• Compliance Risk
• Market Saturation
• Vendor Integrity Failure
Classification must be recorded to preserve institutional learning.
Re-Entry Conditions
Retired opportunities may only re-enter the Opportunity Queue under strict conditions.
Re-entry requires at least one of the following:
• significant vendor change
• new funnel architecture
• new mechanism or product iteration
• substantial market shift
• new evidence contradicting previous failure
Re-entry must include documentation explaining why the original retirement condition is no longer applicable.
Retirement Documentation Requirements
Retirement must record:
• Offer Name
• Retirement Date
• Retirement Classification
• Lifecycle Stage at Retirement
• Summary of Failure Evidence
• Responsible Brain (Affiliate / Experimentation / Finance)
Retirement documentation becomes part of the MWMS historical intelligence record.
Governance Enforcement
Retired opportunities may not re-enter structured evaluation without documented re-entry justification.
Violation of retirement rules constitutes system discipline breach.
SIT may flag repeated resurrection of previously retired opportunities.
HeadOffice may enforce permanent retirement if repeated failure occurs.
Relationship to Lifecycle Model
Opportunity Retirement represents the final lifecycle stage within Affiliate Brain.
Lifecycle reference:
Signal Captured
Opportunity Queue
Offer Intelligence
Evaluated
Approved for Test
Testing
Paused
Scaled
Retired
Once retired, the opportunity exits the active evaluation pipeline.
Core Principle
The MWMS system must learn from failure.
Failure that is not documented becomes repeated cost.
Retirement preserves learning and protects capital.
Drift Protection
The system must prevent:
• retired opportunities being reintroduced without documented justification
• historical failure evidence being ignored during future reviews
• repeated testing of structurally invalid opportunities
• retirement classification being omitted or left vague
• capital, compliance, or experimental failure being treated as temporary without evidence
• lifecycle retirement occurring without a preserved record
Retirement must remain a governed exit state, not an informal label.
Architectural Intent
Opportunity Retirement Protocol exists to convert failed or blocked affiliate opportunities into durable institutional memory.
Its role is to protect capital, preserve historical learning, and stop structurally invalid opportunities from re-entering the active pipeline unless a documented and credible re-entry case exists.
Final Rule
A retired opportunity is out of the active system until a justified re-entry case is documented.
Without that justification, retirement stands.
Change Log
Version: v1.1
Date: 2026-03-15
Author: HeadOffice
Change: Rebuilt page to align with the locked MWMS document standard for this cleanup pass. Preserved the original purpose, retirement principle, retirement triggers, classification system, re-entry conditions, documentation requirements, governance enforcement, lifecycle relationship, and core principle. Added Document Type, Scope, Definition / Rules structure, Drift Protection, Architectural Intent, Final Rule, and standardised Change Log format.
Version: v1.0
Date: 2026-03-09
Author: HeadOffice
Change: Initial release. Introduced formal retirement governance for affiliate opportunities to prevent redundant testing and preserve institutional learning.
END – OPPORTUNITY RETIREMENT PROTOCOL v1.1