ce-code-review: compact-return contract drifts to 'notes'; synthetic return must carry independence_verified

Version: compound-engineering 3.21.0, ce-code-review, subagent-driven ce-work Phase 3 review (local reviewer roster + cross-model peer).

1. Local reviewers return notes, not the schema's why_it_matters

Reviewers dispatched with the compact-return contract wrote free-form notes fields in their on-disk artifacts instead of the contract's why_it_matters, and omitted pre_existing. Result: 43 of 46 local findings were malformed on the first findings-mechanics helper pass and had to be repaired; only the peer artifact survived intact.

The contract names the fields, but nothing enforces the field names at the point where the artifact is written vs. where the helper reads it.

Suggestions (either, not both):

• The dispatch prompt should state explicitly that the on-disk artifact must contain why_it_matters / pre_existing verbatim (not synonyms), or
• The orchestrator should run the projection/repair before the first helper pass instead of after it fails en masse.

2. independence_verified is invisible to the helper unless copied into the return entry

When the orchestrator synthesizes or reconciles the adversarial return entry from on-disk artifacts, the findings-mechanics helper only promotes independent_reviewers if the return entry itself carries independence_verified — carrying it in the on-disk artifact alone does nothing.

Recommend documenting in the dispatch/finish references that a synthetic/reconciled return must copy independence_verified: true from the peer artifact into the return entry, or have the helper accept it from either location.

3. Evidence discipline: verify imports under the project's interpreter before filing

A reviewer filed a P2 dependency-mismatch: pyproject.toml declared py_vollib while code imported vollib, and a bare import vollib failed under the host python3. But py-vollib declares vollib as a dependency, and under the repo's actual interpreter (.venv/bin/python) the import resolved. The real defect was elsewhere (routines invoked python, which was not on PATH).

Suggested reviewer instruction: before filing an import/dependency finding, run the project's documented command under the interpreter the artifact targets, and check the declared package's Requires-Dist metadata rather than a bare host-interpreter import.