D279 - The provenance size guard fails binary files only

Status: decided Date: 2026-08-25

A file over a megabyte outside assets/ fails the provenance guard when it is binary; a large text file is listed on every run and does not fail.

Why: a firmware dump, decrypted title or disguised container is binary, and size was only a proxy for that. The symbol database is large UTF-8 text and is the audit trail provenance requires. Text derived from the hardware or vendor material is caught by the symbol audit, which re-derives every name from this repository's own inputs; listing large text keeps the threshold visible.

Rejected:

• Failing every large file: fails on the evidence the guard protects.
• Dropping the size check: loses the one guard against a dump with a disguised extension.