Phase 8 — Production Hardening

Assessment against institutional production requirements (code-verified 2026-05-17).

Requirement	Status	Notes
CI gates deploy	Partial	`deploy-api-self-hosted.yml` has `workflow_run` success gate; verify not bypassed
Deep health after deploy	Improved	Recent commits extend wait + jq probes
Secrets not world-readable	Improved	`install -m 600` pattern in deploy scripts
Redis persistence	Done	AOF+RDB (#78)
Audit Merkle chain	Done	`verify_audit_chain.py`
Run manifest	Done	Wired in `deploy-api-self-hosted.yml` post-deploy
`make audit` / `make daily`	Done	Audit branch + P0 exec
Live trading gate	Done	`Settings` validator + `docs/audit/LIVE_TRADING_GATE.md`
Decay quarantine v1	Done	`DecayMonitor` → `_decay_quarantine` in daemon
Independent DMS	Done	`qgtm-watchdog.service` + GH watchdog — `DMS_INDEPENDENCE.md`
Full backtest provenance	In progress	`backtest_all.py` synced to 52 PM; batch run pending
GC/SI mandate	Documented	ETF proxy — `COMEX_ETF_MANDATE.md`
K8s DR	Deferred	Docker/systemd path is canonical

P0 items implemented in audit branch