<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1">
  <!--
    lastmod policy (W9): these dates reflect REAL content change, never an
    every-build auto-bump (inflated lastmod erodes crawler trust). Update a
    route's lastmod only when its served content actually changes. The
    2026-06-17 stamps below mark the build-time body-bake + per-route JSON-LD
    landing (real crawler-visible content change); legal/privacy/imprint stay
    frozen because their copy did not change.
  -->
  <!-- Root Identity -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/ecosystem</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.9</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/about</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/proof</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.9</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/case-studies/financial-services</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/case-studies/healthcare</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/works</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/guides</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-25</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <!--
    /diagrams INDEX: restored in the admission regen now that the diagram corpus is live.
    The build-generated per-diagram <url> + <image:image> entries (renderDiagramSitemapEntries,
    using xmlns:image above) are injected into build/sitemap.xml at build time, not committed here.
  -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-29</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/connect</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/legal</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-01-26</lastmod>
    <changefreq>yearly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.3</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/privacy</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-01-26</lastmod>
    <changefreq>yearly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.3</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/imprint</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-01-26</lastmod>
    <changefreq>yearly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.3</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/works/mcp-context-budget/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-25</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/works/failclosed/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-25</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/works/orion-skills/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-25</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/works/schemafit/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-25</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/works/agent-demo-video/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-26</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/works/localfiscal/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-28</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <!-- Thought corpus (per-thought routes; lastmod = each essay publish date, R2; generated at build from THOUGHTS) -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-06-24-verify-the-verifier-v2</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-24</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-06-16-the-gate-is-the-product</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-16</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-06-09-open-source-the-gate-not-the-verdict</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-09</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-06-08-authority-gate-made-runnable</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-08</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-06-02-a-governance-claim-you-cannot-run-is-advisory</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-02</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-05-26-distrust-the-models-own-output-shape</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-05-26</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-05-20-pre-execution-authority-gates</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-05-20</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-05-19-the-merge-is-a-state-mutation</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-05-19</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-05-12-posted-is-not-published</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-05-12</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-05-05-gated-substrate-is-a-pinned-sha</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-05-05</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-04-28-content-has-a-substrate-too</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-28</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-04-21-the-gate-defends-state-from-its-own-author</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-21</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-04-14-redact-at-the-boundary-fail-closed</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-14</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-04-07-a-proof-pack-demonstrates-enforcement</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-07</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-03-31-deleting-the-fallback-is-the-enforcement</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-31</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-03-24-a-reviewer-that-cannot-abstain-is-not-a-gate</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-24</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-03-17-a-repo-boundary-is-an-enforcement-primitive</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-03-10-extraction-without-a-frozen-contract</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-10</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-03-03-memory-is-a-governance-surface</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-03</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-02-24-the-choke-point-is-the-control</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-24</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-02-17-why-enterprise-ai-fails-at-runtime-not-capability</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-02-10-the-four-layer-enforcement-stack</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-10</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-02-03-receipts-are-not-logs</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-03</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-01-27-fail-closed-is-not-conservative-it-is-correct</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-01-27</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-01-20-behavioral-drift-the-slow-failure-mode</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-01-20</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/thoughts/2026-01-13-capability-removal-vs-capability-restriction</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-01-13</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <!-- Guides corpus (per-guide routes; generated at build from GUIDES) -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/guides/why-llm-schemas-get-rejected</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-28</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/guides/verifier-abstention-not-refutation</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-27</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/guides/self-hosting-websites-and-apps</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-25</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>
  <!-- Diagram corpus (per-diagram routes + image-sitemap; generated at build from DIAGRAMS) -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-06-29-runtime-governance-how-it-works</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-29</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-06-29-runtime-governance-how-it-works.png</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Continuously evaluate, decide, and enforce at runtime, without slowing down your apps.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-06-29-the-two-plane-architecture</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-29</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-06-29-the-two-plane-architecture.png</image:loc>
      <image:caption>One box, one reverse proxy, zero public inbound ports: a private mesh for everything else.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-06-16-fail-closed-merge-admission</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-16</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-06-16-fail-closed-merge-admission.png</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Fail-closed merge admission for agent-written code: the gate is the product.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-04-24-the-missing-execution-boundary</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-24</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-04-24-the-missing-execution-boundary.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>The missing unit is not a policy; it is an execution boundary.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-04-21-the-map-is-not-the-territory</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-21</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-04-21-the-map-is-not-the-territory.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>The map of controls is not the territory of enforcement.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-04-17-translating-reasonable-care-into-code</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-04-17-translating-reasonable-care-into-code.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>What reasonable care looks like as an execution path.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-04-14-the-enterprise-ai-market-divide</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-14</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-04-14-the-enterprise-ai-market-divide.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>The market is dividing along one axis: before versus after.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-04-10-the-fallacy-of-monitoring</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-10</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-04-10-the-fallacy-of-monitoring.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>The alert arrives after the harm: that's the fallacy.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-04-07-the-equation-of-liability</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-07</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-04-07-the-equation-of-liability.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>The statute makes post-hoc governance a liability, not a defense.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-04-03-governance-is-not-hope</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-03</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-04-03-governance-is-not-hope.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Monitoring is hope; containment is the alternative.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-03-31-the-physics-of-ai-isolation</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-31</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-03-31-the-physics-of-ai-isolation.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Real control is physics, not policy.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-03-27-from-policy-to-runtime-proof</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-27</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-03-27-from-policy-to-runtime-proof.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>If governance isn't enforced at runtime, it isn't governance.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-03-24-monitoring-vs-enforcement-architecture</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-24</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-03-24-monitoring-vs-enforcement-architecture.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>The architecture divide, stated plainly.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-03-20-governance-converts-risk-into-economics</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-20</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-03-20-governance-converts-risk-into-economics.svg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Governance is not a cost center; it converts risk into economics.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-03-17-runtime-governance-control-plane</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-03-17-runtime-governance-control-plane.svg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>The reference architecture, one picture.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-03-13-the-gated-execution-pipeline</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-13</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-03-13-the-gated-execution-pipeline.svg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>The whole loop: where each gate sits and what each failure does.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-03-10-advisory-vs-deterministic-boundary</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-10</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-03-10-advisory-vs-deterministic-boundary.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>A wall you can walk through is not a boundary.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-03-06-the-substrate-walls</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-06</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-03-06-the-substrate-walls.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Isolation built up from the hardware, not bolted on as policy.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-03-03-the-rpc-stub-airlock</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-03-03</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-03-03-the-rpc-stub-airlock.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Agents submit intent; they do not hold execution rights.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-02-27-monitor-after-vs-constrain-before</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-27</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-02-27-monitor-after-vs-constrain-before.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Monitoring tells you it happened; a constraint stops it from happening.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-02-24-authority-decay-over-a-session</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-24</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-02-24-authority-decay-over-a-session.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Standing authority is the bug; authority should decay and force re-auth.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-02-20-anatomy-of-non-repudiation</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-20</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-02-20-anatomy-of-non-repudiation.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Non-repudiation is structural, not promised: the receipt carries the proof.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.danmercede.com/diagrams/2026-02-17-audit-logs-vs-immutable-receipts</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-02-17</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.danmercede.com/assets/diagrams/2026-02-17-audit-logs-vs-immutable-receipts.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Audit logs are written after the fact; an immutable receipt is written as a precondition of the act.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
  </url>
</urlset>
