# v2.5 Candidate 14 — Static Recovery Baseline

**Date:** August 27, 2026  
**Release class:** Static production recovery / evidence continuity

Candidate 14 restores the Evidence CV to a static-first production deployment path after the Candidate 13 ORCID/Pages deployment sequence did not update the established production route reliably. The release preserves the Applied Evidence and deployment-provenance work while removing server-side ORCID Functions from the production package.

## Material changes

- Removed the `/functions/` directory and all server-side ORCID runtime requirements from the production package.
- Preserved the static ORCID scholarly identity page and public ORCID relationship.
- Reclassified API/OAuth work as an isolated non-production test lane rather than a production dependency.
- Preserved LinkedIn native-video derivative-distribution records for AE-2026-001 and AE-2026-002.
- Preserved `/applied/feed.xml`, `/applied/registry.json`, and both media manifests.
- Preserved `/deployments/`, `/deployments/feed.xml`, and `/deployments/registry.json`.
- Updated the sitewide footer to `Deployment v2.5 Candidate 14 · August 27, 2026`.
- Added a complete Candidate 14 SHA-256 manifest after removing the server-side runtime.

## Deployment doctrine

The production CV returns to a static-first rule: routine scholarly, evidence, media, social-dissemination, and deployment-history updates must not depend on API runtimes. Experimental ORCID/API connectivity should be validated on a separate test hostname before any future production integration.

## Recovery status

Candidate 13 remains in deployment history as an attempted split-target release whose Pages deployment did not establish the intended production version on the custom CV domain. Candidate 14 supersedes Candidate 13 as the static production recovery candidate.