How the gate works
This tool grades one recorded episode's readiness to publish, with a hard audio gate. It scores 6 weighted controls into a 0–100 number — then a gate that can only make the verdict worse.
The 6 weighted controls
If clean audio scores 1 or 0, the verdict is capped at HOLD no matter how high the total — bad audio loses listeners in the first few seconds and no amount of good content overrides it. Fix the audio, then re-score. It is the one hard gate in the rubric.
Why: This episode scores 88 — clean audio, a strong open, a tight edit, and clip-worthy moments — so it clears the 75 PUBLISH line. Clean audio is 5/5, so the one hard gate never fires and the episode is ready to ship on schedule.
A high score didn’t save it. The score is context; the gate is the answer — and it names the one thing to fix first. Grades one episode's production readiness from your own scores; it publishes nothing. Any synthetic-audio or AI-voice disclosure guidance is general, not legal advice — verify current rules at use.