GCFT Venus Clock-Link Residual Template Gate

A pre-forecast protocol establishing the conditions under which a Venus flyby, orbiter, clock-link, Doppler, range, or optical-link residual may enter the GCFT public forecast ledger. The paper defines the full ordinary null — general relativity, solar potential, Venus gravity, spacecraft dynamics, plasma, atmosphere, thermal, and instrumental systematics — that must be exhausted before any coherence-field claim is evaluated. Three candidate template families are specified (potential-gradient gate, path-integral coherence gate, clock-pair response gate), none yet frozen. The central methodological contribution is the Hot/Cold paired residual protocol: a Venus-linked residual is admissible only if it survives both the high-coupling stress environment of the encounter and the quiet precision baseline of cruise arcs, without adding a Venus-specific parameter after the data appear. Current verdict: UNDERDERIVED/PENDING. Ledger admissibility: FALSE.