diff --git a/FAMILY.md b/FAMILY.md
index 4dddcf0..e9ed8ce 100644
--- a/FAMILY.md
+++ b/FAMILY.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# The check family — shared contract (v2.1)
+# The check family — shared contract (v2.2)
 
 Canonical copy: this file, in [srdcheck](https://github.com/chaoz23/srdcheck)
 (the family's reference implementation). Sibling repos link here.
@@ -39,13 +39,25 @@ Members differ by what they produce, and the contract binds them accordingly.
    cannot-adjudicate answer meaning the question is outside the tool's codified
    jurisdiction, or that the tool cannot answer it from the evidence it has
    (unknown content, discretion, ambiguity, incomplete coverage) — is the
-   contract of the verdict class: srdcheck and dmcheck use exit `2`;
-   charactercheck uses exit `2` for unhandled content and `3` for could-not-
-   retrieve. Consuming agents route the honest lane to a human; never retry or
-   guess. Usage errors are **not** the honest lane and should not share its exit
-   code; srdcheck's exit `3` is the family precedent. Each SKILL.md states its
-   own tool's exact contract — read that, not this table, when invoking, and see
-   clause 7 on how that statement is kept true.
+   contract of the verdict class: srdcheck, dmcheck and charactercheck all use
+   exit `2` (for charactercheck, unhandled content). Consuming agents route the
+   honest lane to a human; never retry or guess. Usage errors are **not** the
+   honest lane and must not share its exit code.
+
+   **`0`, `1` and `2` are the universal verdict contract.** Codes `3` and above
+   are the *no-verdict-was-produced* taxonomy: a consuming agent branches on
+   0/1/2 and treats anything `>= 3` as "this is not a verdict — read the
+   payload".
+
+   **`3` is usage error in every member.** A malformed call is the one
+   non-verdict outcome every tool has, so it is worth harmonising rather than
+   leaving each tool to pick: an agent that mis-invokes any member gets the same
+   answer. Further non-verdict outcomes take `4` and up, named in the tool's own
+   SKILL.md — charactercheck uses `4` for could-not-retrieve. A new tool takes
+   `3` for usage errors and the next free code for anything else.
+
+   Each SKILL.md states its own tool's exact contract — read that, not this
+   table, when invoking, and see clause 7 on how that statement is kept true.
 2. **Deterministic verdict paths.** No model invocation, no network, no
    randomness anywhere in a verdict path. A model call to compute what a lookup
    or formula can decide is a defect. Same input, same verdict, every time.
@@ -122,6 +134,12 @@ repos pin by link, not by copy.
 
 ### Changelog
 
+- **v2.2** — Stated the exit-code pattern explicitly: 0/1/2 are the universal
+  verdict contract and `>= 3` is the no-verdict taxonomy, with `3` = usage error
+  harmonised across every member. v2.1 called srdcheck's exit 3 "the family
+  precedent", which was too weak to settle what a member should do when 3 was
+  already spent — charactercheck moves could-not-retrieve to `4` rather than
+  taking a different usage code (chaoz23/charactercheck#18).
 - **v2.1** — Members declare their class machine-readably as `family_class` in
   `tool.json`. v2 introduced classes but left them stated only in this file's
   members table, so the conformance gate had no way to apply clause 7 per class
diff --git a/family-conformance-baseline.json b/family-conformance-baseline.json
index fd34162..9db10cd 100644
--- a/family-conformance-baseline.json
+++ b/family-conformance-baseline.json
@@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
 {
   "_comment": "Findings accepted for now. Each MUST name the issue tracking it — a waiver without a ticket is just a hidden defect. A waiver that stops firing fails the gate, so fixes shrink this file.",
   "accepted": {
-    "charactercheck": {
-      "HONEST_LANE_OVERLOAD": "chaoz23/charactercheck#18"
-    },
     "dmcheck": {
       "MISSING_PIPE": "chaoz23/dmcheck#14"
     }
diff --git a/scripts/family_conformance.py b/scripts/family_conformance.py
index 9e1e500..b684fbc 100755
--- a/scripts/family_conformance.py
+++ b/scripts/family_conformance.py
@@ -214,7 +214,12 @@ def parse_skill(skill: Path) -> dict:
     tight: dict[int, list[str]] = {}
 
     def record(code: int, ctx: str, is_tight: bool = False) -> None:
-        if not 0 <= code <= 3:
+        # 0/1/2 are the universal verdict contract; codes >=3 are each tool's own
+        # "no verdict was produced" taxonomy. charactercheck already spends 3 on
+        # could-not-retrieve, so its usage-error code has to go higher. Capping at
+        # 3 silently dropped anything above it, which then surfaced as a bogus
+        # UNDOCUMENTED_EXIT_CODE against a tool that documented itself correctly.
+        if not 0 <= code <= 9:
             return
         ctx = " ".join(ctx.split())[:220]
         documented.setdefault(code, []).append(ctx)
@@ -233,7 +238,7 @@ def record(code: int, ctx: str, is_tight: bool = False) -> None:
         if "exit" not in head and "exit" not in para.lower():
             continue
         # "`0` = clean" / "0 passes the named scope" / "· 2 cannot-adjudicate"
-        for m in re.finditer(r"(?:^|[·(\s])`?([0-3])`?\s*(?:=|\s)\s*([A-Za-z][^·|]{2,90})", para):
+        for m in re.finditer(r"(?:^|[·(\s])`?([0-9])`?\s*(?:=|\s)\s*([A-Za-z][^·|]{2,90})", para):
             record(int(m.group(1)), f"{m.group(1)} {m.group(2)}", is_tight=True)
 
     honest, usage = set(), set()