C.18.1:4.4 - Method — minimal SoTA probe recipe (notation‑agnostic; informative).

1. Choose knobs S that are plausibly monotone in the Context (compute/data/capacity/FoA).
2. Pick 3–5 probe points per active knob (edge/mid/edge) under iso‑scale parity; use a fractional factorial if >2 knobs.
3. Run replicates (≥ 3 preferred) and bootstrap 95% CI on the primary objective(s); log seeds.
4. Estimate local slopes on a log‑log grid only where the declared Scale operations are admissible under A.18 and the logged values are positive; apply piecewise/segmented regression or a knee detector (e.g., L‑curve/Kneedle) to support χ.
5. Record invariants (pinned knobs, safety envelope) and publish SLL.Card@Context.
6. If χ changes across the window, split the ScaleWindow and re‑classify per segment.