diff --git a/conformance/corpus/001_hello_world/expected.out b/conformance/corpus/001_hello_world/expected.out
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8ab686e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conformance/corpus/001_hello_world/expected.out
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Hello, World!
diff --git a/conformance/corpus/001_hello_world/meta.json b/conformance/corpus/001_hello_world/meta.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..517816e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conformance/corpus/001_hello_world/meta.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"status": "unratified", "source": "example", "decision": "", "notes": "seeded from examples/01_hello_world.mpl"}
diff --git a/conformance/corpus/001_hello_world/program.mpl b/conformance/corpus/001_hello_world/program.mpl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..322a9ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conformance/corpus/001_hello_world/program.mpl
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+-- Hello World example
+✎"Hello, World!";
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/conformance/corpus/002_factorial/expected.out b/conformance/corpus/002_factorial/expected.out
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52bd8e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conformance/corpus/002_factorial/expected.out
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+120
diff --git a/conformance/corpus/002_factorial/meta.json b/conformance/corpus/002_factorial/meta.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..291bfe2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conformance/corpus/002_factorial/meta.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"status": "unratified", "source": "example", "decision": "", "notes": "seeded from examples/02_factorial.mpl"}
diff --git a/conformance/corpus/002_factorial/program.mpl b/conformance/corpus/002_factorial/program.mpl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1010b97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conformance/corpus/002_factorial/program.mpl
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+-- Factorial example with proper precedence
+factorial ≜ λn∈ℕ: (n≤1 ⟹ 1) | (n×factorial(n-1));
+result ← factorial(5);
+✎result;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/conformance/harness/run.mjs b/conformance/harness/run.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3b1729
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conformance/harness/run.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+// Conformance harness — zero dependencies (node:test not even needed:
+// entries are data, not code). See conformance/README notes in SURFACE.md.
+//
+// Modes:
+//   --all       run every corpus entry; informational; exit 0 unless the
+//               harness itself errors (malformed entry, unreadable corpus)
+//   --ratified  run only entries with "status": "ratified"; exit 0 iff all
+//               pass; exits 0 vacuously when zero entries are ratified.
+//               This is what CI gates on.
+//
+// Every case is executed twice and the observations compared; a mismatch is
+// a determinism failure (NONDET) and fails the case.
+//
+// Expectations (exactly one per entry):
+//   expected.out — exact stdout, single trailing newline normalized
+//   expected.err — the interpreter's error KEY (e.g. err_div0), one per
+//                  line; never localized message text
+import fs from 'node:fs';
+import path from 'node:path';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+import { createRequire } from 'node:module';
+
+// Same loader mechanism as js/test/load.mjs: the artifact is CommonJS-
+// guarded; the loader adapts, the artifact is never modified.
+const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
+const { runMPL } = require('../../js/mpl.js');
+
+const CORPUS = path.join(path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..', 'corpus');
+
+function harnessError(msg) {
+  console.error(`harness error: ${msg}`);
+  process.exit(2);
+}
+
+// One observation: printed lines plus the error key (null if none thrown).
+// A keyless exception is recorded distinctly — it is a host-level crash,
+// not an MPL error, and can never match an expected.err key.
+function observe(src) {
+  const lines = [];
+  try {
+    runMPL(src, s => lines.push(s));
+    return { lines, key: null };
+  } catch (e) {
+    return { lines, key: e.key || `UNKEYED:${e.constructor.name}` };
+  }
+}
+
+// Exact stdout with a single trailing newline normalized on both sides.
+const norm = s => (s === '' ? '' : s.replace(/\n*$/, '') + '\n');
+
+function loadEntry(dir) {
+  const p = n => path.join(CORPUS, dir, n);
+  if (!fs.existsSync(p('program.mpl'))) harnessError(`${dir}: missing program.mpl`);
+  if (!fs.existsSync(p('meta.json'))) harnessError(`${dir}: missing meta.json`);
+  let meta;
+  try { meta = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(p('meta.json'), 'utf8')); }
+  catch (e) { harnessError(`${dir}: bad meta.json: ${e.message}`); }
+  if (meta.status !== 'unratified' && meta.status !== 'ratified') {
+    harnessError(`${dir}: meta.status must be "unratified" or "ratified"`);
+  }
+  const hasOut = fs.existsSync(p('expected.out'));
+  const hasErr = fs.existsSync(p('expected.err'));
+  if (hasOut === hasErr) harnessError(`${dir}: need exactly one of expected.out / expected.err`);
+  return {
+    dir,
+    meta,
+    program: fs.readFileSync(p('program.mpl'), 'utf8'),
+    out: hasOut ? fs.readFileSync(p('expected.out'), 'utf8') : null,
+    err: hasErr ? fs.readFileSync(p('expected.err'), 'utf8').split('\n').filter(Boolean) : null,
+  };
+}
+
+function runEntry(e) {
+  const first = observe(e.program);
+  const second = observe(e.program);
+  if (JSON.stringify(first) !== JSON.stringify(second)) {
+    return { verdict: 'NONDET', detail: 'two runs disagreed' };
+  }
+  if (e.out !== null) {
+    if (first.key !== null) return { verdict: 'FAIL', detail: `threw ${first.key}, expected output` };
+    const actual = first.lines.length ? first.lines.join('\n') + '\n' : '';
+    if (norm(actual) !== norm(e.out)) {
+      return { verdict: 'FAIL', detail: `output ${JSON.stringify(actual)} != expected ${JSON.stringify(norm(e.out))}` };
+    }
+    return { verdict: 'PASS' };
+  }
+  const keys = first.key === null ? [] : [first.key];
+  if (JSON.stringify(keys) !== JSON.stringify(e.err)) {
+    return { verdict: 'FAIL', detail: `error keys ${JSON.stringify(keys)} != expected ${JSON.stringify(e.err)}` };
+  }
+  return { verdict: 'PASS' };
+}
+
+const mode = process.argv[2];
+if (mode !== '--all' && mode !== '--ratified') {
+  harnessError('usage: node conformance/harness/run.mjs --all | --ratified');
+}
+
+if (!fs.existsSync(CORPUS)) harnessError(`no corpus directory at ${CORPUS}`);
+let dirs = fs.readdirSync(CORPUS).filter(d => fs.statSync(path.join(CORPUS, d)).isDirectory()).sort();
+const entries = dirs.map(loadEntry);
+const selected = mode === '--ratified' ? entries.filter(e => e.meta.status === 'ratified') : entries;
+
+if (mode === '--ratified' && selected.length === 0) {
+  console.log('0 entries ratified — vacuously green (ratification is Stage 3).');
+  process.exit(0);
+}
+
+let pass = 0, fail = 0;
+for (const e of selected) {
+  const r = runEntry(e);
+  if (r.verdict === 'PASS') pass++; else fail++;
+  console.log(`${r.verdict} ${e.dir}${r.detail ? ' — ' + r.detail : ''}`);
+}
+console.log(`${selected.length} cases: ${pass} pass, ${fail} fail (${entries.length - selected.length} not selected)`);
+process.exit(mode === '--ratified' && fail > 0 ? 1 : 0);