The scheme rests on a municipal party committee and government decision of November 2008 (the Opinion on deepening urban-rural coordination and raising village public services and social management, document 37 of 2008), on companion guidance establishing village councils in all villages and rural communities, and on interim measures for the fund and for the loan scheme issued in 2009 (Jiang and Huang, Wang, Zhuang, Chen Yiyuan). None of these texts was available, so the rules are known through the researchers. They are policy documents, not law: Jiang and Huang note that Chengdu lacks provincial legislative power so its reforms can only take the form of regulations and documents, and the vice-mayor said in 2010 that the leadership hoped to legislate; Cabannes 2018 credits the inscription in policy with the scheme's unusual durability. Within the village pot the council's decision is treated as binding, but it passes through a gate: the township reviews each list for conformity with law and policy and ratifies it, and county finance pays only after public notice (Zhuang, Wang). Scope is themed: projects must fall in the municipal categories, villagers can propose their own within them or pick from the catalogue, and cash sharing, business use and cross-village transfers are excluded. Whether the village or officials really decide is disputed: Zhuang, Frenkiel, Wang, Chen Yiyuan and He and Gui describe councils that decide; Zhuang also reports councils convened and filled by cadres, and the 2019 World Atlas says that in PB-like Chengdu local officials choose what they want in the end. Funds have flowed every year since 2009 (Cabannes 2018 counts ten cycles to 2018).