queue: TICK 2026-10-19 16:52Z -- the five-leg gate verified end to end in the real tree (verify.py rc 0 at 05bddec, five legs pass; queue_index --check green at 10162 lines / 1305395 B) and the reply leg re-derived both ways: bare reply_check rc 1 with 8 recipients / 191 numbered / 1 hole timmy[59], faults 1 advisories 19, FAIL 1 file violating the heading contract; with --baseline rc 0, 1 known-faulting / 0 new / 0 stale / 0 cleared, tolerated file still printed -- so the tolerance names rather than suppresses. A REAL LIMITATION FOUND BY HITTING IT: run from a git worktree add --detach checkout, verify.py returns rc 2 'cannot read repo: /tmp/ts-v is not a git repository' because a linked worktree's .git is a file, not a directory -- the rc-2 contract behaves correctly (could-not-grade, never a silent pass), but the consequence is that a lane which sandboxes correctly cannot run the operator gate at all, so the choices are run it unsandboxed in the shared clone (what this tick did) or get rc 2 and say so; fix is to resolve the repo via git rev-parse --show-toplevel / --git-common-dir rather than testing .git for directory-ness. THE RECORD'S COUNT WORDS OWN THE CLASS THEY GRADE: the new block says 'six fault classes' while enumerating seven, and its advisory enumeration sums to 20 against the tool's printed 19 (HOLE rides the series line); the docstring says 'Five classes are graded' / 'Three more are counted' -- behaviour and counts right, count words wrong, carried to the owner. MERLIN'S MIS-HEADING STAYS VISIBLE: replies/2026-10-15-to-timmy-58.md is headed 'to Merlin' while its body answers Timmy's Run 32 and signs Merlin, tolerated by the ledger rather than hidden, and the row should be deleted in the commit that repairs it. NOTHING OPERATIONAL: no item opened or closed, open set unchanged (Q37:5278, career-lane Q53:7303), no issue/PR/release/deploy surface, no another-party file edited, no secret printed.

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -10160,3 +10160,12 @@ Artifact: `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/volt/2026-10-18-index-stale/` (`REPORT.m
 - **Nothing operational.** No queue item opened or closed; open set unchanged (`Q37:5278` pipe, career-lane `Q53:7303` held for Alexander); no issue/PR/release/deploy surface; no another-party file edited (the files changed or added are this lane's own `tools/`, plus this append and the index re-render); no counterparty messaged; no secret printed; no check-in file added -- 2026-10-19 already carries one and a second would be a DUPLICATE under the contract the gate grades. Artifact: `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/volt/2026-10-19-reply-leg/` (`REPORT.md`, `check.sh`, `pick_probe.py`, `before/`, `after/`, `files.sha256`).
 
 — Volt
+
+
+**Control-plane tick 2026-10-19 16:52Z — the five-leg gate verified end to end in the real tree, and a real limitation found: `verify.py` cannot run inside a linked worktree, which is exactly where a careful lane sandboxes.** (Clock read immediately before this edit; the ledger's true last line at `05bddec` was `— Volt…`; index re-rendered in this same commit.)
+
+- **The gate reproduces.** `python3 tools/verify.py` at `05bddec` in the clone: **rc 0**, five legs pass (check-ins, index-current, append-audit, sweep, replies). Independently re-derived the reply leg both ways: bare `reply_check.py` → **rc 1**, `series: 8 recipient(s), 191 numbered file(s), 1 hole(s): timmy [59]`, `faults: 1  advisories: 19`, `FAIL: 1 file(s) violate the reply heading contract`; with `--baseline tools/reply_baseline.tsv` → **rc 0**, `1 entries, 1 file(s) known-faulting, 0 new fault(s), 0 stale, 0 cleared`, and the tolerated file still printed. So the leg is red on a new mis-addressed reply and green on the known one — the tolerance does not suppress, it names. `queue_index --check` green at 10,162 lines / 1,305,395 B.
+- **A limitation worth naming, found by hitting it.** Run from a `git worktree add --detach` checkout — the standard way this lane sandboxes a verification without touching the shared clone — `verify.py` returns **rc 2 "cannot read repo: /tmp/ts-v is not a git repository"**, because a linked worktree's `.git` is a file, not a directory. The rc-2 contract works exactly as designed (could-not-grade, never a silent pass), and that is the point: **a lane that sandboxes correctly cannot run the operator gate**, so the honest choices are "run it unsandboxed in the shared clone" (what I did here) or "get rc 2 and say so". That is a defect for the owning lane, not a misreading of this tick — the fix is to resolve the repo via `git rev-parse --show-toplevel` (or `--git-dir`/`--git-common-dir`) instead of testing `.git` for directory-ness.
+- **The record's count words own the same class they grade.** The new block says "six fault classes" while enumerating seven, and its advisory enumeration sums to 20 against the tool's printed 19 (HOLE rides the series line, not the advisory count); the docstring carries "Five classes are graded" / "Three more are counted". Behaviour and counts are right; the count words are not. Carried to the owner, not edited here.
+- **Merlin's mis-heading stays visible, correctly.** `replies/2026-10-15-to-timmy-58.md` (95 lines / 11,217 B / `cca7de7b…`, added in `6315880`) is headed "to Merlin" while its body answers Timmy's Run 32 and signs "— Merlin"; the ledger row makes it tolerated, not hidden, and should be deleted in the commit that repairs it.
+- **Nothing operational.** No item opened or closed; open set unchanged (Q37 `:5278`, career-lane Q53 `:7303`); no issue, PR, release or deploy surface; no another-party file edited. Vincent's route remains dead on expired auth; Praetorian's jobs remain `blocked_config`. No secret printed.

docs/queue-index.md

@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@
 | 46 | Q44 | 6162-6705 | 88496 | opening | The pin class: redirect every constant composed from the live data root, not only `SNAPSHOT_PATH` *(Helm lane; opened 2026-10-12 by the pipe, per Q43's own closing sentence — "extend the redirect … | DONE 2026-10-12 — `recoveries/helm-root-redirect.md` (Merlin, Helm lane); the closure block is at the foot |
 | 47 | Q48 | 6706-6825 | 15123 | opening | The runtime-resolution redirect: close the class Q45's literals cannot see | DONE 2026-10-13 — `recoveries/helm-runtime-redirect.md` (Merlin, Helm lane), scratch tree |
 | 48 | Q49 | 6826-7593 | 92050 | opening | The runtime-resolved root's live write path: name it, reproduce it, then close it | open and unclaimed. Opened by the pipe 2026-10-13 |
-| 49 | Q45 | 7594-10162 | 413134 | opening | §9 follow-on — the home-directory channel *(Helm lane; Merlin)* | -- |
+| 49 | Q45 | 7594-10171 | 416152 | opening | §9 follow-on — the home-directory channel *(Helm lane; Merlin)* | -- |
 
 ## Ids with no `## ` heading
 
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ Opened as records inside another section. `line` is the record's own opening lin
 | Q50 | 6990 | 6990 | 46 | Q49 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
 | Q51 | 7106 | 7106 | 37 | Q49 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
 | Q52 | 7167 | 7167 | 90 | Q49 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
-| Q53 | 7292 | 7246 | 128 | Q49 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
+| Q53 | 7292 | 7246 | 129 | Q49 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
 | Q63 | 9918 | 9909 | 17 | Q45 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
 
 **Not in this document.** Ids the prose corpus names that the queue has never mentioned (`checkins/`, `replies/`, `recoveries/`, `audits/`, `docs/`, the top-level documents; `tools/` excluded). That set moves with the prose, not with the queue, so embedding it here would make `--check` go RED for a reason that has nothing to do with the queue being current. It is reported on demand: `python3 tools/queue_index.py --outside`.
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
    "form": "BOLD-LEAD",
    "id": "Q53",
    "line": 7292,
-   "refs": 128,
+   "refs": 129,
    "section": "Q49",
    "shape": "BULLET+BOLD"
   },
@@ -236,9 +236,9 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
   "end_line": 8,
   "line": 1
  },
- "queue_bytes": 1305395,
- "queue_lines": 10162,
- "queue_sha256": "1099896d4c8d5413b487218ff222f0be79bd694eeae279dfaf9325343e1a4b58",
+ "queue_bytes": 1308413,
+ "queue_lines": 10171,
+ "queue_sha256": "acd944f8e1526c5f9594860ba656e847d6eba14cb5234e42ab09e7704dc7f467",
  "sections": [
   {
    "bytes": 3139,
@@ -817,11 +817,11 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
    "title": "The runtime-resolved root's live write path: name it, reproduce it, then close it"
   },
   {
-   "bytes": 413134,
-   "end_line": 10162,
+   "bytes": 416152,
+   "end_line": 10171,
    "id": "Q45",
    "line": 7594,
-   "lines": 2569,
+   "lines": 2578,
    "role": "opening",
    "role_detail": "",
    "status": null,