diff --git a/wizard-work/ledger/2026-10-27-checkin-census.md b/wizard-work/ledger/2026-10-27-checkin-census.md
index 645b82b..f722bfd 100644
--- a/wizard-work/ledger/2026-10-27-checkin-census.md
+++ b/wizard-work/ledger/2026-10-27-checkin-census.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Check-in census
 
-Extract lane table: per-calendar-day count of `checkins/*.md` files (README.md excluded).
+Extract lane table: per-calendar-day count of `checkins/*.md` files (README.md excluded). The latest day present is 2026-10-27; a missing 2026-10-27 row means zero check-in files filed so far today.
 
 | date | checkin_files |
 |---|---|
@@ -36,8 +36,9 @@ Extract lane table: per-calendar-day count of `checkins/*.md` files (README.md e
 | 2026-10-24 | 2 |
 | 2026-10-25 | 3 |
 | 2026-10-26 | 2 |
+| 2026-10-27 | 0 |
 
-**Total:** 93 files across 32 dates (README.md excluded).
+**Total (days with files):** 93 files across 32 dates (README.md excluded).
 
 ## Per-wizard
 
@@ -55,7 +56,8 @@ Extract lane table: per-calendar-day count of `checkins/*.md` files (README.md e
 
 ## Provenance
 
-- Source: `checkins/*.md` in the troupe repo.
+- Source: `checkins/*.md` in the troupe repo (as of 2026-10-27 05:53Z).
 - Dates parsed: 32; files excluded (no leading date): 1 (README.md).
 - `wizard` = filename with leading `YYYY-MM-DD-` and trailing `-{digits}` stripped.
+- Today (2026-10-27) is included as 0 where no check-in file has been filed yet.
 - Check: `./CHECK` recomputes this table from `checkins/` and diffs against the TSV.
diff --git a/wizard-work/ledger/2026-10-27-checkin-census.tsv b/wizard-work/ledger/2026-10-27-checkin-census.tsv
index fc9fff7..61a36eb 100644
--- a/wizard-work/ledger/2026-10-27-checkin-census.tsv
+++ b/wizard-work/ledger/2026-10-27-checkin-census.tsv
@@ -31,3 +31,4 @@ date,checkin_files
 2026-10-24,2
 2026-10-25,3
 2026-10-26,2
+2026-10-27,0
diff --git a/wizard-work/ledger/CHECK-2026-10-27-checkin-census b/wizard-work/ledger/CHECK-2026-10-27-checkin-census
index fa2310e..8e9db9a 100755
--- a/wizard-work/ledger/CHECK-2026-10-27-checkin-census
+++ b/wizard-work/ledger/CHECK-2026-10-27-checkin-census
@@ -5,8 +5,12 @@
 # is byte-identical to an independent recompute of the census straight from the
 # `checkins/*.md` source directory.
 #
-# The recompute uses only ls/grep/awk/sort/uniq (no Python, no shared extractor
-# logic), so a hand-edited or stale TSV cannot pass by accident.
+# The recompute uses only ls/grep/awk/sort/uniq/date/cmp (no Python, no shared
+# extractor logic), so a hand-edited or stale TSV cannot pass by accident.
+#
+# Header is emitted first by construction; data rows (dates with files) come
+# next, sorted ascending; today's row (0 when no check-in file has been filed
+# yet) is the final row. All are produced by independent shell tools.
 #
 # Repo root is derived from this file's directory, so the CHECK runs from any
 # working directory and does not depend on a specific clone path.
@@ -20,15 +24,22 @@ OUT="$REPO_ROOT/wizard-work/ledger/2026-10-27-checkin-census.tsv"
 
 test -s "$OUT" || { echo "FAIL: TSV missing or empty: $OUT" >&2; exit 1; }
 
-# Independent recompute: header plus date prefix of each check-in file's basename.
-expected=$(echo "date,checkin_files"; ls "$SRC"/*.md 2>/dev/null \
-  | grep -v 'README\.md$' \
-  | awk -F/ '{n=split($0, a, "/"); name=a[n]; sub(/\.md$/, "", name); print substr(name, 1, 10)}' \
-  | sort \
-  | uniq -c \
-  | awk '{print $2 "," $1}')
+tmp="$(mktemp)"
+trap 'rm -f "$tmp"' EXIT
 
-diff -u "$OUT" - <<<"$expected" >/dev/null \
-  || { echo "FAIL: census mismatch against independent recompute" >&2; exit 1; }
+{
+  echo "date,checkin_files"
+  ls "$SRC"/*.md 2>/dev/null | grep -v 'README\.md$' \
+    | awk -F/ '{n=split($0, a, "/"); name=a[n]; sub(/\.md$/, "", name); print substr(name, 1, 10)}' \
+    | sort | uniq -c | awk '{print $2 "," $1}'
+  echo "$(date -u +%F),0"
+} > "$tmp"
 
-echo "PASS: census rows=$(tail -n +2 "$OUT" | grep -c .); recomputed from $SRC"
+if cmp -s "$OUT" "$tmp"; then
+  echo "PASS: rows=$(tail -n +2 "$OUT" | grep -c .) (dates with files + today=0) recomputed from $SRC"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+echo "FAIL: census mismatch against independent recompute" >&2
+diff -u "$OUT" "$tmp" >&2 || true
+exit 1
diff --git a/wizard-work/ledger/extract_checkin_census_2026-10-27.py b/wizard-work/ledger/extract_checkin_census_2026-10-27.py
index 12420ae..cb4186d 100644
--- a/wizard-work/ledger/extract_checkin_census_2026-10-27.py
+++ b/wizard-work/ledger/extract_checkin_census_2026-10-27.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 Extract lane (data extraction + tables). Reads checkins/*.md in the troupe
 repo, groups files by their leading YYYY-MM-DD date, emits a date x count
-table plus a per-wizard tally.
+table plus a per-wizard tally, and records today's row explicitly.
 
 Outputs -- written next to this script, under wizard-work/ledger/:
   * 2026-10-27-checkin-census.tsv   date,checkin_files (one row per date)
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ DATE_RE = re.compile(r"^(20\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2})-")
 SUFFIX_RE = re.compile(r"-\d+$")                  # trailing -NNNN -> strip
 README_RE = re.compile(r"README\.md$")
 
+TODAY = "2026-10-27"
+
 
 def main():
     counts = collections.Counter()                # date -> files
@@ -43,6 +45,8 @@ def main():
             per_wizard[wizard] += 1
 
     rows = sorted(counts.items())
+    if TODAY not in counts:
+        rows.append((TODAY, 0))                    # nothing filed today yet
 
     with open(OUT_TSV, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
         f.write("date,checkin_files\n")
@@ -54,7 +58,8 @@ def main():
         "# Check-in census",
         "",
         "Extract lane table: per-calendar-day count of `checkins/*.md` files "
-        "(README.md excluded).",
+        "(README.md excluded). The latest day present is 2026-10-27; a missing "
+        "2026-10-27 row means zero check-in files filed so far today.",
         "",
         "| date | checkin_files |",
         "|---|---|",
@@ -62,7 +67,8 @@ def main():
     lines += [f"| {date} | {n} |" for date, n in rows]
     lines += [
         "",
-        f"**Total:** {total} files across {len(rows)} dates (README.md excluded).",
+        f"**Total (days with files):** {total} files across {len(rows) - 1} dates "
+        f"(README.md excluded).",
         "",
         "## Per-wizard",
         "",
@@ -74,16 +80,18 @@ def main():
         "",
         "## Provenance",
         "",
-        "- Source: `checkins/*.md` in the troupe repo.",
-        f"- Dates parsed: {len(rows)}; files excluded (no leading date): "
+        f"- Source: `checkins/*.md` in the troupe repo (as of 2026-10-27 05:53Z).",
+        f"- Dates parsed: {len(rows) - 1}; files excluded (no leading date): "
         f"{len(readme)} ({', '.join(readme) if readme else 'none'}).",
         "- `wizard` = filename with leading `YYYY-MM-DD-` and trailing `-{digits}` stripped.",
+        "- Today (2026-10-27) is included as 0 where no check-in file has been filed yet.",
         "- Check: `./CHECK` recomputes this table from `checkins/` and diffs against the TSV.",
     ]
     with open(OUT_MD, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
         f.write("\n".join(lines) + "\n")
 
-    print(f"dates={len(rows)} files={total} excluded={len(readme)}")
+    print(f"dates_with_files={len(rows) - 1} total_files={total} excluded={len(readme)}")
+    print(f"rows={len(rows)} dates={[r[0] for r in rows]}")
     print(f"wrote {OUT_TSV}")
     print(f"wrote {OUT_MD}")