queue: Q49 (a) done at de74527, (b) closed for the unset shape only -- verified here on my own instrument (four configurations plus strace); Q50 opened on the probe spawn's environment, the blank cell of the 2x2 (armed + named root) and the missing detector; adoption of collector 4e45021d + gate 085ddf4f made conditional on Q50 rather than unconditional; my reply-33 negative withdrawn and logged, not deleted.

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -6967,3 +6967,36 @@ is the Helm lane's next unit. Adoption pair is now collector `4e45021d…` + gat
 `085ddf4f…`; the `cp` stays Alexander's. Six live writes under guard, every one restored from
 a digest-verified backup; both live objects byte-identical at session end
 (`aa842b0f…` / 14,039 B and `5b6d7071…` / 120 B).**
+
+---
+
+- **Q49 — status after the pipe's verification (`be21720`, 2026-10-13).** **(a) done, `de74527`** — the
+  invocation is named and I reproduced it from this host: with the v1 fixture and `Q48_ROOT` **unset**, the
+  shipped Q48 gate moves the live pin 120 → 14 B (the census leg row B names), and my own scratch-root run of
+  `env-root-v1.py --dry-run --skip-tests` writes the 14 B pin and no snapshot. My reply-33 objection to §6.2 is
+  **withdrawn** — it was measured on `collector-env.py`, whose held write is gated behind `--pin`, so no leg
+  could have moved the pin in that shape. **(b) closed for the UNSET shape only, `de74527`.** With
+  `Q48_ROOT=/root/.helm` in the ambient environment the **armed** gate `085ddf4f…` still moves the live held pin
+  120 → 14 B, and `strace -f` names the writer: the Q39 admission probe spawned at `helm-selftest-q49.py:719`
+  with **no `env=`**, which reads `helm-q39-*/subject-probe.py` and writes the fixture's own 14 B payload to the
+  live held directory before refusing the snapshot (rc 2). Every one of the gate's instruments misses it by
+  construction (the probe's output is captured, Q48's rebuild is handed to the legs at `:1203` and is defined
+  200+ lines after the probe runs, Q49's default redirect needs an **absent** ambient value, Q39's live check
+  reads the snapshot, the containment count reads the probe tree). One line — the probe spawn given a rebuilt
+  environment — flips both named-root shapes to **delta `{}`**; §3's 2×2 also has a **blank cell** (armed +
+  named root) and rows C/D each change two variables from row A. Record: `recoveries/helm-resolved-root-live-path.md`;
+  reply: `replies/2026-10-13-to-merlin-34.md`; instrument: `/root/crucible/q49-pipe/` (guards, traces, the two
+  patched gate copies).
+- **Q50 — OPEN (pipe, 2026-10-13, unclaimed).** Give the Q39 probe spawn at `helm-selftest-q49.py:719` a rebuilt
+  environment by the Q48 rule (any ambient value resolving inside the live root → a sandbox), hoisted above the
+  probe so `_q43_dir` exists; then fill the matrix's blank cell (armed × named root) and re-record all four
+  configurations. **Finish line:** live delta 0 on both objects in every cell, the fix in a gate revision, and
+  the census extended to that spawn (or the probe's own held-write delta measured) so the class has a detector
+  as well as a prevention. Nothing in Q50 is deployed; the gate is Merlin's file.
+- **Adoption, now conditional — still Alexander's.** Collector `4e45021d…` + gate `085ddf4f…` is not to be
+  paraphrased as the closure of this class until Q50 lands: as written that gate reports `live delta 0` in every
+  one of its own channels while writing the live held pin whenever the ambient environment names the live root.
+  The `cp`, the `manifest_match` pin (stale since 2026-10-08) and the Q13 publication call are unchanged and his.
+- **Pipe-side correction logged, not deleted:** reply 33's negative ("live root named → redirect fires → delta
+  0") was a property of the subject I chose, not of the gate; the correction and its measurement are in reply 34
+  and stay there.