diff --git a/WORK-QUEUE.md b/WORK-QUEUE.md
index ce9b175..0a6ef00 100644
--- a/WORK-QUEUE.md
+++ b/WORK-QUEUE.md
@@ -10659,3 +10659,12 @@ Artifact `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/volt/2026-10-23-tracked-residue/` — `RE
 **Volt postscript, same tick (2026-10-23) — the record above was written before its own push, and its artifact sentence counts runs, not files.** The branch head carrying it is `65087ea` (`ab0d96a` the fix, `6b80fdf` the record, plus a merge of `2d31e63`). Read back from the served branch: `GET /.gitignore` → **200 / 546 B**, `GET /wizard-work/spark/__pycache__/todo.cpython-314.pyc` → **404**, and the served `WORK-QUEUE.md` is **1,452,983 B** carrying this record at line 10,646. The artifact's manifest holds **13 entries across 8 transcript files** — the six runs named above, two of which (`before.json`, `after.json`) carry the same measurement as data — so "six transcripts" beside a 13-line manifest counts runs, not files, and is corrected here rather than left to be caught. `sh check.sh` at that state → `CHECK: PASS`, 9 checks, rc 0. No item opened or closed; the open set is unchanged (`Q37`'s pipe span, the career-lane `Q53` decision held for Alexander, `Q64`'s design question Alexander's).
 
 — Volt
+
+**Volt postscript 2, same tick (2026-10-23) — the instrument's cell count moved 20 → 22, and the "before" figure is a property of a checkout.** Two corrections, both measured, neither changing what landed in the tree.
+
+1. **A defect in the shipped tool, found by reading it with another tool.** Ruff's `RUF034` flagged a redundant branch in `source_candidates()`, and the branch was not merely redundant: for an unversioned blob it stripped one character and then appended `.py`, so `legacy.pyc` resolved to `legacy.py.py` and would have been marked `ORPHAN`. The fix is `os.path.splitext`; cells `c21`/`c22` now pin the unversioned case and the rule that a `__pycache__` blob resolves beside its source. `--selftest` therefore reads **22 cells, 22 passed** where the record above says twenty. No before/after figure moves: all nineteen real files are versioned blobs in `__pycache__`, which the old resolver handled correctly — the defect was on a path none of them took.
+2. **The before figures in the record are the live checkout's, and the artifact's are a clone's.** `ignore: 1 of 7` and `untracked: 23` were read in the pre-fix worktree — one sample covered by `.ruff_cache/.gitignore:2:*` (ruff's own cache file), twenty-three untracked paths from other lanes' run caches. A pristine clone of `a7f70cd` reads **`0 of 7`, `0 untracked`, `FAULT 26`**, and that is what `transcripts/before.txt` now holds, because the ignore and untracked legs grade the checkout rather than the revision and a historical checkout cannot be borrowed from a repaired tree. The tool prints the checkout it read in its own header for this reason, and `check.sh` builds the pre-fix clone rather than reusing the live tree.
+
+Nothing else moved: `ab0d96a` still carries zero tracked `.pyc` and the first `.gitignore`, the tracked paths are 2,614 → 2,596 across it, and `sh check.sh` at this state reads **CHECK: PASS**, nine checks, rc 0. No item opened or closed.
+
+— Volt
diff --git a/docs/queue-index.md b/docs/queue-index.md
index 6527ebf..e4472b0 100644
--- a/docs/queue-index.md
+++ b/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 | 7594-10661 | 561754 | opening | §9 follow-on — the home-directory channel *(Helm lane; Merlin)* | OPEN — awaiting Alexander's zoom/whole-shop answer; build is the pipe's. |
+| 49 | Q45 | 7594-10670 | 563721 | opening | §9 follow-on — the home-directory channel *(Helm lane; Merlin)* | OPEN — awaiting Alexander's zoom/whole-shop answer; build is the pipe's. |
 
 ## Ids with no `## ` heading
 
@@ -246,9 +246,9 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
   "end_line": 8,
   "line": 1
  },
- "queue_bytes": 1454015,
- "queue_lines": 10661,
- "queue_sha256": "f3c7b26cfd5bffc54470540d03d99a0667e9ecfc564c935899aaf0c399b92a0c",
+ "queue_bytes": 1455982,
+ "queue_lines": 10670,
+ "queue_sha256": "2bf1d8c31f277da5478ba3bf7dac46965a9b31bd776bd6d035a0ee871ecd2e6d",
  "sections": [
   {
    "bytes": 3139,
@@ -827,11 +827,11 @@ 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": 561754,
-   "end_line": 10661,
+   "bytes": 563721,
+   "end_line": 10670,
    "id": "Q45",
    "line": 7594,
-   "lines": 3068,
+   "lines": 3077,
    "role": "opening",
    "role_detail": "",
    "status": "OPEN \u2014 awaiting Alexander's zoom/whole-shop answer; build is the pipe's.",