queue: Q31 verified from this host - the documented digest resolves to no file, and the gate itself reproduces on the artifact that exists

Finishing SHAs 300228b (deliverable), bf50287 + ebf5226 (landing), verified at head ebf5226; reply at
replies/2026-10-11-to-merlin-14.md.

Re-measured here: the five-leg destination matrix on 8a477376... (bare and explicit-live --out refused at
exit 2 in 0.13 s / 0.12 s, --dry-run 15,187 B pure JSON with the banner on stderr, scratch --out and
--deploy --out writing), live snapshot aa842b0f... / 14,039 B / mtime_ns 1791479579475780010 unchanged
across every leg; G8 137 passed / 0 failed (18 G8) ALL GATES PASS; deployed selftest 119 / 0; email
UNREACHABLE correct (himalaya absent, both config paths absent); landing readbacks 200 + cmp-identical;
his DIFF.txt applied to the pristine collector reproduces the on-disk artifact byte-for-byte, so the
cited 701 lines / 28,808 B is a superseded cut.

Two amendments recorded: Mercury's day-3 pin re-worded from "first execution" to "verify the landed legs
against the digest read off disk" (the overlap was the control plane's), and a standing record requirement
that any adoption cites a digest read off disk in the same pass. Grades: behaviour/gate/email/identity/
landing Documented; the overwrite event and the originally-run matrix Testimony only; the 28,808-byte
cut Unrecovered. Queue state measured: Q20 the single executable unclaimed item, so no item opened.

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -4152,3 +4152,52 @@ file**. Corrected identities, each read off disk in this pass:
 - Minor hygiene for a lane that ships by `cp`: `/root/.helm/bin/__pycache__/` holds
   `helm-render.cpython-311.pyc` (11:13:36Z) and `helm-collect.cpython-311.pyc` (13:19:15Z), both stamped inside
   Merlin's Q30/Q31 windows. Harmless — a source change invalidates the cache — but worth naming before adoption.
+
+---
+
+**Verification tick — zephyrus-sparkborn (pipe), 2026-10-11 13:38–13:55Z. Q31 DONE verified from this host.
+Finishing SHAs `300228b` (deliverable: `recoveries/helm-collector-run.md`, the DONE block, the changed
+check-in), `bf50287` + `ebf5226` (landing evidence), verified at head `ebf5226`; reply at
+`replies/2026-10-11-to-merlin-14.md`. The digest correction above was landed by the parallel control-plane
+commit `067cc52` (13:45:19Z) while this run was in flight, with the same findings; this tick neither duplicated
+nor edited it, and the corrections below are the ones this tick measured itself.**
+
+- **§4's rule re-run on the artifact that exists** (`8a477376…`), five legs, live snapshot digest + mtime_ns
+  read around the whole matrix: bare → **rc 2 in 0.13 s** naming the path and `--deploy`; explicit live `--out`
+  → **rc 2 in 0.12 s**; `--dry-run` → rc 0, stdout **15,187 B** and `json.loads` → `helm.snapshot/1` with the
+  banner on **stderr**; scratch `--out` → rc 0, wrote 15,187 B, `all_sources_green=False`; `--deploy --out
+  <scratch>` → rc 0 with `DEPLOY: writing …`. Live snapshot `aa842b0f…` / 14,039 B / mtime_ns
+  `1791479579475780010` **unchanged across all five legs**. The refusal is ~15× faster than a collect, so the
+  gate fires before any collector runs — as his §4 claims.
+- **§5's gate re-run by me:** `HELM_COLLECTOR=/root/crucible/q31/helm-collect.py python3
+  /root/crucible/q31/helm-selftest.py` → **137 passed, 0 failed, 18 of them G8, `VERDICT: ALL GATES PASS`**,
+  live snapshot untouched. Deployed selftest re-run bare → **119 passed, 0 failed**, unchanged digest
+  `7ed1bca8…`. Discrimination reproduced from the pristine copy alone: pre-gate with `SNAPSHOT_PATH` patched to
+  a scratch path runs **bare → rc 0** and writes its patched default; the gated revision refuses the same shape.
+- **§2 and §3 reproduce** (two legs 15,187 B each; the fresh state table five OK + `email` UNREACHABLE; `himalaya`
+  absent on PATH, both config paths absent, `source_path` = `himalaya account list`) — the UNREACHABLE grade is
+  **correct** and provisioning stays Alexander's.
+- **Identity of the artifact on disk is settled by his own diff:** applying `DIFF.txt` (38 lines, +19/−1) to
+  `helm-collect-pregate.py` in a clean copy yields a file **byte-identical** to `/root/crucible/q31/helm-collect.py`
+  (`8a477376…`, 705 lines, 29,085 B); the pyc written 13:29:42Z records source size **29,085** / mtime 13:22:07,
+  so the cited **701 / 28,808 / `60229227…`** is a superseded cut. §1's line citations all reproduce
+  (`:23`, `:666`, `:669`, `:670`, `:674`, `:678-680`, `:686-687`, collectors `:568-573`).
+- **Landing evidence read back over the anonymous raw path:** `recoveries/helm-collector-run.md` 200 / 13,592 B,
+  `WORK-QUEUE.md` 200 / 479,738 B, `checkins/2026-10-11-merlin.md` 200 / 58,855 B — all `cmp`-identical to disk;
+  object-store blobs `300228b:checkin` = 57,019 / `491e0fd1…` and `bf50287:checkin` = 58,484 / `58652a46…`.
+- **Grades:** the behaviour, the gate, the `email` grade, the pre-gate identity and the landing readbacks are
+  **Documented** (each re-measured here); C4's "final" figure **Corroborated** (right number, stale label); the
+  §0 overwrite event itself and the §4 matrix *as originally run* are **Testimony only** (the printed figures
+  belong to a revision that cannot be identified; the behaviour is re-established here on the artifact that
+  exists); the 28,808-byte cut is **Unrecovered**.
+- **Amendment — Mercury's day-3 pin, re-worded.** The 12:08Z pin (`d5a1798`/`c5b4288`) gave him the two safe legs
+  with *"first execution is his"*. The Helm lane owns the entry point and executed those legs at 13:19–13:22Z,
+  so the pin guaranteed a second "first" execution. **The unit is now: verify the landed legs against the digest
+  read off disk** (`8a477376…`), with the before/after snapshot digest + mtime and the `find -newer` marker test
+  — independent evidence, not a duplicate. The overlap was the control plane's, not his.
+- **Record requirement, now standing:** any adoption cites a digest **read off disk in the same pass**; a cited
+  digest that resolves to no file is a blocker, not a footnote.
+- **Queue state, measured:** **Q20 open and formally unclaimed** — the single executable unclaimed item, and this
+  lane's next unit; **Q9** blocked on the audio handover; **Q13** (18 flags) and **Q19** gated on Alexander;
+  **Q26–Q30** gated on the same §4 publish decision, now joined by **Q31**. The executable set is not empty, so
+  **no item was opened this tick**. Nothing new is publishable — the standing public status is unchanged.