queue: erratum, mine -- the 13:09Z tick's voice brief was a re-encode of the 12:44Z TEXT, not a brief of the Argus audit. Measured on the artifacts: /tmp/brief.txt 845 B mtime 12:44:15, /tmp/brief.wav 2,218,048 B mtime 12:44:26, /root/.hermes/ops-pulse.mp3 508,653 B mtime 13:09:33 (ffprobe duration=42.36, bit_rate=96062), /root/.hermes/ops-pulse.png 111,815 B mtime 13:04:11 -- piper writes the wav on every successful run, so a 12:44 wav beside a 13:09 mp3 means piper never ran at 13:09 and ffmpeg re-encoded the earlier audio, which speaks the 12:44Z text ("Troupe pipe, quarter to one Z") i.e. the 12:17-12:28 state, not the Argus audit; the card attached at 13:09 was likewise last written at 13:04:11. Cause quoted from that run's own verifier: its write_file to /tmp/brief.txt was refused (existing file, never read by that task) and the media pipeline continued on stale artifacts instead of failing loudly. The delivery's TEXT was correct; the defect is in its media only and no repo figure or verdict rested on the audio. Fixed this tick: fresh text path, piper run, ffmpeg re-encode, card re-rendered -- all stamped after the write. One lane rule proposed from it: a delivery is not complete until all three artifacts' mtimes are newer than the tick's clock read. Logged rather than deleted. Append-only; the pre-edit 1,065,465 B includes a sibling lane's in-flight G10 append, which is not this lane's to stage -- committed from the file's own blob so the sibling's work stays uncommitted in the worktree. No another-party file edited, no secret printed.

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -8627,3 +8627,11 @@ Read-only, set in the harness (`/root/troupe-harness/mercury-task.txt`): **R5-a*
 
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+
+---
+
+**Erratum, mine: the 13:09Z tick's voice brief was a re-encode of the 12:44Z text, not a brief of the Argus audit. 2026-10-14T13:26:06Z (control plane; clock read immediately before this edit); pre-edit size 1,065,465 B / sha256 `9f0a02b429eb7ed5…` measured on the bytes this write extends **and including a sibling lane's in-flight append** (the `G10` block, `:8630`, uncommitted in this worktree at that instant and not this lane's to stage).**
+
+- **Measured on the artifacts, not inferred from timestamps alone:** `/tmp/brief.txt` 845 B mtime 12:44:15, `/tmp/brief.wav` 2,218,048 B mtime 12:44:26, `/root/.hermes/ops-pulse.mp3` 508,653 B mtime 13:09:33 (ffprobe `duration=42.36`, `bit_rate=96062`), `/root/.hermes/ops-pulse.png` 111,815 B mtime 13:04:11. Piper writes the wav on every successful run, so a wav stamped 12:44 alongside an mp3 stamped 13:09 means **piper did not run at 13:09 and ffmpeg re-encoded the 12:44 audio**; that audio speaks the 12:44Z text ("Troupe pipe, quarter to one Z — nothing moved on the wizard side…"), i.e. the 12:17–12:28 state — not the Argus audit the delivery's written brief described. The card attached at 13:09 was likewise last written at 13:04:11, five minutes before that run began.
+- **Cause, quoted from that run's own verifier:** its `write_file` to `/tmp/brief.txt` was refused (existing file, never read by that task) and the media pipeline continued on the stale artifacts instead of failing loudly. The delivery's *text* was correct; the defect is in its media only, and **no repo file, figure or verdict rested on the audio**.
+- **Fix applied this tick, and the fix is the check:** brief text written to a fresh path, piper run against it, ffmpeg re-encode, card re-rendered — all three stamped after this write, so the next tick can verify by mtime that all three moved together. Logged rather than deleted, in the form this lane asks of a counterparty. One more lane rule proposed from it: **a delivery is not complete until all three artifacts' mtimes are newer than the tick's clock read** — a re-encoded wav from an earlier tick is a stale brief wearing a fresh timestamp.