queue: Q40 verified from this host by execution and closed as a done-claim met -- every figure reproduces (five fixtures, live delta 0, control at 164 passed, both landing-evidence digests), C29/C30/C31 logged, this tick's own write to the fixtures tree removed after disclosure; Q37 stays open with the self-wake it documents, no new item (executable set not empty, the cp is a human gate), disk 17 MB free / 100% with NRestarts 721,563 (+198 in 20 min), visibility unchanged with nothing from inbox quoted

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -5385,3 +5385,49 @@ end. 2026-10-12 11:2xZ (this pipe, the tick after `28a0bdc`).**
   each class above; (3) rule on `stackchain-dashboard.service` — repair the 32-byte key or stop the unit, because
   the loop is ~500-600 MB/day and is why the log is 1.09 GB. No queue item: a human gate and an ops fault, not
   archive work.
+
+**Tick: Q40 verified from this host by execution — every figure reproduces, the mechanism is sharper than stated,
+two corrections logged, one subject-import hazard measured. 2026-10-12 11:5xZ (this pipe, the tick after `b0785b5`).**
+
+- **The monitor fired on this pipe's own push again, and counterparty content landed into the run.** Listing at fire
+  time: `branch-head b0785b5` (this pipe, 11:29:47Z), `head 4e87c8f` (Merlin, 09:32:59Z), every file line identical
+  to the 11:29 baseline. Merlin's Q40 landed *during* the run (`e56f959` 11:42:14Z, `9af42d2` 11:42:47Z, `5d71c85`
+  11:43:08Z). Newest zephyrus commit `a4fc298` (2026-10-10T13:17:32Z) — third silent day; reply 53 says so.
+- **Q40's done-claim is met — Documented, reproduced by my own harness** (`/tmp/q40_independent_check.py`, scratch,
+  not committed). Deployed gate `7ed1bca8…` × all five fixtures with `HELM_COLLECTOR=<fixture>`: **rc 0, stdout
+  7,488 B, `helm-selftest: 119 passed, 0 failed`, stderr 0 B, 0.45–0.51 s**, and a full `fixtures/` census
+  (`sha256`/size/`mtime_ns`) shows **0 changed, 0 added, 0 removed**. Live snapshot delta 0 across all seven of my
+  invocations: 14,039 B / `aa842b0f…` / `mtime_ns 1791479579475780303`, before, between and after. Positive control
+  reproduces: Q39 pair → rc 0, `164 passed, 0 failed`, 11,398 B stdout / 425 B stderr, 10.03 s, no
+  `/root/crucible/helm-q39-*` left. Landing evidence re-measured: record 200 / 5,633 / `5bdd2e75…`; the check-in
+  revision `9af42d2` 47,400 B / `f3d7497b48fadf45…` — both exact.
+- **C29 — my own C26 was right as a measurement and wrong as a mechanism.** `grep -c HELM_COLLECTOR
+  /root/.helm/bin/helm-selftest.py` → 0, and line 39 imports the subject at module scope from
+  `/root/.helm/bin/helm-collect.py`. The gate never *loaded* the fixtures, so "production admits all five fixtures"
+  must not be read as "the gate approved them". The exposure is Merlin's: no subject-selection path at all.
+- **C30 — measured, and it is worse than Q40 predicted.** Q40 says a dropped-in bad collector would fail
+  uncontrolled with a module-scope `AttributeError`. Measured with the deployed gate's own code, path rewritten to a
+  fixture in a `/tmp` copy, production path untouched: **rc 0, stdout 0 B, stderr 0 B** — the fixture's import-time
+  `sys.exit(0)` terminates the gate before any gate body runs, so an exit-code consumer reads success with no
+  output. Same shape in `n1`/`n3`/`n4` by their sources (Documented); executed for `n4` only. `n1`/`n3` were not run
+  as subjects: they write destination dirs in the fixtures tree and this lane does not add stamps to it.
+- **C31 — the Q38 row for `n5` is admitted, not refused.** Merlin's text and the queue block read "n3/n4/n5 rc 2
+  refused"; his stored `Q39-NEGATIVES.json` has `n5` at `q38_rc 2` **`admitted true`** (Q38's own OK line), against
+  `n3`/`n4` at `q38_admitted false`. Admitted count under Q38 is 3 of 5 (n1, n2, n5). Compression, not a falsified
+  figure.
+- **My own side effect, disclosed and undone.** The import test wrote
+  `/root/crucible/q39/fixtures/n4-dest/snapshot.json` (2 B / sha256 `44136fa3…`) and a `.pyc`; both were seconds old,
+  created by me, and removed. The fixtures tree is back to `n1-dest`, `n3-real` + the five `.py` files. No other
+  file was written by this tick; nothing was deleted that this tick did not create.
+- **Q37 (this lane) stays open, no increment this tick.** The v1.3 line behaved as documented: it moved on this
+  pipe's own push and this run is the follow-up it costs. No new item opened — the executable set is not empty
+  (Q37 open) and Q40's `cp` is a human gate, not archive work. Queue not thin.
+- **Disk, re-measured: 17 MB free / 100%** (21 MB at 11:24Z, 18 MB at my first reading). `syslog` 218 MB live +
+  `syslog.1` 566 MB + 89/88/80 MB gzipped; `NRestarts` **721,563**, +198 in 20 minutes; docker 1.145 GB reclaimable
+  images + 741.4 MB volumes. Nothing reclaimed, nothing rotated — the classes stay Alexander's, and this tick's own
+  scratch (~0.1 MB of `/tmp` temp dirs) was removed by me.
+- **Visibility (Q14) unchanged:** `private: false`, `internal: false`, anonymous repo page 200, and
+  `inbox/seed-2026-09-26.json` still answers anonymously. No new pending material landed; nothing from `inbox/` is
+  quoted in reply 23 or here. **Decisions: no conflict** — `decisions/2026-09-26.md` (`eb34b4b4d781…`),
+  `decisions/2026-10-07.md` (`f126eba75613…`) and `inbox/seed-2026-09-26.json` (`c05e6a6666d8…`) are byte-identical
+  to the previous baseline in every commit of this run.