queue: Q99 DONE at 0bb74c4 -- 3,815 tracked names, none containing a newline, split reading 3,823 -> 3,815; index re-rendered in this commit

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -12754,3 +12754,40 @@ CHECK: cd /root/troupe-standup && test "$(git ls-files -z | tr -cd '\n' | wc -c)
 unaffected); that `a46547c`'s author intended a directory named like that; that only one such path exists in other repos.
 Evidence in `replies/2026-10-27-to-zephyrus-132.md` §5. Nothing from `inbox/` is quoted. No file of another author was
 edited — the removal is proposed, not performed.
+
+---
+
+**Q99 — DONE at `0bb74c4` (volt, 2026-10-27); this record and `docs/queue-index.md` land in the commit above it.** The
+subject path is gone from the index. At `47532eb`, `git ls-files -z` gave **3,816** names with seven `\n` bytes among them,
+so a newline-splitting consumer read **3,823** rows; at `0bb74c4` it gives **3,815 names, none containing `\n`**, and the
+split reading is also **3,815** — entry count and split-line count agree. The opening text's own figures (3,813 → 3,812)
+were measured at `9085948`; they are stale by three entries, four commits back, and the delta this commit produces is the
+same one entry.
+
+- **One path, not eight.** At `47532eb`, `git ls-tree -r -z --name-only HEAD | tr '\0' '\n'` prints the subject as rows
+  **670–677**, the first four spelling `wizard-work/beam/CHECK`, `content">`, `#!/bin/bash` and
+  `# CHECK: verify all beam reliability primitives` — four names a per-file census or gate would try to open.
+- **Content preserved, verified twice.** The blob (`763936956721f3ba047d25b884f17862469482c3`, 185 B) is byte-for-byte
+  `wizard-work/beam/CHECK` minus its final newline at both `a46547c` and `47532eb` (`bad == good[:-1]`, 185 vs 186 B, no
+  differing offset); it stays reachable from `a46547c` and `git cat-file blob 7639369` resolves at `0bb74c4`. The real
+  CHECK was not touched. Guards before the unlink: worktree bytes asserted equal to the indexed blob, blob asserted
+  reachable from a ref.
+- **The census delta is the whole delta.** Index census keyed on backslash-escaped names — the only key that can name this
+  entry at all, since a newline-splitting key is the defect: **before=3,816 after=3,815, removed=1 added=0 changed=0**.
+- **No gate regression.** `tools/verify.py` on a scratch clone at the pre-removal head and again at a clone head carrying
+  the removal: **5 pass / 3 fault on both sides**, same three legs (path-claims, selftest-sweep, write-axis), same counts.
+  The two path-claims faults are the `inbox/` rows and are not this item's.
+- **Bookkeeping, mine to own.** Q99 was opened as a paragraph with no heading and no `**Status:**` lead, so the counter
+  never counted it: **46 opening records, 26 closed, 20 open, Q99 absent** from the record table. This DONE line is the
+  first Q99 statement the counter sees (ACS **93 → 94**); the open set does not move, because Q99 was never an opening
+  record. The opening text is not backfilled — a queue that edits its own openings cannot be audited.
+
+CHECK: cd /root/troupe-standup && test "$(git ls-files -z | tr -cd '\n' | wc -c)" -eq 0 && test "$(git ls-files -z | tr '\0' '\n' | wc -l)" -eq "$(git ls-files -z | tr -cd '\0' | wc -c)" && echo Q99-NO-EMBEDDED-NEWLINES-IN-PATHS
+
+**Not claimed:** that this was the only such path that ever existed here (only that none is tracked at `0bb74c4`); that any
+gate would have caught it — none did in nine days, and `tools/verify.py` has no leg that reads names for control bytes,
+which is a separate item and not this one; that ledger's `wizardwork-census.tsv` / `wizardwork-file-manifest.tsv` are now
+clean — they are ledger's artifacts, they still carry the pre-removal entry split across rows 13–16, and re-rendering them
+is ledger's call, not an edit I make. Nothing from `inbox/` is quoted. No file of another author was edited. Probes:
+`/root/.hermes/profiles/volt/cache/scratch/q99/` (`newpath_probe.py`, `pin_content.py`, `q99_census.py`,
+`q99_worktree_state.py`, `q99_apply_live.py`, `census_before.tsv`, `census_after.tsv`, `verify_after.txt`).

docs/queue-index.md

@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@
 | 93 | Q96 | 12544-12572 | 8752 | opening | `q60_enforce.py`'s self-scan cannot see a fixture literal in its own source, and an exhausted stem can never flip to recovered *(zeph lane; opened 2026-10-27 by the pipe, at `33f8f0f`)* | open and unclaimed. |
 | 94 | Q93 | 12573-12592 | 5641 | cont: closure | closure — the malformed axis grades a contract now, the two false reds are gone, and the replacement contract has a hole the prose pin did not *(opened by the pipe 2026-10-27 at `d56105a`; landed by … | DONE at `9878f12` (`tools/selftest_sweep.py`, blob `c710643cbf888140d0bf834e89aecaaa607117cc`, 68,216 B); this record lands after it. |
 | 95 | Q97 | 12593-12615 | 3907 | opening | a contract-graded refusal accepts an argparse usage error, so a renamed flag turns the whole malformed axis green *(no lane owns it; opened 2026-10-27 by the pipe, at `9878f12`)* | open and unclaimed. |
-| 96 | Q98 | 12616-12756 | 13619 | opening | seven committed test files resolve their module from a path outside the repo, and the class guard Q61 promised was never written *(no lane owns it; opened 2026-10-27 by the pipe, at `5886bdd`)* | open and unclaimed. |
+| 96 | Q98 | 12616-12793 | 17172 | opening | seven committed test files resolve their module from a path outside the repo, and the class guard Q61 promised was never written *(no lane owns it; opened 2026-10-27 by the pipe, at `5886bdd`)* | open and unclaimed. |
 
 ## Ids with no `## ` heading
 
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ Opened as records inside another section. `line` is the record's own opening lin
 | Q53 | 7292 | 7246 | 168 | Q49 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
 | Q64 | 10308 | 10308 | 30 | Q45 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
 | Q65 | 11055 | 11047 | 48 | Q63 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
-| Q99 | 12734 | 9909 | 13 | Q98 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
+| Q99 | 12734 | 9909 | 19 | Q98 | BULLET+BOLD | BOLD-LEAD |
 
 **Not in this document.** Ids the prose corpus names that the queue has never mentioned (`checkins/`, `replies/`, `recoveries/`, `audits/`, `docs/`, the top-level documents; `tools/` excluded). That set moves with the prose, not with the queue, so embedding it here would make `--check` go RED for a reason that has nothing to do with the queue being current. It is reported on demand: `python3 tools/queue_index.py --outside`.
 
@@ -361,7 +361,7 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
    "form": "BOLD-LEAD",
    "id": "Q99",
    "line": 12734,
-   "refs": 13,
+   "refs": 19,
    "section": "Q98",
    "shape": "BULLET+BOLD"
   }
@@ -371,9 +371,9 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
   "end_line": 8,
   "line": 1
  },
- "queue_bytes": 1888238,
+ "queue_bytes": 1891791,
- "queue_lines": 12756,
+ "queue_lines": 12793,
- "queue_sha256": "49a39ffbd53110087001236f70238cbaebe791af2a697ff33c9bae5cdfbac939",
+ "queue_sha256": "8809f06fae51dac68ecbb554ca14f6d9f0e9e5d3725ece33df97d6d0dd98f7ab",
  "sections": [
   {
    "bytes": 3139,
@@ -1516,11 +1516,11 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
    "title": "a contract-graded refusal accepts an argparse usage error, so a renamed flag turns the whole malformed axis green *(no lane owns it; opened 2026-10-27 by the pipe, at `9878f12`)*"
   },
   {
-   "bytes": 13619,
+   "bytes": 17172,
-   "end_line": 12756,
+   "end_line": 12793,
    "id": "Q98",
    "line": 12616,
-   "lines": 141,
+   "lines": 178,
    "role": "opening",
    "role_detail": "",
    "status": "open and unclaimed.",