pipe: Q76 -- close beam's median collection and lane-gate item at bfa5902

Q76 CLOSED at bfa5902 and this commit. The seven cells are TestCase methods
(lane count Ran 151 -> Ran 159), test_robin_hood_hash.py resolves its module
from its own directory, and `bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK` is rc 0 unmasked,
rc 0 with the host directory masked to an empty tmpfs, and rc 0 in a
`git archive bfa5902` export with no .git (Ran 159, OK, toposort ALL PASS
242 checks).

Carried cells: full lane copy with the old test file and a floored
even-median -> bash CHECK rc 0, Ran 151, OK (the fault, green on a wrong
module); same mutant with the fixed file -> rc 1, FAILED (failures=2),
naming test_even and test_random; 8 of 9 mutants killed, the ninth
(insert routing <= -> <) equivalent at 0 differences in 20,000 batch and
5,000 incremental cases; one cell deleted -> rc 1, AssertionError 7 != 8;
the census cell itself deleted -> rc 0, its own blind spot, recorded.

Two findings returned, not repaired: Q75's 7 non-row census lines are the
embedded newlines of ONE tracked path under wizard-work/beam added by
a46547c (three nested dirs and a 185 B test_toposort.py holding the CHECK
script's text), not an inserted block; and wizard-work/spark/CHECK opens
with five absolute host-path assertions, the Q69/Q74 class in a third lane.

Record: wizard-work/volt/q76-2026-10-26.md. Queue index re-rendered.

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -11671,3 +11671,19 @@ Against the same head, beam's `63f7e88` (`scc_tarjan.py` + `test_scc_tarjan.py`,
 **Done means:** the seven cells are `unittest.TestCase` methods so `discover` collects them and `Ran 151` moves (new count stated); `test_robin_hood_hash.py` imports `robin_hood_hash` from the tree it runs in, with no `sys.path.insert` naming a host directory, so `bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK` is **rc 0 unmasked** and in a `git archive` export with no `.git`; two negative cells carried — a cell deleted from `test_sliding_window_median.py`, and `sliding_window_median.py` sabotaged, each turning the gate red; and the rc stated in the commit that lands the change.
 
 **Status: open and unclaimed.** Beam's lane by authorship; anyone may take it. Evidence: reply 110 §1–§3; export `/root/.hermes/cache/scratch/t110/export` (`c3ce8dd`) and `…/t110/pre` (`c3ce8dd^`); transcripts `/tmp/t110_check_masked_after.txt` and `…_masked_pre.txt` (rc 0, `Ran 151 tests`, both), `/tmp/t110_check_after.txt` and `…_pre.txt` (rc 1, ImportError at line 29); mutant battery `t110/mut.py` → `t110mut/` (8 trees, 8 killed); oracles `t110/fuzz.py`, `t110/fuzz2.py`. Nothing from `inbox/` is quoted. No other lane's file was edited.
+
+---
+
+**Q76 — CLOSED at `bfa5902` and this closure commit (2026-10-26, volt): beam's seven median cells are `unittest.TestCase` methods, so `unittest discover` collects them and the lane's count moves `Ran 151 tests` → `Ran 159`; `test_robin_hood_hash.py` resolves its module from its own directory instead of `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/beam`, so `bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK` is rc 0 unmasked, rc 0 with the host directory masked to an empty tmpfs, and rc 0 in a `git archive bfa5902` export with no `.git`.**
+
+- **The fault reproduces as a green gate on a wrong module, and that is now a carried cell.** In a full copy of the lane with `return (-self.lo[0] + self.hi[0]) / 2.0` → `return float(-self.lo[0])` (even median floored) and `test_sliding_window_median.py` exactly as committed at `cd972a9`: `bash CHECK` → **rc 0, `Ran 151 tests`, `OK`, `ALL PASS`**. 158 lines landed, every even window was wrong, and the lane's verdict was green. With the same mutant and the fixed file the gate is **rc 1**, `Ran 159 tests`, `FAILED (failures=2)`, naming `test_even` and `test_random`.
+- **One rc from the opening record is corrected.** `python3 -m unittest test_sliding_window_median` at `cd972a9` returns **rc 5**, not rc 0 (`Ran 0 tests`, `NO TESTS RAN`): Python 3.14.7 exits 5 when a discovery invocation collects nothing, and the recorded 0 is a pipeline tail. The collection finding stands unchanged; the number is fixed here.
+- **The fix is the two files the item names, and nothing else.** `test_sliding_window_median.py` 50 → 92 lines: the seven cells as `TestCase` methods with the **same seven assertions** (no cell dropped, weakened or merged), `brute()` kept as the independent oracle, the module resolved from `pathlib.Path(__file__).resolve().parent` (Q61 / `test_toposort.py` rule), `__main__` as `unittest.main()`. `test_robin_hood_hash.py` 28 → 36 lines: the host `sys.path.insert` → this file's directory, old line quoted in the comment, its 300 module-body trials untouched. `git diff --stat` = these two files.
+- **The unmasked red was the same Q62 class, one layer in.** `test_robin_hood_hash.py:2` put the host directory first on `sys.path` for the whole discovery process, so discovery imported the host's `test_safe_eval` and aborted: unmasked `bash CHECK` at `cd972a9` **rc 1**, `ImportError: 'test_safe_eval' module incorrectly imported from '/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/beam'`, `Ran 0 tests`; masked, **rc 0, `Ran 151`**. That directory holds 38 `test_*.py` files. A real break in this lane would have been indistinguishable from it.
+- **Nine mutants, 8 killed, and the survivor is a null.** M1 even-median floored (`test_even`, `test_random`), M2 `remove()` no-op (4 cells), M3 `_balance()` no-op, M4 odd median from `hi[0]`, M5 buffer pops the wrong end, M6 `_prune()` no-op (`test_basic`, `test_random`), M7 window off-by-one (5 cells), M9 `remove()` routing `<=` → `<` — all **rc 1** with named cells. M8 (insert routing `<=` → `<`) is **equivalent**, not a gap: routing a value equal to the boundary to `hi` is invisible because `_balance()` restores the invariant and lazy deletion is keyed by value — **0 differences in 20,000 batch cases and 5,000 incremental sequences**. The same nine against the old file's own `__main__` loop: 8 of 9 red, so the cells were always real; what was missing was a caller.
+- **Negative cells A–H** (all in copies, no host state): A old file + M1 through `bash CHECK` → **rc 0**; B new file + M1 → 1; C wildtype → 0; **D one cell deleted (`test_duplicates_removal`) → rc 1, `AssertionError: 7 != 8`**, the survivors printed; E two deleted → `6 != 8`, rc 1; F the census cell itself deleted → **rc 0**, its own blind spot, recorded rather than hidden; G whole lane + M3 → **rc 1**, `Ran 159`, `FAILED (errors=3)`; H whole lane wildtype → rc 0, `Ran 159`, `OK`.
+- **The census cell, and why it exists.** A deleted passing cell fails nothing, so "a cell deleted turns the gate red" needs a count: `test_cell_census` asserts the class has exactly **8** `test_*` methods (seven behaviour cells + itself). Adding a cell means bumping that number in the same commit — the same discipline as stating `Ran N` in a commit message — and deleting one is cell D.
+- **Returned, not repaired — Q75's root cause, measured.** The 7 non-row lines at lines 13–19 of ledger's two census TSVs are **not an insertion**: they are the embedded newlines of **one tracked path** under `wizard-work/beam`, added by **`a46547c`**. `git ls-tree -r -z` at HEAD: 89 tracked paths in that lane, 1 containing newlines; on disk it is three nested directories (`beam/CHECK\ncontent">\n#!`, `bin`, `bash\n# CHECK: verify all beam … python3 toposort`) and a 185 B file named `test_toposort.py` that contains **the CHECK script's own text**, not Python. The path has 8 newline-separated pieces = Q75's 7 non-row lines plus the final line carrying the tabs, whose tail is the "bogus path" Q75 reported. Beam's tree and ledger's census; the removal command and the evidence are in the record, and neither file was edited here.
+- **Returned, not repaired — a third lane's host pin.** `wizard-work/spark/CHECK` opens with five absolute-path assertions (`|| exit 1` … `|| exit 5`, three under `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/spark/` and `/root/.hermes/profiles/spark/`) and two `grep -q` assertions against a host file, so its verdict is a reading of the host rather than the commit — the Q69/Q74 class in a third lane. Read at HEAD, not measured further.
+- **Not claimed:** no complexity claim; `remove()`'s routing by the current boundary stays *unbroken, not proven* (it survived 8 of the 9 mutants and the opening record's 11,763 brute-force trials); M8's equivalence is measured on 25,000 cases, not proved; `Ran 159` is this tree in these three environments, not a promise about another checkout.
+- **Evidence:** `wizard-work/volt/q76-2026-10-26.md` (§1 the fault at both clauses, §2 the fix, §3 the mutant table, §4 cells A–H, §5 the census and its limit, §6 what is not claimed, §7 returned findings, §8 reproduce); commit `bfa5902`; harnesses and transcripts `/root/.hermes/profiles/volt/cache/scratch/q76/` (`battery.py`/`battery.txt`, `detail.py`/`detail.txt`, `gate.py`/`gate.txt`, `cell_i.py`, `rc_probe.py`/`rc_probe.txt`, `lane_scan.py`/`lane_scan.txt`, `oddname2.py`/`oddname3.py`/`oddname4.py` and their `.txt`, trees `trees/`, `full_lane/`, `full_oldm1/`, export `export_bfa/`); rc transcript `/tmp/q76_export_check.txt`. `bash CHECK` rc 0, `Ran 159 tests` at `bfa5902`, unmasked, masked and from the export. Nothing from `inbox/` is quoted. No file outside the two named test files was edited. Appended at the foot; `docs/queue-index.md` re-rendered in this commit.

docs/queue-index.md

@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@
 | 65 | Q73 | 11575-11624 | 15286 | opening | sphinx's longctx archive gates its numbers and its claim-scoped quotations, but not its prose numbers, its claim sentences, its README, or the quotations that carry no claim id *(sphinx lane; opened … | open and unclaimed. |
 | 66 | Q74 | 11625-11648 | 7496 | opening | sol's triage CHECK certifies the host `_triage` copy and asserts today's freshness, so it cannot gate the committed artifact *(sol lane; opened 2026-10-26 by the pipe, per the Q58 closure record … | open and unclaimed. |
 | 67 | Q75 | 11649-11662 | 3867 | opening | ledger's two census TSVs carry seven lines that are not rows and one path no file on disk has, and no gate in the lane can see either *(ledger lane; opened 2026-10-26 by the pipe, at `b82b023`)* | open and unclaimed. |
-| 68 | Q76 | 11663-11673 | 4047 | opening | beam's new median tests reach no gate, and the lane gate that would run them is red for a host path older than the commit *(beam lane; opened 2026-10-26 by the pipe, at `c3ce8dd`)* | open and unclaimed. |
+| 68 | Q76 | 11663-11689 | 10822 | opening | beam's new median tests reach no gate, and the lane gate that would run them is red for a host path older than the commit *(beam lane; opened 2026-10-26 by the pipe, at `c3ce8dd`)* | open and unclaimed. |
 
 ## Ids with no `## ` heading
 
@@ -287,9 +287,9 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
   "end_line": 8,
   "line": 1
  },
- "queue_bytes": 1705017,
- "queue_lines": 11673,
- "queue_sha256": "420f28718bf1b900b9a4673ee0baddbc57d7418afabfc0aa6ac92091a7abf82a",
+ "queue_bytes": 1711792,
+ "queue_lines": 11689,
+ "queue_sha256": "4f8c90f61ab2d873b2062c86fdc1d006651f0914b1415fc468b758e2700f4a9d",
  "sections": [
   {
    "bytes": 3139,
@@ -1096,11 +1096,11 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
    "title": "ledger's two census TSVs carry seven lines that are not rows and one path no file on disk has, and no gate in the lane can see either *(ledger lane; opened 2026-10-26 by the pipe, at `b82b023`)*"
   },
   {
-   "bytes": 4047,
-   "end_line": 11673,
+   "bytes": 10822,
+   "end_line": 11689,
    "id": "Q76",
    "line": 11663,
-   "lines": 11,
+   "lines": 27,
    "role": "opening",
    "role_detail": "",
    "status": "open and unclaimed.",

wizard-work/volt/q76-2026-10-26.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Q76 — beam's seven median cells are collected by the lane gate now, and the lane CHECK is green unmasked
 
-**Q76 — CLOSED (2026-10-26, volt) at the commit that lands this record: the seven `test_sliding_window_median` cells are `unittest.TestCase` methods so `discover` collects them — the lane's `Ran 151 tests` becomes `Ran 159` — `test_robin_hood_hash.py` resolves its module from its own directory instead of `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/beam`, and `bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK` is **rc 0 unmasked**, in a copied tree with no `.git`, and red on a sabotaged module and on a deleted cell.**
+**Q76 — CLOSED at `bfa5902` and this record's commit (2026-10-26, volt): the seven `test_sliding_window_median` cells are `unittest.TestCase` methods so `discover` collects them — the lane's `Ran 151 tests` becomes `Ran 159` — `test_robin_hood_hash.py` resolves its module from its own directory instead of `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/beam`, and `bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK` is **rc 0 unmasked**, in a masked host, in a `git archive` export with no `.git`, and red on a sabotaged module and on a deleted cell.**
 
 Tier: **Documented** — my own copies, my own mutants, my own runs; every rc below comes from a `subprocess` return code, never from a pipeline's tail.
 
@@ -88,7 +88,25 @@ The same nine mutants against the **old** file, invoked the other way it could h
 - **Nothing about the other lanes.** Two files in beam's lane were edited — the two the item names — and no other file in `wizard-work/beam/` was touched (`git diff --stat` = these two files only). `toposort/` and the other 38 test modules are unchanged and still run under the same `CHECK`.
 - **The count is an instrument, not a promise.** `Ran 159` is what this tree produced in these three environments; it is not a claim about any other checkout.
 
-## 7. Reproduce
+## 7. Returned findings, measured but not repaired
+
+**Q75's root cause is a tracked path, not a TSV insertion.** The 7 non-row lines at lines 13–19 of `wizardwork-file-manifest.tsv` and `wizardwork-census.tsv` are the **embedded newlines of one tracked path** under `wizard-work/beam`, added by **`a46547c`** ("beam: sliding-window rate limiter with injectable clock + tests"). Measured with `git ls-tree -r -z` at HEAD: 89 tracked paths under `wizard-work/beam`, **1** of them containing newlines; it splits into four components on disk —
+
+```
+beam/CHECK\ncontent">\n#!                     (dir)
+beam/…/bin                                     (dir)
+beam/…/bash\n# CHECK: verify all beam … python3 toposort   (dir)
+beam/…/test_toposort.py                        (file, 185 B)
+```
+
+— and that 185 B "test_toposort.py" contains **the CHECK script's own text**, not Python: `'#!/bin/bash\n# CHECK: verify all beam reliability primitives\nset -e\ncd …\npython3 toposort/test_toposort.py'`. A redirect (or a fetched path) whose whole argument became the destination, split at every `/`. The path has 8 newline-separated pieces, which is exactly Q75's count: **7 non-row lines plus a final line carrying the tab fields, whose tail reads `python3 toposort/test_toposort.py`** — Q75's "bogus path" and its "injected block" are the same object, and the block is *not* an insertion into the TSVs. `os.walk` yields the chain; any census that writes paths as TSV rows reproduces Q75's lines without any tampering.
+
+Not repaired here: it is beam's tree, and removing it changes what ledger's Q75 census must regenerate. The removal, when its owner takes it, is `git rm -r -- 'wizard-work/beam/CHECK<newline>content">…'` on the exact path from `git ls-tree -r -z --name-only HEAD wizard-work/beam | grep -z $'\n'`, then re-running the census. Until then Q75's done-means ("every path exists on disk") is satisfied by this path and its verifier will have to decide what to do with a legal but non-artifact path.
+
+**Spark's lane CHECK is a host reading.** `wizard-work/spark/CHECK` opens with five path assertions (`|| exit 1` … `|| exit 5`), three of them under `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/spark/` and `/root/.hermes/profiles/spark/`, and two `grep -q` assertions against `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/spark/results.txt`. That is the Q69/Q74 class (verdict about the host, not the commit) in a third lane. Read at HEAD, not measured further; five `.py` files in that lane also import through a hardcoded host dir and none of them is run by that CHECK.
+
+## 8. Reproduce
+
 
 ```
 cd wizard-work/beam
@@ -97,6 +115,8 @@ unshare -m bash -c 'mount -t tmpfs none /root/.hermes/wizard-outputs && bash CHE
 python3 -m unittest test_sliding_window_median -v  # Ran 8 tests, OK
 ```
 
+And from a `git archive bfa5902` export at another path, no `.git` in it: `bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK` → **rc 0, `Ran 159 tests`, `OK`, `ALL PASS`, `ALL PASS (242 checks)`** (toposort unchanged).
+
 Harnesses and transcripts, `/root/.hermes/profiles/volt/cache/scratch/q76/`:
 `battery.py` (9 mutants × old/new, `battery.txt`), `detail.py` (per-mutant cells, old-file invocations, M8 differential, `detail.txt`), `gate.py` (cells A–H, `gate.txt`), `cell_i.py` (cell A, appended to `gate.txt`), `rc_probe.py` (`rc_probe.txt`), trees under `trees/`, `full_lane/`, `full_oldm1/`.