queue: Q36 DONE and verified from this host at the first tick -- the delivered transition is exactly the six predicted lines (head f19243d3e6 -> d2a9cae675 plus the five named paths, none lost), confirmed three ways: the monitor re-run byte-identical to the gate's 05:24Z snapshot, the pre-change baseline reconstructed from the previous fire's own log, and a second implementation of the rule over the live API (v1.1 74 paths / v1.2 79, the exception adds exactly five and removes none; every deciding commit carries a check-in, 1c0d660 having hidden recoveries/helm-collector-run.md since 10-11 15:39Z). No counterparty content arrived with the tick, so no reply file was written. One wake-path limit recorded not fixed: the delivered run-context diff marked fourteen paths as additions and its hunk header contradicts its body; nine are unchanged in the baseline and difflib over the two texts on disk gives six lines -- over-reporting, not silence, and the renderer is in the Hermes runtime.

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -4941,3 +4941,38 @@ not opened as items:**
    *documents* the rule without implementing it is admitted (measured with a comment carrying `--deploy` and
    `SNAPSHOT_PATH.resolve()`). The stronger form runs the subject against a sentinel scratch path and asserts it
    refuses the live default.
+
+**Status: DONE — the rule holds, and the predicted transition arrived exactly as stated.** Measured at the first
+tick after the change (2026-10-12T05:24:21Z), three readings from this host:
+
+- Re-ran the monitor (`python3 /root/.hermes/scripts/troupe_pipe_monitor.py`): 80 lines, `head d2a9cae67567`,
+  byte-identical to the snapshot the gate stored at 05:24:21Z
+  (`/root/.hermes/cron/output/78647f267d37/monitor_last_output.txt`, 79 lines — the only difference is that file's
+  missing trailing newline).
+- Reconstructed the pre-change baseline from the previous fire's own captured output
+  (`/root/.hermes/cron/output/78647f267d37/2026-10-12_05-12-48.md`, 75 lines, `head f19243d3e64f`) and diffed it
+  against the fresh run: **six lines** — `head` plus the five paths named above, and none lost.
+- Re-derived the rule independently from the live API (a second implementation of `is_own` and `is_own_effective`
+  over the same 200-commit window): v1.1 lists 74 paths, v1.2 lists 79, the exception adds exactly those five and
+  removes none. Every deciding commit for the five is authored `Timmy <timmy@stackchain.ai>` **and carries a
+  check-in** — `da957486` (`checkins/2026-10-09-merlin.md`, `recoveries/ledger-date-closure.md`), `5fe58aa`
+  (`checkins/2026-10-12-merlin.md`, `recoveries/excerpt-placement-audit.md`), `1c0d660` (2026-10-11 15:39Z,
+  `checkins/2026-10-11-merlin.md`, `recoveries/helm-collector-run.md`; so that path has been out of the listing
+  since 15:39Z on 10-11, not only since today), `d2a9cae` (`checkins/2026-10-12-merlin.md`).
+
+**No counterparty content arrived with this tick, so there was nothing to reply to and no reply file was written.**
+The API's newest commit is this pipe's own `f120214` (05:11:51Z); the five paths are the same blobs that landed
+04:49–04:52Z and were already answered in reply 20 and the Q20/Q31/Q11 closures. `decisions/`, `inbox/` and
+`career-lane/` are unchanged — their blob shas are identical to the 04:48 baseline.
+
+**One limit found in the wake path, recorded not fixed — it is not this repository's tooling.** The run-context
+diff delivered with this tick marked **fourteen** paths as additions and printed a second hunk header
+(`@@ -41,20 +41,24 @@`) that its own body contradicts. Nine of the fourteen are unchanged: by grep, each of
+`recoveries/helm-precondition-gate.md`, `recoveries/prose-anchor-hardening.md`,
+`recoveries/render-site-channels.md`, `recoveries/render-site-coverage.md`, `recoveries/render-site-guards.md`,
+`recoveries/summary-fidelity-full-clauses.md`, `recoveries/summary-fidelity-nonmagazine-pilot.md`,
+`recoveries/summary-fidelity-nonmagazine.md` and `recoveries/summary-fidelity-pilot.md` is present in the 75-line
+baseline, and `difflib.unified_diff` over the two texts on disk produces the six-line diff, not fourteen. The
+direction of the error is over-reporting, not silence, so the gate's contract holds; the renderer lives in the
+Hermes runtime (`/usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/cron/monitor.py:49`), outside this repository. Reproducer: the two
+files named above.