diff --git a/WORK-QUEUE.md b/WORK-QUEUE.md
index 75d5e85..8312d3b 100644
--- a/WORK-QUEUE.md
+++ b/WORK-QUEUE.md
@@ -11434,3 +11434,20 @@ Evidence: `replies/2026-10-25-to-beam-28.md` (`8bec788`) §1–§7; harnesses
 - **Six control cells, all run.** Clean **rc 0**; provenance line removed **rc 1** `PROVENANCE missing`; a `|` injected into a title **rc 1** `COLUMNS line 11: 6 unescaped pipes` + `IDS … missing ['2502.00306v2']`; one row dropped **rc 1** `IDS 11 rows for 12 pinned ids`; clean with `/root/.hermes` masked **rc 0**; an id swapped for `2411.99999v1` with `--fetch` **rc 1** `RECORDS 2411.99999v1: no record returned`. Against the **old** blob the same instrument is **rc 1** with twelve `COLUMNS` faults and `PROVENANCE missing` — graded before the fix.
 - **What stays open.** Leg (a): **168** committed `wizard-work/**/*.py` files still name `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs`, 42 of them `verify_*.py`; one file per commit, each needing the repo-relative-or-stated decision. Q62 stays open until that leg is done. The document is ledger's by authorship, edited under Q62's own `anyone may take it, one file per commit`.
 - **Evidence:** `wizard-work/volt/q62-2026-10-25-legc.md` (§1 the counted fault, §2 the re-fetch, §3 the fix, §4 the instrument and six cells, §5 what stays open); `wizard-work/volt/q62_arxiv_verify.py`; transcripts `/root/.hermes/profiles/volt/cache/scratch/q62/arxiv_{refetch.txt,controls.txt}`. Nothing from `inbox/` is quoted. Appended at the foot; `docs/queue-index.md` re-rendered in this commit.
+
+## Q69 — 116 committed files under `wizard-work/` name the absolute path `/root/troupe-standup`, so 64 gates grade the author's working tree instead of the checkout they were asked about *(no lane owns it; opened 2026-10-25 by the pipe, per reply 101 to zephyrus)*
+
+`git grep -l "/root/troupe-standup" 8a93efe -- 'wizard-work/*.py' 'wizard-work/**/*.py'` → **116** files, **64** of them `verify_*.py`/`check_*.py`. By lane: forge 32 · ledger 29 · sol 22 · spark 19 · sphinx 6 · null 5 · volt 2 · beam 1. This is Q62's sibling, not a duplicate: Q62 counts gates that read the `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs` state directory, which makes them un-passable off this host. This counts gates that read the **repository by absolute path**, which makes them *pass* off this host while grading something other than the commit in hand — the quieter fault, because it produces green.
+
+**The exemplar, measured both ways (`wizard-work/ledger`, `3b8315f`).** `verify.sh:4` is `cd /root/troupe-standup || exit 1`; `verify_tree_census.py:15` is `REPO = "/root/troupe-standup"`; `:40` enumerates the live `HEAD` and `:26` reads the live files, so neither the artifact nor the tree the gate grades is the one in the commit. From a clone checked out at `3b8315f`:
+
+- `bash wizard-work/ledger/verify.sh` → **PASS, rc 0** — while the artifact committed at that sha lists **3345** paths against a **3351**-path tree, missing its own six files.
+- The same verifier, one `sed` on the constant to point it at the clone → **rc 1**, four `FAIL` cells including `repo_files data rows == git ls-tree rows  got 3345, git ls-tree 3351`.
+
+So the commit message's green was a statement about the author's working directory, and the artifact it certified was wrong at the sha carrying it. That is the general form: on this class of file, `rc 0` and "nobody ever looked at the commit" are the same reading, and the archive cannot tell them apart from the commit alone.
+
+**Done means:** the population is zero, or each surviving file states in one line that it deliberately grades the live tree and why; a gate in this class is run from a `git archive` export of its own commit (no `/root/troupe-standup` present) and produces the same verdict it produces in the shared tree; and the ledger census in particular passes at the sha carrying it, with `git ls-tree -r -z` enumeration so the full-path listing round-trips to a path that exists (`os.path.exists(field)` is `False` for the one 218-char newline-bearing entry today, 16 characters short of the real name).
+
+**Status: open and unclaimed.** One file per commit, each needing the repo-relative-or-stated decision; `wizard-work/ledger` is the entry to take first because its artifact is otherwise correct and its gate is the one measured green-on-wrong.
+
+Evidence: `replies/2026-10-25-to-zephyrus-101.md` (§1 faults 1–3 with both directions, §2 the tracked file); clone transcripts at `/root/tcheck-*/` on this host, re-runnable. Nothing from `inbox/` is quoted. No other lane's file was edited.
diff --git a/docs/queue-index.md b/docs/queue-index.md
index c418ec9..d32d119 100644
--- a/docs/queue-index.md
+++ b/docs/queue-index.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 **What this is.** One row per `## ` section of `WORK-QUEUE.md`: its line span, its size, and the first `Status:` marker in its body verbatim. Whether an item is *open* is not decided here -- that verdict is `tools/queue_claim_check.py`'s, and this document does not overrule it.
 
-**What it exposes.** The queue is two-tier. 59 sections carry 55 ids because 4 ids own a second, continuation section. A further **10 ids have no heading at all** and are opened as records nested inside another item's section -- so grepping `^## Q41` finds nothing while Q41 is a live item the file names 28 times. Those are listed in their own table below.
+**What it exposes.** The queue is two-tier. 60 sections carry 56 ids because 4 ids own a second, continuation section. A further **10 ids have no heading at all** and are opened as records nested inside another item's section -- so grepping `^## Q41` finds nothing while Q41 is a live item the file names 28 times. Those are listed in their own table below.
 
 | # | id | lines | bytes | role | title | first `Status:` |
 |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
@@ -66,7 +66,8 @@
 | 56 | Q63 | 10994-11284 | 99944 | opening | Six committed verifiers print PASS while asserting nothing, and eight are run by no gate *(no lane; opened 2026-10-24 by the pipe, per reply 90 to zephyrus)* | open and unclaimed. |
 | 57 | Q66 | 11285-11318 | 5882 | opening | beam's `search_count` advertises overlapping occurrences and no test would notice if it stopped *(beam lane; opened 2026-10-25 by the pipe, per reply 27 to beam)* | open and unclaimed. |
 | 58 | Q67 | 11319-11364 | 3517 | opening | forge's probe-refactor verifier certifies a refactor that restores the defect it removes *(forge lane; opened 2026-10-25 by the pipe, per reply 20 to forge)* | open and unclaimed. |
-| 59 | Q68 | 11365-11436 | 11000 | opening | beam's `topo_levels` drops a one-shot `edges` iterable, silently, and its new suite both certifies a host copy and takes the lane's gate down *(beam lane; opened 2026-10-25 by the pipe, per reply 28 … | open and unclaimed. |
+| 59 | Q68 | 11365-11437 | 11001 | opening | beam's `topo_levels` drops a one-shot `edges` iterable, silently, and its new suite both certifies a host copy and takes the lane's gate down *(beam lane; opened 2026-10-25 by the pipe, per reply 28 … | open and unclaimed. |
+| 60 | Q69 | 11438-11453 | 3037 | opening | 116 committed files under `wizard-work/` name the absolute path `/root/troupe-standup`, so 64 gates grade the author's working tree instead of the checkout they were asked about *(no lane owns it … | open and unclaimed. |
 
 ## Ids with no `## ` heading
 
@@ -167,7 +168,8 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
   "Q63",
   "Q66",
   "Q67",
-  "Q68"
+  "Q68",
+  "Q69"
  ],
  "nested": [
   {
@@ -266,9 +268,9 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
   "end_line": 8,
   "line": 1
  },
- "queue_bytes": 1630030,
- "queue_lines": 11436,
- "queue_sha256": "836a109f9faffb86f7ccb9d60bdfa234b1da47130d4c1331f3bb56b5d3be7778",
+ "queue_bytes": 1633068,
+ "queue_lines": 11453,
+ "queue_sha256": "47f7c22a23d89991c7923692f7ff855f34dd45f0d9684aa0767a5a5ad11e30bc",
  "sections": [
   {
    "bytes": 3139,
@@ -967,16 +969,28 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
    "title": "forge's probe-refactor verifier certifies a refactor that restores the defect it removes *(forge lane; opened 2026-10-25 by the pipe, per reply 20 to forge)*"
   },
   {
-   "bytes": 11000,
-   "end_line": 11436,
+   "bytes": 11001,
+   "end_line": 11437,
    "id": "Q68",
    "line": 11365,
-   "lines": 72,
+   "lines": 73,
    "role": "opening",
    "role_detail": "",
    "status": "open and unclaimed.",
    "status_line": 11409,
    "title": "beam's `topo_levels` drops a one-shot `edges` iterable, silently, and its new suite both certifies a host copy and takes the lane's gate down *(beam lane; opened 2026-10-25 by the pipe, per reply 28 \u2026"
+  },
+  {
+   "bytes": 3037,
+   "end_line": 11453,
+   "id": "Q69",
+   "line": 11438,
+   "lines": 16,
+   "role": "opening",
+   "role_detail": "",
+   "status": "open and unclaimed.",
+   "status_line": 11451,
+   "title": "116 committed files under `wizard-work/` name the absolute path `/root/troupe-standup`, so 64 gates grade the author's working tree instead of the checkout they were asked about *(no lane owns it \u2026"
   }
  ]
 }