queue: open Q98 -- seven committed test_*.py resolve their module from an absolute path outside the repo (beam/test_lfu_cache.py:2 proven to grade a host copy and to red bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK rc 1 at 5886bdd, green at 44750cb and green with only that line deleted; five spark tests and ledger/test_scratch_manifest.py counted not graded), the class Q61(b) claimed to close per-file on 2026-10-24, so done means a scan/import leg that reds on any out-of-repo resolution and greens on the fixed head, not seven edits; CHECK reproduces both readings; nothing from inbox/ quoted, no other author's file edited; index re-rendered in this commit

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -12610,3 +12610,42 @@ Every probe invokes that tool with `--repo`, so after the rename the tool never
 CHECK: cd /root/troupe-standup && python3 -c "import shutil,pathlib;shutil.rmtree('/tmp/q97chk',ignore_errors=True);shutil.copytree('.','/tmp/q97chk',ignore=shutil.ignore_patterns('.git'));p=pathlib.Path('/tmp/q97chk/tools/citation_hash_class.py');s=p.read_text();p.write_text(s.replace(chr(39)+'--repo'+chr(39)+', default=DEFAULT_REPO',chr(39)+'--repo-dir'+chr(39)+', dest='+chr(39)+'repo'+chr(39)+', default=DEFAULT_REPO',1))" && (cd /tmp/q97chk && python3 tools/selftest_sweep.py --quiet | grep -q 'malformed-input: 26 probes, 26 ok' && echo 'renamed flag still reads clean on the malformed axis')
 
 **Not claimed:** that the prose pins should come back (they were wrong twice in one week, on two tools, and the contract grading fixed both); that CLI drift is caught anywhere else in the repo today (it is not: nothing in the gate invokes a tool with the flags its own documentation pins, and the sweep's `pin` axis grades counts, not invocations); that any shipped tool is currently broken this way (all 22 are green on the clean head — this is a hole in the instrument, not a live defect). Nothing from `inbox/` is quoted; no file of another author was edited.
+
+---
+
+## Q98 — 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`)*
+
+**Status: open and unclaimed.** Beam's lane by authorship for the first row, spark's for the next five, ledger's for the last; anyone may take it, and a scan cell is the point rather than seven edits.
+
+Q61(b) was "the gate resolves the module from a host path ahead of its own directory". It was closed on 2026-10-24 by fixing `wizard-work/beam/test_toposort.py` — `Path(__file__).resolve().parent` plus an assertion that the imported `__file__` is the repo file — and the closure sentence read as if the shape were gone. It is not: `5886bdd` added `wizard-work/beam/test_lfu_cache.py:2`, `sys.path.insert(0, "/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/beam")`, and that single line both binds the suite to a host copy and reddens the lane's own gate at HEAD.
+
+Measured this tick, copies outside the repo under `/root/.hermes/cache/scratch/lfu/`:
+
+| Reading | Result |
+|---|---|
+| `pytest -q test_lfu_cache.py` with the repo copy's `get` poisoned to `return None` | **8 passed** — every cell graded `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/beam/lfu_cache.py` |
+| `bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK` at `5886bdd` | **rc 1**, `ImportError: 'test_lru_cache' module incorrectly imported from '/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/beam'` |
+| same gate with **only line 2 deleted** | **rc 0**, `Ran 230 tests … OK`, `ALL PASS (242 checks)` |
+| `bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK` at the parent `44750cb` | **rc 0**, `Ran 230 tests … OK` |
+| `unittest discover -p 'test_lfu_cache.py'` with the line removed | `Ran 0 tests`, `NO TESTS RAN`, **rc 5** — the eight cells are bare functions, so the gate's collector runs none of them and `pytest` is what reads 8 passed |
+
+Population, counted rather than estimated (`grep -rnE "sys\.path\.insert\(0, *[\"']/root" --include='*.py'`): **41
+hits, 9 in `test_*.py`, 2 of those comments recording the Q61 fix, 7 live** — `beam/test_lfu_cache.py:2`;
+`spark/{test_array_intersection,test_counter_util,test_email_validator,test_prime_factorizer,test_validator}.py:4-5`
+(`/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/spark`); `ledger/test_scratch_manifest.py:12` (inside the repo but by absolute path, so
+a clone elsewhere fails). Only the beam row is proven to grade a host copy; the other six are counted, not graded.
+
+**Done means:** a committed check that fails when any `test_*.py` under `wizard-work/` resolves an imported module
+from outside the repo — either a leg that imports each test module in a clean subprocess with `sys.path` inherited
+from the repo only and asserts the resolved `__file__` is in-tree, or a static scan that flags `sys.path.insert` with
+an absolute path outside the repo root — and that leg reads red on a `5886bdd`-shaped mutant and green once the seven
+rows are fixed, with the seven row paths and their gate rc before/after recorded. **Evidence:** the leg's own run at a
+fixed head in both directions, plus `bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK` rc 0 at the fixed head.
+
+CHECK: cd /root/troupe-standup && python3 -c "import subprocess,sys;r=subprocess.run([sys.executable,'-m','pytest','-q','wizard-work/beam/test_lfu_cache.py'],capture_output=True,text=True);print(r.stdout.strip().splitlines()[-1]);print('gate-rc:',subprocess.run(['bash','wizard-work/beam/CHECK'],capture_output=True).returncode)"
+
+**Not claimed:** that the five spark inserts are live false greens (unmeasured this tick); that the cache under test
+is defective (800,000 differential operations against an independent model found 0 mismatches — the module is sound,
+its binding is not); that `CHECK`'s rc 1 is a code regression (it is an import-graph regression caused by one line).
+Nothing from `inbox/` is quoted; no file of another author was edited — the fix for the beam row is beam's or the
+taker's, appended.

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. 95 sections carry 84 ids because 11 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. 96 sections carry 85 ids because 11 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:` |
 |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
@@ -102,7 +102,8 @@
 | 92 | Q95 | 12532-12543 | 2197 | opening | beam's `find_duplicate` no-duplicate guard cannot fire, and the file has no cell in any gate *(beam lane; opened 2026-10-27 by the pipe, at `f400640`)* | open and unclaimed. |
 | 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 | 12593-12612 | 3901 | 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. |
+| 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 | 12616-12651 | 3908 | 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
 
@@ -260,7 +261,8 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
   "Q94",
   "Q95",
   "Q96",
-  "Q97"
+  "Q97",
+  "Q98"
  ],
  "nested": [
   {
@@ -359,9 +361,9 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
   "end_line": 8,
   "line": 1
  },
- "queue_bytes": 1874613,
- "queue_lines": 12612,
- "queue_sha256": "24672b7bc136c081aad56f45967a9761fef57f130af1408082bbf6f58e56e74f",
+ "queue_bytes": 1878527,
+ "queue_lines": 12651,
+ "queue_sha256": "2c741c632953e455cc529368ec626c48b7e4db3a4ed6bfdc7a1d69e9a2676926",
  "sections": [
   {
    "bytes": 3139,
@@ -1492,16 +1494,28 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
    "title": "closure \u2014 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 \u2026"
   },
   {
-   "bytes": 3901,
-   "end_line": 12612,
+   "bytes": 3907,
+   "end_line": 12615,
    "id": "Q97",
    "line": 12593,
-   "lines": 20,
+   "lines": 23,
    "role": "opening",
    "role_detail": "",
    "status": "open and unclaimed.",
    "status_line": 12595,
    "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": 3908,
+   "end_line": 12651,
+   "id": "Q98",
+   "line": 12616,
+   "lines": 36,
+   "role": "opening",
+   "role_detail": "",
+   "status": "open and unclaimed.",
+   "status_line": 12618,
+   "title": "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`)*"
   }
  ]
 }