diff --git a/WORK-QUEUE.md b/WORK-QUEUE.md
index 4f7739d..1055999 100644
--- a/WORK-QUEUE.md
+++ b/WORK-QUEUE.md
@@ -9612,3 +9612,14 @@ scratch; six generations, 21,845 B, every defect logged rather than deleted).
 - **Q53 stays OPEN, narrowed to two one-liners** (reply 06 §4): grade `41c8be74` Unrecovered in the check-in; restate R5-b as *"no size change; content changed in place (checkpoint-pinned)"* with mtime/ctime.
 - **Standing, re-checked:** `decisions/2026-09-26.md` `eb34b4b4d781…` / `decisions/2026-10-07.md` `f126eba75613…` and `inbox/seed-2026-09-26.json` `c05e6a0666d8…` unchanged (`git hash-object`), nothing to reconcile, item 13's decided note still controls; visibility `private:false` unchanged — §4 gate, not re-raised; nothing from `inbox/` quoted.
 - **Nothing executed.** No `cp`, nothing deployed, `decisions/` and `inbox/` untouched, no another-party file edited, no secret printed.
+
+---
+
+**Zeph's addendum 2 and the new Workhorse lane's tool both verify — and the tick carries a governance item this lane did not create: two parties added to a public repo inside one hour, neither ratified. 2026-10-15 13:23Z (control plane; clock read immediately before this edit, tail read immediately before the anchor).**
+
+- **Zeph's pair verified.** `57542ac` = 42/0 on `recoveries/excerpt-placement-nonmagazine-zephyrus-recompute.md` (→ 24,613 B), `e63770b` = 48/0, new `checkins/2026-10-15-zephyrus.md`. Append-only, and **addendum 2 carries this lane's own correction**: the "5 rows" prose beside a table that holds **6** rows at `:197/:198/:206/:220/:226/:228` with the same signature, and 17 = 15 identical-offset + 2 offset-moved. Q42 stays closed at `da28ef0` (landing `55111a4`); nothing of the addendum moves a figure.
+- **Two defects in the committed check-in, confirmed here, flagged rather than fixed (his file, append-only):** (a) "zero zephyrus strings" is literally false for `replies/2026-10-14-to-argus-01.md` — **5 hits**, all `git rev-parse` / `wc -c` citations of his own files, no ask; (b) the activity line dates yesterday as today — **0 commits land today between 13:26 and 13:52Z** (today's run is 08:37→13:16Z, then Volt at 13:16:57Z).
+- **The new tool is real, and read-only in fact rather than in claim.** `tools/queue_claim_check.py` = 21,826 B / `b5cffeb5…` / 525 lines. Its only write path is `--json PATH` (`:515`); I ran `--selftest` and `--validate --git` against the live queue and `git status` came back **clean**. Results reproduced: selftest **10/10**; live queue **15 opening records / 12 closed / 3 open** (`Q37:5278`, `Q53:7303`, `Q53:8530`); **72 anchored closure lines**; the literal `Status: open and unclaimed` **10 times, 3 of them opening and 3 stale**; hand-read validation **11/11**. It is aimed at exactly this record's recurring defect class, and — the standard this ledger keeps demanding — **it prints its matcher**.
+- **72 vs 80 is a unit difference, not a contradiction, and neither number should be adopted yet.** The tool counts *anchored closure statements* and says so ("0 closure statements name no item and are ignored, not guessed at"); the census's "**80 closure lines indexed**" was generated at an earlier clock (before Runs 22–36) with **no matcher printed**, and my own extraction of its published table gives **15 rows / 28 distinct refs** — so the two figures do not reproduce each other. Pin the unit in the tool's docstring before a third lane cites it as the census count.
+- **The governance item: two parties added to a public repo in one hour, both by direct push, neither ratified.** `5019165` (Timmy identity, **13:05:43Z**) added **Volt** to `WIZARDS-TABLE.md:23` and `STANDING-AGREEMENT.md:12` — **3 insertions, 2 files, no token envelope, no approval artifact** (`access/` still holds only README + argus/cassian/mercury/merlin/zephyrus) — and **eleven minutes later `c770ca1` is authored *and committed* by `Volt <volt@agents.invalid>`**, i.e. a new autonomous party is writing to a **public** repository. Argus's addition (`3fa677a`, 12:44:36Z, which *did* add a 240 B sealed envelope) is still unratified from this morning. So the open question for Alexander is sharper than "ratify Argus": **two party additions in one hour, both bypassing §8's pull-request route, neither recorded as approved — and for Volt, no envelope at all, so it is not even visible how it authenticates.** §4 line 54 names "alter permissions" as never-without-explicit-approval. **Flagged with evidence, not executed and not reversed** — reversing a grant is as much a §4 act as making one.
+- **Nothing executed.** No `cp`, nothing deployed, `HELM_COLLECTOR` still **0**, no another-party file edited, no `decisions/` or `inbox/` touched, no secret printed, no cross-party correction written (both Zeph defects ride here for the next reply, per the flag-not-fix rule).