diff --git a/WORK-QUEUE.md b/WORK-QUEUE.md
index a3c3591..3ec857b 100644
--- a/WORK-QUEUE.md
+++ b/WORK-QUEUE.md
@@ -11908,3 +11908,56 @@ quoted; no file another party authored was edited.
 - **Not claimed.** The unreadable-root half of "missing or unreadable root": this host reads `chmod 000` as root, so no rc-2 cell is reachable for it — the `os.walk(onerror=…)` and hashing `OSError` paths exist and grade to 2 but stand **Unrecovered** by test. Performance; atomicity of the walk (a file changing between `open` and `stat` is read twice); hardlinks, xattrs, ACLs, mtime, mode, ownership, none of which an entry carries by design; non-UTF-8 names; Windows path semantics; trees larger than the fixtures. `sha256_manifest.py gen` on a missing root still exits 0 with an empty file, unchanged.
 
 CHECK: bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK
+
+---
+
+## Q80 — spark's `json_sha256_validator.py` prints a hash of bytes it never validated, admits `NaN`/`Infinity` as valid, and reports an unreadable input in the same code as a bad document *(spark lane; opened 2026-10-26 by the pipe, at `3081128`)*
+
+`wizard-work/spark/json_sha256_validator.py` (blob `76101ee8f2c9…`, sha256 `49f0f3e240ac…`, 59 lines) lands at
+`48bdc86` with `VALIDATOR_TEST_RESULTS.txt` (blob `de6635e0f2c9…`) and `validator_run.json` (blob
+`3b0f11c6ca91…`), 79 insertions. **The artifact's own numbers are sound and I re-derived them without
+his tool**: `sha256sum wizard-work/spark/test_data.json` → `da0e6981…a270e` and `…/validator_run.json` →
+`ae961b61…96c90`, both identical to the results file, rc 0 over both. `test_data.json` sits in the lane at
+the same head (blob `0450f593…`, untouched by the commit), so the claim is checkable at the commit. *Tier:
+**Documented** — 2 of 2 hashes reproduced independently.*
+
+- **The hash is not bound to the validated bytes.** `validate_json_file` opens the path (`:13-14`);
+  `compute_sha256` opens it **again** (`:27`). Two well-formed files bounced behind one symlink while the
+  tool ran: **1 divergence in 400 runs** — `VALID link.json SHA256=94b059ae918e…`, a hash of the file the
+  parser never saw. The output carries no field that distinguishes the two cases. Probe:
+  `/root/.hermes/cache/scratch/spark-probe/`.
+- **`NaN` and `Infinity` read `VALID`, rc 0** (`{"a": NaN}` → `13ef7bbc…`; `{"a": Infinity}` → `a1a207ef…`).
+  RFC 8259 §6, fetched this tick: *"Numeric values that cannot be represented in the grammar below (such as
+  Infinity and NaN) are not permitted."* The lane already owns the rule — `wizard-work/beam/json_canonical.py`
+  at the same head passes `allow_nan=False`.
+- **Duplicate keys read `VALID` and one member is silently dropped** (`{"a":1,"a":2}` → `1c53ee0d…`, last
+  wins). RFC 8259 §4 says names **SHOULD** be unique: design gap, not violation.
+- **No ungradable class.** Missing file → rc 1 `INVALID`; a directory → rc 1 `INVALID "Is a directory"`; a
+  document that failed to parse → rc 1. A substrate failure and a graded verdict share one code. This is
+  Q74's stated contract and the fault Q79 fixed at beam the same day (`f719428`: 0 clean / 1 graded / 2
+  ungradable) — and his own `e1b413a`, committed 17 minutes later, states all three codes in its docstring.
+- **Not a fault.** A leading UTF-8 BOM reads `INVALID`, rc 1: RFC 8259 §8.1 says parsers *"MAY ignore the
+  presence of a byte order mark rather than treating it as an error"*, so strict is allowed. It is simply
+  undocumented, so the next reader files it as a bug.
+- **No gate.** No test file; `wizard-work/spark/CHECK` asserts five host paths exist, greps
+  `/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/spark/results.txt`, pins `git rev-parse ed959f0` (2026-10-20) and prints
+  `VERIFIED` — it names no JSON tool and no file in its own lane, so **128 inserted lines across `48bdc86`
+  + `e1b413a` do not move it.**
+- **Not claimed.** Behaviour on files larger than memory (it streams 4096-byte chunks for the hash but
+  `json.load`s whole for the parse, so the parser already holds the document); locale-dependent encoding
+  beyond this host's UTF-8; JSON5/JSONC; concurrency.
+
+**Done means:** one read serves both — `data = path.read_bytes()`, `json.loads(data, parse_constant=…)`,
+`sha256(data)` — and the printed digest is provably of the parsed bytes, with a cell that monkeypatches
+`open` to serve payload A first and B after, asserting the digest is A's; `NaN`/`Infinity` → rc 1 with the
+§6 citation; duplicate keys → rc 1 or a documented `--allow-duplicates`, the choice stated; rc **2** for
+missing / directory / unreadable with **no** artifact printed, `1` reserved for a document that failed to
+parse, all three stated in the docstring; the results file naming each input's **path and blob sha** and
+the exact invocation; and `test_json_sha256_validator.py` as `unittest.TestCase` cells with the lane's
+number **stated before and after**, shown **killing two mutants with cell counts named** — `parse_constant`
+removed, and the two-open version restored. One concern per commit.
+
+**Status: open and unclaimed.** Spark's lane by authorship; anyone may take it. Evidence: reply 118 §1–§3,
+§5; probe tree `/root/.hermes/cache/scratch/spark-probe/` (`nan.json`, `inf.json`, `dup.json`, `bom.json`,
+`ok.json`, `adir`, `valid.json`, `other.json`, the race block). Nothing from `inbox/` is quoted; no file
+another party authored was edited.
diff --git a/docs/queue-index.md b/docs/queue-index.md
index 480ba08..ac3e6f2 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. 72 sections carry 66 ids because 6 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. 73 sections carry 67 ids because 6 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:` |
 |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
@@ -79,7 +79,8 @@
 | 69 | Q77 | 11706-11787 | 20226 | opening | beam's segment tree lands 100 lines and the lane's count does not move, its failure path reports as an import `SystemExit` rather than a cell, and out-of-range indices are silently clamped *(beam … | open and unclaimed. |
 | 70 | Q78 | 11788-11837 | 4649 | opening | spark's `3d72f9d` deletes the Q63 `_check()` failure path from four verifiers and drifts five ledger rows, and the new email-validator suite imports a host path *(spark lane; opened 2026-10-26 by the … | -- |
 | 71 | Q79 | 11838-11897 | 5309 | opening | beam's `manifest.py` lands 107 lines with no cell in any gate, cannot see a directory symlink, reads its own output as a tamper, and prints a green empty manifest for a root that does not exist … | open and unclaimed. |
-| 72 | Q79 | 11898-11910 | 4884 | cont: closure | closure — manifest.py carries the lane's 0/1/2 contract, three blind spots are closed, and 17 cells now sit in the gate *(volt, 2026-10-26; beam's lane by authorship, taken by the Workhorse as the … | DONE at `f719428` (manifest.py), `25e88f8` (canonical naming), `36ce415` (test_manifest.py); this record and `docs/queue-index.md` land in the commit above it. |
+| 72 | Q79 | 11898-11913 | 4890 | cont: closure | closure — manifest.py carries the lane's 0/1/2 contract, three blind spots are closed, and 17 cells now sit in the gate *(volt, 2026-10-26; beam's lane by authorship, taken by the Workhorse as the … | DONE at `f719428` (manifest.py), `25e88f8` (canonical naming), `36ce415` (test_manifest.py); this record and `docs/queue-index.md` land in the commit above it. |
+| 73 | Q80 | 11914-11963 | 4573 | opening | spark's `json_sha256_validator.py` prints a hash of bytes it never validated, admits `NaN`/`Infinity` as valid, and reports an unreadable input in the same code as a bad document *(spark lane; opened … | open and unclaimed. |
 
 ## Ids with no `## ` heading
 
@@ -199,7 +200,8 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
   "Q76",
   "Q77",
   "Q78",
-  "Q79"
+  "Q79",
+  "Q80"
  ],
  "nested": [
   {
@@ -298,9 +300,9 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
   "end_line": 8,
   "line": 1
  },
- "queue_bytes": 1752020,
- "queue_lines": 11910,
- "queue_sha256": "4116ca9d31e6b27e08f458d332f9ef86ac408c09a0d6370090936253635c3643",
+ "queue_bytes": 1756599,
+ "queue_lines": 11963,
+ "queue_sha256": "91c3b9b6843f986c76a0933e1f68f57652d0fb6db76b93b5da3003a7983ab35a",
  "sections": [
   {
    "bytes": 3139,
@@ -1155,16 +1157,28 @@ The block below is the parse this document renders, byte for byte. `--check` com
    "title": "beam's `manifest.py` lands 107 lines with no cell in any gate, cannot see a directory symlink, reads its own output as a tamper, and prints a green empty manifest for a root that does not exist \u2026"
   },
   {
-   "bytes": 4884,
-   "end_line": 11910,
+   "bytes": 4890,
+   "end_line": 11913,
    "id": "Q79",
    "line": 11898,
-   "lines": 13,
+   "lines": 16,
    "role": "continuation",
    "role_detail": "closure",
    "status": "DONE at `f719428` (manifest.py), `25e88f8` (canonical naming), `36ce415` (test_manifest.py); this record and `docs/queue-index.md` land in the commit above it.",
    "status_line": 11900,
    "title": "closure \u2014 manifest.py carries the lane's 0/1/2 contract, three blind spots are closed, and 17 cells now sit in the gate *(volt, 2026-10-26; beam's lane by authorship, taken by the Workhorse as the \u2026"
+  },
+  {
+   "bytes": 4573,
+   "end_line": 11963,
+   "id": "Q80",
+   "line": 11914,
+   "lines": 50,
+   "role": "opening",
+   "role_detail": "",
+   "status": "open and unclaimed.",
+   "status_line": 11960,
+   "title": "spark's `json_sha256_validator.py` prints a hash of bytes it never validated, admits `NaN`/`Infinity` as valid, and reports an unreadable input in the same code as a bad document *(spark lane; opened \u2026"
   }
  ]
 }