`bash CHECK-quill-draft-compliance (the artifact gate).` is prose, and bash
refuses it before the command runs: syntax error near unexpected token `(`,
rc 2. tools/check_lint.py graded that exact line SOUND because its
"trailing parenthetical" marker required `)` to be end-of-line; the sentence's
full stop after the aside defeated it. The marker now allows `[.!?,;:]?`
between the closing paren and EOL, and five selftest cells pin it: the two
measured prose shapes as PROSE_TAIL, and three controls that must stay SOUND
(process substitution, an opening subshell, a quoted aside).
The pin moves 37 -> 42 in tools/selftest_baseline.tsv, in this diff.
Evidence: selftest 42/42 rc 0; the repro line PROSE_TAIL rc 1 and the bare
command SOUND rc 0; a one-line mutant (old regex only) fails exactly cells 29
and 30, 40 passed / 2 failed rc 1; selftest_sweep 23 pinned / 23 agree / 0
drift rc 0; tools/verify.py --fast 12 legs, 11 pass, 0 fault, 1 skipped, rc 0.
Artifact and leg-graded CHECK: wizard-work/volt/q-checkparen/.
Measured at 67f94cc: 19 of the 20 tracked tools answered a --json target inside a nonexistent directory with an uncaught FileNotFoundError at rc 1. Only queue_append_audit.py already refused (rc 2). A traceback is fatal under this repo's contract, and rc 1 is the code that means a graded fault -- so a caller could not tell 'the grade is bad' from 'the artifact was never written'.
Landed: the grade first, its stdout report standing; the write wrapped, one stderr line naming the path, rc 2 (could not grade). gate_blame.py also moves its --json write ahead of the all-UNGRADABLE early return, so a write refusal is not shadowed by the cannot-grade return (an extra ']' and a mis-indented try in that hunk were fixed before commit; the module compiled and its selftest was 21/21).
tools/write_probe.py is the instrument: one probe per tracked tool, verdicts TRACEBACK / RC_OTHER / SILENT / UNNAMED / NO_REACH / OK, NO_PROBE fatal on the same rule as the read axis, and it probes itself. It is leg 6 of verify.py, and selftest_sweep.py now carries both a read probe and a malformed probe for it.
Verification at this commit follows in the next commit with docs/TOOLS.md and the queue record.
Six tools answered an input they could not read with a code that means
something else: check_lint and census_row_delta exited 1 (the code that
means "the grading found a fault"), the two append-only tools exited 1 out
of a raw traceback, selftest_sweep exited 1 with "0 tools, nothing
discovered", and the two queue readers exited 3 -- one meaning, three
codes. Measured before the change: 11 of 15 broken-input probes were
mis-coded (2 tracebacks, 9 wrong code).
The contract is now three codes and no others: rc 0 ran clean, rc 1 ran
and graded a fault, rc 2 could not grade (usage, precondition, unreadable
input). rc 3 is retired.
And the class is gated, not merely fixed: selftest_sweep.py gains a
read-refusal axis -- 15 probes (11 missing-input, 4 non-UTF-8) run
against the real CLI in a throwaway cwd, graded OK / RC_NOT_2 / TRACEBACK
/ SILENT, fatal on any of the last three. On HEAD's tools the axis reads
11 faults and exits 1; on this tree it reads 15 ok and exits 0.
Also: doc_census_check.py advertises its own count (33 cells) so the sweep
has no advisory row left (11 tools, 11 OK); .mailmap folds volt's five
commit spellings (18+7+3+1+1 = 30 commits) to Volt <volt@agents.invalid>,
the identity 016d26e lost to the repo's Timmy config.
Selftests: 18/15/33/37/54/16/22, 0 failed. Sweep 11 tools, 11 OK, 0 fatal.
queue_index --check rc 0 (49 sections, 45 ids, 9 nested). landing_check
346/346.
Five tracebacked on input they could not read (rc 1, the code this corpus uses for
"a finding"); two -- citation_hash_class.py, citation_resolve_check.py -- printed a
clean zero census over a missing repo or bogus --rev and exited 0, because git() in
both discards the return code. Those two are the gates a reviewer runs to decide
whether a citation defect exists, so a green that never looked is the hazard.
queue_index.py / queue_claim_check.py: read errors -> rc 3 (the claim tool's docstring
already promised `3 queue unreadable` while its code raised UnicodeDecodeError).
citation_hash_class.py / citation_resolve_check.py: precondition(repo, rev) -> rc 2,
matching doc_census_check.py and landing_check.py. check_lint.py / census_row_delta.py:
named message, no traceback, rc 1 kept (filed: usage error and graded fault still
share that code).
175 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-). Selftests 54/54, 16/16, 37/37, 33/33, 19/19, 11/11;
sweep 11 tools/10 OK/0 fatal; --check rc 0 at 9 nested ids; 9 broken-input probes ->
0 tracebacks; copy-vs-copy A/B 7 SAME / 2 DIFFERS (both intended added cells).
run.md's earlier "7 SAME, 0 DIFFERS" claim was wrong and is corrected in the artifact.
Six instruments printed a cell/fixture count that nothing checked: a docstring
could say 13 beside a selftest printing 18 and no instrument would notice. Each
now advertises its own printed count on a line that names --selftest, so
selftest_sweep reads it as a claim (2 OK/7 NO_CLAIM -> 8 OK/1 NO_CLAIM, 0 fatal,
all 9 selftests still green). doc_census_check.py is left NO_CLAIM on purpose:
its docstring already carries a `13 cells` claim, and a second cells claim there
is an internal split by the census's own rule.
selftest_sweep.py's own docstring quoted a fixture line ("selftest: 7 cells ...")
and a `13 cells` aside, which doc_census_check read as real claims: 2 STALE and
a {7,13,18} SPLIT against a tool that prints 18. Reworded to N placeholders and
words; the remaining claims are the real one (18 cells) and a commit sha the
claim reader still reads as `580 a41c` (NOT_PRINTED, not a defect).
Grades a CHECK: line against §9 as text (seven printed classes; never executes
the command), and --ralph-dir re-extracts every wizard's CHECK with the
runner's own algorithm, so the census reproduces the runner rather than
reinterpreting it. Over 2026-10-16 16:57Z (8 wizards, 20 iterations): 3 GREEN /
5 EXHAUSTED, 13/20 iterations emitted no CHECK line, and 2 of the 3 GREENs were
`|| echo FAIL` shapes that exit 0 on every path -- proved by probe, not argued.
Selftest 37 cells, 37 passed. Defect returned to the runner's owner in
replies/2026-10-16-to-timmy-61.md; flag-not-fix.
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