Queue block 12:16Z: fenced record = quoted material (3 cells, 17 -> 20
fixtures), unclosed fence fails OPEN; live report byte-identical except the one
printed line (ACS 73 / BQ 86, open set unchanged, 12/12 hand-read). Pre-rebase
SHAs 5ed9da9/e98a34b/92f8934/14f26e1/f45ae01 mapped to a114ead/fdc4a21/3d58197/
d95820c/0de9cf2, objects preserved on tag pre-rebase-2026-10-19 (2071a7c).
Comment only; no behaviour change. The pre-fix census of the first fence cell is
['Q60:CLOSED', 'Q99:CLOSED'] -- the quoted item lands in the census as a closed
record -- not the ['Q60:CLOSED','Q99:OPEN','Q99:CLOSED'] the comment first
asserted. Measured by importing the pre-fix module and running its census on the
fixture strings; the third cell is identical on both sides by design and pins the
FENCE_UNCLOSED diagnostic instead.
The queue's other three text parsers already refuse to read structure out of a
fence (queue_index.py:207/:266, checkin_check.py:251, citation_resolve_check.py
after efe7ec6). This scanner had no fence state: a 19-line fixture quoting a
fenced `**Q99 - OPEN**` and a fenced `**Status: OPEN**` printed two OPEN
records no writer ever opened (before/fixture-fenced.txt).
An unclosed fence fails OPEN, not closed: nothing is masked, every line is
graded, FENCE_UNCLOSED names the line. Masking to EOF would hide the newest
records, the ones a claim check exists to surface.
Live queue at HEAD: the one fence (:3757-:3763) is a quoted traceback with no
record in it, and the full report is byte-identical before and after except the
one printed line -- 73 ACS, 86 BQ, open set Q37:5278 + Q53:7303, 12/12 hand-read.
The 09:49Z leg ran checkin_check --since <newest day>, on the reasoning that the
newest day is the only day a new fault can appear. Measured false on a clone of
e98a34b: one added checkins/2026-10-02-volt-b.md (BAD_NAME) is invisible to that
floor -- verify --fast rc 0 'checkin_check: 1 files, 0 with a fault', while the
whole-archive run on the same tree is rc 1 with 74 files / 36 faults.
tools/checkin_baseline.tsv (35 data rows, sha256 0f599c5e...) is the faults the
archive already carried; checkin_check --baseline splits each row's classes into
known/new, only a new class makes rc 1, per class not per path; --emit-baseline
prints it to stdout (no new write path); an unreadable ledger is rc 2; stale
entries are advisory. Refreshed leg: same clone, same file -> rc 1 naming exactly
that file; live tree -> 73 files, 0 new, 35 known, rc 0.
Cells: checkin_check 29 -> 35 (35/35), verify 35 -> 37 (37/37), sweep 19/19 +
17/17 rc 0, ruff F,E9 clean. One docstring count removed after
doc_census_check graded it STALE -- the ledger is now the artifact that carries it.
Queue block appends at the foot (offset 10080 -> 10094 lines, 1271673 ->
1276470 B): the measured hole (three-leg gate rc 0 on a clone whose
checkin_check --fail is rc 1), the leg's unit and cost (124-153 ms, cheapest,
first), why one day (35 historical faults, 2026-09-24..2026-10-07), the
pick_detail tiering fix found by the first real run, and what it does not do.
Index re-rendered in this same commit: queue_index --check rc 0 (49 sections,
45 ids, 4 continuations, 9 nested, 10094 lines / 1276470 B); Q53 refs 122 -> 123
is this block's own mention. No item opened or closed; open set unchanged
Q37:5278, Q53:7303.
Measured hole: on a clone of 3890c12 carrying checkins/2026-10-19-volt-02.md,
checkin_check.py --since 2026-10-19 --fail returned rc 1 (BAD_NAME 1, DUPLICATE
group 1) while verify.py --fast returned rc 0, 'gate: OK -- 2 of 2 graded leg(s)
passed'. Three legs grade the queue, its append discipline and the tools'
selftests; none graded the one artifact every lane writes every tick.
The leg grades the newest day present in checkins/ (read from the archive, not a
clock and not a constant) because whole-archive grading is rc 1 with 35 faults
permanently -- 2026-09-24 through 2026-10-07, before the rule they break was
written. checkin_check --fail at 3890c12: 73 files, 35 with a fault, rc 1.
--checkin-day DATE sets the --since floor explicitly. No checkins/ dir or an
empty archive is UNGRADABLE (rc 2), never a pass and never a fault.
pick_detail() gains STRONG>WEAK>SKIP tiering: the first real run put
'FAULT rc=1 SKIP README.md (the directory's own README: not a check-in)' on the
row, because the weak hint 'not a ' matched the README note before the tool's
own FAIL line. Silent-class defect, fixed here with cells 18/18b.
Evidence: verify --selftest 26 -> 35 cells, 35 passed, rc 0 (cells 14-18b new:
fault->rc1, no-dir->rc2, newest-day --since, --checkin-day, the two detail-line
cases). ruff -F,E9 tools/ All checks passed. Live gate: 4 legs, 4 pass, rc 0.
Same clone after the change: 4 legs, 2 pass, 1 fault, rc 1, detail
'FAIL: 2 file(s) violate the check-in contract'. doc_census_check --tools
tools/verify.py: 6 claims, 0 STALE, 0 INTERNAL SPLIT, rc 0.
Artifact: /root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/volt/2026-10-19-checkin-leg/
ruff check --select F,E9 tools/ -> 3 errors at 960b852:
checkin_check.py:421 F541 f-string with no placeholder
checkin_check.py:556 F841 jd assigned, never read (dead residue of an unwritten
malformed-JSON refusal cell)
queue_append_audit.py:73 F401 re imported, never used (no 're.' in the file)
Fix: 3 lines removed, 1 line changed, nothing added (numstat 1/2 + 0/1).
Behaviour claim measured, not asserted: all 14 tools' --selftest stdout+stderr
captured before and after (28 files) plus checkin_check.py --dir checkins and
queue_append_audit.py --guard --to HEAD (2 files) -- 30 artifacts, 0 differ after
normalising only checkin_check's mkdtemp suffix. 14 tools / 429 cells / 429 pass
on both sides; verify.py 3/3 PASS rc 0.
Not enforced by the gate: verify.py has no static-check leg, so this property is
observed here only. Adding ruff to the gate would make it a hard dependency
(host without ruff -> UNGRADABLE -> rc 2), so no leg and no new tool.
The block was headed 'THE CENSUS AT HEAD' while pinning rev babdadc, and its
figures were the pre-fence build's. Both are now false against the block's own
pin: at babdadc the fence-aware build prints BARE 1606 / AS_SELF 715 /
UNRESOLVED 466 / mentions 6613, where the docstring claimed 1612 / 716 / 471 /
6961. doc_census_check --tools tools/citation_resolve_check.py --fail graded
3 STALE rc 1 before (reply 32), 0 STALE rc 0 now. The old values are described
in prose without digits next to a unit word, so the history does not re-enter
the claim set.
Corrects one decimal in 4fc1622's block. Measured a82130e 2026-10-16T12:29:32Z
-> 4fc1622 2026-10-19T02:38:28Z. The finding is unchanged; only the rounding
was wrong. Index re-rendered in this commit.
`Q53` labels two live items: the career-lane apply queue at `:7303` (seven
decisions held for Alexander) and Mercury's record at `:8530`. Mercury's `:9869`
DONE matched "Q53" and closed BOTH, so from `a82130e` (2026-10-16 12:29:32Z) the
census printed `open set: Q37:5278` while four standing blocks in the same file
assert `:7303` open. Bracketed by checkouts, each graded with its own tools:
`20a7501` 3 open / --validate 11/11 rc 0; `a82130e` 1 open / 10/11 rc 1.
Within a duplicated id a closure now binds to the last record of that id opened
at or before it, so a record owns its own section and no namesake can close it.
Unique ids unchanged; the row still prints COLLISION because the labelling
defect is the ledger's.
Selftest 16 -> 17 fixtures (new cell: ['Q40:CLOSED','Q41:OPEN','Q40:CLOSED']
pre-fix, the expected list post-fix; both measured). HAND_READ 11 -> 12
answers: :7303 OPEN added, :8530 corrected to CLOSED (its closure is real).
--validate rc 1 -> rc 0, 12/12.
Post-fix census: 15 opening records, 13 closed, 2 open, open set
Q37:5278 + Q53:7303; other 13 rows unmoved. doc_census_check on this tool: 19
claims, 0 STALE, 0 split, 0 leg failures. Queue block appended and
docs/queue-index.md re-rendered in this same commit.
The old guard cut at the first '**', which is right for '**Status: value**'
and returns '' for '**Status:** value'. Empty is falsy, so the parse stored
None and docs/queue-index.md rendered '--' for Q13:1129, which states
'1 of 8 has a decision and staged correction'. status_value() strips a
leading bold close, then a trailing one, so both forms yield the value.
selftest 54 -> 58 cells (inline fixture, no existing line numbers move).
docs/queue-index.md regenerated: exactly 2 lines (the Q13 cell + its pin).
Independent witness in wizard-outputs: rc 0 on the fixed document, rc 1
naming row 13 on the pre-fix one. verify.py 3/3 rc 0.
Found while demonstrating the NO_PROBE fix: the gate graded selftest-sweep FAULT and
printed 'sweep: 15 tools, 14 OK, 0 fatal' beside it, because pick_detail took the
first hint-matching line and 'fatal' matched a summary asserting zero of them.
- pick_detail: zero-count summaries (' 0 fatal' / ' 0 fault') are second-pass only,
so a clean run keeps its sweep line and a red run names the red axis
- selftest 24 -> 26 cells: c13 a zero-fault summary is not a reason line,
c13b a clean run still gets its sweep line; both advertised counts updated
The read/malformed axes only covered tools named in READ_PROBES / NOT_UTF8_PROBES /
MALFORMED_PROBES. A 15th tool dropped into tools/ produced two advisory NO_PROBE rows
and the sweep still printed '15 tools, 14 OK, 0 fatal' with rc 0: measured on a copy of
the 14 tracked tools plus one probe-free tool, pre-fix rc 0 / post-fix rc 1.
- NO_PROBE joins FATAL_READ; the two rows now say 'ungraded, fatal'
- axis_faults() is the single red predicate, used by report_read
- selftest 28 -> 30 cells: c29 an unprobed tool is NO_PROBE on both axes and counts,
c30 every FATAL_READ verdict is red and OK is not
- two stale counts corrected in this tool's own docstring: 'ten'/'Nine tools must
refuse at rc 2' -> eleven (measured: 11 of 14 tools carry rc 2 probes)
index-current (queue_index --check), append-audit (queue_append_audit --guard
--to HEAD), selftest-sweep (skippable with --fast, printed SKIP and counted as
skipped). rc 0 graded clean / 1 graded a fault / 2 could not grade, with 2
outranking 1 so an ungradable leg cannot be read as a certified run; the fault
count is still printed beside it. Tools resolve from --repo, not from this
file's directory, so a worktree is graded with its own instruments.
selftest 24/24 (stub legs through the real CLI: rc mapping incl. retired rc 3,
missing tool, timeout, --fast, --json, missing repo, fixed order). Added to
both sweep probe axes (read-refusal 19/19, malformed 17/17, 14 tools 14 OK) and
the sweep's stale "15 such probes / nine tools" prose corrected to 17 / ten.
Green at 019b75c: 3/3 pass, rc 0. Red paths on a full 785-commit clone:
0 -> 1 (working-tree append, no re-render) -> 0 (--write) -> 1 (committed
stale: both legs faulted) -> 2 (tool absent; index fault still printed).
Queue tick appended and index re-rendered in this same commit.
The 15:15Z block adopted "append and re-render in the same commit" as a rule
and left enforcement to hand probes; that loop produced three wrong-slice
counts in one week. tools/queue_append_audit.py (8a450a3) grades each
queue-touching commit in its own tree. Measured at 8a450a3: default range 9
commits -- 6 PASS, 3 STALE (f2c3067, ece5228, 067afdf), 0 UNGRADABLE -- with
328 earlier queue-touching commits counted and not listed; --all lists all 337
(328 UNGRADABLE); --guard reads 1 PASS at c034175, rc 0. Reply 24's corrected
set reproduces from the commits by a second route, with its two rc-2 commits
(12b4497, 0bdb9d4) landing in UNGRADABLE as it said. The tool's fixture also
found and fixed a --write IndexError in queue_index.py (zero-byte document, rc
1) for any queue with no nested records; the real render did not move.
This commit is the append + the re-render, and --check reads rc 0 at it.
WHY: docs/queue-index.md pins WORK-QUEUE.md by sha256, so an append that
skips the re-render is STALE by construction, and nothing obliged a commit to
re-render. f2c3067 and 067afdf each left the gate red until a later repair
(2h37m for the second). Enforcing that rule by hand produced three wrong-slice
counts in one week; the 15:16Z correction names the cause -- a --check in a
working tree at HEAD says nothing about a cited revision.
queue_append_audit.py materialises each commit's own tree with git archive and
runs THAT tree's own tools/queue_index.py --check inside it. Verdicts: PASS
(rc 0), STALE (rc 1 with the tool's STALE line), UNGRADABLE (gate absent at
that rev, or the tool refused rc 2 -- kept out of the stale bucket), ERROR (a
crash wearing the verdict code, or a timeout). House contract: 0 clean, 1 a
graded fault, 2 could not grade. --guard grades the newest queue-touching
commit only, for wiring into a tick's check.sh. Default range begins at the
commit that introduced the index; --all lists the pre-gate commits instead of
hiding them. selftest: 25 cells, 25 passed, 0 failed; the tool advertises that
count on its own --selftest usage line.
Measured at b7e2bfd, /root/troupe-standup: 337 commits touch the queue; the
default range is 9 commits -- 6 PASS, 3 STALE (f2c3067, ece5228, 067afdf),
0 UNGRADABLE -- with 328 earlier commits counted and not listed. That is reply
24's corrected set exactly (its 2 rc-2 commits, 12b4497 and 0bdb9d4, fall
before the index and are UNGRADABLE under --all, not stale). --guard at HEAD
reads 1 PASS, rc 0.
The tool's own fixture found a real defect in queue_index.py: build_doc indexed
payload["nested"][0] unconditionally, so --write died with IndexError -- a
zero-byte document and rc 1, the code that means "graded a fault" -- on any
queue whose ids all carry headings. Fixed in nested_prose(); the non-empty
branch reproduces the old sentence byte for byte, so --check is rc 0 on the
real document and queue_index --selftest is 54/54 before and after.
selftest_sweep.py gains the new reader on BOTH input axes (missing repo path,
not-a-repo) instead of the NO_PROBE advisory: 13 tools, 13 OK, 0 fatal;
read-refusal 18 probes 18 ok, malformed-input 16 probes 16 ok.
The block names its HEAD in bullet 1 but not in the scope sentence; this repo's rule is that a claim citing a mutable count names its revision. Appended to the check-in rather than rewritten in the ledger, so history stands and the frame is recorded.
Measured at 69f3b56: queue_index --check -> rc 1, STALE at line 59, Q45 7594-9953/337280 in the document vs 7594-9962/340848 in the queue, pinned queue sha 34f1523c.. vs real 7e222ce2...
Cause by commit: git show --stat 067afdf = WORK-QUEUE.md, 1 file, 9 insertions. The index pins the queue sha256, so any queue write without a same-commit re-render is red by construction.
Controls (detached worktrees, same tool): 067afdf rc 1, ece5228 rc 1, 39312c2 rc 0. Since the index existed at 1423c4d: 6 queue-touching commits, 3 re-rendered, 3 left the pin stale.
Fix: --write, 9 insertions/9 deletions across 5 hunks (git diff -U1) of the generated index; no tool changed.
Also recorded in the ledger block: doc_census_check --fail --no-run grades 0 claims at 69f3b56 (no oracle), so it must not be wired as a gate before a vocabulary cache exists.
Two defects left open by the 30c8120 vocab gate, both closed here and both
measured rather than asserted.
1. --save-vocab wrote every key the legs printed (422 at 30c8120), including
207 hex-like digests and append_only_audit's diffstat words. Those are
permissions no claim can ever spend: vocab_has() asks keys_for(unit, ...)
over the units ONE docstring claims, so the reachable key set is fixed by
that docstring. spendable_keys() is that same matcher, and the saved file is
now the intersection with it -- 422 keys observed on this tree, 24 written,
the other 398 unspendable by construction.
2. A runless split in a lowercase word printed nothing at all: unit_scope
answered UNCHECKED_NO_ORACLE and the printer showed only the LABEL_ONLY
class, so the vocab-precision fixture's case E (5 above / 7 above, no
vocabulary) exited 0 with no line. Silence is not a verdict; both runless
classes now print ADVISORY with their values and neither is graded.
Measured: fixture A..E rc vector [1,1,0,0,0] before and after, with case E
printing nothing before and its advisory line after; the scoping is
OUTCOME-NEUTRAL by exhaustive check -- for all 96 units the 12 tracked tools
claim, "named by the vocabulary" is the same answer before and after; the fast
gate is rc 0 at 30c8120 on the old 422-key file and rc 0 on the scoped one; and
the fca3f2e 441/471 tooth is still rc 1 from the cache. It does NOT close the
cache's over-reach -- a word the docstring really does claim twice is still
spendable -- and a selftest cell now pins that limit instead of leaving it in a
report. Selftest 72 -> 80 cells, 80/80 rc 0.
Reply 22 ruled the asymmetry a defect and asked that `--fail` never return 1 on
a split it could not verify. 814acc4 met that by making every runless split
ADVISORY -- which also empties the fast gate, measured: on two fixtures (a STALE
claim, an internal split) `--fail --no-run` returns 0 for both, and no path can
return 1, because gate_faults() reads only CHECKABLE splits and STALE verdicts
and neither exists without a run.
So the fast mode gets the oracle it can have. `--save-vocab PATH` (full run)
writes the census vocabulary the run OBSERVED -- unit keys per tool, read off
leg stdout, never off docstrings -- and `--no-run --vocab PATH` grades a split
in a unit that vocabulary names as CACHE_CHECKABLE. What the cache proves is
unit-hood; the graded disagreement is internal to the docstring, so no value is
needed, and no STALE claim can enter this way (pinned by fixture).
Measured at fca3f2e, tools/citation_resolve_check.py, one claim:
--no-run --fail rc 0 ADVISORY UNRESOLVED: 471@82, 441@89
--no-run --vocab V --fail rc 1 0.205s, SPLIT ... (CACHE_CHECKABLE,
vocabulary at fca3f2e): 471@82, 441@89
--fail rc 1 SPLIT (CHECKABLE) + STALE :89
Selftest 60 -> 72 cells (5 vocabulary cells, 6 process-exit cells);
sweep 12/12, read-refusal 17/17, malformed-input 15/15, rc 0.
rc 2 covers an unreadable --vocab and --save-vocab without a run.
A split enters the graded list only via CHECKABLE (a leg ran and printed the
unit with one value). Every other reason is printed with its values as
ADVISORY and never reaches the gate, so --fail --no-run can no longer return 1
on a split it had no oracle for. Ruling: reply 22, 2026-10-18.
Measured at fca3f2e before/after, same tool and rev:
--fail --no-run rc 1, SPLIT UNRESOLVED (LABEL_ONLY): 471@82, 441@89
--fail --no-run rc 0, ADVISORY UNRESOLVED (LABEL_ONLY): ... reported, not graded
--fail (full) rc 1 both times: SPLIT (CHECKABLE) + STALE :89 -- teeth kept.
Selftest 52 -> 60 cells (6 mode cells, 2 process-exit cells); sweep 12/12.
`--fail` moves the verdict into the exit code: rc 0 ran and graded no fault,
rc 1 ran and graded a STALE claim or an INTERNAL SPLIT, rc 2 could not grade
(usage, a --tools filter matching nothing tracked, unreadable input). Before
this, the process exited 0 while printing STALE rows, so nothing could gate on
the one class the tool exists to catch.
Armed at HEAD, the gate went red on its own first run -- on a false claim, not
a defect: `queue_claim_check.py`'s axis list says `39 ACS-only lines carry no
Q<digits> token` (and 12, and 1) and the token read as a unit was the
adjective `ACS` in `ACS-only`; with no oracle to test the label against,
--no-run split 39/12/1. The reader now refuses a unit immediately followed by
`-`, the same refusal it already made for a hyphen behind the number
(`120-char`).
Measured cost of the tightening at bacdead, from --json before/after: 6 claims
no longer read -- queue_claim_check 23 -> 19, checkin_check 8 -> 7,
queue_index 10 -> 9 -- 5 NOT_PRINTED and 1 REV_UNCHECKED, every one of them the
first half of a compound (`ACS-only`, `check-in`, `self-test`, `follow-on`).
The invariant that licenses it holds: MATCHES 26 before and after, identical
rows. A genuinely hyphenated unit (`citations-per-block`) is no longer read;
the tool states that limit in its docstring rather than discovering it.
selftest 41 -> 52 cells (5 decision cells, 4 process-exit cells that prove a
helper returning 1 is not a gate); sweep 12/12 OK, read-refusal 17/17,
malformed 15/15; `--fail` at HEAD: 0 INTERNAL SPLIT, 0 STALE, rc 0; the same
gate on fca3f2e: 1 split, 1 STALE, rc 1.
The full census at 4ce1aed (the run my 2026-10-18 check-in owed) reported two
STALE claims against checkin_check.py:59 -- "read as UTF-8. Never 1, never a
traceback." -- where the 8 is the tail of UTF-8 and the 1 is an exit code.
Both are false defect claims.
Measured over all 12 committed docstrings: 140 claims read, 95 real. The rest
were welded hex (83acffe0 -> 83 acffe0, 11), ordinals/sentence ends (1.
INTERNAL, 8. Never, 5), compound adjectives (120-char, 5), list markers (0
ran, 4) and trailing commas (1, which -> claim 1 of unit which, 8).
Three rules: sep is one space or a closing delimiter + space; num is
[0-9]+(?:,[0-9]{3})*, so a trailing comma is punctuation; ordinal_at() refuses
a line-leading number followed by 2+ spaces. Six cells: 35 -> 41.
Same revision, same docstrings, after: 145 -> 105 verdict rows, STALE 2 -> 0,
NOT_PRINTED 87 -> 52, and the 26 MATCHES are the same 26 rows (lost: [],
gained: []) -- no adjudicated verification was dropped.
selftest 41/41 rc 0; selftest_sweep 12 tools 12 OK 0 fatal; read-refusal 17/17;
malformed-input 15/15.
Named, not fixed: doc_census_check returns 0 with STALE > 0 and has no --fail,
so a gate cannot fail on the class it exists to catch.
The read-refusal axis measured missing paths and non-UTF-8 bytes. The class in
between was unmeasured: a .json that is not JSON, a {} where an audit file should
be, a directory that is not a git repo, a queue with no records -- the inputs
where a tool is most tempted to print 0 and exit 0, which reads like a clean pass
(the doc_census_check --tools bug, 76043b7).
15 probes over all 12 tools, each graded against the answer its OWN contract
states (nine refuse at rc 2; check_lint grades MISSING at 0/1, checkin_check
advisory at 0, queue_claim_check 0 opening records at 0). judge_malformed adds
RC_WRONG, UNEXPLAINED next to TRACEBACK/SILENT, and requires a word, so a silent
0 cannot pass.
15/15 at HEAD -- no tool was wrong, none was measured. Against 461eede's copies
the same axis reads 7 fault (3 tracebacks, 3 wrong codes, 1 NO_TOOL). Against a
copy with one bug reintroduced into append_only_owners.py it reads RC_WRONG while
that tool's own 15-cell selftest stays green.
Measured at 39312c2 with doc_census_check --tools tools/queue_index.py: two
STALE claims and one INTERNAL SPLIT. ":5" said the queue is 9,901 lines (it
was 9,937 before this run's append, 9,953 after) and ":25" said Q53 is first
named "46 lines before" it is opened -- a difference, which the census read as
a line-count claim of 46 against a 9,953-line queue.
Both are fixed the way this archive already requires (name the rev with the
number): ":5" now reads "9,953 lines long at 39312c2", so the claim is
checkable at the revision it describes rather than stale at every later one,
and ":25" states the two line numbers instead of their difference.
No behaviour change: selftest 54/54, sweep 11 tools / 11 OK / 0 fatal,
read-refusal 15/15.
Records the unit landed at 6ee8fce and appends the queue tick block; the index
is regenerated in the same commit so --check is rc 0 here (49 sections, 45 ids,
9 nested ids, 9953 lines / 1229541 bytes).
The carry discharged was my own, filed at 2026-10-17-volt.md:525-527 and left
standing by reply 18: check_lint and census_row_delta used rc 1 for both "a
graded fault" and "I could not read your file". Measuring all eleven tools
found six, across three codes (two raw tracebacks at rc 1, four named messages
at rc 1, two queue readers at rc 3). Decision: rc 0 clean / rc 1 graded fault /
rc 2 could not grade, rc 3 retired. The gate is the durable half: a 15-probe
read-refusal axis in selftest_sweep.py, which reads 11 faults against HEAD's
own tool copies and 0 faults here.
Also repair reply 18's attribution FYI (.mailmap folds volt's five spellings to
Volt <volt@agents.invalid>: five lines/31 commits -> one line/31; the commit
carries its identity via -c, not by rewriting the shared repo config).
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.
The corpus leg is a function of the working tree, not of the queue: --outside read
Q63, then Q63+Q77+Q99 once a checkin quoted the ids the gate test uses -- same
queue, same sha256, three documents. Emitting that table into the rendered
document therefore made --check go RED for reasons unrelated to the queue, and
made --write reproduce the document only until somebody wrote prose.
- move the corpus leg behind --outside (reported, not embedded); the document now
says so and points at the flag
- selftest 32 -> 38 cells: a prose mention must not move a byte of the document,
--check must stay green, --outside must name the id and the file that carries it
- regenerate docs/queue-index.md (36,585 B); --check is green, --write byte-identical
The first whole-gate run went red on a defect in this tick's own artifact:
docs/queue-index.md listed itself in the 'ids referenced outside the queue'
corpus, so --write was not a fixed point (317 vs 318 tracked *.md) and --check,
which compared only the JSON pin, stayed green while the table above the pin had
drifted. Two repairs: the generated document is excluded from that corpus by its
canonical path whatever path it is rendered to, and --check now re-renders the
whole document and compares it byte for byte, naming the first differing line.
check.sh 20/20; falsify 5/5.
49 sections, 45 ids, 4 continuation sections, 13 ids with no heading at all
(Q41 Q42 Q46 Q47 Q50 Q51 Q52 Q53 Q54 Q55 Q56 Q58 Q62, opened as records nested
inside Q37/Q44/Q49/Q45). docs/queue-index.md is generated and carries the parse
pinned in a machine block; --check re-derives and goes RED on any drift.
selftest 32 cells; verify_index.py (independent parser) 26 assertions.
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).
Verified first that the carry itself was already discharged at 580a41c, then landed
tools/selftest_sweep.py (d1ad5fc): one row per tracked tool, the advertised count on
the --selftest usage line compared against the count the selftest prints, 9 verdict
classes, 8 fatal, untracked tools printed rather than dropped. Measured at d1ad5fc:
9 tools, 2 OK, 0 fatal, 4.5 s -- and 7 of 9 advertise no count at all, which is why
one wrong claim survived. Falsified on the real tool text (13 vs 18 -> rc 1), and the
verifier falsified too (14/16 exit 1 vs 16/16 exit 0). No queue item moved; no
another-party file edited.
The append_only_audit "13 cells" defect (fixed at 580a41c) stood for days because
nothing compared a tool's self-advertised selftest count against its own output.
doc_census_check.py now covers the census blocks but drives every tool against a
revision -- minutes per run. This gate covers the cheap claim in 4.5 s: it runs
each tracked tools/*.py --selftest, parses the "N cells|fixtures, N passed, N
failed" line, and compares it with every claim on a --selftest usage line of the
module docstring (AST-read, so body fixtures are not claims; prose beside the word
selftest is not a claim either).
9 verdict classes, 8 fatal. Untracked tools/*.py are printed as SKIPPED_UNTRACKED
rather than dropped -- the blindness doc_census_check paid for is inherited and
named, not hidden. Falsification: the historical defect is re-injected into a copy
of the real tool text and the gate refuses it rc=1 (COUNT_MISMATCH 13 vs 18) while
the control tree stays rc=0. selftest 18/18; repo sweep at this commit: 8 tracked
tools, 1 OK, 7 NO_CLAIM (advisory), 0 fatal.
The two-leg tool read every REV_LONG token in a docstring block as a revision of
this repository. A block that quotes the queue's size as "/ sha256
`fbe51445a89f81ab…`" therefore named a revision that cannot exist: the leg raised
`git show fbe51445a89f81ab:WORK-QUEUE.md -> rc=128`, the block was counted as a
leg failure, and -- because the oracle loop runs once per rev -- each of its
claims was emitted AGAIN beside the real ones. Two spurious failures and six
duplicate rows, in the tool whose whole job is to make a docstring figure
adjudicable.
WHAT IS LANDED (908 -> 952 lines, 45,034 -> 47,501 B, sha256 5c69c2d2 ->
c90ffab4; the diff is one new helper, three call sites, three selftest cells and
the docstring paragraph that states the rule):
1. `block_revs(text)` -- the revisions a block names, with hex runs read as
digests excluded. Two signals, both local to the token: a digest word in
front of it (`sha256 <hex>`, `hash <hex>`, `sha1`/`md5`/`digest`), or an
ellipsis behind it (`<hex>…`), which is how this archive writes a truncated
digest. A FULL sha256 was never at risk: REV_LONG is {7,40} and a 64-hex run
has no word boundary inside it.
2. `check_tool` (the live path) and `_fixture_checks` (the fixture) both call it,
so the fixture and the tool read revs by the same rule.
3. Three selftest cells: each signal exercised alone, with the ordinary citation
between them as the negative control.
4. The docstring says so. It also states the one silent downgrade this rule can
cause -- a revision cited WITH an ellipsis is read as a digest and the block
falls back to HEAD -- and that side is measured, not guessed: `grep -nEo
'[0-9a-f]{7,40}(…|\.\.\.)' tools/*.py` returns 8 tokens at HEAD and every one
is a digest or an oid quoted as a token, never a revision.
MEASURED DELTA, all 7 tools at HEAD, before = c90ffab4's predecessor run
(census-final.json) vs after (census-after.json), compare_rows.py:
rows 111 -> 96 (removed 18, added 3, changed 0)
leg failures 2 -> 0
verdicts 8 AMBIGUOUS / 16 MATCHES / 75 NOT_PRINTED / 2 REV_UNCHECKED /
10 SELF_NOT_RUN
-> 8 AMBIGUOUS / 16 MATCHES / 60 NOT_PRINTED / 2 REV_UNCHECKED /
10 SELF_NOT_RUN
per tool citation_hash_class.py 28 -> 19 rows, queue_claim_check.py
34 -> 28 rows, the other five unchanged
Every removed row is a duplicate emitted under a digest; every added row is the
same claim re-scoped to the rev the block actually names. No verdict CHANGED --
the fix removes rows, it does not re-judge any. The queue block is now read at
`28ca8e5` and `29a4872`, the two commits it cites, instead of at those commits
plus the two digests it quotes.
TWO INSTRUMENTS, NOT ONE. `--selftest` is 33 cells / 33 passed / 0 failed, rc 0
(30 -> 33 with the three new cells), and it is the instrument that pins the rule
in isolation. The rule's effect on live text is pinned separately by the scoped
live run, 1.8 s: `--tools tools/queue_claim_check.py` yields 0 leg failures and
28 rows, against 2 and 34 for the same file the commit before. A cell for the
rule plus a run of the rule, because the last defect in this tool was a rule its
own fixture could not see.
FOUND WHILE MEASURING, and worth a line because it cost a red run: an auxiliary
script named `inspect.py` written beside a copy of the tool shadows the stdlib
`inspect` for anyone importing it from that directory (`dataclasses` does), and
the tool died with a traceback that named argparse. The copy is `census_rows.py`
now; the lesson is that the scratch directory is sys.path[0] for the scripts in
it.
The scanner reads a tool's module docstring, compares every `<value> <unit>`
claim against the census that tool PRINTS, and until this commit it had one
oracle: the tool's own run. So a claim about a number the run does not print
read NOT_PRINTED -- and `13 cells` against a selftest that prints `18 cells`,
the exact defect class this tool was built to catch, sat inside its own default
scope and was never adjudicated.
WHAT IS LANDED (907 -> 908 lines; the only edit in this commit is the splice
below, byte-measured in the check-in):
1. Leg 2 -- the tool's own `--selftest` -- is a second oracle leg, carrying the
tag `selftest`. A claim is adjudicated by the FIRST leg that prints its unit;
NOT_PRINTED now means no leg printed it. A tool with no --selftest simply has
one leg: a fact about the tool, not a defect in it.
2. REV_UNCHECKED -- neither a `no-rev` leg (it measured the working tree) nor
the selftest leg (it measured the tool's own fixtures) is a verifier for a
block that names a revision. Such a claim is reported, never counted as a
match and never counted as a defect.
3. SELF_NOT_RUN -- this scanner is in its own default scope, and running it on
itself spawns it again without a floor, so its own claims are printed as rows
and excluded from the run leg.
4. RUN_FAILED, and the fall-through: a leg that produced no census adjudicates
nothing, and a surviving leg still answers the block's claims. A recipe whose
revision will not materialise raises rather than handing the tool the empty
file it left behind -- an empty queue is a census of zeros, and a census of
zeros reads as that revision's census.
5. A recipe for append_only_owners.py (tag `no-rev`), and the argparse
fall-through: a tool that rejects `--repo R --rev REV` is re-run with exactly
the tokens argparse named dropped, tagged `no-rev`.
MEASURED DELTA, same 6 tools at HEAD, HEAD tool vs this one (compare.py on
head6.json / cand6.json): 101 verdict rows, 13 MATCHES -> 16, 80 NOT_PRINTED ->
75, 8 AMBIGUOUS -> 8, 0 -> 2 REV_UNCHECKED. Five rows change and three of them
are substantive: append_only_audit.py `18 cells` NOT_PRINTED -> MATCHES (leg 2);
append_only_owners.py `2 folded` / `10 raw` NOT_PRINTED -> REV_UNCHECKED (the
honest non-verdict); queue_claim_check.py `0 bold` twice NOT_PRINTED -> MATCHES
by notation (the docstring phrase `column-0 bold` is read as the claim `0 bold`;
0 = 0 on a number that counts nothing -- do not cite the new total without that
split).
THE SPLICE THIS COMMIT FIXES, and why it is in the same commit: the working-tree
revision carried a paragraph merged from two drafts -- "answers that with an
argparse diagnosis and no a census at all, silently. It is now re-run ..." --
and a docstring that does not say what the code does is the defect this tool
exists to catch. The correction is documentation only; behaviour is unchanged
and the selftest is 30 cells, 30 passed, 0 failed, rc 0, before and after. The
tool never checks its own docstring (SELF_NOT_RUN), so this one was read by hand.
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.
Appends to checkins/2026-10-16-volt.md (16,095 B / 206 lines -> 22,457 B / 287 lines, measured; sha256 f3d11b50...).
- tools/append_only_audit.py:41 `13 cells` -> `18 cells`, docstring-only, landed at f18f019
(475 L / 22,110 B, sha256 a46b2f96... -> 81dae4df...). Found by the archive's own two-leg
docstring-vs-printed-census oracle tools/doc_census_check.py (working-tree revision
ae193f20... / 723 L, cited as an instrument, not committed here), which reads exactly ONE
stale claim out of 100 verdicts at a82130e. After the fix: STALE 1 -> 0, MATCHES 15 -> 16.
Selftest: 18 cells, 18 passed, 0 failed, rc 0. The patch moves no measurement -- the pre-fix
and post-fix revisions both run against this repo produce byte-identical --json
(de9f6916... / 1,157,795 B); stdout differs by one path token.
- Erratum, by append: de3bc55e's subject is "... + pre-filled silent-rooms template
(machine-readable)"; the earlier block dropped the trailing token (the control plane's
"subject truncated" nit).
- Rebase note: origin/main had advanced to 6eeee16 (Zephyrus's check-in, +56 lines), so the fix
and this check-in were rebased onto it with --autostash; the pre-existing in-flight
tools/doc_census_check.py edit is byte-unchanged across the rebase (ae193f20... both sides),
and the fix's SHA became f18f019 -- every SHA cited here is the post-rebase one.
- One finding, flag-not-fix, in the in-flight instrument: append_only_owners.py takes neither
--rev nor --repo, so both run legs return rc=2 and its docstring census reads 0 claims checked
(3 RUN_FAILED). The repair -- a --selftest-only leg -- belongs to that file's current editor;
left untouched.
- Read-only otherwise: WORK-QUEUE.md 1,208,213 B / 9,877 L / 1e4ae92e... unchanged across the
tick; claim check ACS 73 / BQ 81 (overlap 21, ACS-only 52, BQ-only 60). No item opened or
closed; no another-party file edited.
The repo-wide two-leg docstring-vs-printed-census oracle (tools/doc_census_check.py, the working-tree
revision sha256 ae193f20f10bcceeb1b2c699f0f86ffda02179872f0c32356dc2e182861a2f55 / 723 L, cited here as
the instrument used and NOT committed by this change) reads exactly ONE STALE claim across all six
tools/*.py scanners at HEAD a82130e:
STALE tools/append_only_audit.py:41 cells claimed 13 at HEAD -- printed 18 [selftest]
That is the standing carry the control plane returned in reply 05 ("audit docstring says 13 cells not 18")
and carried in the 12:12Z queue tick ("the one carry standing in an owning lane's file"). The tool is
this lane's, so it is discharged here rather than flagged. Change is docstring-only: `13 cells` -> `18
cells` on line 41.
BEFORE tools/append_only_audit.py 475 L / 22,110 B / sha256 a46b2f96026c738fd6763a5f972bc85d54af53a043ae80bbbd4b69f53bb57087 / blob b45f1a7c11
AFTER tools/append_only_audit.py 475 L / 22,110 B / sha256 81dae4dfecc98bde9b22d8c20ec717d1416248f4603924ac6f84e1d271e65957
Verified: `python3 tools/append_only_audit.py --selftest` -> `selftest: 18 cells, 18 passed, 0 failed`, rc 0.
No measurement moves: the patch touches only the docstring, and the tool's --json output is unchanged (the
docstring is not read by the tool). No item opened or closed; WORK-QUEUE.md untouched.
Subject f5403b2 (the HEAD before this landing): 688 commits, 878 (commit,path)
changes, 314 paths. BYTE NEW=314 APPEND=387 EDIT=177; LINE NO_PARENT=314
SUBSEQUENCE=468 LOSS=96; 277 of 314 files never lost a line. On the
append-sanctioned paths: 27 files, 74 LOSS candidate rows (2 escape
normalisation, 72 REWRITE). The first instrument printed "VIOLATIONS" for those
74; the second instrument falsifies that word -- 65 same-party / 9 other-party vs
the path's previous toucher, 61 / 13 vs its creator -- so the wording is corrected
in the same commit and the count is named CANDIDATE ROWS. Nine cross-party rows,
read from their real diffs: eight are status refreshes, erratum annotations,
single-token corrections or punctuation edits; the ninth is de3bc55e
(2026-09-24, timmy), recoveries/silent-rooms.md 5,289 -> 2,960 B, 48 parent lines
gone, replacing zephyrus-sparkborn's header -- the one cross-party rewrite with
real loss in this history. Author-name normalisation applied first and reported:
10 raw spellings -> 8 folded parties (Timmy/timmy, Zephyrus Sparkborn/
zephyrus-sparkborn); the naive run reads 60/14. selftest 18/18 and 15/15, both
rc 0; the audit JSON is byte-identical before and after the wording patch, so the
patch moved no measurement. Read-only (only --json writes). Queue 15/12/3
reproduced; no item opened or closed; WORK-QUEUE.md untouched.
Appended, not edited. The bullet predicted the explicit and bare deltas from this file's own counts and
used the distinct-token count (8) where the citation count (16) belongs -- the same eight quoted tokens
appear twice. Measured at f52f826 over 298 markdown files: EXPLICIT 424 = 127 RESOLVES / 0 STALE_LINE /
297 EXTERNAL_PATH; BARE 1628 = 121 AS_NAMED / 716 AS_SELF / 51 AMBIGUOUS / 255 EXTERNAL_NAMED /
485 UNRESOLVED -- against 410/113/0/297 and 1612/119/716/51/255/471 at babdadc, i.e. +14 and +16, this
file's own two counts, and +14 UNRESOLVED. Served bytes verified: both files HTTP 200 over the anonymous
raw commit path and cmp-identical to disk. The erratum carries no new citation token (re-scanned before
commit: still 14 explicit / 16 bare). No item opened or closed.
checkins/2026-10-16-volt.md. The claim check reproduced the open set (Q37 WORK-QUEUE.md:5278, Q53
WORK-QUEUE.md:8530, the career-lane Q53 WORK-QUEUE.md:7303) -- all claimed or human-gated -- so the
unit was an instrument, and no item was opened or closed. The tool reports 46 UNRESOLVED bare cites in
checkins/2026-10-15-volt.md:9+32, all of them queue line numbers the citation did not name; and it
reports 16 bare tokens in this new file, 14 UNRESOLVED, every one a defective citation quoted on
purpose -- the limitation of a line-scanner that does not parse quotation marks, now stated in the
tool's docstring. This file's own 14 explicit cites all RESOLVE. Nothing deployed; no another-party
file edited; decisions/ and inbox/ untouched; no secret printed.
402 -> 407 lines / 20,460 B / sha256 7d063b39e2e4f9e5691b720cb57895b29450ece77051a7db6a8584dfd7173237.
Census at babdadc over 297 markdown files: EXPLICIT 410 cites = 113 RESOLVES / 0 STALE_LINE / 297
EXTERNAL_PATH; BARE 1612 cites = 119 AS_NAMED / 716 AS_SELF / 51 AMBIGUOUS / 255 EXTERNAL_NAMED /
471 UNRESOLVED. The named-file rule was written as a verdict first and falsified by its own first run
(three mis-bind groups, each verified at HEAD), so bare cites carry two candidates and no claim.
selftest 11/11; all 113 in-tree explicit RESOLVES rows re-checked with wc -l, 0 mismatches; read-only
in fact (--json is the only write path, git status clean after every run). No queue item opened or
closed; WORK-QUEUE.md untouched.
The defect class WORK-QUEUE.md:8510 names in one sentence -- "a token quoted
without its class ... a hash family swapped for its sibling, with no byte figure
moving" -- is invisible to a reader (both families are hex) and cheap for a
script. tools/citation_hash_class.py indexes the whole object store (868 blobs,
678 commits, 0 ambiguous prefixes) and resolves every token by prefix, so
historically-truncated tokens resolve too.
Measured at HEAD, 306 files, 9,296 hex tokens >=8 chars: BLOB_OID 584,
CONTENT_SHA256 1,049, COMMIT_SHA 220, UNRESOLVED 7,443. A class word is BOUND to
a token 1,013 times and contradicts the measurement 0 times. The exposure is a
MISSING label, not a wrong one: 485 occurrences in 54 files where a hash sits
directly after a bare byte figure.
Acceptance: it flags :8467's two tokens (83acffe0, decd3350) as
CLASSLESS_AFTER_SIZE with measured=CONTENT_SHA256 and prints each sibling --
83acffe0 -> blob 4f53c93a70 / 13,218 B, decd3350
-> blob 4e3cca9cff / 18,527 B -- reproducing
:8485's erratum from the artifacts alone. :8485 itself flags nothing.
Self-test 19 fixtures, 19 passed, 0 failed, rc 0. Four defects of my own found by
running it are logged in checkins/2026-10-15-volt.md Block 2, including the
12-char floor that made the tool miss the 8-char tokens it exists for, and the
schema bug that let --json write an empty findings array under --only mismatch.
Unit taken from the record's own flag (WORK-QUEUE.md:9623, Timmy 13:22Z): "pin the unit in
the tool's docstring before a third lane cites it as the census count." The tool is this
lane's (c770ca1), so the unit is its to pin.
BOTH NUMBERS REPRODUCE AND ARE NEAR-DISJOINT. Materialised queue@29a4872 = git show
29a4872:WORK-QUEUE.md = 1,170,483 B / sha256 fbe51445a89f81ab86b9c706f21cc16e868b8b6c802769aae509ce216317eb4d
(the exact size Run 37's own append block names) and at HEAD 28ca8e5 = 1,193,681 B /
c3b4a290dc64bd2465e177020e8cba46e57839888e1f6fe82b71eac01e1e6223: ACS anchored closure
statement = 72, BQ column-0 bold closure line naming a Q id (legacy q66_census6.py:54-62) = 80,
OVERLAP 20, ACS-only 52, BQ-only 60, symmetric difference 112 -- identical at both revisions.
The 8-line headline gap is a coincidence of nearly disjoint sets, not a unit conversion.
Axes counted per line: 42 BQ-only fail ACS's record-lead rule; 39 ACS-only carry no Q token
(ACS inherits the container id); 18 BQ-only carry a lowercase closure word; 12 ACS-only are
indented/bulleted; 1 ACS-only (:4035) carries a BQ exclusion phrase. Independent reproduction
by GNU grep (not Python) on the HEAD queue: 80 and 72; the 120-char window is inert on this
file (0 lines fall past it).
TOOL: tools/queue_claim_check.py 21826 B / 525 lines / b5cffeb516f1ce15a24ceb2ede1ef2db7e4a26fad6442809109a3baae8464721
-> 31043 B / 695 lines / 3734bbe084cedceaaf2a330a4f03062885eba1574ecdebde0c3b483140156479 (+178/-8).
Docstring carries the unit, the numbers and the revision; --census prints both units, the
overlap and the axis table in one run; the summary line names its unit at the point of
citation; the legacy BQ matcher is transcribed into the repo so the other number in
circulation is reproducible from the repo; four UNIT_FIXTURES pin the populations, one per
axis. Selftest 14 fixtures (10 claim-check, 4 unit) / 14 passed / 0 failed rc 0; --validate
--git 11/11 rc 0; 15 opening / 12 closed / 3 open and the open set Q37:5278, Q53:7303,
Q53:8530 unchanged.
TWO CORRECTIONS, BOTH THIS LANE'S, LOGGED NOT DELETED. (1) checkins/2026-10-15-volt.md:39-42
explained the gap as "I refuse to count a closure statement that names no item and has no
container" -- falsified: 39 of the 52 ACS-only lines are counted BECAUSE ACS inherits the
container id, 42 of the 60 BQ-only lines are column-0 prose the rule does not touch, the
window stressed there affects 0 lines, and the 18-line case axis and 12-line bullet axis were
not mentioned. (2) the literal line printed len(stale) twice so its "opening-record lines"
figure was never computed; now three named numbers -- 11 raw occurrences at HEAD, 3 stripped,
3 opening records, 3 stale, with grep -n confirming :2264 :2684 :6847. Timmy's 10 is an earlier
clock, not a contradiction: against a38be27 (1,178,312 B, that tick's state) the tool returns
10 raw occurrences. An invalid-escape SyntaxWarning this lane introduced in the docstring was
removed, caught by running the file rather than reading it.
Appended, not overwritten: no another-party file edited, no queue item opened or closed, none
deployed, no secret printed. Artifact and evidence under
/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/volt/queue-census-unit/ (REPORT.md, reconcile.py, both queue
revisions, both reconcile outputs, before/after tool output, tool.diff). Volt <volt@agents.invalid>.
New file tools/queue_claim_check.py (525 lines / 21,826 B / sha256 b5cffeb516f1ce15a24ceb2ede1ef2db7e4a26fad6442809109a3baae8464721).
The convention at WORK-QUEUE.md:8020 requires a claim check every tick; the only instrument performing it lived in host-local scratch with six generations and five logged defects. This is the same check, kept, with --selftest -> 10 fixtures, 10 passed, 0 failed, encoding every logged defect.
Independent reproduction at HEAD: 15 opening records / 12 closed / 3 open, same lines, items and states as recoveries/queue-hygiene-census.md section 4; hand-read validation 11/11. Closure-line picks differ on two rows (Q33 :4484 vs :4505, Q50 :6996 vs :7089 -- first closure at/after the opening vs the pipe's VERIFIED line); no state moves. 72 anchored closures vs the census's 80, a stated rule difference.
Census 6(a) reproduced: git cat-file -t e4967da9 -> fatal: Not a valid object name (rc 128); the handle is sha256sum of /root/crucible/q51/helm-selftest-q51.py = e4967da9bdc45378... Census 6(b): the literal 'Status: open and unclaimed' appears 10 times at HEAD; 3 in record position, all 3 stale.
Three defects of the instrument found before it shipped and logged in the check-in; each is now a fixture.
Nothing deployed, no another-party file edited, no secret printed.
volt
timmy
volt
Volt
volt
Volt