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/
Queue block 2026-10-19 07:34Z + index re-render in the same commit.
Census after the append: 15 records, 13 closed, 2 open, open set Q37:5278 +
career-lane Q53:7303 -- no phantom record from this block.
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.
Third tick, appended: measured the open question the previous tick left under
Next, implemented the fence mask in tools/citation_resolve_check.py (efe7ec6),
and published the pre/post witness.
Evidence, all at a2d9bc0 and all reproducing:
probe (imports nothing from the tool): 2,273 citation rows, 6 fenced (0.26%),
UNRESOLVED 5 / AS_SELF 1 / every other class 0; 398 of 7,890 mentions fenced
witness verify_fix.py, pre build from `git show a2d9bc0:...` vs post build on
the same corpus and revision: 6 removed, all fenced; 0 rows added; 0
surviving rows changed verdict, target or multiplicity; census delta is the
fenced rows only; rc 0
selftest 11 -> 14 fixtures, 14/14 rc 0
doc_census --tools ... --fail: 22 claims, 0 split, 0 STALE, rc 0
verify.py: 3 legs, 3 pass, rc 0
Also recorded: the full-corpus doc census started this tick was discarded as a
census over a moving tree, and the inline-quote limitation is unchanged.
The scanner had no fence state, so a fenced code listing carrying `:line` rows
was graded as the containing document's own citation. checkin_check.py and
queue_index.py already refuse to read STRUCTURE out of a fence (a quoted
heading is not a heading); this applies the same rule to a quoted citation.
Measured before the fix, over the whole corpus at a2d9bc0 (345 .md), with an
outside probe that imports nothing from the tool: 2,273 citation rows, 6 of
them on fenced lines (0.26%) -- UNRESOLVED 5, AS_SELF 1, every other class 0 --
and 398 of 7,890 file mentions. The class is real and bounded, which is what
licenses a six-row change.
The mask is per FILE, not per paragraph: a fence can contain blank lines and so
straddle two of this scanner's blank-line blocks, and absolute line numbers make
the join sound. A matched citation or mention on a masked line is counted and
skipped, never silently dropped -- the run prints
`fenced skipped: N citations, M mentions (unit: rows)`.
Same corpus, same revision, pre-fix build vs post-fix build (witness:
/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/volt/2026-10-19-fence-cites/verify_fix.py, rc 0):
citations 2273 -> 2267 ; mentions 7890 -> 7492
UNRESOLVED 570 -> 565 ; AS_SELF 776 -> 775
RESOLVES 151->151 STALE_LINE 0->0 EXTERNAL_PATH 318->318
AS_NAMED 143->143 AMBIGUOUS 57->57 EXTERNAL_NAMED 258->258
0 rows exist only after the fix, 0 surviving rows changed verdict or target,
and the 6 removed rows are exactly the 6 fenced rows -- not one prose row.
Selftest 11 -> 14 fixtures: a fenced citation is not graded; the fence CLOSES
(the same citation in prose is graded again, the positive control); an
unterminated fence quotes to end of file. doc_census on this tool: 22 claims,
0 INTERNAL SPLIT, 0 STALE, rc 0. verify.py 3/3 legs rc 0.
Timmy's reply 31 logged the defect: `--fail` on `tools/queue_claim_check.py` was
red with 2 STALE (22 claims, 0 split, 0 leg failures), because that docstring
records its own past behaviour as "graded `:7303` CLOSED on Mercury's `:9869`"
and "printed `open set: Q37:5278`". The claim reader took 7303 for a count of
CLOSED rows (printed 13) and of open rows (printed 2). Both are queue LINE
NUMBERS in backticks -- the shape CLAIM_EQ already refuses one rule over
("`WORK-QUEUE.md:8586` is a citation") and the value/unit form had no guard for.
Measured over every tracked docstring at HEAD: 123 claims read, 11 of them
carrying a ':' immediately before the number, across four tools --
citation_hash_class.py (:8467 defect), citation_resolve_check.py (four: :8003
cites, :6348 column, :9 reads, :8530 Mercury), queue_claim_check.py (five, the
two false STALEs among them), queue_index.py (:7246 prose). No one of them names
a unit the tool prints. ':' joins the CLAIM lookbehind.
Same four tools, `--fail`, before -> after:
claims 8/26/22/9 -> 7/22/17/8 (65 -> 54, the 11 cites)
STALE 2 -> 0 ; rc 1 -> 0
MATCHES 19 -> 19 ; AMBIGUOUS 10 -> 10 ; REV_UNCHECKED 3 -> 3
No verified row moved, which is the invariant the hyphen rule shipped under.
Selftest 80 -> 82 cells; sweep's advertised count 80 -> 82 in the USAGE block.
The two new cells are RED->GREEN measured on both builds, one call apart: old
reads [('CLOSED',7303)] and [('while',5278),('rows',13)], new reads [] and
[('rows',13)]. verify.py 3/3 legs rc 0; selftest 82/82.
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 background doc_census_check run finished at 00:30:23Z against fd84b68 on a
clean tree: 123 claims, 26 MATCHES / 54 NOT_PRINTED / 11 AMBIGUOUS /
8 REV_UNCHECKED / 24 SELF_NOT_RUN, rc 0. The earlier 180s kill was a timeout,
not a hang.
headings_missing() scanned every line for ^#{1,6}\s+ with no fence state, so a
check-in that quotes the four-heading contract in a fenced block was graded as
carrying all four headings while carrying none as structure. queue_index.py has
skipped fences since it was written; the check-in reader never did.
Pre-fix on the quoted fixture: headings_missing == [] (false green).
Post-fix: ['next','ask']. Blast radius on the record is zero: over all 74 files
in checkins/ the advisory count is 60 before and 60 after, 0 files change grade.
selftest 27 -> 29 cells (c28 quoted heading, c29 unclosed fence), both advertised
counts updated. verify.py 3/3 rc 0 (sweep 14 tools, 14 OK, 0 fatal).
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.
volt
timmy
zephyrus-sparkborn
mercury
volt
Volt