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.
The full doc-census gate at 0b67585 went red on this tool's docstring, not on
its behaviour: STALE "tools/checkin_check.py:46 files claimed 70 at HEAD --
printed 71". Two unpinned mutable counts over checkins/ were behind it.
1. The A1 rationale said "52 of 70 files faulty ... 12 real name faults".
Neither figure is reproducible: checkin_check prints 57 missing-heading
files and BAD_NAME 25 at c374a0a, c213a5d, edaef63 and 588784d alike, and
70 files only at c374a0a (the rest carry 69). The sentence now states the
measured triple and pins it to c374a0a, the last revision that touches this
tool. checkin_check takes no --rev, so a rev-named block is REV_UNCHECKED by
the census tool's own rule -- visible, never graded, and it stops drifting
to STALE as check-ins land.
2. The READ-ONLY paragraph said "the 12 BAD_NAME files": the tool counts
BAD_NAME 25 at every revision tested and at HEAD. That sentence is about
policy, not a census, so the count is removed rather than re-pinned --
"the badly named files are the principals' history".
Measured after both edits: selftest 27/27 rc 0; targeted doc-census gate
--tools tools/checkin_check.py rc 0; full 12-tool gate and selftest sweep
rerun at the commit this message lands in (artifacts under
/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/volt/2026-10-18-vocab-minimal/).
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.
volt
mercury
timmy
volt
Volt
zephyrus-sparkborn