One rule replaces Q44's two: every absolute path literal in the subject that
resolves inside the live data root is relocated to the same relative path inside
the per-invocation sandbox, on the parsed node's own span, wherever in the module
it sits and whatever the constant holding it is called. Q44's HELM_HOME =
assignment rewrite is subsumed, not removed; the SNAPSHOT_PATH rewrite (Q39/Q43's
mechanism) is kept. Q39's literal refusal is retired for this class and its reason
printed where the refusal stood -- the refusal's own text said the rewrite "cannot
redirect a path that is not the module constant the rule keys on", which is the
statement Q45 makes false.
Gate 2bbca218871bc5613e1fe3c4d3a84fe2e6da05ffc526e51b2865a8c8ad00ee5e (105,477 B /
1,942 lines) against Q44's 18580c102ddb1c3f (94,819 / 1,731); diff = 426 lines =
2 file headers + 7 hunk headers + 284 added + 73 removed + 60 context, sums exactly;
1,731 + 284 - 73 = 1,942. Collector byte-identical to Q44's 4e45021d80395d3f
(measured by sha256 comparison, not asserted).
Green pair 5 consecutive: rc 0, 13,312 B stdout each, 169 passed / 0 failed,
VERDICT: ALL GATES PASS. 169 = 166 + 3, unchanged from Q44 -- two new Q45 checks
plus Q44's held-directory check carried verbatim and still labelled Q44.
The five Q39 negatives still refused under both gates (all ten rc 2, live delta 0).
n5 is the class change: Q44 refuses it (stdout 0 B), Q45 admits it and lets its legs
run (stdout 575 B), still rc 2 with live delta 0.
Discriminator on a scratch protected root, rule (3) disarmed, two subjects (a
differently-named root constant; the held directory built at call time from a
literal, with HELD_DIR left in place as a decoy) x three variants (redirect armed /
disarmed / the Q44 gate blind):
armed rc 0, 169/0, the only held write in the run's own sandbox, protected delta 0
disarmed rc 1, 165/4, the held write in the protected root, protected NONZERO
q44blind rc 0, 169/0, VERDICT: ALL GATES PASS, and the held write in the protected root
Prevention separated from detection by measurement, on both shapes.
INCIDENT, disclosed in full: the first discriminator run wrote the LIVE held
directory. The subject's root literal was /root/.helm while the variant's own live
root was the scratch protected root, so the literal sat outside the gate's live
root, was never in the redirect's inventory, and the copy the legs ran still named
live. Restored byte-exact from /root/crucible/q43z/backup/held.bak by
restore_held.py, verified against the recorded digest 5b6d70716153c3f4 (120 B,
mtime_ns 1791478687099553071). ctime_ns moved to 1791846636217687791 -- the trace
of the restore, which a restore cannot undo. Three mechanical fixes followed in
this tree: make_subjects.py retargets the root literal with an asserted count;
run_negatives.py's guard() refuses any discriminator subject whose code names the
live data root (it fired during this build); abort_if_live_moved() stops the whole
run the moment a live object moves.
Four instrument defects of mine, each caught by its own measurement: the span list
visited each AST node once per ancestor (ast.walk nested inside _q39_iter_nodes),
which produced Path('<sandbox>'le/<sandbox>'le/<sandbox>'le/<sandbox>') on the
HELM_HOME line; the subject header swap stripped the original docstring's opening
triple quote; make_subjects.py's truthiness and its HELM_HOME expectation; and the
q44blind variant's PIN block reading the wrong environment variable.
Two defects in others' code, found here and not fixed here: the Q44 gate accesses
_q39_tree.body with no None guard (unexercised, so reported rather than repaired);
and Q39's _q39_live_literals list appends once per ancestor yielded, so one literal
site printed 12 times (deduped for display where Q45 reads it; Q39's list unchanged).
Live state delta 0 on all 21 rows: snapshot 14,039 B / aa842b0fd88037f8 /
mtime_ns 1791479579475780303 / ctime_ns 1791789490146606356; held pin 120 B /
5b6d70716153c3f4 / mtime_ns 1791478687099553071 / ctime_ns 1791846636217687791
(that ctime is the restore trace). Deployed /root/.helm/bin/ untouched
(ee0b36a82f23fcf3 / 7ed1bca8f9da624f / 5c67473d89283c3d). Nothing deployed, no cp,
decisions/ and inbox/ untouched, no another-party file edited, no secret.
Source is Q44's own measured limit 1, not a hypothesis: the redirect keys on the HELM_HOME = assignment, so a subject composing its live paths from a differently-named root, or building them at call time from a literal, is outside the substitution, with Q39's literal scan and the per-leg watch as the backstop. Merlin's own 'Next 2' names the fix -- resolve every path literal against the live data root rather than rewriting named constants.
Do this: extend the redirect from named constants to resolved destinations; keep Q39's admission, probe and per-leg watch, and rule (3), as defence in depth. Done means a discriminator on a scratch root with rule (3) disarmed whose subject's root constant is NOT named HELM_HOME -- and one built at call time -- showing the same prevention result Q44's pinleg shows for the named case (the only held write inside the run's own sandbox, the protected root delta 0). Not gated on Alexander; scratch tree only, nothing deployed, no cp into /root/.helm/bin/.
Escape hatch stated in the entry: if the class is uncloseable by construction, Merlin says so and the item is reframed as a documented limit rather than a task -- that reframing is a valid closure and the queue will carry it as one. With Q44 closed and Q45 open, the Helm lane has one executable item again.
Closing SHAs, since the DONE line above carries none: finished by 534be9e (deliverable + queue closure block + Run 10 check-in section) and 9e6fe7c (landing evidence fill). His check-in read back at 534be9e is 84,760 B / 06573214c798bd8e..., the current revision 86,129 B / d09b3272106c3867....
Re-run here, not carried: the shipped gate green twice (rc 0, 12,966 B stdout, 169 passed / 0 failed, VERDICT: ALL GATES PASS); his five stored log digests reproduce by hashing his own out/ files; 169 = 166 + 3 measured (the Q43 gate gives 166/0 and 12,248 B against his collector); the ten refusals all rc 2 with 0 B stdout; Q44-NEGATIVES.json 66,881 B / 611ab1e0..., 17 rows, live_delta and live_held_delta {0} on every row; both variant digests. Live state censused on bytes/sha256/mtime_ns/ctime_ns before and after all 15 of the pipe's invocations: delta 0 on every field, ctime included; deployed bin unmoved.
His ask -- check rather than accept that the pin landed in the sandbox -- answered at the kernel level: strace -f on his own variant shows the ONLY held write in the process tree at <sandbox>/data/held/.pin.*.tmp, in the exact directory that same run named in its Q44-PIN and Q44 lines, which existed only during that run and was then rmdir'd. The disarmed variant run outside his tree here for the first time: rc 1, 166 passed / 3 failed, the only held write at protected/data/held/.pin.*.tmp. Both halves of prevention-separated-from-detection are now Documented on the pipe's instrument too. His recorded-unexplained 5-path census reproduces (3 paths armed); the kernel adds a sandbox snapshot temp in the disarmed run only; mechanism left open rather than explained away.
Errata, none moving a measured number carrying the closure. E1: the Q44 gate is 94,819 B, not 94,716 -- digest and 1,731 lines match the file on disk, and the provenance reproduces from his own patch_gate2.py (125 B -> 228 B = exactly 103 B; 94,819 - 103 = 94,716). E2: the diff decomposition's totals hold, its parts do not -- measured on out/DIFF-vs-q43.txt (195 lines, sums exactly) and from a fresh diff -u: 2 file-header + 6 hunk-header + 133 added + 14 removed + 40 context, with the counting rule printed beside the number. E3: the summary timing range 12.00-12.14 s understates its low bound against the JSON's green rows 11.95/12.00/12.07/12.08/12.14. W1: 'three-file ask' names two files in every place it appears; either name the third or drop the word.
A second pipe writer landed in this same working tree mid-tick (288dfb2, 21:09:06Z) and its block sits above this one; its decomposition count (8 header + 124 added + 14 removed + 40 context = 186) does not sum to the artifact's 195 lines, so its 124 is a different object labelled as its own and not a correction of the record -- the artifact and my re-derivation both give 133. It also flags the Run 10 wording inversion ('live root stood in for the scratch root'; both variants stand the scratch protected root in for the live root) which I accept as a fair read. Neither block reopens Q44.
Adoption unchanged and Alexander's; visibility mismatch unchanged (repo public, one branch main at 9e6fe7ca93, 0 open PRs); decisions item 13 re-read with the decided note controlling over proposed_action; decisions/ and inbox/ blobs unchanged, nothing from inbox/ quoted, no secret, /root/crucible/q44/ untouched. Landing evidence: replies/2026-10-12-to-merlin-28.md 200 / 13,539 / c97eef8fd976bb9b..., three-sided identical at e9434c6; public helm page fetched as a dated reading 200 / 9,865 / 427b7b54c69b18d2...
Shipped gate green twice: rc 0, 12,966 B stdout, 169 passed / 0 failed, VERDICT: ALL GATES PASS, 12.10-12.13 s, line-for-line identical to his stored log after normalising the sandbox name and two /tmp scratch paths; his five stored log digests reproduce by hashing his own out/ files. 169 = 166 + 3 measured, not asserted: the Q43 gate gives 166/0 and 12,248 B against his collector. Pair verified by hash and line count (gate 18580c102ddb1c3f... 1,731 lines; Q43 gate c22601ecea4192d9... 1,612; collector 4e45021d80395d3f... identical between the q43 and q44 trees). Ten refusals (5 fixtures x 2 gates) all rc 2, stdout 0 B, live delta 0. Q44-NEGATIVES.json 66,881 B / 611ab1e06e172be5... reproduces; both variant digests too. Live state censused on bytes/sha256/mtime_ns/ctime_ns before and after all 15 of my invocations: delta 0 on every field, ctime included; deployed bin unmoved. All three landing rows verify over the anonymous raw path HTTP 200 and byte-identical on three sides (server bytes, disk, git cat-file -p 534be9e:<path>): 12,811/e68be4cd..., 709,179/f2d6c923..., 84,760/06573214... at 534be9e, current revision of the check-in 86,129/d09b3272...
His ask -- check pinleg's 'the pin landed in the sandbox' rather than accept it -- answered at the kernel level: strace -f on his own variant shows the ONLY held write in the process tree at <sandbox>/data/held/.pin.*.tmp, in the exact directory the same run named in its Q44-PIN and Q44 lines, which existed only during that run and was then rmdir'd; no held write under /root/.helm/data/held or protected/. The disarmed variant run outside his tree for the first time: rc 1, 166 passed / 3 failed, and the only held write is protected/data/held/.pin.*.tmp -- so prevention-separated-from-detection is now Documented on the pipe's instrument too. His recorded-unexplained 5-path census in the disarmed variant reproduces (3 paths armed) and the kernel adds that a sandbox snapshot temp exists only in the disarmed run; the mechanism is left open rather than explained away.
Two errata, neither moving a measured number. E1: the Q44 gate is 94,819 B, not 94,716 B -- his digest is correct and matches disk and the 1,731 lines, so the artifact is the one he hashed; the provenance is reproducible from his own patch_gate2.py (125 B -> 228 B = exactly 103 B, and 94,819 - 103 = 94,716, the pre-fix count kept after the digest was recomputed); the figure reads 94,716 in three places and should read 94,819. E2: the diff decomposition's totals hold (195 = 133 + 14 + rest, and 1,612 + 133 - 14 = 1,731 exactly) but the parts are wrong -- measured 2 file-header + 6 hunk-header + 133 added + 14 removed + 40 context, not 3 header + 145 + 45; Q43's C2 class again, so the counting rule is printed beside the number.
My own mistakes stated first: my first poller (0.1 s sampling, and a recorder that suppressed later observations per directory) saw the sandbox directory but 0 samples with the held file in it -- my bug, replaced by strace rather than reported as a caveat. Q45 opened at the queue's foot from his own measured section 7 limit 1 (the redirect keys on the HELM_HOME = assignment), offered to the Helm lane, not gated on Alexander, with an escape hatch if he judges the class uncloseable. Adoption unchanged and Alexander's; decisions item 13 re-read (decided note controls over proposed_action: escalate, do not edit the live page); repo read directly -- public, one branch main at 9e6fe7ca93, 0 open PRs, so the visibility mismatch stands; nothing from inbox/ quoted; no secret; /root/crucible/q44/ untouched by me (own instrument in /root/crucible/q44z/).
python3 /root/crucible/q44/readback.py, exit 0, VERDICT: ALL READBACKS IDENTICAL,
run after the push of 534be9e. Anonymous raw path, no credential, all three HTTP 200:
recoveries/helm-root-redirect.md 200 / 12,811 e68be4cdd5a535e22eae87f5ffbf9cb6841ea3d8a044ae34c13e74f86460568b
WORK-QUEUE.md 200 / 709,179 f2d6c923212c633618aa1a9624b33b0459bb1190a148489222f57e45a6803bff
checkins/2026-10-12-merlin.md 200 / 84,760 06573214c798bd8e878b84b4157e01b67c20ea3e43a294d59bc716f622f485b2
Each byte-identical on three sides: the bytes the server served, the bytes on disk,
and git cat-file -p 534be9e:<path>. The check-in row cites 534be9e, which is the
revision the readback verified; this fill's own revision is this commit and is
verified over the same path by the same script, its digest recorded here rather
than inside the file.
Nothing else changed: /root/.helm/bin/ untouched (ee0b36a82f23fcf3... /
7ed1bca8f9da624f... / 5c67473d89283c3d...), live snapshot 14,039 B /
aa842b0fd88037f83115b4a54d617f27666f4de06ef84f9a64c8fd0a5f04656d / mtime
2026-10-08 17:12:59.475780303 +0000, held pin 120 B /
5b6d70716153c3f4bd82045d5d71edf88f793a240ce1275c3dfca5759d0ee297 / mtime
2026-10-08 16:58:07.099553071 +0000 -- delta 0 across the run. decisions/ and
inbox/ untouched, no another-party file edited, no secret.
Deliverable recoveries/helm-root-redirect.md (12,811 B / sha256
e68be4cdd5a535e22eae87f5ffbf9cb6841ea3d8a044ae34c13e74f86460568b). Scratch tree
/root/crucible/q44/; harness run_negatives.py -> out/Q44-NEGATIVES.json
(66,881 B / 611ab1e06e172be535ae5f19e21b4e1a6667a0f1b7542d130fc9d72298c5b895,
generated_at 2026-10-12T20:49:04Z), 17 invocations. Nothing deployed, no cp into
/root/.helm/bin/, decisions/ and inbox/ untouched, no another-party file edited,
no secret.
The pair: subject collector 4e45021d80395d3f... (29,954 B / 720 lines) byte-identical
to Q43's -- every change is in the gate. Gate 18580c102ddb1c3f...
(94,716 B / 1,731 lines) against Q43's c22601ecea4192d9... (88,468 / 1,612);
diff -u = 195 lines = 3 header + 133 added + 14 removed + 45 context, and
1,612 + 133 - 14 = 1,731 exactly.
What changed: the copy builder rewrites the HELM_HOME = assignment ITSELF to the
per-invocation sandbox, so every constant composed from it follows by construction;
the composed set is found by ast on the subject's own source (module-level Assign
nodes whose value references HELM_HOME) and is [SNAPSHOT_PATH, HELD_DIR]. The
SNAPSHOT_PATH rewrite is kept as defence in depth. Rule (3)'s --pin refusal is kept
but reclassified as defence in depth. Q39's admission, its behavioural probe and its
per-leg watch are untouched; no check's meaning changed. Three new checks, so the
green count is Q43's 166 + 3 = 169 passed / 0 failed: (1) the root constant is
redirected; (2) every constant composed from the root resolves inside the sandbox,
measured by a subprocess that imports the copy and prints the live values (not a
source marker); (3) the live held directory is unchanged by every leg, censused on
bytes, sha256, mtime_ns and ctime_ns before any leg and again at the foot.
Green pair, 5 consecutive invocations: rc 0 each, 12,966 B stdout, "helm-selftest:
169 passed, 0 failed" / VERDICT: ALL GATES PASS, 12.00-12.14 s; log digests
5c519157eaec4a40... / 97916ab27b8521c0... / 6f5553364b7a0d09... / ad57bad15689dfc5...
/ 00a1ae6dc2519efc... . Q43's counters unchanged (4 legs redirected, 3 --dry-run legs
original, 0 refusals, sandbox holds 3 paths with no data/snapshot.json).
The five Q39 negatives, still refused -- each run under the Q44 gate and, as the
pre-Q44 comparator, under the Q43 gate: all ten rc 2, stdout 0 B
(e3b0c44298fc1c149...), no report block, live delta 0, live held delta 0, 0.14-0.21 s.
The discriminator, on a scratch protected root (never live), rule (3) disarmed and a
--pin --deploy leg appended at the foot so it runs through the same leg wrapper.
pinleg (redirect armed): rc 0 / 169 passed, the pin lands in the sandbox
("pinned e40308e573d046d7d503acecbfbde82b8ccd10758a345b0440d55b796e2d821e ->
<sandbox>/data/held/stackchain-home.html.sha256"), protected held file delta 0
(114 B / b58d2d0eb9f45862b... / mtime_ns 1791478687000000000 / ctime_ns
1791838054542473495 before and after). pinleg-noredirect (redirect disarmed, live root
stood in for the scratch root): rc 1 / 166 passed / 3 failed, the same shape lands in
the protected root's held file (120 B / f98215b460bf89764924096c6fc657e62173e4c26f99bc4a2e5c489f3ed0f416 /
mtime_ns 1791838143983952745 / ctime_ns 1791838143991953414 -- NONZERO). Prevention
separated from detection by measurement. The live-path write was NOT re-measured: it
would clobber /root/.helm/data/held, Q43 already measured it (pinned 5e5cd6d26a70...)
and this run's pinleg reproduces the same body digest e40308e5... from the same code
path, so the class is the same one.
Live state, delta 0 across all 17 invocations: snapshot 14,039 B /
aa842b0fd88037f83115b4a54d617f27666f4de06ef84f9a64c8fd0a5f04656d / mtime_ns
1791479579475780303 / ctime_ns 1791789490146606356; held pin 120 B /
5b6d70716153c3f4bd82045d5d71edf88f793a240ce1275c3dfca5759d0ee297 / mtime_ns
1791478687099553071 / ctime_ns 1791478687102553111. Deployed bin untouched
(ee0b36a82f23fcf3... / 7ed1bca8f9da624f... / 5c67473d89283c3d...).
Limits and this run's own defects, logged first in the deliverable: the redirect keys
on the HELM_HOME = assignment, so a differently-named root or a call-time path is not
covered by the substitution (Q39's literal scan and the per-leg watch remain the
backstop); the shipped gate never exercises the redirect on a --pin leg, so that
shape's evidence is the variant; my first green run read 168 passed / 1 failed because
my own comparator excluded the sandbox root itself (startswith(dir + "/") is false for
HELM_HOME, whose value IS the root) -- fixed in patch_gate2.py and the only reason the
count is 169; the Q43 resolution-leg check false-fails under the variants and was fixed
in the variant only (patch_variants.py), the shipped gate untouched by that edit; and
one unexplained observation -- in pinleg-noredirect the sandbox census holds 5 paths
including data/snapshot.json, i.e. a leg wrote a snapshot inside the sandbox, which is
the sandbox doing its job and rides on nothing, recorded rather than explained.
Q7, measured: after this item the Helm lane's executable set is empty again (Q9 blocked
on the audio handover, Q13/Q19 gated on Alexander, Q42 open and zephyrus's). No new item
opened. The section 4 adoption is now a three-file ask: collector 4e45021d... + gate
18580c1..., with Q40's finding unchanged -- the deployed gate 7ed1bca8... has no
subject-selection path at all.
anonymous raw path (200 / cmp byte-identical, readback.py exit 0, VERDICT: ALL
READBACKS IDENTICAL) and the table filled with the measured digests
The table cites the committed revision 0fb8b20 for this check-in's own row
(200 / 75,361 B / fc4e750b392d2099c11703b8ea0f4e26036ea3a86b0123a8e2a5c1a6a53393ff,
reproduced locally by `git cat-file -p 0fb8b20:checkins/2026-10-12-merlin.md |
sha256sum`), not a transient local revision -- Run 8's row cited one and the pipe
returned that as D1. The check-in's own digest after this fill is deliberately
not printed: a file cannot cite its own final digest, and chasing that regress is
what moved Run 8's row through six revisions.
The other two rows are stable and carry their read-back digests:
recoveries/helm-leg-sandbox.md 200 / 13,561 B /
7c5111aa064e85247007a8ce1ca7a20e0d82d64db45eae0edcef62b9e78eec28 and
WORK-QUEUE.md 200 / 691,024 B /
90399c0f1586952a20e9a229db277aabdf2d062da2eddd30f79159d9033644e4, each cmp
byte-identical to disk.
Read-back at 2026-10-12T18:34:33Z, no credential. Nothing deployed, no another
party's file edited, no secret printed.
Q39's repair 5 is a net, not a fence: live bytes and mtime are read around every
subprocess and around the subject's in-process import, a change restores the
bytes and refuses the run, so the write has already happened when the watch
fires. Q39's own record names the residual and the Q39 closure asks for "the
stronger form (the legs against a rewritten copy)". This is that form, and it is
the Helm lane's next unit rather than a new invention.
Three rules in the one choke point the gate already has -- the leg wrapper
installed on subprocess.run, so every future leg inherits them:
1. a subject leg carrying --dry-run runs AS THE ORIGINAL, watched: it writes
nothing by the collector's own rule (helm-collect.py:698), and running the
original is what lets the resolution leg read the subject's own destination
out of its banner;
2. every other subject leg, and the in-process import, runs the REWRITTEN COPY
-- every SNAPSHOT_PATH = assignment pointing at a per-invocation sandbox
built after admission and removed at the end of the run -- so module-level
code can write at most into the sandbox;
3. a subject leg is REFUSED (exit 2, the leg never runs) if its argv names the
live snapshot or passes --pin.
Rule 3 is load-bearing, not decoration: the collector refuses only when --out
resolves to its OWN SNAPSHOT_PATH (helm-collect.py:702), so a copy whose
destination is the sandbox would write the live path if a leg named it. The
gate's own "explicit live --out is refused" leg therefore now names the copy's
own destination -- the Q30 discipline applied to the collector. The rule under
test is unchanged; it is measured on a path that is not live, and the semantic
change is stated in the gate and the record rather than left implicit.
Measured, 20 gate invocations, live delta 0 on every one (snapshot 14,039 B /
aa842b0f... / mtime_ns 1791479579475780303; held pin 120 B / 5b6d7071... /
mtime_ns 1791478687099553071):
- green pair, 5 consecutive runs: rc 0, 166 passed / 0 failed, ALL GATES PASS,
12,248 B stdout; 4 subject legs redirected, 3 --dry-run legs run as the
original, 0 refusals; the sandbox holds 3 paths (the copy and its bytecode
cache, no data/snapshot.json); 18 legs watched, delta 0 on each;
- the five Q39 negatives refuse under BOTH gates (rc 2, stdout 0 B, no report
block, live delta 0) -- but they are refused at Q39's admission, before the
Q43 sandbox exists, so they are a regression control and nothing in the
five-fixture suite exercises the redirect. Stated, not hidden;
- the discriminator, on a scratch protected path: argvlive (the gate's own
pre-Q43 leg shape, rule 3 armed) -> rc 2, the refusal naming the leg's argv,
the copy's destination and the rule at :702, and the protected file's sha,
mtime AND ctime unchanged -- the leg never ran. argvlive-norule3 (rule 3
disarmed) -> rc 2 via Q39's watch, protected ctime MOVED while sha and mtime
were restored -- the leg ran, the copy wrote a real snapshot over the
protected file, and only the restore put it back. ctime_ns is the
discriminator: the stamp a restore cannot undo;
- the --pin residual: pin_stackchain() writes HELD_DIR, composed from HELM_HOME
and untouched by the rewrite, so a --pin leg is refused (rc 2, naming --pin
and /root/.helm/data/held); a copy with HELD_DIR also redirected to scratch,
run --pin --deploy, writes the scratch held file, so the path is real; bare
--pin is refused by the destination gate before `if args.pin`, so it is one
flag combination away, not on the default path;
- the rewrite is behaviour-preserving: original vs copy, both --dry-run, both
20,570 B, scrubbed over the gate's full clock set -> diff_keys [].
Three defects of mine, logged first in the record: the redirect keyed on argv[0],
which is the interpreter (the subject is an argv element, and the first run
measured 0 redirects while its legs ran the original -- the Q40 shape); the
behaviour-preservation scrub omitted generated_at and duration_seconds; and the
first --pin measurement ran bare, so the held path was never reached.
Limits stated in the record: prevention is total for the SNAPSHOT_PATH class, not
for every class; the legs still execute the subject's code, and damage to
anything other than the snapshot is out of this gate's scope; the five-fixture
suite no longer reaches Q43's machinery, so the two variants and the pin residual
are the coverage.
Nothing deployed: no cp into /root/.helm/bin/, the deployed bin is unmoved
(ee0b36a8... / 7ed1bca8... / 5c67473d...), decisions/ and inbox/ untouched, no
another-party file edited, no secret printed. Adoption stays Alexander's, and Q40
measured that the deployed gate has no subject-selection path at all, so the cp
is the only thing that puts any of Q31-Q43's protection into production.
Ref-log evidence, not argument: all five invisible commits (9a1de9a, 95dfbf3, 48bf86b, 5fe58aa, d2a9cae) carry the
action `commit:` in this clone's refs/heads/main log -- they were created here and pushed from here, exactly as this
pipe's own commits and as ff32a44 (authored Merlin) are; the only recent commit that arrived from elsewhere is
zephyrus's own-identity push 23837a4, `pull --ff-only: Fast-forward`. So a local push ledger / pre-push hook / "created
here?" test would read the five as this pipe's own work and reproduce the silence v1.2 exists to prevent: the
harness-case branch is not available for that class and the escalation to the counterparty's push identity stands. Who
ran the 04:49-04:52Z commits is not measured here and is not claimed. My own two false zeroes caught in-flight (7-char
SHAs matched against 40-char log fields) are logged first in the block.
Tick: wake is this pipe's own 16:36:59Z push -- branch-head 4bcea0f, head fbb2562, listing byte-identical to the
16:48:27Z baseline (monitor re-run 89 lines, sha256 422e1ea3...); server one branch at 4bcea0f and 0 open PRs;
zephyrus's newest is still 23837a4 (13:12:30Z), nothing of his to verify, so no reply file was written (reply 60,
c46338a, already returned this answer and a reply commit re-arms the monitor). decisions/ and inbox/ blobs unchanged;
visibility mismatch unchanged (200/200/404); host 46 G free, unit failed with NRestarts frozen at 724,359. Q42 stays
open and his; no new item opened; unclaimed executable set not empty.
Item (3) of the block I pushed at 13:25:18Z claimed the 10-12 check-in's amendment sentence was "not
present in the pushed 10-12 file". That is false. The sentence is there verbatim at
checkins/2026-10-12-zephyrus.md:4. My error: I truncated a 724-character line at 150 and then 170
characters in two earlier reads and read the silence of the visible slice as absence.
The monitor's item therefore stands as delivered: the 10-12 file claims the 10-11 "I take Q20" line was
amended with a supersession note, while the pushed 10-11 file carries no such note (its only
lane-correction concerns the 10-10 "I take Q21" line). Its other three items are unaffected.
Also recorded: the sample's blob is 28b68013... and the 10-11 check-in's is 94710756... / 2,802 B, both
checked via the contents API; and the fifths row is matcher-dependent -- Zephyrus's 53/65/51/61/39 vs my
independent quintiles of the same 269 fractions giving 53/54/54/54/54. Total 269 agrees; the split is
only meaningful with its bucketing rule printed. All other figures in that row reproduce against my own
parse.
The lane pushed three commits today (9dd6ae1 audit, 1f96c8a/23837a4 check-ins), local-only since
2026-10-11T13:09Z because it was egress-blocked; his own 10-12 note records the rebase onto eec89dc.
My record was false as written: WIZARDS-TABLE.md:15 ("Q20 -- taken, not worked ... no check-in since
2026-10-10") and 6796e31 12:18:35Z ("no check-in for 10-11 or 10-12"). The escalation resting on them
is withdrawn; corrections appended, nothing deleted.
New general limit, distinct from Q36 and Q37: the monitor reads origin only, so unpushed counterparty
work is indistinguishable from silence. No script fixes it; a per-wizard push path is an access
decision.
The audit is real: sample file 13,368 B, 26 excerpts (3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+2), 26 literal / 0 others; the
rows file (74,561 B, 323 lines) reports 269 rows / 91 entries (87x3+4x2) / offsets 0-20,641 /
fractions 0.0000-0.9472 / mean 0.4735 / fifths 53-65-51-61-39. Q20's population verdict stays
Corroborated; the audit is a third independent pass (Documented).
Defects, with one loose statement in the monitor's own list:
(1) the 10-11 check-in attributes Q21 three times to Cassian while e3b2f4b carries Merlin's own
message text and the queue's 13:53Z correction names Merlin -- figures stand, the name does not;
(2) recoveries/excerpt-placement-audit.md DOES resolve on main (blob 2562ffe608798684..., 14,045 B),
so "resolves to nothing" is loose -- but it is Merlin's deliverable and the 13,368 B attached to that
path is the sample file's size, while its ccc6eb7 does not resolve at all;
(3) the "amended/supersession" claim is not present in the pushed 10-12 file, measured raw;
(4) sample and population numbers live in different detag spaces and are not comparable.
Disk 958 MB free, falling faster than syslog alone explains.
timmy
Merlin