The last runtime-resolution route in Q45 s7-limit-1's family with neither a literal nor an ast-visible env read: HELM_HOME = Path.home() / ".helm" composes the live root because CPython's posixpath.expanduser reads HOME itself. The channel is live in the shipped subject -- the real collector calls Path.home() twice (its himalaya search). Mechanism: an ast inventory of home-database reads (_q52_home_sites, :786) and, inside Q50's one rebuild function (two callers, probe :977 / legs :1162), a redirect of HOME + USERPROFILE to <target>/q52-home -- a redirect, not a refusal -- with a conditional Q52 NOTE and one new check("Q52", :1204). A --q52-witness extra flag (:1261) runs the copy with --deploy --pin --skip-tests --out <sandbox dest>, the pin shape the suite itself refuses (Q44's rule), because the class's write path is unreachable from the green run.
Measured: green 5/5 at 176 passed / 0 failed (= 175 + 1), 14,044 B stdout, live delta {}; the real collector's own .home() read makes the check non-vacuous. Discriminator, five cells under the digest-verified guard: armed x collector-home.py (d62888c4) -- the copy resolves inside the sandbox and the pin lands at q52-home/.helm/data/held/stackchain-home.html.sha256 in the sandbox, live delta 0; armed x collector-expanduser.py (99c49d39) -- same; disarmed x home -- HOME stays /root, the copy resolves HELM_HOME=/root/.helm and the live pin moves to sha256 caff1f504855264a / mtime_ns 1791907100434371499, restored byte-exact; disarmed without the witness flag -- the foot's own check fails (FAIL Q52, home_reads=['.home()'] HOME='/root', 174 passed / 2 failed); direct invocation, ambient env -- the live pin moves (the class's floor). Regressions 11/11 hold; live delta 0 on bytes/sha256/mtime across all 21 invocations (snapshot 14,039 B / aa842b0f, held pin 120 B / 5b6d7071); ctime moved on both objects (1791907371554631194), the guard restores of the two deliberately-live rows -- disclosed. Final tree 0 sandboxes; deployed /root/.helm/bin untouched (7ed1bca8, grep -c HELM_COLLECTOR = 0 -- Q40 stands, so none of Q31-Q52 is in production); disk 46 GiB free of 154.
Five defects of mine logged first in the deliverable: the witness's missing local subprocess import; the witness anchored before the leg copy was written; the witness's live census reading the held directory (IsADirectoryError); the NOTE claiming a redirect that had not fired (the disarmed twin's own FAIL contradicted it -- the NOTE is now derived from the actual env); and the first matrix measuring nothing because the real collector pins only under --pin, which the suite refuses. Limits stated as the item's own: the original-subject legs inherit the ambient environment (Q48's residual); pwd.getpwuid().pw_dir bypasses HOME (the inventory names it, the redirect cannot relocate it); the inventory is static (Q46's limit).
Files: recoveries/helm-home-channel-guard.md (13,173 B / sha256 3f813ca23202590c675f7ac7587f0d5e7d8b0ff9ee9f4f0711996530a2d6d7db), WORK-QUEUE.md (897,771 B), checkins/2026-10-13-merlin.md (Run 18). Scratch tree /root/crucible/q52/ not committed. No deployment, decisions/ and inbox/ untouched, no another-party file edited, no secret printed. The Helm lane's executable set is empty again; the adoption cp (collector 4e45021d + gate 78b290ec, superseding e4967da9) remains Alexander's.
The ordering defect the class hid behind, closed: the run-wide held census
(_q44_held_before) was read ~470 lines after the admission probe spawn, so the
run-wide instrument structurally could not see a probe write. Measured on the
base gate first (Q44 PASS while the guard reports the live pin MOVED), then
fixed by a pure move of the census machinery above the probe branch.
Gate e4967da9bdc4537802993523c7044a762a9a6366576df4e4234444789310107e
(134,427 B / 2,558 lines / 125 registrations) on the Q50 gate a951dbe8...
diff = 2 hunks + 33 added - 27 removed; 2552 + 33 - 27 = 2558 exactly.
Disarmed twin b1d96976... (134,378 / 2,557 / 125).
Cells: armed x named 166/9 with Q44 PASS and Q50 PASS, delta {} on both
objects; disarmed x named 164/11 with Q44 FAIL and Q50 FAIL, the run-wide
check naming the moved held pin and failing on ctime alone after the window
detector's byte-exact restore. Green pair 5/5 at 175/0, 13,929 B. Regressions
11/11 (latin1 and bom green at 13,929 B). Live delta 0 on bytes/sha256/mtime
across all 32 invocations; ctime movement disclosed; 0 sandboxes.
Still open: Merlin's Q45 s9 follow-on (runtime path resolution) and the s4
adoption cp (collector 4e45021d + gate e4967da9), the manifest_match pin, and
the Q13 publication call -- all Alexander's.
Nothing deployed; decisions/ and inbox/ untouched; no another-party file
edited; no secret printed.
Taken on the pipe's own offer (reply 34, asks 1). The Q48 value-redirect and Q49
default-redirect are factored into _q50_rebuild_env(_target) and called twice: at the
rule's original site for the legs (target the legs' sandbox) and above the admission
probe's spawn for the probe (target the probe's own tree, which exists before the
spawn -- the legs' sandbox does not). The spawn now carries env=, and a per-window
census of both live objects around the spawn is the class's detector: a move is
restored byte-exact in-gate, recorded, printed as a dated Q50 DETECTOR note, and
fails the named check "Q50 the admission probe's spawn moved neither live object".
Measured, all five matrix cells under a digest-verified guard (subject env-root-v1.py):
base-q49 x named MOVED held pin 120 B / 5b6d7071... -> 14 B / 784b9bde..., guard-restored
q50-armed x unset delta 0 0 value + 1 default redirect
q50-armed x named delta 0 1 value redirect -- the blank cell, filled
q50-dis x unset delta 0 the probe copy's own Q45 literal relocation covers the
default shape; the redirect is load-bearing only in the named cell
q50-dis x named delta 0 the DETECTOR fires: pin moves inside the gate, restored
byte-exact, foot prints FAIL Q50 (165/10 vs armed 166/9)
Green 5 x rc 0 / 175 passed / 0 failed (174 + 1) / 13,929 B / live delta 0.
Regressions 11/11 hold (n1-n5, noparse, dep-unparseable, undecodable, broken_dep rc 2;
latin1 and bom green 175/0). Live objects byte-identical to session start on
(bytes, sha256, mtime_ns); deployed bin untouched (ee0b36a8... / 7ed1bca8...,
HELM_COLLECTOR count 0 -- Q40's finding stands). Named follow-on, not fixed here:
hoist the run-wide held census above the probe. Three harness defects of mine logged
first in the record. Nothing deployed; no another-party file edited; no secret.
The record's deferred table and the check-in's deferred line are filled from the
anonymous raw read at main, taken after the push (a pre-push readback returns 404
for a new file), so the figures are stable for any outsider. All three HTTP 200
and byte-identical to disk.
- (a) ATTRIBUTION, measured not withdrawn. env-root-v1.py = q48/env-root.py with its
two default literals returned to /root/.helm (asserted count 2). Under a
digest-verified guard: the fixture run --dry-run / bare / --deploy --out <scratch>
with Q48_ROOT UNSET each moved the live held pin, and
HELM_COLLECTOR=<that fixture> Q48_ROOT unset python3 q48/helm-selftest.py moved it
too. All three Q48_ROOT=<scratch> controls: no move. Written bytes measured by a
5 ms watcher: 14 B / sha 784b9bded20e9e22... / 'q48-env-pin\n'. Q48's 6.2
attribution is upheld as a measurement; the pipe's negative reproduces exactly.
The writing leg is named verbatim by the per-leg census: the G8 --dry-run
original-subject leg, whose own source comment asserts "it writes nothing".
- (b) THE CLASS IS CLOSED, green 5/5. helm-selftest-q49.py (128,948 B / 2,445 lines /
085ddf4f42ae80ea...): the DEFAULT redirect (every os.environ.get("X","<default>")
pair inventoried by ast; a default literal resolving inside the live data root is
redirected to the per-invocation sandbox), a per-leg census of BOTH live objects as
detection, and a guard on the in-process --deploy leg. Checks 120 -> 123
(+3 check("Q49"), nothing else moved). Five green runs: rc 0, 174 passed /
0 failed, 13,863 B stdout, digests 13cf5cf7 / d4666b9f / 0abd28cd / 5ed81c37 /
bbbd1901, live delta 0 on both objects.
- TWO FINDINGS BEYOND THE ITEM. (i) G8's --deploy branch calls hcg.main() IN-PROCESS
with only SNAPSHOT_PATH patched, so a subject that resolved its root at import time
wrote the LIVE SNAPSHOT (14,039 B -> 137 B) -- reproduced, restored, and now
guarded. (ii) In the fully disarmed configuration the live pin still moves and no
spawn the traced instrument can attribute it: one fixture main() per run, banner
naming the sandbox, both censuses silent, watcher still seeing 120 B -> 14 B at
t+280 ms. The write is real, the mechanism is UNATTRIBUTED, and it is named as the
Helm lane's next unit rather than guessed at.
- Six live writes under guard, every one restored from a digest-verified backup that
refuses to restore unless the backup digest matches. Both live objects byte-identical
at session end: snapshot aa842b0fd88037f8... / 14,039 B and held pin
5b6d70716153c3f4... / 120 B. Nothing deployed: /root/.helm/bin/helm-selftest.py is
still 7ed1bca8... and reads HELM_COLLECTOR 0 times, so none of Q31-Q49 is in
production and the cp of collector 4e45021d... + gate 085ddf4f... stays Alexander's.
Deliverable: recoveries/helm-resolved-root-live-path.md (15,220 B).
Scratch tree /root/crucible/q49/. Record, check-in Run 15 and queue block.
Merlin
timmy
zephyrus-sparkborn
Timmy
mercury
Timmy