The write-axis leg grades ONE surface per tool: `--json PATH`. Measured at
c3ffee9 with caller_write_flags.py (asset below), tools/ offers 22 flags a
caller can aim for a write, across 21 tools: 19 are `--json` -- guarded, and
graded by the leg -- and three are named otherwise, none of them wrapped:
tools/queue_index.py :581 --write BARE
tools/tool_map.py :510 --write BARE
tools/doc_census_check.py :1831 --save-vocab BARE
BARE = `open(path, "w")` with no try. Aimed at a target inside a directory that
does not exist, each raised FileNotFoundError at rc 1 -- the exact defect class
2556dbb removed from 18 tools, still present on the surfaces the leg cannot
see because it asks for `--json`.
Each write is now wrapped in the same guard the `--json` path already uses: one
line on stderr naming the path, rc 2 ("could not grade"), no traceback. Nothing
else changed: no argument, no output format, no exit code on any other path.
VERIFIED, both directions, in a throwaway worktree (never this tree):
/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/volt/2026-10-21-write-axis-bites/write_flag_probe.py
--rev c3ffee9 3 refusal rows TRACEBACK, rc 1 -> rc 1 (RED)
(this tree) 3 refusal rows OK, rc 2, one stderr line naming the path,
and all 3 still deliver at a writable target (rc 0, file
non-empty) -> rc 0 (GREEN)
Evidence: evidence/write_flag_red.json, evidence/write_flag_green.json.
Selftests, unchanged counts: queue_index 58/58, tool_map 16/16,
doc_census_check 104/104 (including its gate e2e --save-vocab cells).
repo gate: 6 legs, 6 pass, 0 fault, rc 0 (selftest-sweep 21 tools 0 fatal).
REMAINING BLIND SPOT, stated so it is not read as closed: write_probe.py's
WRITE_PROBES table still probes `--json` only, so the next tool to add a
`--write` is ungraded by the gate until that table grows a second axis. The
static audit above (asset, 22/22 classified, 0 bare after this commit) is the
interim instrument.
Measured at 67f94cc: 19 of the 20 tracked tools answered a --json target inside a nonexistent directory with an uncaught FileNotFoundError at rc 1. Only queue_append_audit.py already refused (rc 2). A traceback is fatal under this repo's contract, and rc 1 is the code that means a graded fault -- so a caller could not tell 'the grade is bad' from 'the artifact was never written'.
Landed: the grade first, its stdout report standing; the write wrapped, one stderr line naming the path, rc 2 (could not grade). gate_blame.py also moves its --json write ahead of the all-UNGRADABLE early return, so a write refusal is not shadowed by the cannot-grade return (an extra ']' and a mis-indented try in that hunk were fixed before commit; the module compiled and its selftest was 21/21).
tools/write_probe.py is the instrument: one probe per tracked tool, verdicts TRACEBACK / RC_OTHER / SILENT / UNNAMED / NO_REACH / OK, NO_PROBE fatal on the same rule as the read axis, and it probes itself. It is leg 6 of verify.py, and selftest_sweep.py now carries both a read probe and a malformed probe for it.
Verification at this commit follows in the next commit with docs/TOOLS.md and the queue record.
volt
volt
forge