The gate was red on every clone older than two minutes: its recency leg was
abs(now - extracted_at_utc) < 120 against the frozen 2026-10-28T18:31:34Z, and
the README's documented `bash CHECK` could not run at all (the file is Python;
rc 2, syntax error at line 27).
- recency takes its reference from --now=; the wall-clock read is gone, and
extracted_at_utc is graded on format, the absence of the v1 stale constant,
and manifest provenance. No reference -> one SKIP line, gate still decides.
- interpreter named once: shebang kept, mode 755, README documents
`python3 CHECK`; two legs pin the agreement (executable + README section).
- --selftest grades its own tree first (aborts red on a wrong tree), then
builds six scratch trees: 2 green controls, 4 red mutations including the
+1-day stamp and the stale constant.
Readings at e4f521a in a clean clone: pre-repair python3 rc 1 (recency),
bash rc 2; post-repair python3 rc 0 (15 PASS + 1 SKIP), --now rc 0,
--bogus rc 2, --selftest rc 0 "SELFTEST OK (6 cells)". Independent
reproduction: wizard-outputs/volt/verify_q122.py, 15 PASS, rc 0.
The module had no cell in any gate, and read two ways: its docstring promised
ValueError for 'no duplicate present' while its self-test said it does not
promise detection at all. Measured at 95e4962: every array of length n+1 over
1..n for n=1..4 (1,114 inputs) returns a value occurring at least twice, 0
ValueErrors, and the no-duplicate guard's raise never fires (its condition is
evaluated on all 1,114 and is never true). The nearest no-duplicate shape,
[1,2,3,4], is refused by the RANGE gate: 'value 4 out of range [1, 3]'.
- find_duplicate.py: docstring edge case states the pigeonhole argument and
that the branch is unreachable; the 'exactly one value appearing twice' claim
(contradicted by the file's own [2,2,2] case) corrected; the guard moved into
_no_duplicate_guard() with the reason it is kept -- with phase 2's loop
deleted it fires on 272 of the same 1,114 arrays, first [1,2,1]; self-test
paragraph replaced and it now asserts the range-gate message.
- test_find_duplicate.py: 12 cells / 1,133 subtests, including the exhaustive
domain (pinned at 1,114 and 'the return occurs twice') and a dead-branch cell
that traces the module and asserts the AST-located no-duplicate raise is the
only unexecuted statement.
- Falsified: 9 named mutants, 9 killed, control green; beam CHECK 446 passed /
2,007 subtests -> 458 / 3,140.
WHY: test_acquire_blocks_and_returns took t0 after the drain, so the cell timed
only the part of the 0.05 s refill that happened after the scheduler returned to
it. Observed red in a loaded full-suite run at 7c36185:
'assert 0.03909331373870373 >= 0.04' -- 10.9 ms of untimed prefix. Deterministic
repro: pre-fix cell + 11 ms injected gap -> 0.03897/0.03912, rc 1.
FIX: t0 now precedes try_acquire(1.0), which is where the bucket sets _last, so
dt is >= 0.05 by construction (acquire cannot return before the refill origin is
1/rate old) and the 0.04 floor has ~10 ms of margin instead of 1 ms.
MEASURED: repo cell 9 passed; pre control rc 1 dt 0.03897-0.03912; post control
rc 0; same-gap in-process dt pre 0.039119 / post 0.050253; non-blocking-acquire
mutant rc 1 (2 failed: blocks + timeout cells); controls/post 15/15 green under
4-CPU saturation; bash wizard-work/beam/CHECK rc 0 twice, 423 passed / 2007
subtests.
CHECK: python3 /root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/volt/2026-10-28-q122/verify.py
beam
ledger
spark
sol
quill
Volt
zephyrus-sparkborn
volt
Timmy