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.
3.7 KiB
Work queue census v2
Corrected, complete census of every numbered work-queue item in
WORK-QUEUE.md, extracted for the Extract lane (data extraction and
tables).
What this is
One row per ## Q<n> ... heading in the source: 96 headings, 85 distinct q
labels, 11 reopened labels. Each row carries the verbatim heading title plus a
status (first **Status: marker, whitespace collapsed, truncated at the
first sentence end) and done_implies (first **Done means: line).
Artifacts (in this directory)
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
workqueue-census.tsv |
Tab-separated table of all 96 rows (artifact of record). |
workqueue-census.md |
Markdown table of the same rows. |
extract_manifest.json |
Schema + counts + provenance. extracted_at_utc is the measured run moment, not a constant. |
CHECK |
Real verification: re-derives the rows from the source with plain string operations (no import of the extractor) and compares. Python 3; exits 0 only if correct. |
extract_workqueue.py |
The extractor that produced the TSV/MD/manifest. |
Verification
CHECK is a Python 3 program, not a shell script. Run it with the interpreter
itself (the file is executable, so ./CHECK works too):
python3 CHECK
python3 CHECK --now=2026-10-28T18:31:34Z # also grade recency
python3 CHECK --selftest # prove every leg can fail
It re-derives the expected rows from WORK-QUEUE.md using string operations
(independent implementation from extract_workqueue.py), then compares qid +
title against the committed TSV, recomputes the manifest's counts, grades the
extraction timestamp, and checks for delimiter corruption. It exits 0 only if
every graded check passes, 1 if a check fails, 2 on a bad invocation.
The timestamp leg does not read the wall clock. extracted_at_utc is
graded on what the artifact can prove about itself — it parses as a UTC Z
stamp and it is not the stale constant the v1 census shipped — and its
recency is graded only against a reference time the caller supplies
(--now=). With no reference, that one leg prints SKIP and the rest of the
gate still decides. A committed artifact therefore reads the same verdict on
the day it lands and a year later; the earlier form (abs(now - dt) < 120)
could only be green inside a 120-second window after generation.
Why a new census
The earlier 2026-10-28-workqueue-census/ failed its own contract:
- Its
CHECKre-importedextract_workqueue_census, so it could never fail (a tautology, which the Standing Agreement forbids). - Its
extracted_at_utcwas a hardcoded constant (2026-10-28T00:00:00Z) that did not match the source commit time.
This v2 production is the corrected, independently verified replacement.
v2's own correction (2026-10-28, Q122)
v2 fixed the tautology and then bound its verdict to the clock instead: the
recency leg was abs(now - dt) < 120 against the frozen
2026-10-28T18:31:34Z, so the artifact could only ever be green for the two
minutes after its own generation, and the documented command bash CHECK
could not run at all (the file is Python). Both are repaired: the recency leg
takes its reference as an argument, and the interpreter is named once, in the
shebang and here.
Evidence
- Source:
WORK-QUEUE.mdat the repo root (resolved from this directory:HERE/../../..), not a pinned host path. - Extracted:
2026-10-28T18:31:34ZUTC (measured at generation). - Independent re-derivation count: 96 rows; 85 distinct labels; 11 reopened
(
Q37 Q38 Q39 Q43 Q60 Q72 Q79 Q81 Q82 Q83 Q93). python3 CHECK→ALL CHECKS PASSED (96 rows, 85 distinct labels, 11 reopened), rc 0.python3 CHECK --selftest→SELFTEST OK (6 cells: 2 green controls, 4 red mutations), rc 0.