Merlin
c4addca3ce
Deliverable recoveries/helm-pwdir-channel-refusal.md (14,808 B / sha256
d4c381f713e9fe95beefbd14a93220ab4049625f280c116e656419f3e11b7b89) plus the queue block at the foot
of WORK-QUEUE.md (+5,419 B / 63 lines, 951,756 B / d8f54086edbcbbc96e39533d7b6dcf0e9effff108b596ed18685b03d1045e1db)
and checkins/2026-10-14-merlin.md (Run 22). Scratch tree /root/crucible/q55/; nothing deployed, no cp
into /root/.helm/bin/, decisions/ and inbox/ untouched, no another-party file edited, no secret printed.
The class, measured on the shipped Q52 gate before the change: a subject whose root is composed from
the user database (ROOT = Path(pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid()).pw_dir) / ".helm") resolves the live root
under a scratch HOME (rc 0, both fixtures), passes the Q52 home-channel check (the check asserts the
legs' HOME is redirected; pwd.getpwuid never reads HOME), and writes the LIVE held pin through the
gate's own --q52-witness flag (5b6d7071... -> fdd45f74..., restored byte-exact by the guard). A foot
check reports after the legs; only a precondition refuses before them.
The fix: gate cd43284ff009d1cceb3aaa6a65b701d1076eaf801e32b705672601b4122b746a (143,385 B / 2,735
lines / 126 registrations -- unchanged; +3,020 B / +58 lines on the Q52 gate 78b290ec...) -- a
precondition after Q46's parse guard, before the Q39 sandbox, the admission probe and any leg: a
subject whose AST reads the pwd module is refused (exit 2, dated, naming every pwd site with its
line). Disarmed twin 8adad99bdc872ecd09ddea88ae55b5fc55a3886571ffaa5f49a053b52430586d.
25 guarded cells: armed x pwr/pwr-witness/pwn rc 2 refusal (stdout 0 B, live delta {}); disarmed x
pwr-witness reproduces the escape (live pin 5b6d7071... -> ced810a9..., restored byte-exact);
disarmed x pwr 175/1 with Q52 PASS and Q45 FAIL (the shipped behaviour); green pair x5 176/0 at
14,044 B; regressions 11/11. Covered shapes are not over-refused: the witness pin lands inside the
sandbox, and the covered fixtures fail Q43 identically under the shipped gate (measured side by side).
Live delta 0 on bytes/sha256/mtime across all 25 cells (snapshot aa842b0f... / 14,039, pin
5b6d7071... / 120); ctime moved on the pin across the deliberately-live witness cells (guard restores)
-- disclosed. Sandboxes: q55 tree 0/0; the E14 leak re-measured at 26 across /root/crucible and all
26 removed (842,401 B reclaimed) with the q55 __pycache__. Deployed /root/.helm/bin/ untouched,
HELM_COLLECTOR count 0 -- Q40 stands. Disk 45 G avail of 154.
Adoption, Alexander's: the s4 cp is collector 4e45021d... + gate cd43284ff009..., superseding
78b290ec... / e4967da9... / a951dbe8.... Five defects of mine are logged first in the deliverable
(part 1's void d/e rows, its prefix-vs-full restored comparison, its broken Q45 filter, my assumed
d/e expectation, and the gate's first-written Q55 label). No new item opened -- the Helm lane's
executable set is empty; the next unit is a decision, not a task.
Troupe standup — the pipe
One repo, one file per person per morning. Assume everything here is readable by the troupe and by Alexander.
How the pipe works
- Zeph pushes a check-in every morning:
checkins/YYYY-MM-DD-zephyrus.md. - Timmy replies in the repo:
replies/YYYY-MM-DD-to-zephyrus.md, normally the same day. - Escalation: anything needing Alexander goes through Timmy, not through this repo. He is not the relay.
Check-in template
# YYYY-MM-DD — zephyrus
**Did:** what actually landed (commit SHA or file path per item).
**Blocked:** what is stuck, and on what exactly.
**Next:** the one or two things I will do before the next check-in.
**Ask:** anything I need from Timmy, stated so it can be answered in a line.
Keep it under a screen. "Nothing landed" is a valid and useful entry; filler is not.
Rules of the pipe
- Claims carry evidence: a path, a SHA, a URL, or an explicit
unverified. - No secrets in this repo, ever — no tokens, keys, passwords or vault contents.
- Corrections are welcome and get logged, not deleted.
- One file per day per person. Do not rewrite yesterday's file after Timmy has replied to it.
Access
- Repo: public. Zeph has write (fork → branch → PR and direct branch pushes in this repo).
- Auth: personal access token over HTTPS, and/or the registered SSH key (see
replies/2026-09-24-to-zephyrus.md).