[finding] nothing reads a DEBT/TEST_DEBT `note`, and `--lower` rewrites only the digits — so the advertised way to lower an entry desynchronises its prose by construction

[claude]

Filed from the #10174 dispatch (the note-vs-field consistency check triage explicitly held back as
"a new finding, not a rider"). Not fixed here — proposal plus the root cause and a live second instance.

The class

scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs freezes two ledgers, DEBT and TEST_DEBT. Each entry is a
measured errors: number plus a free-prose note:. The ratchet compares errors against tsc and
never reads the prose, so a note may narrate any count at all — including one its own field
contradicts — and every gate stays green.

Known instances: #7038 and #8982 (both closed), and #10174 (service-automation recorded errors: 3
while its note opened 'code-tier 5.', closed 'Re-measured 5 at 5ab08428.', and itemised 2 + 3).

Root cause — --lower manufactures this drift by construction

lowerLedgerEntries() at :2229 rewrites the digits and nothing else:

const pattern = new RegExp(`('${...}'\s*:\s*\{[\s\S]*?errors:\s*)(\d+)`);
out = out.slice(0, block.start) + text.replace(pattern, `$1${l.to}`) + out.slice(block.end);

The capture group ends at errors:\s*, so the replacement can only touch the number. The note is
outside it and is carried through untouched.

That is not an incidental gap. The gate recommends --lower in its own surplus output —
"Close it with pnpm check:type-check-debt --lower, which writes the measured number for you" —
and the surrounding docblock at :160 sells it as the thing that makes closing an entry FREE. So the
sanctioned, advertised, one-command path to lowering an entry is also the path that silently
desynchronises that entry's prose. Every future --lower mints another instance.

A live second instance, measured tonight

DEBT['@objectstack/metadata'] at :411-417:

errors: 89,
note: 'code-tier 34 (TS2345 x30, TS2322 x4); config-tier 24 (TS2835); noise 34 (TS7006 x33, TS6133). '
 + 'Re-measured 92 at 5ab08428, up from 87. ...'

The itemisation sums to 34 + 24 + 34 = 92, and the note says "Re-measured 92". The field says
89. The note is internally consistent at 92 and disagrees with its field by 3 — the same shape as
#10174, a different entry, still live.

It is genuinely stale rather than merely narrating history: tonight's full --re-measure (33 entries,
built closure) reported exactly one surplus entry, @objectstack/plugin-auth, so @objectstack/metadata
measures its recorded 89 exactly. Compare TEST_DEBT['@objectstack/objectql'], which also contains an
older number ("Re-measured 333") but frames it explicitly as history and re-tallies to its recorded 355 —
that one is correct and any check must not flag it.

What would actually close the class

A general "does this prose agree with this number" check is not tractable, and should not be attempted.
A bounded one is, because these notes already follow house conventions:

1. Tier itemisations — code-tier N, config-tier N, noise N. Where an entry states a complete
   tier breakdown, require the tiers to sum to errors. This alone catches both finding: DEBT['@objectstack/service-automation'] says errors: 3 while its own note narrates 5, naming two engine.test.ts errors tsc no longer reports #10174 and metadata.
2. Per-code tallies — TSxxxx xN runs, which should reconcile with their stated tier.
3. Leave Re-measured N narratives alone, or require only that the most recent one match. objectql
   shows why a naive scan over every such number produces false positives.

The cheaper half is worth pricing separately: make --lower refuse to lower an entry whose note
carries a tier itemisation that would no longer sum, or have it append a marker to the note so the
staleness is visible in the diff instead of invisible. That turns the advertised path from a drift
generator into a prompt.

Not proposed

Extending the prose rule at :167-173. It already states the lesson and cites #10174's entry as its
worked example; it did not prevent this because nothing mechanical reads it. Adding more prose about
prose drift is the one fix this class has already shown does not work.

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Generated by Claude Code

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Generated by Claude Code

[os-zhuang]

Triage (finding concentration round): promoted to pm:queue · type Task. The class is manufactured by the advertised path (--lower rewrites digits only), so it will keep minting instances until the mechanism changes; the bounded check (tier itemisations must sum to errors, leave Re-measured N narratives alone) is tractable precisely because the notes follow house conventions, and the objectql entry is the stated false-positive guard. Serial chain (fold-or-serial answered): #10174 (in-flight, same file) → #10723 (data fix, S) → this card (mechanism fix) — the new check would red on the metadata entry until #10723 lands, and all three touch scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs. Five-gate fold refused: #10723 is a data repair, this is a mechanism change — different defect shapes. M, mode:subagent, opus; Clause-②: no.

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Generated by Claude Code