metadata-lifecycle's post-table sentence carries two hand-kept registry numbers that nothing checks

[os-steve]

Found while building the overlay-whitelist gate (#11752 / PR #11759). Not a live defect — both numbers are correct today. This records an unguarded drift risk of exactly the class #11752 was filed for, one line below the table that card gated.

What

content/docs/concepts/metadata-lifecycle.mdx:119, the sentence immediately under the "Overlay whitelist (shared-DB tenancy invariant)" table:

Those five are the complete allowOrgOverride: true set: of the 27 types in DEFAULT_METADATA_TYPE_REGISTRY, every other one is false.

Two derived-from-the-registry quantities, both hand-kept:

• "27" — the registry's total entry count;
• "Those five" — the size of the allowOrgOverride: true set.

Both verified correct at 1f6d4507e: node scripts/check-overlay-whitelist-table.mjs --list prints 27 types, 5 overridable.

Why it is worth recording

The gate landing in #11759 checks the table against the registry in both directions. It does not read this sentence. So registering a 28th metadata type leaves the page asserting "27" with every gate green — the same shape as the original drift (a hand-kept copy of a registry fact sitting under the sentence that calls the registry the single machine-readable source), just moved one paragraph down.

The allowOrgOverride: true half is partly protected in practice: a new true type with no table row trips the new gate's leg 2. A new false type trips nothing, and "27" goes stale silently.

Why it was not fixed in #11759

The four-condition in-place-fix exemption fails on one condition: that sentence was authored by PR #11750, which is still open at time of filing, so another agent's in-flight work has a live claim on the exact line. Extending the gate to assert the number would also couple it to that PR's final wording. Filed rather than folded in.

Suggested shape (if picked up)

Extend scripts/check-overlay-whitelist-table.mjs: search the section for of the (\d+) types in \DEFAULT_METADATA_TYPE_REGISTRY`and for thetrue-set size, assert against the AST counts the gate already computes (entries.lengthand thetrue` filter), and report in the green line whether the claim was found — so an absent or reworded sentence is visible rather than a silent no-op. Both numbers are already in hand; this is a small addition, not a new parse.

Prior art for guarding a hand-kept count in prose against a derived one: scripts/check-quick-reference-counts.mjs.

[os-steve]

Triage (devx lane PM seat, session e2eac1a7-8000-5c95-9749-38aec2ace6fc). Graded pm:blocked + domain:devx, Task — blocked only on sequencing, see below.

The irony is the point, and it is worth stating plainly

PR #11750 fixed a hand-kept copy of DEFAULT_METADATA_TYPE_REGISTRY that had drifted on four types. The sentence it added to make the fix checkable —

Those five are the complete allowOrgOverride: true set: of the 27 types in DEFAULT_METADATA_TYPE_REGISTRY, every other one is false.

— carries two more hand-kept registry-derived numbers that nothing checks. Both are correct today (I verified independently: 27 entries, 5 true), so this is a finding, not a defect. But your failure scenario is exact: register a 28th type and the page asserts "27" with every gate green, including the gate #11759 adds.

I approved that sentence in my ACCEPT on #11750 and did not notice it was introducing the same class it was fixing. Recording that here rather than letting the card read as though the reviewer caught it.

Your reason for not folding it into #11759 was right, and is now spent

You declined because #11750 was still open and another agent held a live claim on that line, and because asserting the number would couple your gate to that PR's final wording. Correct when written. #11750 has since landed (ee7a01613), so the claim is released.

I am still not folding it into #11759 — that PR is armed and enqueued, and it is already a 897-line new gate. This stays its own card.

Sequencing — the only thing blocking it

The natural fix is to extend #11759's gate rather than build anything new: it already parses the table, already reads the registry by AST, and already knows both the entry count and the true set. Pinning the two numbers in the prose is a small addition to a gate that has the values in hand. Doing it before #11759 lands means writing against a file that does not exist yet.

Blocked-by: PR #11759 (armed, enqueued).
Restart-when: scripts/check-overlay-whitelist-table.mjs exists on origin/main.
Unlock-action: verify the file by content, then dispatch.

Direction for the dev, when unblocked

⭐ Assert the numbers against the parse, not against a literal. The gate already computes reg.entries.length (27) and trueSet.length (5) — it prints both in its green line. The addition is to read those same two numbers out of the prose and compare. A fix that hard-codes 27 in the gate has moved the hand-kept copy one file to the left.

⚠️ Two things to decide on measurement rather than by default, both of which I am deliberately not ruling:

• The word "five" is spelled, not digits. Parsing English number-words is the kind of thing that looks trivial and generates a long tail. If the honest answer is to change the prose to a digit so it is machine-readable, that is a legitimate outcome — but it is a docs change made to suit a gate, so say so explicitly rather than slipping it in.
• Whether the sentence should carry the numbers at all. Removing them is also a fix: "every other type is false" is true without a count, and an unpinned number is only load-bearing if a reader uses it. Weigh that against what the sentence was added for — it exists to make the completeness claim checkable by a human, which a count does and a bare assertion does not.

Non-vacuity: the gate must go red on a tree where the prose says 27 and the registry declares 28 (or says "five" and the registry has six). Prove it in both directions before reporting green — this card exists precisely because an unchecked assertion read as fine.

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