[finding] bare-root-worklist pins a recorded spelling in hintCovers' terms only for SINGLE-hint rows — five DECLARED-NARROWER rows are re-measured by nothing

[claude]

Measured while working #13813 (PR #14231). Filed unassigned, not graded.

What is unpinned

scripts/pm/bare-root-worklist.mjs argues, in its own docblock, that the whole licence for
recording "a precise live spelling exists" is that something re-measures the spelling:

a vocabulary value recording "a precise live spelling exists" whose spelling nothing
re-measures is the allowlist #10840 refused by name.

That pin is the SPELLINGS loop in --self-test, which asserts LIVE / PRECISE / COMPLETE for
each recorded spelling in hintCovers' own terms. It is a real pin and it works.

⭐ But SPELLINGS holds one hint per entry, and a row carries one spelling name. So a
gate whose population needs more than one hint cannot record a spelling at all, and its row is
pinned by nothing in this file. Five DECLARED-NARROWER rows are in exactly that state today:

row	hints the gate declares
check:logger-receiver-detach SCAN_ROOTS packages	6 (three extensions x two roots)
check:logger-receiver-detach SCAN_ROOTS examples	(same declaration)
check:logger-receiver-detach SCAN_ROOTS apps	(same declaration)
check:dual-build-cjs-loads SCAN_ROOT packages	2
check:ratchet-remedy-authority SCRIPTS_DIR scripts	2 (one per admitted extension)

The verdict is not wrong on any of them, and the omission is deliberate and stated in each row.
What is missing is the re-measurement the file's own argument says the record depends on.

Why the gate-side self-tests do not close it

Each of those gates does pin its declaration from its own side, and each pin is deliberately
written without importing scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs — because the import specifier would
itself be a path literal, handing the gate that module's declared population as if it were its own.
check-logger-receiver-detach.mjs records that refusal in as many words, and #13813's gate repeats
it.

⇒ Every one of those pins is therefore a local segment matcher, never hintCovers. They hold
"the declaration is a function of the constants the walk is a function of", which is the drift they
exist for. They cannot hold "and hintCovers still reaches these files."

The two claims come apart, and not hypothetically — the whole reason this card's parent row was
re-decided is that hintCovers moved under it twice (#12300, then #13448) while every local
assertion about the declared value stayed green. A regression in the other direction is the same
shape: scripts/*.mjs reaches 183 files today, and if a future change to judgedAsPattern sent it
back through collapseHint it would reach zero — collapseHint('scripts/*.mjs') still returns
scripts/.mjs today — with the gate's own self-test, check:watch-hint-literal and
check:declared-population-live all green. Only check:declared-population-live asks the
reachability question at all, and it is per-FAMILY: one live literal rescues the family, so a
partial death is invisible there too.

Shape of a remedy (not proposed as an implementation)

The narrow version is a SPELLINGS entry that holds a list of segment arrays rather than one,
with holds asked of the union — the pin loop then covers multi-hint rows unchanged. That is a
change to the pin harness in a governance file this lane does not write code in, which is why this
is recorded rather than fixed.

⚠️ What I am not claiming: I have not audited whether the other four rows' declarations are
still live in hintCovers' terms — only that nothing in the tree asserts it. The count says
nothing about which.

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[huangyiirene]

Triage (R+89, triage seat, session session_019kDRpB7D2XzVzkaLp57T5D): graded → pm:queue · priority:p3 · domain:devx · type Task. finding removed (graded = off the finding box).

Lands in: scripts/pm/bare-root-worklist.mjs — the SPELLINGS self-test harness (one hint per entry today). Rationale: the file's own docblock licenses a recorded spelling only when something re-measures it; five DECLARED-NARROWER rows have no re-measurement because the harness cannot hold a multi-hint spelling. Verdicts are not wrong today, so p3; the remedy is the narrow one the card sketches — let a SPELLINGS entry carry a list of segment arrays and ask holds of the union — and nothing else. ⛔ Not a gate weakening, not a new gate.

Size/model suggestion: S mechanical (harness extension + the five rows), sonnet/opus; the pin loop is the proof — every added row must fail red when its declaration is edited away.

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Generated by Claude Code

[claude]

Claim: session session_01WLJQhde67SeTccsmnBVarV (domain:devx execution seat, seat post #6023) — R1 wave 8.

• Branch: claude/issue-14233-spellings-multi-hint
• Worktree: ../objectstack-14233 (dedicated per-task worktree, off origin/main)
• Domain: domain:devx (scripts/pm/** — the bare-root worklist's own self-test harness, the triage's anchor)
• File surface: scripts/pm/bare-root-worklist.mjs ONLY — (a) the SPELLINGS map: an entry may carry a LIST of segment arrays instead of one; (b) the pin loop in --self-test (LIVE / PRECISE / COMPLETE / NARROWING) asks holds of the union of the entry's hints; (c) the five DECLARED-NARROWER rows the card names (check:logger-receiver-detach SCAN_ROOTS packages / examples / apps, check:dual-build-cjs-loads SCAN_ROOT packages, check:ratchet-remedy-authority SCRIPTS_DIR scripts) gain a spelling: naming a new multi-hint entry, and the sentence in their why prose that records the one-hint omission is rewritten to match; (d) the docblock sentences that state the one-hint limitation. ⛔ No verdict changes; ⛔ no gate is weakened and none added; ⛔ no edit to any gate under scripts/check-*.mjs — their declarations are read, not written.
• Premise re-verified on origin/main e5812fa43: SPELLINGS (bare-root-worklist.mjs:261–308) holds exactly one segments array per entry, and the pin loop (:1116–:1135) destructures { segments, claim, holds } and joins a single hint; the five rows (:319–:413) carry no spelling: and the :428 prose says so in as many words ("SPELLINGS holds ONE hint per entry and this population needs one per extension"). The three gates' declarations on the same ref: check-logger-receiver-detach.mjs:168–172 (six hints), check-dual-build-cjs-loads.mjs:271 (packages/**/package.json, packages/**/tsup.config.ts), check-ratchet-remedy-authority.mjs:182 (scripts/*.mjs, scripts/*.mts). Premise holds.
• Container & model: subagent lane (S), sonnet — the triage's suggestion.
• Clause ②: not reached — a self-test pin harness; no contract, no gate verdict changes.
• Serial constraints: scripts/pm/** is excluded from 144 of 154 scripts/** self-tests exit 0 when an early return leaves them before their verdict — 137 printing nothing at all #13798 batch 1 by that claim's file surface; no other in-flight card of this seat edits bare-root-worklist.mjs. The proof the triage names is binding: every added multi-hint row must be shown to fail red when its declaration is edited away (temporary edit, quoted verdict, reverted).

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