diff --git a/scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs b/scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs
index 24225d1167..bbdefb5b37 100644
--- a/scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs
+++ b/scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs
@@ -304,6 +304,30 @@ const SOURCE_FILE = /\.([cm]?ts|tsx)$/;
 const PIN_DIRECTIVE = /^[ \t]*(?:\/\/|\/\*|\*)[ \t]*@ts-expect-error\b/m;
 const PIN_ISSUE = 'https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectstack/issues/5286';
 
+// A path in the root program whose edits move the `@objectstack/spec-monorepo`
+// count below, declared as a bare, whole-literal path so the dispatch
+// derivation can read it. It accounts for 29 of that entry's 80 -- the largest
+// single contributor, and the one an ordinary card actually edits. The note on
+// that entry carries the accounting and references this constant instead of
+// spelling the path inside its sentence.
+//
+// Why the SHAPE and not just the mention: scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs scans
+// each gate's own module body for path literals and accepts one only when the
+// WHOLE string is path-shaped. Named mid-sentence, this path was discarded, and
+// the family then scored neither matched nor undetermined but SILENT -- printed
+// nowhere at all. A card editing that file was told no check family names its
+// paths, which reads as "no gates apply" when it means "no gate names this
+// path", and a dev who trusted it would skip the gate most likely to redden the
+// diff (measured on such a card: this gate stayed green only because the change
+// was designed around the coupling).
+//
+// This is per-coupling manual upkeep, deliberately. The root program is
+// everything outside packages/apps/examples, so no list here can ever be
+// complete -- add a constant when a coupling has actually been measured, the way
+// this one was. Deleting this one does not go quiet: dispatch-gates' own
+// self-test pins that a card editing this path derives check:type-check-coverage.
+const ROOT_PROGRAM_COUPLED_SCRIPT = 'scripts/check-test-typecheck.mts';
+
 // Package name -> { errors, note? }. `errors` is the raw `tsc --noEmit` count
 // measured per package. Seeded on main @ b07d829 (2026-07-31), re-measured
 // after the NodeNext repair below, and re-measured WHOLESALE on main @ 5ab08428
@@ -424,7 +448,7 @@ const DEBT = {
       + 'and TS2550); noise 8 (TS7006 x7, TS6133). Re-measured 80 at 5ab08428, up from 50. This entry '
       + 'drifts differently from a package: the root program is `scripts/` and the top-level configs '
       + '(everything outside packages/apps/examples), so it grows whenever the repo gains a script -- '
-      + 'scripts/check-test-typecheck.mts alone accounts for 29 of the 80, and the analytics-reconcile '
+      + ROOT_PROGRAM_COUPLED_SCRIPT + ' alone accounts for 29 of the 80, and the analytics-reconcile '
       + 'tree for 32. Almost all of it is one missing `types:["node"]`, not 80 defects. One wrinkle to '
       + 'know before reading this number as "the root scripts": `exclude` only drops files from the '
       + 'initial walk, so example sources IMPORTED by a script are still pulled into the program -- 4 of '
diff --git a/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs b/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs
index 7792262b23..de8c611dac 100644
--- a/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs
+++ b/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs
@@ -1196,6 +1196,43 @@ function selfTest() {
   t('this tool still hints the workflow directory it reads', covers(ownHints, '.github/workflows/lint.yml'));
   t('this tool no longer hints the spec paths its own fixtures name', !covers(ownHints, 'packages/spec/src/data/filter.zod.ts'));
 
+  // ── The one DECLARED coupling (#8551) ─────────────────────────────────────
+  //
+  // The narrowing above is about gates that MENTION a path without reading it.
+  // This is its mirror image: a gate that really does move with a path it never
+  // opens. The type-check ledgers ratchet a count for the workspace root, whose
+  // program is the scripts tree, and one script accounts for 29 of that entry's
+  // 80 errors — so editing it moves a number this farm holds. The coupling was
+  // written down all along, inside the ledger note's prose, where whole-literal
+  // extraction discards it: the family then scored `silent` — neither matched
+  // nor undetermined, printed nowhere — and a card editing that script was told
+  // no family names its paths.
+  //
+  // The remedy is per-coupling and manual (a bare, whole-literal constant in
+  // the gate's own module body), which is exactly the kind of declaration that
+  // rots quietly. So it is pinned LIVE, against both real files: delete the
+  // constant and this gate reddens instead of the silence coming back. If the
+  // ledger's coupling genuinely ends, delete the constant AND these cases in
+  // the same change — the evidence goes with the claim, never ahead of it.
+  //
+  // This does NOT retire the test-file entry in CHANGE_KIND_GATES, whose
+  // deletion criterion is a discoverable literal for that KIND: the constant
+  // names one script carrying no `.test.` infix, while that entry answers for
+  // every test file in the tree.
+  const coverageHints = readHints('scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs');
+  t(
+    'the type-check ledger gate declares the root-program script whose errors it ratchets',
+    covers(coverageHints, 'scripts/check-test-typecheck.mts'),
+  );
+  const coupledVerdict = classifyEntry(
+    { files: ['scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs'], hints: coverageHints },
+    ['scripts/check-test-typecheck.mts'],
+  );
+  t(
+    'so a card editing that script is MATCHED through that constant, not dropped as silent',
+    coupledVerdict.verdict === 'matched' && coupledVerdict.hits[0]?.hint === 'scripts/check-test-typecheck.mts',
+  );
+
   // ── A family's OWN script files as match keys (#8509) ─────────────────────
   //
   // Both directions are the product, and both are pinned: a card editing a