decoy sweep: no gate changed here, and that is the result (R-421)

All 29 gate scripts across the four repos were read and DECOYED - the label constructed without the
fact, the gate run, the verdict recorded. 16 were fooled. None of them were in this repo.

A decoy that nobody would write proves nothing, so the attempts that turned out illegitimate were
WITHDRAWN rather than counted. Both of this repo were withdrawn, and both are named in the audit.

The gates here that could not be given a plausible decoy are listed BY NAME in
felhom.eu/scripts/decoy_coverage_gate.py EXEMPT (R-426) as UNTESTED - not as sound. A gate nobody
tried to fool is UNKNOWN, and calling it sound would be the same confident guess this sweep exists
to find.

Survey table: felhom.eu/documentation/audits/AUDIT-gate-decoys-2026-09-01.md

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,4 +1,29 @@
-# Changelog
+## the decoy sweep — can this gate be fooled by a label? (2026-09-01, R-421) — NOT A RELEASE
+
+**No product code, no version bump, no image, no golden.** A scripts change is not a release.
+
+Four times in one week a gate turned out to match a NAME instead of the thing it named — R-410 (a
+`mkdir` turned the release gate green), R-400 (seven debug controls answering nothing), R-378 (a
+status word inside a sentence), R-419 (a phrase inside prose, including prose saying the marker was
+absent). **All four found by accident.** The gates enforce everything else here and were the one part
+nothing had checked.
+
+**All 29 gate scripts read and decoyed. 16 were fooled.** 10 fixed here, 4 left with rows
+(R-422..R-425), 6 could not be given a plausible decoy and are named (R-426 group d).
+
+**The largest single cause was mundane:** eight gates set their SCOPE with `os.listdir` (one level).
+Green and correct today; blind the moment anyone adds `templates/partials/`. `mojibake` and
+`docker-v` already used `os.walk`, caught the identical planted file, and are the control that
+proves the cause was the listing rather than the decoy.
+
+Full survey table, and the five decoys withdrawn as illegitimate (mine, named):
+`documentation/audits/AUDIT-gate-decoys-2026-09-01.md`.
+
+**In this repo:** no gate changed, and that is the result. `image-pins` was decoyed and is SOUND —
+a real untagged `image:` line is convicted; the `x-image:` attempt was WITHDRAWN as illegitimate
+because `x-` fields are inert in Compose, so the label had no fact behind it either way.
+`image-resolvable` and `volume-persistence` need a container runtime and are named in the
+decoy-coverage exemption list (R-426) as UNTESTED, not as sound.
 
 ## docs — the "CI is still owed" claim was stale; corrected (2026-08-06, R-229 part 2) — no version bump
 

CLAUDE.md

@@ -78,3 +78,11 @@ deployed `app.yaml` (customer secrets) is never overwritten. Full deploy details
   server-side. An unknown value degrades to `available` with one WARN, so a typo can never brick a
   template. This supersedes the short-lived `retired/` directory move, which was wrong: removing a
   template orphans every customer already running it.
+
+**A gate ships with a decoy test that has been seen to fail (R-421).** A decoy is the LABEL without
+the FACT — a directory with the right name and no bake log, a note whose prose mentions the marker it
+lacks. `scripts/decoy_coverage_gate.py` refuses a new gate that has neither a decoy nor a named
+exemption carrying its row. The four shapes, the 2026-09-01 sweep that fooled 16 of 29 gates, and the
+decoys withdrawn as illegitimate: `documentation/audits/AUDIT-gate-decoys-2026-09-01.md` and
+`felhom-controller/.claude/rules/gates.md`. **Scope is a fact too** — prefer `os.walk` over
+`os.listdir`, and a glob over a hand-maintained list.