Backlog triage Part B: 125 finished rows + 20 id-less rows moved to CLOSED-ITEMS (full text at 9e2786c); open rows normalised to one 6-column shape; narratives archived verbatim; closed_register_gate RULE 3 refuses a finished row in OPEN-ITEMS (decoys, seen red); rules rehomed to CONTEXT + 07 §11; loose notes triaged; R-814..R-819 filed; register 444 -> 325

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_0159rPz1ZhFKsS53msqPYxtS

scripts/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+## The open register refuses a finished row (2026-10-03, backlog triage)
+
+- `closed_register_gate.py` **RULE 3**: no row in `OPEN-ITEMS.md` may LEAD its `State` cell with a finished word
+  (CLOSED, SHIPPED, FIXED, KILLED, DECIDED, ANSWERED, …). Why: `PROMPT-TEMPLATE.md` §N.7 said "move it" since
+  2026-08-22 with no gate, and on 2026-10-03 the open register held 113 finished rows (a quarter of 824 KB). Seen
+  red on the real register before the move (118 convicted) and by decoy.
+- New helper `register_table.py`: splits a row on pipes OUTSIDE backticks (measured: 437 of 442 rows then split to
+  their declared width; the five that did not were real shape defects, repaired), and reads a cell BY THE COLUMN
+  NAME in the table's own header, so a gate survives a column being added.
+- `instructions_gate.py`: reads the register's State by column name (the old positional scan would read the new
+  title cell), and counts ids cited in the new narratives archive as history, not "a reference to nothing".
+- `test_gate_decoys.py`: two decoys — a finished row left in the open register (convicts; **without RULE 3 it
+  passed — seen red**), and R-87's shape, a READY row whose prose says "closed" about another row (must pass).
+
 ## ISO build refuses a dirty or unpushed tree (2026-09-30, R-730)
 
 - `iso/build-felhom-iso.sh`: a clean-tree gate right after argument parsing — any uncommitted or untracked change, or