ten operator rulings recorded (09 §3 139-148, A for all; CC's pick differed on 2, 8, 9); decoy test survives a missing REPORT.md; session REPORT.md

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

scripts/test_gate_decoys.py

@@ -133,7 +133,12 @@ def plant_file(path, content):
 
 
 def append_to(path, extra):
+    # The file may not exist: the operator removed every REPORT*.md on 2026-10-06 (a fresh session writes its own). A
+    # missing file is planted with the decoy text alone and removed again afterwards — never left behind.
     def _plant():
+        if not os.path.exists(path):
+            io.open(path, "w", encoding="utf-8").write(extra)
+            return lambda: os.remove(path)
         backup = io.open(path, encoding="utf-8").read()
         io.open(path, "w", encoding="utf-8").write(backup + extra)
         return lambda: io.open(path, "w", encoding="utf-8").write(backup)