Two files kept identical by hand and one check is a divergence class policed forever; one file
reachable by two paths cannot diverge at all. install_workspace.py now links by default, MIGRATES
an existing regular file (backing it up first and SAYING SO if it differed -- that difference is
the last chance to notice an unsynced edit), and keeps --copy for a clone that wants the old shape.
Check 5 asserts a different thing per shape: for a link, that it points at the versioned copy and
resolves to a real file; for two files, byte-identity as before. A dangling link is worse than a
diverged copy -- the instructions load NOTHING and there is no content left to notice is wrong --
so that case is red-proofed.
NOT yet proven to LOAD: that needs a fresh session and a hook line, which is Phase 7. If it does
not load, this reverts to the copy.
Check 7 catches "cites a register item and calls it open when it is not" -- the R-168 class, four
files, one self-contradicting. Trigger is an openness CLAIM, not any citation: policing every
mention would fire on ~30 legitimate provenance citations and the gate would be switched off.
Deliberate deviation from the task's literal wording, to keep it alive.
Two bugs found by the check's own red-proofs, both of which would have shipped:
- the state marker is not self-closing (**SHIPPED - text**), so the first parser read R-168 itself
as OPEN -- a gate that cannot convict its founding case is decoration;
- the CLOSED exemption was line-wide, so "shipped" in a title pardoned "OPEN R-25b".
Check 6 gains WARN-only content classes on MEMORY.md. Link targets are stripped first: the earlier
scan reported three expired statements, all three false (dates in filenames), while missing the one
real expired claim, whose deadline was written ~08-02 with no ISO date.
39 -> 60 assertions. All four runners green.
MEMORY.md is the larger half of what loads before a word is typed (8.4k tokens vs the root
CLAUDE.md's 6.6k) and is the one instruction file nobody hand-edits, so nothing was watching it.
Three deliberately different outcomes, each pinned by a test: over-ceiling FAILS (auto-memory
drops content past the limit with no error), an orphan WARNS (the store is outside git), and an
absent store PASSES while PRINTING its reason -- asserted on the reason text, because a pass with
no reason is indistinguishable from a gate that stopped running.
39 assertions (was 20). Red-proof run against the real store, not a fixture.
New shared scripts/instructions_gate.py, registered in controller_gates.py and
agent_gates.py, never copied into a sibling repo (the reuse_refs_check.py
precedent). 20 fixture tests, all asserting the effect: exit code AND that the
message names the file and the reason.
It is a consistency gate, not a budget gate, and the failure message says so. A
/context reading measured the instruction files at 15k tokens against 869k free in
a 1M window -- space is not the constraint, and a future reader must not re-derive
the wrong reason. The 200-line ceiling is adherence guidance; a file nobody can
hold in their head is where contradictions hide, and five were found here.
Checks run against effective text (HTML comments stripped, because they are
stripped before injection): the line ceiling; every .claude/rules/*.md declares
paths: or an explicit unconditional: true; no component version literal; no
TEMPORARY block carrying a past date; and the workspace-root CLAUDE.md is
byte-identical to its versioned copy -- the live file sits outside any git repo,
so that copy is its only version-controlled record.
Two traps recorded so they are not reintroduced: a bare \d+\.\d+\.\d+ matches the
first three octets of every IPv4 (the gate excludes dotted quads, or it fails on
192.168.0.180 in the agent's own file); and unconditional: true is NOT a Claude
Code feature but this project's own marker.
Workspace-root CLAUDE.md 208 -> 182 lines (142 effective), copy kept identical.
The nine-instance invariant table moved into the felhom-testing skill, which
triggers when writing or reviewing a test; all three directive bullets stayed in
the core. felhom.eu/CLAUDE.md got surgical corrections only and is knowingly still
over the ceiling at 227 effective lines -- closing it needs the restructure R-229
defers, said plainly rather than quietly absorbed.
CONTEXT.md gains standing ruling S-35. OPEN-ITEMS.md gains R-229.
Docs only -- no Go, no version bump, nothing built or deployed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01JJc8sAGRWmavP3rMtdpkr2
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