CI checks out one repo shallow, so the golden-currency gate found no sibling
controller clone, exited 2 (INCONCLUSIVE) and turned CI red on every push.
Caught by pulling the run status rather than assuming it. Fixed by fetching
the controller repo in CI - not by letting the gate skip, which would have been
fail-open and would have left it running in neither of its automated homes.
Runs 244 and 245 confirm green.
Also records the reusable lesson: the pre-push hook and CI do not see the same
filesystem, so a gate that reads a sibling repo can pass locally and break CI.
VOUCHED with the operator's approval, verified from the stored hub_settings
rather than the flash: golden_version 0.205.0 -> 0.206.0, sha
c85230b42f53baa9c1ee9986ac312c751d6cbc29fbe070d87bb2214429a9108e.
agent_version and min_agent both stayed 0.127.0. wrapper_sha256 was carried
through explicitly, because the handler CLEARS it when omitted.
THE GATE WAS CONVICTED BEFORE THE BAKE AND IS OK AFTER IT - red to green on
the same command, which is its proof that it measures something real. It went
green on the BAKE, not the vouch; that limitation is stated in its docstring
and stays open on R-242.
THE STALE FLAG WAS WRONG AND IS CLEARED, with the operator's approval. One
row, identity-matched on host_id and guarded on stale_at IS NOT NULL;
changes() returned 1. Verified end to end, not just in the database: the hub
serves the hash again, the box recorded it at 11:10:19Z, and it is
byte-identical to the key that box is using - so shape (c) compares, matches
and correctly stays silent. The false warning is gone, PROVEN WITH A POSITIVE
CONTROL rather than an absent line: 0 escrow-confirm lines since the restart
while 5 scheduler lines in the same window prove the box was logging.
R-246 records the clearance and keeps the column ruling open: stale_at has NO
production writer, changes what a customer is told, and can be seen by nobody
who would look for it. Either give it an evidential setter or retire it.
STATUS.md finished at 87 lines (from 258). Waiting-on-you is now genuinely
empty: the base image is approved and live, and R-245 was re-filed as a
decision taken with quota as its reopening condition.
Session report: REPORT-clear-the-ground-2026-08-08.md - the six spike
questions each answered with method and measurement, Q4 said plainly (only a
database read), Q6 said loudly (a fresh box CANNOT reach this state, so the
next walk cannot meet it), and three observations noticed but not acted on.
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