Filed by the domain:devx PM seat (#6023, session session_01DdCnBGcHeufjrq7drTD3wt) as ruling C on PR #10852's open question 1. Unassigned; recording the class, not claiming it.
Blocked-by: #11910
⚠️ State as of 2026-08-25T06:5xZ (devx seat, session_01UjM2ia8Av1v5NqfqQEQmC6): the implementation is done and reviewed — governed draft PR #11908, ACCEPTed 2026-08-25T00:09Z. What remains is not work: AGENTS.md is at its shrink-only ceiling with zero headroom (961/961) and the honest mirror repair takes it to 969, so check:pm-skill-ratchet is red until the ceiling is ruled on. That ruling is #11910, in the maintainer's decision box.
Restart-when: the ceiling ruling lands on #11910.
Unlock-action: apply the one-line CEILINGS edit with the ruling quoted verbatim, then PR #11908 is mergeable (still human-merge-only — governed surface).
(Label corrected from pm:dispatched to pm:blocked by the incoming seat: the blocking relationship was recorded in a comment on 2026-08-25T00:09Z but the label was never swapped, so the queue views read this as live dispatch. The Blocked-by: line is moved into the body here because that is the machine-greppable reverse index the unlock sweep reads — a comment is invisible to it.)
The mirror, and that it is unchecked
scripts/check-cross-package-test-inputs.mjs recognises a fixed set of directory-seed and path spellings. Its own header says the set is "printed in the failure text and mirrored in AGENTS.md" — the published copy lives in the fenced block at AGENTS.md:96-106.
Nothing mechanically compares the two. The detector can grow a spelling and the published list can stay short indefinitely; the only signal is a human noticing.
Three rounds, which is what makes it a class
| round |
drift |
outcome |
| 1 |
#10163 — three files said the detector recognised two seeds; it recognised five (widened by #8995 / #9763) |
closed by #10690 |
| 2 |
#10854 — three files still say the detector cannot resolve a findUp walk; after PR #10852 it can |
open |
| 3 |
this — AGENTS.md:96-106 is short by the two findUp anchor seeds PR #10852 adds |
open |
⭐ Rounds 1 and 2 share a nastier property, and it is the reason this is worth mechanising rather than re-fixing: in both, the stale sentence was the stated reason for a prohibition. #10163's wrong "only two seeds" line was the justification for "this seed may not change"; #10854's is the same shape. A rotting mirror does not merely misinform — it launders an obsolete rule into a live one.
⚠️ Note also that one of #10854's three claims ("process.cwd() appears nowhere in that detector") was already false on origin/main before PR #10852 — it occurs once, in prose at :1346. So the drift is not only "the code moved and the docs lagged"; a published claim was wrong on arrival and nothing caught it.
What a remedy looks like
A gate asserting that every entry in the detector's RECOGNISED_PATH_SPELLINGS appears in AGENTS.md's published block — the same shape as the repo's other mirror ratchets. Cheap, and it retires the class instead of its third instance.
⚠️ Two things whoever takes this must weigh, neither of which I am deciding:
AGENTS.md is governed (scripts/pm/check-governed-merges.mjs:274-280), human-merge-only. A gate that reads it is fine; a fix that edits it is a maintainer merge. So the gate can only ever red — it can never auto-repair — and the card should say so up front rather than discovering it at review.- The comparison must not be a phantom check. A gate that greps for a literal that happens to appear anywhere in
AGENTS.md, or that passes vacuously when the block cannot be located, re-creates the defect it is closing one level up. It needs a self-test with an ablation in both directions: a spelling added to the detector and not to AGENTS.md must red, and a mangled/renamed fenced block must refuse rather than pass empty.
⛔ Not in scope: widening or narrowing what the detector recognises. This is about keeping the published copy honest, nothing else.
Refs: PR #10852 (#10029 direction B, where this surfaced) · #10854 (round 2, open) · #10163 → #10690 (round 1) · #8995 / #9763 (the widenings that started the drift)
Filed by the
domain:devxPM seat (#6023, sessionsession_01DdCnBGcHeufjrq7drTD3wt) as ruling C on PR #10852's open question 1. Unassigned; recording the class, not claiming it.Blocked-by: #11910
session_01UjM2ia8Av1v5NqfqQEQmC6): the implementation is done and reviewed — governed draft PR #11908, ACCEPTed 2026-08-25T00:09Z. What remains is not work:AGENTS.mdis at its shrink-only ceiling with zero headroom (961/961) and the honest mirror repair takes it to 969, socheck:pm-skill-ratchetis red until the ceiling is ruled on. That ruling is #11910, in the maintainer's decision box.Restart-when:the ceiling ruling lands on #11910.Unlock-action:apply the one-line CEILINGS edit with the ruling quoted verbatim, then PR #11908 is mergeable (still human-merge-only — governed surface).(Label corrected from
pm:dispatchedtopm:blockedby the incoming seat: the blocking relationship was recorded in a comment on 2026-08-25T00:09Z but the label was never swapped, so the queue views read this as live dispatch. TheBlocked-by:line is moved into the body here because that is the machine-greppable reverse index the unlock sweep reads — a comment is invisible to it.)The mirror, and that it is unchecked
scripts/check-cross-package-test-inputs.mjsrecognises a fixed set of directory-seed and path spellings. Its own header says the set is "printed in the failure text and mirrored inAGENTS.md" — the published copy lives in the fenced block atAGENTS.md:96-106.Nothing mechanically compares the two. The detector can grow a spelling and the published list can stay short indefinitely; the only signal is a human noticing.
Three rounds, which is what makes it a class
findUpwalk; after PR #10852 it canAGENTS.md:96-106is short by the twofindUpanchor seeds PR #10852 adds⭐ Rounds 1 and 2 share a nastier property, and it is the reason this is worth mechanising rather than re-fixing: in both, the stale sentence was the stated reason for a prohibition. #10163's wrong "only two seeds" line was the justification for "this seed may not change"; #10854's is the same shape. A rotting mirror does not merely misinform — it launders an obsolete rule into a live one.
process.cwd()appears nowhere in that detector") was already false onorigin/mainbefore PR #10852 — it occurs once, in prose at:1346. So the drift is not only "the code moved and the docs lagged"; a published claim was wrong on arrival and nothing caught it.What a remedy looks like
A gate asserting that every entry in the detector's
RECOGNISED_PATH_SPELLINGSappears inAGENTS.md's published block — the same shape as the repo's other mirror ratchets. Cheap, and it retires the class instead of its third instance.AGENTS.mdis governed (scripts/pm/check-governed-merges.mjs:274-280), human-merge-only. A gate that reads it is fine; a fix that edits it is a maintainer merge. So the gate can only ever red — it can never auto-repair — and the card should say so up front rather than discovering it at review.AGENTS.md, or that passes vacuously when the block cannot be located, re-creates the defect it is closing one level up. It needs a self-test with an ablation in both directions: a spelling added to the detector and not toAGENTS.mdmust red, and a mangled/renamed fenced block must refuse rather than pass empty.⛔ Not in scope: widening or narrowing what the detector recognises. This is about keeping the published copy honest, nothing else.
Refs: PR #10852 (#10029 direction B, where this surfaced) · #10854 (round 2, open) · #10163 → #10690 (round 1) · #8995 / #9763 (the widenings that started the drift)