fix(pm): a population declaration's reason is whole, or the declaration is red - #18660

…lock comment, and refuses one it cannot read (objectstack-ai#18784)

Fixes objectstack-ai#18661

Clause-②: no

`scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs`'s three population markers
(`no-path-population`, `whole-tree-population`, `wide-population`) built
their grammar from one head whose comment-form alternation listed `//`
and `#` and nothing else, so a declaration written in a file's own
BLOCK-comment idiom parsed as NOTHING — not refused, not printed, not
counted, and therefore byte-identical in every channel this tool has to
a gate that declares nothing at all. Two live gates were writing one.
The author of each believed they had explained why their gate reads no
population; every reader of the residue saw their family in the
unexamined pile; neither side had anything to check against, which is
what makes this class expensive rather than merely wrong.

## The two before-readings (re-derived on this branch, not taken from
the card)

Taken on `origin/main` `95b21b33be` before any edit:

1. **The population reader answers `null` over both files.**
`declaredNoPathPopulation` returns `null` for
`scripts/symbol-anchors.mjs` and for `scripts/release-verify-npm.mjs`,
and `populationReasonContinuation` returns `null` for both as well — so
not even the objectstack-ai#18422 wholeness refusal had anything to grade. Nothing was
refused because nothing was read.
2. **Both families sit in `undetermined` with `hints=0` and no
annotation.** `node scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs --residue --repo
objectstack-ai/objectstack scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs` placed 309
families — 23 matched, 43 undetermined, 225 silent, 7 always-runs, 11
declared-wide — and reported `9 of those 43 undetermined famil(ies)
DECLARE that they have no path population`. `node
scripts/release-verify-npm.mjs --self-test` and `node
scripts/symbol-anchors.mjs --self-test` are both printed in the
undetermined block with no `names:` suffix and no `↳ declared no path
population` line under them.

One line number on the card was stale and is corrected here:
`scripts/symbol-anchors.mjs`'s declaration is at `:207` on today's tip,
not `:180`; the text is unchanged. `scripts/release-verify-npm.mjs:110`
is where the card says.

## ① The grammar: one roster, five forms, and where a reason ENDS in
each

`MARKER_COMMENT_FORMS` replaces the inline alternation. It is the single
place a form is added, the head both marker builders and the
continuation reading are derived from, and it classifies each form into
one of two KINDS, because the two kinds answer the wholeness question
differently:

| kind | forms | where the reason ends |
|---|---|---|
| `line` | `//`, `#` | on the marker line. A comment line under it in
the SAME form, carrying text that is not a new `dispatch-gates:` key, is
a CUT and is refused — objectstack-ai#18422, unchanged byte for byte |
| `block` | `/**`, `/*`, `*` | at the first of: the closing delimiter, a
blank star-only line, the next star-`@tag` line, another
`dispatch-gates:` key, or EOF. The star-prefixed lines between are
JOINED into the reason |

The block form's own wholeness question is answered in the header rather
than left to be found. Two adjacent `//` lines are two separate comments
and nothing in the text says whether the second belongs to the first —
that is why objectstack-ai#18660 refuses there, and that refusal is untouched. A `/*
... */` block is ONE comment whose internal newlines are formatting, so
its next star line is a continuation *by construction* and the join is
decidable from the text rather than guessed. What the block form cannot
do is cross any of the three places a block-comment author signals a new
thought; each is pinned. A line INSIDE the block carrying text with no
star prefix is none of the five endings — it is reason text the walk
cannot read — so it is recorded as the block form's CUT and refused with
its own remedy ("give that line the block's star prefix, or end the
reason before it with a blank star line"), never with the line forms'
advice, which would send that author to the wrong half of their
declaration.

The one residual asymmetry is named in the header rather than hidden: a
second sentence on the very next star line, with no blank line between,
IS swallowed. That is OVER-inclusion and it reaches a seat as a reason
that says too much — visible on the row. The truncation objectstack-ai#18422 refused
is UNDER-inclusion and reaches a seat as a sentence that merely ends
oddly — invisible. The block idiom's own paragraph break is the text
that separates the two, and it is what a block-comment author already
writes.

⛔ What a population declaration MEANS is unchanged, and no refusal PR
objectstack-ai#18660 added is loosened: the line forms' capture, their continuation
reading and their refusal text are all identical, and a self-test case
asserts that refusal text still reads "Put the WHOLE reason on the
marker line".

## ② The sound: a line that reads like a declaration and did not parse
is never silent

`unparsedPopulationMarkers` + `unparsedPopulationMarkerRefusal`, RED at
author time through this file's own `--self-test` live half, which
sweeps every gate source the discovery reads (250 sources on this tree)
and names each finding by FILE, LINE and the FORM it was written in —
exactly the three things the old output withheld. Two causes,
deliberately one finding, because the author's experience is identical:
an unrecognised comment form, and a recognised form with no `-- REASON`
tail.

The chosen place is the refusal rather than the derivation output,
because the refusal fires before any row can be printed: an unparsed
declaration cannot reach `main`, so a second rendering of a state that
cannot exist would be unreachable code, which this file's own rule
refuses.

Two boundaries, both measured rather than assumed. A line may carry AT
MOST ONE comment opener — a line with the docblock's own star plus a
second opener is an EXAMPLE of a declaration written inside a comment
about declarations, which is how every example in this file is written,
and the grammar reads one opener too, so probe and grammar agree about
what documentation looks like. And a QUOTE is not a comment opener:
every self-test in this family builds its fixtures out of string
literals, this file's own included, and the grammar already ignores them
for the same reason.

## Census — the whole tree, report-only, no state written

Swept over all 8842 tracked files at `95b21b33be`:

| reading | count |
|---|---|
| lines carrying the literal text `dispatch-gates:` | 137 |
| of those, lines carrying a POPULATION key | 69 |
| parse as a declaration under the OLD form set (`//`, `#`) | 25, across
25 files |
| parse under the NEW form set (+ `/**`, `/*`, `*`) | 27, across 27
files |
| NEWLY parsing | 2 — `scripts/release-verify-npm.mjs:110`,
`scripts/symbol-anchors.mjs:207` |
| declaration-SHAPED and unparsed on `main` (what ② would have flagged)
| 2 — the same two |
| still unparsed after ① | **0** |

So ②'s only live cases were the two ① repairs, and the census is its
coverage statement: the remaining 67 population-key lines are prose
mentions (5 of them, all backticked or mid-sentence), this file's own
docblock examples, and string-literal fixtures — none is
declaration-shaped, and the live sweep over the tip returns zero. The
pins for ② are therefore synthetic plus one live non-vacuity leg that
takes a real declaration, re-spells its opener in an unlisted form, and
asserts exactly that line is found.

## The family before/after — nothing else moves

Same command, same probe path, before at `95b21b33be` and after at
`98d0b1dca4`; the full listings differ by 28 lines and every movement is
named:

- `+ ↳ declared no path population — ...` under `node
scripts/release-verify-npm.mjs --self-test` — this change
- `+ ↳ declared no path population — ...` under `node
scripts/symbol-anchors.mjs --self-test`, with the whole six-line reason
joined — this change
- `9 of those 43 undetermined` becomes `11 of those 43` — this change
- `check-dev-prereqs` 70 declared literals becomes 71, and its `names:`
list grows — NOT this change: `scripts/check-dev-prereqs.mjs` moved on
`origin/main` in the merge this branch carries
- `8842 tracked file(s)` becomes `8844` (two places) — NOT this change:
the merge added `.changeset/amplifiers-linked-packages.md` and
`scripts/measure-markdown-ts-blocks.mjs`
- the derivation header's commit sha

The five bucket counts are byte-identical: 23 matched, 43 undetermined,
225 silent, 7 always-runs, 11 declared-wide. No family changed bucket.
`no-path-population` annotates WITHIN `undetermined` rather than moving
a family out of it, which is what the channel does.

## The ledger row the readable declaration graduates

`ROOT_WALK_RESIDUE_LEDGER` carried a hand-written row for
`scripts/symbol-anchors.mjs --self-test` — a repo-root walker that
declares neither marker and cannot be placed by path. It declared
neither marker only because its declaration could not be read. With the
form set widened it leaves that population by DECLARING, which the
table's own header names as the outcome it exists to push toward, and
`check:pm-dispatch-gates` reds on a stale exclusion by design. The row
is deleted in the same landing, with a `⚖️` note in the style the table
already uses for its one previous graduation. This is the card's defect
priced in a second currency: it had cost a hand-maintained exclusion
row, carrying by hand the reading the gate's own source already carried.

## Ablation (from the committed fix, restored under a trap)

Mutation: the three `kind: 'block'` rows deleted from
`MARKER_COMMENT_FORMS`, proven on disk by blob hash —
`e72c4d48d33ef670c7baa16f3929cf3f4bf958f5` (== the HEAD blob) becomes
`1c2128d800e60ffa93c81cbad76313c381f69c92`.

| ablated reading | result |
|---|---|
| `declaredNoPathPopulation` over the two live files | both back to
`null` |
| residue's documented-no-population count | 11 back to 9 |
| `pnpm check:pm-dispatch-gates` | **exit 1** — `11 of 1809 case(s)
failed` |
| the 8 block-form grammar pins | all RED |
| the live pin "the live tree's BLOCK-form declarations are READ and not
dropped" | RED, `found 0: none` |
| the SOUND, over the real tree | RED, and it names both specimens:
`scripts/release-verify-npm.mjs:110 declares no-path-population in form
*` and `scripts/symbol-anchors.mjs:207 declares no-path-population in
form /*` |
| the ledger case | RED in the OPPOSITE direction — `unlisted:
scripts/symbol-anchors.mjs --self-test` — so the row's deletion is
coupled to the fix by construction |
| the other 1798 cases | green, unchanged |

Restore: `git checkout HEAD -- scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs` under an
`EXIT INT TERM` trap, verified by hash equality with the HEAD blob AND
an empty `git diff HEAD`, not by an exit code.

## Self-test — measured, not NOT MEASURED

`pnpm check:pm-dispatch-gates` run DETACHED with its output to a file
and read from the file, never under a foreground timeout: **exit 0**, `✓
dispatch-gates self-test: 1809 cases pass`, battery 748.0s on this box,
at `71aacfb886`.

## Derived gates

`node scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs --commands --repo
objectstack-ai/objectstack` from the worktree, no hand-fed path list: 1
path in the change set, 28 commands derived. Every one run, each exit
code captured by redirect-then-`$?`, and reconciled:

`✓ dispatch-gates --ran: 28 derived famil(ies) accounted for — 28 run, 0
NOT-MEASURED (a DERIVED zero — all 28 recorded an exit code and none of
them is 3)`

All 28 exit 0. Repo-wide `pnpm lint` (`eslint . --no-inline-config`):
exit 0. The derivation at `71aacfb886` prints a STALE TREE note naming
one file that moved on `origin/main` afterwards,
`scripts/pm/post-stamped.mjs`; the derived command list is
byte-identical before and after that move, and the queue rebuilds this
PR on the current `main` regardless.

## Scope

⛔ objectstack-ai#18662 is NOT folded in. It asks for the REASON-WHOLENESS reading (the
cut refusal) to be extended to `no-check-families` and
`inherited-population`; this change gives neither of them one, and
`NO_CHECK_FAMILIES_MARKER` is a separate `#`-only regex for YAML that is
untouched. One interaction is worth recording: `pathListMarkerPattern`
shares the one head with the population markers by construction
(objectstack-ai#18673), so `inherited-population` and `self-test-reads` now also
accept the block spellings. There are zero live block-form declarations
of either key — both live ones are `//` — so nothing moves, and their
reason-wholeness exposure is exactly what objectstack-ai#18662 describes, neither
widened nor narrowed here.

`skip-changeset`: the diff is one file under `scripts/pm/**`, a PM loop
tool that no package's `files[]` ships.

---
_Generated by [Claude
Code](https://claude.ai/code/session_01Gqi43smmqjJ5sUrhfoPeKu)_

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

…oster the objectstack-ai#18422 reason-wholeness reading (objectstack-ai#18822)

Fixes objectstack-ai#18662

Clause-②: no

## The defect

`NO_CHECK_FAMILIES_MARKER` and `INHERITED_POPULATION_MARKER`'s reason
half captured their reason with the same `(\S.*)$`-under-`m` shape that
objectstack-ai#18422 (PR objectstack-ai#18660) repaired for the three population markers: the
capture ends at the FIRST NEWLINE, so a reason an author wraps onto the
comment line below is read as line ONE and nothing refuses it. Neither
marker was in `POPULATION_MARKER_KEYS`, so neither
`populationReasonContinuation` nor `populationReasonCutRefusal` could
even be asked about them — both threw `unknown population marker key`.
No live declaration is cut in this tree today (the census below), so
this is exposure, not a live cut; the cost lands on the next author who
wraps one and the seat who reads the sentence that stops.

## The before-reading, re-derived on `main` (not taken from the card)

Measured against `origin/main` `034f5a3afd`, feeding each marker a
reason wrapped over two comment lines — the same wrapped shape objectstack-ai#18422
measured for the population markers.

`no-check-families`, consumer `declaredNoCheckFamiliesReason` (the
capture at `scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs:2707`, `return m ? m[1].trim()
: null;` at :2708):

```text
reason read      : "steps are an install/build/boot pipeline, and the verdict is"
author wrote     : "steps are an install/build/boot pipeline, and the verdict is whether the
                    scaffolded app boots at all, which no named local check family covers"
consumer sounds? : checkFamilyCoverageGaps -> []   (empty = accepted, silently)
wholeness reading: THROWS -- unknown population marker key 'no-check-families'
```

`inherited-population`, consumer `declaredInheritedPopulation` (the
reason at :4154, `const reason = m[3].trim();`):

```text
population read  : [".github/workflows"]
reason read      : "the workflow directory this module readdirs, and the verdict is"
consumer sounds? : no throw, no refusal, no row — the call returned normally
wholeness reading: THROWS -- unknown population marker key 'inherited-population'
```

Control, the same wrapped shape on a population marker (objectstack-ai#18422
repaired):

```text
populationReasonContinuation(..., 'wide-population', 'scripts/x.mjs')
  -> {"file":"scripts/x.mjs","line":2,"text":"the count of packages whose manifest this gate refuses","kind":"line"}
```

That is the red this change turns green.

## The registration, and where the refusal prints

One grammar, no second pattern, no hand-rolled continuation reader.

- `MARKER_KEY_FORMS` / `markerLineHead(key)` — the shared head, built
from `MARKER_COMMENT_FORMS` FILTERED to the forms that key's language
has.
- `REASON_TAIL_MARKER_KEYS = [...POPULATION_MARKER_KEYS,
'no-check-families']` — `no-check-families` now comes out of
`populationMarkerPattern` instead of the fourth hand-written copy of the
same grammar it was. The builder keeps its name because `population*` is
what this machinery is called where it is exported; the roster, not the
name, is the authority on which keys it serves, and the docblock says
so.
- `MARKER_REASON_GRAMMARS` — which builder reads each key and which
capture group holds its reason, derived BY CONSTRUCTION from the two
builders' own key rosters rather than hand-listed. That is what closed
the class: a key cannot be added to either builder without the wholeness
reading arriving with it. It is also why `self-test-reads` — the sixth
reason-bearing key, same grammar, same defect, filed under objectstack-ai#18673 and
NOT named on this card — is covered in the same line rather than
becoming a third card on this file. See "Scope" below.
- `readPopulationMarker` reads its reason out of the group the roster
names, and returns the raw match so a path-list reader takes its path
list off the SAME read its reason came from.
- `markerReasonCutRefusal(markerKey, cut)` — the refusal TEXT, one copy,
five keys. `populationReasonCutRefusal(entry, markerKey)` is now that
function reached through a discovery entry, and its output is
byte-identical to what it was before the split (pinned).

Where it prints: the three population channels carry their declaration
into a discovery entry that IS rendered, so their refusal is a printed
row. These markers have no such row (see the next section), so the READ
refuses — `refuseCutMarkerReason` throws, the CLI catches it at its
`catch (err)` and prints `dispatch-gates: derivation failed —` followed
by the refusal text, exit 2. That is already how both path-list markers
refuse an invented path. The message names the file, the line, the
marker and the continuation it saw:

```text
dispatch-gates: .github/workflows/scaffold-e2e.yml declares no-check-families and its reason does not
END on the marker line: .github/workflows/scaffold-e2e.yml:7 continues it with "whether the scaffolded
app boots at all, which no named local check family covers". The capture stops at the FIRST NEWLINE, so
the seat is handed the declaration cut off mid-sentence — ... Put the WHOLE reason on the marker line,
however long it runs ... ⛔ Never widen the marker to swallow the next line instead ...
```

The second surface is this file's own `--self-test` live census, below —
the same place the population markers' live half reds.

⛔ What either declaration MEANS is unchanged: the `inherited-population`
path list is untouched, its invented-path refusal is unchanged and
pinned independently, `no-check-families` still exempts exactly the
workflows it exempted, and no refusal PR objectstack-ai#18660 / PR objectstack-ai#18784 added is
loosened.

## The card's 「not measured」, answered: NO, neither consumer renders the
reason

Read to the surface the text lands on, at `034f5a3afd`:

- `declaredNoCheckFamiliesReason` has exactly ONE consumer —
`checkFamilyCoverageGaps` at :4298, `if
(declaredNoCheckFamiliesReason(text)) continue;`. The return value is
read as a BOOLEAN. The reason string reaches no row, no log and no seat.
- `declaredInheritedPopulation` has three production call sites
(`discoverFamilies`' `hintsOfModule`, and two in this file's own
self-test) plus the governed-read census; every one of them reads
`.population`. The only read of `.reason` in the tree is a self-test
case asserting it is non-empty.

So a cut costs nothing to a RENDERING today. The refusal is owed anyway
and is stated in both docblocks rather than hidden: wholeness is a
property of the declaration, not of today's consumer, and the next
reader of either reason is the seat that greps the workflow or the
module for it — which is exactly the reader the population markers'
repair was written for. The cost is that this refusal buys a seat's
future read, not a row on today's output.

## PR objectstack-ai#18784's block-comment forms, measured against these two

Measured both directions, one form per row, on `034f5a3afd` and on this
branch.

BEFORE — `MARKER_COMMENT_FORMS` reached `no-check-families` in NO form
at all: its pattern was a hand-written regex that never consulted the
roster, so `#` matched because it was hard-coded there and the other
four did not. It reached `inherited-population` in ALL FIVE forms
already (that marker is built on the shared head since objectstack-ai#18673/objectstack-ai#18661) —
but its reason was `m[3].trim()`, so a block-form reason kept the
closing delimiter and a wrapped block reason was cut at the first
newline:

```text
BEFORE  no-check-families:      #  -> "a reason */"   //  -> null   /*  -> null   /** -> null   *  -> null
BEFORE  inherited-population:   #  -> "a reason */"   //  -> "a reason */"   /*  -> "a reason */"
        block WRAPPED reason -> "the workflow directory this module readdirs, and"      (cut)
```

AFTER — `no-check-families` is built from the roster FILTERED to `#`,
and the four other forms stay null. ⛔ That is not a widening withheld;
it is the answer to the question: **the block form cannot apply to a
YAML `#` marker.** `#` is the only comment syntax YAML has — a `//` or
slash-star line in a workflow is document content, not a remark, so
reading a declaration off one would be reading it off text the
workflow's own parser never treats as a comment. The
`inherited-population` rows are unchanged in form coverage; only its
block-form reason now ends where the block ends:

```text
AFTER   no-check-families:      #  -> "a reason */"   //  -> null   /*  -> null   /** -> null   *  -> null
AFTER   inherited-population:   #  -> "a reason */"   //  -> "a reason */"   /*  -> "a reason"
        block WRAPPED reason -> "the workflow directory this module readdirs, and every other literal
                                 here is a join base"                                    (whole)
```

## Scope — and the sixth key

The card names two markers. The registration is derived from the two
grammar builders' key rosters, so it also reaches `self-test-reads`
(objectstack-ai#18673), the sixth reason-bearing key. That is deliberate, and it is
the bounded in-place fix rather than scope creep — the four conditions,
answered: (1) same defect class as this card, the identical
first-newline capture; (2) mechanical, and the shape is pinned by the
two markers this card names; (3) no other claim holds this file (28 open
PRs' file lists read at dispatch time — none touches it; objectstack-ai#18536's
machine-side half is queued behind this card, not claimed); (4) same
gate family, no new verification surface. The alternative was a roster
that hand-lists five of six reason-bearing keys — a second copy of
"which keys have a reason", wrong in the silent direction the moment a
seventh arrives, which is exactly how these two sat outside objectstack-ai#18422 for
two cards.

⛔ objectstack-ai#18661 / PR objectstack-ai#18784 is read and not re-opened: its form roster and its
dropped-declaration sound are untouched. ⛔ objectstack-ai#18536's machine-side half is
not folded in — nothing in this diff touches half-state or Clause-②
machinery.

## Pins — 26 new cases in `--self-test`

Per marker (`no-check-families`, `inherited-population`,
`self-test-reads`):

- a wrapped-reason case REFUSED by name, asserting the message carries
the file, the `file:line` of the continuation, the marker key and the
continuation's text — the refusal text pinned, not paraphrased;
- a whole-reason control that still reads its reason (and, for
`no-check-families`, that the workflow is still not a coverage gap) —
the repair refuses a cut, it does not refuse the marker.

Plus: the refusal reaching `checkFamilyCoverageGaps`, the marker's one
consumer; a blank-line-separated comment still not a continuation (the
terminator all six live declarations write); `inherited-population`'s
invented-path refusal pinned as INDEPENDENT of the cut refusal;
`self-test-reads`' missing-read-set refusal still firing first; the
`#`-only restriction both ways, plus the restriction narrowing-only and
its drift guard driven through a bad table; the wholeness roster pinned
equal to the two builders' rosters and named at all six keys; the reason
GROUP pinned per builder; and `populationReasonCutRefusal` pinned
byte-equal to `markerReasonCutRefusal` so the split cannot drift.

The population markers' existing pins are byte-unchanged.

## The census — the five (six) live declarations, measured whole

Taken in `--self-test` against the real tree at the head on every run,
not printed once into this body. Each row is NAMED, never counted:

```text
.github/workflows/merged-branch-reaper.yml:212  no-check-families
.github/workflows/os-create-smoke.yml:48        no-check-families
.github/workflows/scaffold-e2e.yml:23           no-check-families
scripts/cli-build-prerequisite.mjs:111          inherited-population
scripts/pm/check-expected-skips.mjs:131         self-test-reads
scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs:702               inherited-population
```

The card's five, plus the `self-test-reads` declaration the sixth key
brings. All six are one-liners followed by a blank line — no reason is
cut in this tree today, which is the card's own reading, re-taken. The
case asserts three things separately: the roster is exactly those six,
every reason ENDS on its marker line, and every reason is non-empty. A
non-vacuity control puts a continuation under a LIVE declaration and
asserts that exact file is refused by name, so the census cannot pass by
measuring nothing.

## Ablation

From the COMMITTED fix, the registration removed on disk — the three
`refuseCutMarkerReason(...)` calls, which is the mutation shape this
file already names for this family ("deleting the
`populationReasonCutRefusal` call from either refusal"). Mutation proven
by blob hash before the run, restored by hash under a `trap ... EXIT INT
TERM` after it:

```text
head           : 0538995
head blob      : 1d4c953
on-disk before : 1d4c953
anchor count before: 3   (expect 3)
anchor count after : 0   (expect 0)
on-disk after  : 5ea16c9a050769027d876e39f8b7a0d21c439a03
MUTATION: PROVEN — blob hash moved and 3 anchor line(s) left the file

✗ dispatch-gates self-test: 5 of 1835 case(s) failed.
os-verify-lock: VERDICT command-exit 1 · held the lock 745s (12m25s) · waited 1s

RESTORE: hash-on-disk=1d4c95393c3749e68129dc2688e8df8c351aaa9b head-blob=1d4c95393c3749e68129dc2688e8df8c351aaa9b
RESTORE: OK — byte-identical to HEAD
RESTORE: git diff HEAD (must be empty):        [empty]
```

The five, and only the five, are the new refusal pins — one per marker,
plus the consumer-reaching case and the census non-vacuity control:

```text
✗ a no-check-families reason that does not END on the marker line is REFUSED, naming the workflow, the line, the marker and the continuation
✗ and the refusal reaches the ONE consumer this marker has — the boolean read in checkFamilyCoverageGaps refuses rather than accepting half a sentence
✗ an inherited-population reason that does not END on the marker line is REFUSED, naming the module, the line, the marker and the continuation
✗ the census is not vacuous over this tree: put a continuation under a LIVE declaration and exactly that file is refused, by name
✗ a self-test-reads reason that does not END on the marker line is REFUSED too, in the same words and naming the same four things
```

Nothing pre-existing reds. The continuation READING, the whole-reason
controls, the roster pins and every population-marker pin stay green
under the ablation — which is the point: this change registers a
refusal, it does not change how a reason is read.

## The self-test line

Run DETACHED with output to a file and waited on in the foreground
(`tail --pid` on the detached pid), never under a foreground timeout,
and under the shared verify lock:

```text
✓ dispatch-gates self-test: 1835 cases pass.
os-verify-lock: VERDICT command-exit 0 · held the lock 734s (12m14s) · waited 0s
```

1809 before this change, 1835 after — 26 new cases. Shared-box seconds,
not idle-box figures.

## Derived gates, each with its exit code

Derived from the worktree with `node scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs
--commands --repo objectstack-ai/objectstack` (no hand-fed path list),
every command run with the exit code captured by redirect-then-`$?`,
then reconciled with `--ran`.

```text
node scripts/check-ci-filter-parity.mjs                        :: exit 0
node scripts/check-closing-keyword-parity.mjs                  :: exit 0
node scripts/check-closing-keyword-parity.mjs --self-test      :: exit 0
node scripts/check-comment-mask-corpus.mjs                     :: exit 0
node scripts/check-declaration-mirrors.mjs                     :: exit 0
node scripts/check-declaration-mirrors.mjs --self-test         :: exit 0
node scripts/check-scripts-symbol-anchors.mjs                  :: exit 0
node scripts/check-scripts-symbol-anchors.mjs --self-test      :: exit 0
node scripts/check-self-test-wired.mjs                         :: exit 0
node scripts/check-self-test-wired.mjs --self-test             :: exit 0
node scripts/check-self-test-workflow-commands.mjs             :: exit 0
node scripts/check-self-test-workflow-commands.mjs --self-test :: exit 0
node scripts/check-whole-set-label-write.mjs                   :: exit 0
node scripts/check-whole-set-label-write.mjs --self-test       :: exit 0
pnpm check:agent-test-spelling                                 :: exit 0
pnpm check:bash32-floor                                        :: exit 0
pnpm check:cli-command-ids                                     :: exit 0
pnpm check:cross-package-test-inputs                           :: exit 0
pnpm check:declared-population-live                            :: exit 0
pnpm check:driver-memory-census                                :: exit 0
pnpm check:entry-guard                                         :: exit 0
pnpm check:nul-bytes                                           :: exit 0
pnpm check:parse-guard                                         :: exit 0
pnpm check:pm-dispatch-gates                                   :: exit 0   (the detached run above)
pnpm check:pnpm-filter-targets                                 :: exit 0
pnpm check:ratchet-remedy-authority                            :: exit 0
pnpm check:refd-timer-probe                                    :: exit 0
pnpm check:watch-hint-literal                                  :: exit 0
```

```text
✓ dispatch-gates --ran: 28 derived famil(ies) accounted for — 28 run, 0 NOT-MEASURED
  (a DERIVED zero — all 28 recorded an exit code and none of them is 3).
```

Repo-wide `pnpm lint` (`eslint . --no-inline-config`): exit 0.

`skip-changeset`: the diff is one file under `scripts/pm/`, which no
package's `files[]` ships — nothing published moves.

## Acceptance notes

To file (class (c), a declaration the tool silently drops), NOT fixed
here — different defect class from this card, so the bounded in-place
exemption does not apply: **the dropped-declaration probe
`unparsedPopulationMarkers` (objectstack-ai#18661) is keyed on
`POPULATION_MARKER_KEYS` alone**, so a line that READS as a
`no-check-families`, `inherited-population` or `self-test-reads`
declaration and does not PARSE as one makes no sound at all — no
refusal, no row, no count — while the identical shape on a population
key is reported. Measured on `034f5a3afd`, three dropped spellings
returned `[]` from the probe with a population-key control lighting on
the same opener. The `self-test-reads` instance re-opens objectstack-ai#18673's own
hole: a dropped declaration takes a family out of the derived set, and
the `--ran` reconciliation then says "0 NOT-MEASURED" about a set that
no longer contains it. Dedupe words: `unparsed marker probe roster` ·
`dropped declaration silent` · `POPULATION_MARKER_LOOKALIKE keys` ·
`inherited-population dropped` · `self-test-reads dropped`.

Noted, not filed: routing `inherited-population`'s block-form read
through `blockFormReason` also drops the closing delimiter that
`m[3].trim()` used to leave in the reason (`"a reason */"` becomes `"a
reason"`). No live declaration is written in a block form, so nothing
moved in this tree; it is measured in the block-form table above rather
than left to be found. Next reader of this file: objectstack-ai#18536's machine-side
half.

---
_Generated by [Claude
Code](https://claude.ai/code/session_01Gqi43smmqjJ5sUrhfoPeKu)_

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>