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backlog: record the adversarial audits of #1064, #1086 and #1097 -- all three stay open - #333

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backlog: record the adversarial audits of #1064, #1086 and #1097 -- all three stay open#333
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Records the adversarial audit findings against BACKLOG #1064, #1086 and #1097. All three stay
OPEN.
All three attempted fixes remain local-only and anchored; none is pushed, and none should land.

#1086 -- the attempt would have introduced a new bypass and shipped a test defending it

Its premise -- "a message flag's quoted span is DATA, not a command" -- is false for the two spellings
that matter. Confirmed by execution:

"a $(1+1) b"   -> a 2 b          @"..."@ -> a 2 b        <- TEMPLATES, substituted
'a $(1+1) b'   -> a $(1+1) b     @'...'@ -> a $(1+1) b   <- inert

Six verdicts moved DENY to ALLOW carrying live $(...) payloads, and the commit added the executable
spelling to the must-ALLOW parametrize
-- so the bypass acquires a test defending it, on a
machine-global file governing ~57 worktrees. A control weakened, with a new test pinning the weakening
as intended behaviour.

Where the mistake actually sits, found by reading the diff rather than the audit summary. The lane
was not careless about the obvious hazard -- its own comment says "key on the consumer, never the
delimiter -- the identical here-string after pwsh -Command IS code that runs, so blanking by shape
would re-open the interpreter route-around."
It reasoned correctly about what git does with the
argument. It never reasoned about what the shell does before git is invoked. "The premise is false"
was true but did not locate the error.

The corrected scope is therefore narrow: blank only the spans PowerShell cannot substitute --
'...' and @'...'@. And it costs nothing legitimate, because this repo's own documented convention
for multi-line commit messages is the single-quoted here-string
-- the inert form is the house form, so
the original complaint is fully served by covering the literal spans alone.

#1097 -- sound, but it generalised one dimension of several

The generating rule that replaced the hand-typed prefix list is correct, its red-first is genuine in
both directions, and its bounded-ness mutant works. The gap is that the sigil stayed a hand-typed
two-member class [-/] inside a fix whose whole purpose was to stop hand-typing enumerations. Measured:
pwsh --command, --Com and --c all execute.

Its proposed banner claimed "the missing spellings were every prefix from -C to -Command" -- a false
completeness claim
(SDS-3.6), which a compensating control then rests on (SDS-3.7). The rebuild builds
on this fix rather than replacing it, audits the remaining dimensions rather than assuming two is
all of them, and drops the completeness claim.

#1064 -- deliberately not rebuilt yet

One of its four open bypasses is a regression the attempt itself introduced, and any whitespace in
the repo path defeats rule 3d entirely
, absolute spelling included -- latent here only because this
box's primary path has no space, which breaks the report's own control row. A brief is not trustworthy
while its own control does not hold, so it waits rather than sending a lane at a moving target.

The batch is a good outcome, not a wasted one

Three lanes, zero landable commits. Two of the three would have shipped a bypass into the worktree gate
and one would have shipped a test defending it. Every lane's process was strong -- real mutants,
byte-identical restores, disclosed residual gaps, no deleted coverage, no false denies. Process cannot
check a premise:
red-first proves a change has the effect it claims, never that the effect is
desirable. That is the argument for an adversarial reader as a separate stage rather than a stricter
checklist on the same one.

Ledger-only, +28 lines. Verified: all 252 items still declare exactly one status banner (the
invariant backlog_status_check enforces), open = 184, #1064/#1086/#1097 all remain open, merges
clean onto current main.

…all three STAY OPEN

Three worktree-gate lanes produced ZERO landable commits. All three
attempts are local-only and anchored; none is pushed. The findings are
recorded here so they are not stranded in session messages.

#1086 -- DO_NOT_LAND. Its premise 'a MESSAGE flag's quoted span is DATA'
is FALSE for two of the four quoting forms, because POWERSHELL
SUBSTITUTES BEFORE GIT IS INVOKED:

  "a $(1+1) b"  -> a 2 b        @"..."@ -> a 2 b      SUBSTITUTE
  'a $(1+1) b'  -> literal      @'...'@ -> literal    INERT

Its blanking covered all four, so six verdicts moved DENY -> ALLOW with
live payloads, AND it added the executable spelling to the must-ALLOW
parametrize -- making the bypass a REQUIREMENT that reds the suite for
whoever later restores the deny.

The correct rule is narrower and costs nothing: blank only the spans
PowerShell cannot substitute. This repo's OWN documented convention for
multi-line commit messages is the single-quoted here-string, so the inert
form is the house form and the item's original complaint is fully served.

#1097 -- the METHOD was right and stopped one dimension short. It
replaced the hand-typed prefix list with a generating rule, with genuine
red-first both directions. But the SIGIL stayed a hand-typed two-member
class, and pwsh --command / --Com / --c all EXECUTE and all bypass rules
3b and 3c. Its banner also claimed 'every prefix from -C to -Command',
a false completeness claim that became SDS-3.7 once a control rested on it.

#1064 -- four bypasses open, one a REGRESSION the attempt introduced, and
the one I would raise hardest: ANY WHITESPACE IN THE REPO PATH DEFEATS
RULE 3d ENTIRELY, absolute spelling included. Latent on this box only
because the primary path has no space -- and latent by accident of one
machine's paths is an unexercised precondition, not a mitigation. It also
breaks the attempt's own control row, which weakens its evidence for
every other row measured beside it.

THE LESSON RECORDED WITH #1086, because it is the general one: all three
lanes had excellent PROCESS -- real mutants, byte-identical restores,
disclosed gaps, no deleted coverage, no false denies. Every process
signal green. RED-FIRST PROVES A CHANGE HAS THE EFFECT IT CLAIMS; IT
NEVER PROVES THE EFFECT IS DESIRABLE. Only a reader who does not share
the author's premise can test the premise.

AND THIS COMMIT MADE THE SAME CLASS OF ERROR ON ITS FIRST ATTEMPT. I
opened #1086's amendment with the no-entry sign for emphasis -- which is
a _CLOSED status glyph -- and the item read as CLOSED. backlog_status_check
caught it immediately: '1 error, every backlog item must declare exactly
one status banner'. A glyph's meaning is POSITIONAL and I used one
decoratively in the file whose whole alphabet is positional. Swapped for
the non-status warning sign.

Gates: 488 items each declaring exactly one status; ledger_check clean;
doc guards 48 passed. Open 184, unchanged -- all three items stay open.
@wshallwshall
wshallwshall merged commit 08f8d4e into main Aug 11, 2026
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@wshallwshall
wshallwshall deleted the w3-amend-gate-audits branch August 11, 2026 19:25
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