tech-debt-backlog §7.17: gloss tools/call as MCP jargon in README

[jascal]

Summary

Closes §7.17 of the tech-debt-backlog OpenSpec change.

• The ### Trust Boundary subsection in README.md previously opened with "There is no auth check on tools/call — any client that can connect…", which assumes the reader already knows tools/call is the JSON-RPC method name the MCP spec defines for tool invocation.
• Took the prescribed wording from the §7.17 task body verbatim: the sentence now reads "There is no auth check on the JSON-RPC tools/call method (the MCP-standard tool-invocation entry point) — any client that can connect to the stdio pipe can invoke any tool, including the two that spend on an LLM provider (generate_machine, refine_machine)."
• One-sentence prose change; the rest of the subsection (LLM-spending tools, stdio-as-local-trust paragraph) is unchanged.
• Marks §7.17 [x] in openspec/changes/tech-debt-backlog/tasks.md with the resolution note. The companion §7.16 forward-link stays open: it depends on an MCP-error-handling section that does not yet exist in README.md, so landing the anchor is wider than §7.17 scope.

Test plan

• pytest -q — 1282 passed, 8 skipped (full suite green)
• grep -n 'tools/call\|Trust Boundary' tests/ confirms no test pins the README prose, so the print-only change is safe

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[jascal]

Code Review — Claude Sonnet 4.6

Thanks for closing out §7.17. This is a tightly-scoped, print-only documentation change: one sentence reworded in the ### Trust Boundary subsection of README.md, plus the matching [x] status flip and resolution note in openspec/changes/tech-debt-backlog/tasks.md. I checked out the branch, ran lint + the full test suite, and independently verified the factual and traceability claims. This is a clean, low-risk change — ready to merge.

What I verified

• Tests: green. .venv/bin/pytest -q → 1282 passed, 8 skipped in ~22s, matching your test plan exactly.
• Lint: no new errors. .venv/bin/ruff check . reports 18 pre-existing errors (E402 and E741), all in test files (test_compiler.py, test_examples.py, test_noise_model_section.py, test_qpc_convergence.py, test_verifier.py). None are in README.md/tasks.md (not Python anyway), so nothing is introduced here. Not a blocker.
• The gloss is factually accurate. tools/call is indeed the JSON-RPC method name the MCP spec defines for tool invocation, so "(the MCP-standard tool-invocation entry point)" is a correct gloss, not an approximation. A reader new to MCP now learns what the method name is before being told it has no auth check.
• "Verbatim" claim holds. The prescribed fix shape in the §7.17 task body reads There is no auth check on the JSON-RPC ``tools/call`` method (the MCP-standard tool-invocation entry point) — any client …, and the README now reads exactly that (README.md:868-869). Faithful to the backlog item.
• "No test pins the prose" claim holds. grep -rn tools/call\|Trust Boundary tests/ confirms Trust Boundary appears nowhere in tests, and the tools/call hits in tests/test_mcp_server.py are all exercising the actual JSON-RPC error paths — not asserting on the README text. So the print-only change genuinely cannot break a test.

What looks good

• Scope discipline. The surrounding paragraph (LLM-spending tools, stdio-as-local-trust) is untouched, and you explicitly left the §7.16 forward-link open because its target anchor does not yet exist — resisting the temptation to scope-creep into an adjacent task. That is the right call and well-documented.
• The resolution note records the wording taken, the safety rationale, and the §7.16 dependency, which keeps the backlog auditable for the next person.

Minor observation (non-blocking, no change required)

• The resolution note characterizes the grep hits as "the sanitizer-related code paths it covers." That parenthetical is slightly imprecise — the tools/call matches in test_mcp_server.py are error-path / integration tests for the JSON-RPC method (e.g. the handle_request error path), not strictly sanitizer tests. The substantive claim it supports (no test pins the README prose) is correct; only the description of what those unrelated test lines are is a touch off. Purely a note-accuracy nit in the tasks file, not an issue with the README change itself.

Verdict

Correct, factually accurate, faithful to the prescribed wording, lint-clean on the touched files, and fully covered by the green suite. Zero behavioral or security surface (print-only prose). Merge when ready.

This review was posted automatically by Claude Sonnet 4.6.

[jascal]

Closing as superseded. §7.17 was already resolved by #135 (55dacaa, "§§7.16, 7.17: gloss tools/call + forward-link sanitization"), which landed on main before this branch could merge.

main's README ### Trust Boundary section already contains the proposed gloss byte-for-byte identical ("…auth check on the JSON-RPC tools/call method (the MCP-standard tool-invocation entry point)…"), and §7.17 is already marked [x] in tasks.md with a resolution note. This branch carries no net-new content on top of main (it predates and lacks the later "Exception messages are scrubbed" bullet), so there is nothing to merge.