BFM-decomp/phase-ends/CURRENT_PHASE.md

# CURRENT PHASE — Phase 31: The Frontier Atlas & Wide-Tolerance Campaign

**Started:** 2026-08-14 · **Plan approved:** 2026-08-14 (gate 1; Drew) · **Effort doctrine:** xHigh default / Max deep (T5, T7, synthesis) / Ultracode waves (R26/R27 prompts) / Fable-tier only for new wall classes.
**Approved plan:** `/home/musashi/.claude/plans/fable-5-set-max-goofy-seahorse.md` (the full design; this file is the crash-recovery log).
**Approval also ratified R37 (probe before costing), R38 (read recorded failure verdicts first), R39 (negative-control new refusal-checks) — now binding.**

## The re-charter (one paragraph)

Instead of roadmap-v2 P31's per-function grind, Phase 31 organizes the 12,059 remaining stubs (main 1,041 · resident 14 · ov 9,832 · md 1,179) into **crack groups**: a deterministic per-function feature layer + multi-tier similarity atlas (li-normalized exact tier, seed sweep vs the 2,719 matched skeletons, calibrated warm tier for the 3,238-unit cold tail + main, kNN neighborhood graph), evidence-joined to a lever label per group; plus **widened mechanical lanes** (LEN-tolerant aligned remap with a fully-mechanical LI class, §172b EXTPAIR/SELECT detectors + routing, PLUMBING campaign, permuter cluster warm-start, weak-seed cards); then a **campaign loop to ceiling** — deterministic $0 lanes first, agents only for exemplars, velocity-ledgered, closed on measured decay. Milestone shape = P30 (campaign to ceiling; every remaining stub on a named ledger at close). Main fully included from day one.

## Task checklist

- [x] **T0 — Pivot log + freshness + hygiene** — DONE 2026-08-14. (xHigh)
- [x] **T1 — Integration quick-bank sweep** — DONE 2026-08-14 (pending final R22 log line). **8 banked, 0 agent tokens.** (xHigh)
- [x] **T2 — References** — DONE 2026-08-14. (xHigh)
- [x] **T3 — Main enablement** — DONE 2026-08-14. (xHigh)
- [x] **T4 — atlas_features.py** — DONE 2026-08-14. (xHigh)
- [x] **T5 — atlas.py** — DONE 2026-08-14. **THE ATLAS EXISTS.** (Max)
- [x] **T6 — PLUMBING campaign** — DONE 2026-08-14. **+9 banked (probe 64%); recipe + 3 laws distilled (§173); sweep proved the no-draft majority routes to family lanes.** (xHigh)
- [x] **T7 — family_align.py built + NC'd; the mechanical-cousin premise REFUTED by its probe (0/26)** — engine re-scoped to T8's LEN+N same-function pile; no driver built (correctly). (Max)
- [x] **T8 — LEN+N lane** — DONE 2026-08-14. **Pile routed 587/587; 345 wrong-drafts reclassified; 49 permuter + 192 card fuel staged; mechanical lane = honest null.** (xHigh)
- [x] **T9 — Warmstart + weak-cards** — DONE 2026-08-14. **Grinder queue armed (49 lenmiss + 10 seeded drafts, 120 refused by the stream filter); 954 weak-cards emitted, cheap-tier-dominated. No grinder patch needed.** (xHigh)
- [ ] **T10+ — Campaign loop to ceiling** (repeating sessions; velocity ledger; close on measured decay). (Ultracode waves / xHigh orchestration / Fable new-walls)
- [ ] **Tclose — PhaseEnd** (gate 2). (Max)

## Standing verification (every task)
R22 clean-fleet **213/213** after every banked batch · tools-health green · 0 NON_MATCHING (G4) · dedup-check 0 failed · R32 coverage assertions on every new scanner · R39 negative controls on every refusal check · R37 probes before pricing · R38 ledgers before experiments · commit per task (task + this log in the same commit; Drew pushes).

## Progress log

- 2026-08-14 — Phase planned and approved (3 Explore + 2 Plan agents; full design in the plan file). Task list built (harness tasks #1–#12). T0 started.
- 2026-08-14 — **T0 COMPLETE.** (1) R31 decision-log entry (the re-charter WHY + R37–R39 ratification). (2) `harvest_verify.py` import guard: a bare import now RAISES instead of running a gate (verified both directions; CLI behavior unchanged). (3) **Resident ±1 RESOLVED + FIXED**: `--bootstrap`'s linear partition had fused the +0 data word with `func_800CEDFC` (row `0x800CEDF8` nins=18) and dropped `func_800D33E0` past a glued tail — the true denominator is **145** (progress was right, the sig wrong). `sig-resident` now ELF-seeds (S45 pattern: unique 4-aligned T-symbol addrs inside the `resident_TEXT_START/END` markers → exactly 145; bootstrap fresh-clone fallback). All three oracles now agree (sig 145 · corpus matched 131 · progress byte-ident 131); `audit-corpus` 0 PHANTOM + 0 TRUNCATED. (4) Family maps regenerated at HEAD `commit:2161`: **11,025 open non-main members = 12,059 − main's 1,034 EXACT** (the stale map's 102 phantoms cleared); cousins totals now A-prop 1,125 / seeded 1,293 / cousin-multi 5,373 / cold 3,234 inst; adapt cards 704, aprop cards **204 (full emission)**. (5) **Main fuel gap is DEAD**: 2,001/2,002 main stubs have cached Ghidra-C (only `func_80049600` missing) — the roadmap's "0/2,096" note was stale. (6) `make tools-health` → OK (dedup 2,063/0; C1 254,521/254,521; audit-digest confirms the fleet digest; resident fix moved instr num+denom by the same +9).

- 2026-08-14 — **T1 COMPLETE: 8 banked for 0 agent tokens.** R38-first: partitioned the MATCH-108 pile against current stubs (75 still open) and against the S50 gate history (62 gated-and-failed with verdicts · 13 never-gated). The lanes and their measured outcomes:
  - **Never-gated 13** → gate_lane: 0/13, but the verdicts decomposed to 11× `undefined reference to D_*` = the §171 stale-seed-symbol class. **Extended `aprop_symfix` with STALE-DELTA** (n:n uniform-delta rebase; R39 synthetic + snapshot NCs, zero false positives; the delta test even refused a pair my hand-check wrongly accepted) → 4 rebased, **4/4 banked** (`func_8016BCC0`, `func_8017F1C8`, `func_80186BD8`, `func_80186BF8`). Cookbook **§171-D** written in-session.
  - **SELF-decl PLUMBING 7** → `recover_integration --stages demacroize --max-tier binary`: **4/7 banked** (`func_80139BE0`, `func_8014ED28`, `func_80161D88`, `func_801659DC`); 3 stay near.
  - **Stored-draft re-gates** (no-verdict 7 + close=0 8 + diff 1 + 9 STALE→clean world-motion drafts): **0/23-ish banked** — the ~8% A10 stored-verdict law held again; all re-verdicted fresh.
  - **Handed forward with fresh classifications**: CALLEE-decl 15 + CC1-FAIL 14 → T6 (cast-callees/tu-scope stages); UNDEF-DATA/OTHER 9 → the §171b-1 data-definition carry (T7/T8); md CARVE-REFUSED 8 → campaign side-quest ledger. immfix pile: fully consumed (0 open). fix20: 19/20 consumed in S50.
  - Tool fixes landed: `gate_lane` propagate-commit tag now derives from GATE_PHASE (was hardcoded phase-30 S49).
  - Rate lesson for the velocity ledger: fresh-fix lanes (STALE-DELTA 4/4, demacroize 4/7) vastly outperform blind stored re-gates (0/23) — the campaign loop's L2 ordering is confirmed by measurement.

- 2026-08-14 — **T2 COMPLETE (references).** (1) **PsyQ dev-CD extracted**: walked the on-disk Track-1 image (MODE2/2352) with the frozen `tools/bfm_extract/iso9660.py` (R33 — no new extractor; walker = iter_directory/read_extent with out-of-range extents skipped) → `tools/reference/psyq-sdk/` (gitignored): 2,374 files / 231.6 MB, **400 C sources (373 in PSX/SAMPLE/** across CD/GRAPHICS/SOUND/MODULE/CMPLR/…); only 7 out-of-track `.DA` audio skipped. (2) **Provenance find**: `GNU/SNGNUVER.TXT` = SN Systems' gcc build history (`2.7.2.SN32.3.7.0002`, 14.5.97) with per-build changelog of SN's patches vs vanilla — only `UNROLL.C` (parameterised max unroll insns) is codegen-relevant; recorded in the idiom notes as the first-look suspect if a loop-unroll residual ever defies the vanilla model. (3) **gcc-2.7.2 reference completed**: +6 files from GNU ftp (`calls.c` + `caller-save.c` — both cited by §172's producer model, previously missing — + integrate/optabs/varasm/recog), tarball sha256 `7cd8bce5…` recorded. (4) `docs/psyq-sample-idioms.md` seeded (inventory, provenance, first style conventions, the lane hook); SETUP §5.6 rows added (R21).

- 2026-08-14 — **T3 COMPLETE (main enablement).** (1) `sig_image` seed-ends extension: `--seeds` now accepts `0xADDR NINS` lines (and jsonl `nins`); a seeded nins is authoritative — the slice is exactly `[addr, addr+4·nins)`, bypassing `func_end` (whose heuristic mis-sliced 3/40 main samples). (2) `corpus.s_ins_count()` factored from audit() (R33, one counter) + `corpus.py <bin> --seed-ends` CLI. (3) **`make sig-main`**: 2,002 main stubs signed at splat-true lengths → `.run/sig.main.jsonl` (deliberately splat-SEEDED — the atlas needs the boundaries a match must hit; NOT the independent second oracle, which stays deferred per `docs/second-oracle.md`). (4) **Full word cross-check: 2,002/2,002 slices byte-faithful** (EXE bytes vs `.s` comment-column words; 0 SLICE-SUSPECT; note the `.s` word field is byte-order hex, not the LE-decoded value — first checker draft compared wrong and read 1,999 false suspects). (5) `family_remap` main special-cases: `vram_of('main')` = code-segment `vram − start` from `splat.us.exe.yaml` = 0x8000F800; `img_path('main')` from the same yaml's target_path (R33). `stream_words('main')` == `.s` words on **25/25** samples. (6) Regression: `sig-resident` re-run **byte-identical** after the shared `read_seeds` change.

- 2026-08-14 — **T4 COMPLETE (`tools/atlas_features.py`).** Per-function features memoized per distinct `h_exact` (`.run/feat_memo.json`) and fanned out 1:1 with sigs to `.run/feat.<bin>.jsonl` ×213 (main reads the splat-true `sig.main.jsonl`; registry untouched). **363,525 rows / 92,855 distinct bodies in 21 s** (vs the 3–6 min estimate). Features: nins/band · o0 prologue tell · frame/callee-saved set+order/fp · CFG skeleton (nblk/ncond/nback/ret_n via branch-target scan; jal = call, never an edge — position-independence proof in the docstring) · mid_jr/jalr · stable-call-sequence hash (fixed main+resident ranges) · reloc-kind sequence hash · 16-bucket ophist · **§172b tells as importable shared functions (extpair/dupselect/sign_mix/magic_div — T8's len_tells imports these, R33)** · **li-normalized skeleton `h_seqn`** (non-anchor lui dropped, ori→addiu class). Verifies: R32 join asserted per binary at write; determinism 0 mismatches on 200 re-derived bodies; **mid_jr cross-check vs family_hseq's independent oracle: 6,444/6,444 exemplars agree** (first verifier draft compared ZERO rows — a string-vs-int addr type mismatch, the R32 silent-no-op class caught in my own verifier; now indexed + fails loud if compared==0). o0-tell vs `corpus.is_o0` on 13,019 open fns: 41 both / **94 tell-only = candidate undiscovered -O0 fns in -O2 TUs (§116 — o0_subsplit carve fuel for the campaign)** / 14 src-only outliers.

- 2026-08-14 — **T5 COMPLETE (`tools/atlas.py` + `make atlas`) — THE FRONTIER ATLAS EXISTS.** Survey in 92 s, all assertions green: **5,139 groups cover ALL 12,058 open instances / 613,710 ins** (12,058 = progress's 12,051 stubs + 7 NON_MATCHING exactly — the +1-blob and +8-banked discrepancies were both chased and resolved: data blobs excluded, T1 banks confirmed absent; main open reconciles to classify()'s stubs+NM with a hard assert). Tiers: **calibration measured** (positives = cousin ≥0.85-raw merges, negatives = size-matched cross-unit pairs; the li-normalized metric is so discriminative that recall ~99% holds down to 0.55; rule = smallest t with neg-accept ≤0.2% ∧ recall ≥95% → **THRESH_WARM=0.70** at 99.1%/0.18% — chosen because a false warm-merge wastes an exemplar crack, a miss only routes cheaper) · T1.5 h_seqn 2 merges · **warm tier 1,019 merges** · **seed sweep: 4,702/7,247 open skeletons (65%) carry a ≥0.55 matched seed** from the 2.7k-skeleton pool · kNN graph (top-8 open + matched neighbors) · tiny-direct. **Lever table (the strategic map):** head-crack 1,283g/186.9k ins · UNKNOWN 1,964g/138.6k (honest) · **extend-tell 575g/76.7k** · redraft 46.8k · **jtbl-carve 190g/45.7k** · integration 575 inst/23.4k · seeded-crack 23.4k · len-vein 778 inst/16.8k · swaprepeat 9.2k · plumbing 161 inst/8.1k · o0-lane 6.6k · cc1 6.4k. Top group: 268 drifted single-member skeletons unified (per-location ~23-ins family, 0.72 seed). Evidence joins accounted (audit/backlog/ledgers/cards; residuals EXCLUDED-STALE until regenerated); `--targets` resolves 12/12 `.s`. `make atlas` = the full regen chain. docs/frontier-atlas.md committed.

- 2026-08-14 — **T6 IN PROGRESS (PLUMBING campaign) — probe converged after two R14 corrections.** `plumbing_groups.py` derived the honest pool: **237 still-open** PLUMBING rows (the "1,217" was ledger-vintage inflation): SELF 109 (3 concentrated binaries) · CALLEE 48 · OTHER 48 · DATA 32. Probe (ov_SC03_107 SELF-21 → 14 with drafts): first run **0/14 with a PHANTOM shared error** — root-caused to **cross-group TU-edit poisoning** (a demacroize edit in TU-A persists while TU-B's drafts gate; every whole-binary build compiles ALL TUs) → fixed `recover_integration` with per-group isolation (git-checkout binary TUs between groups, gate_lane's proven pattern; engine_core.h untouched so fleet-tier arity persists) + added the **`macro-externs` draft stage** (§121: one draft's guessed `extern int f()` vs the TU's `DEFINE_`-macro definition — lifted from family_sweep, R33) + **`tu-scope` stage** (§103 STU, the sweep-only lever). Isolated re-run exposed the TRUE class: `undefined reference to D_*` = **the §171 stale-seed-symbol class** (rtu_match MATCHes these drafts — it is blind to relocation names; the R34 two-oracle disagreement exactly as documented) → **symfix-first**: 11/11 rebased (mixed 1:1 + n:n deltas incl. the S49 Δ0x4128) → **9/14 banked (64%)** where the raw path scored 0. The standing recipe: `aprop_symfix --fix → recover_integration --stages macro-externs,demacroize,tu-scope` (per-group isolated). Full sweep over the remaining ~200 rows now running.

- 2026-08-14 — **T6 COMPLETE.** Sweep over the remaining ~200 rows: **the decisive finding is Law 3 (§173)** — the biggest groups (ov_SC02_037 44 rows, most of ov_MAIN_012's 42) have **zero stored drafts**: their PLUMBING verdicts came from transient family-sweep remaps never persisted to the backlog. A recovery lane can only recover what was stored — verdict-only rows are family-lane fuel (already atlas-labeled), not recovery fuel; the true stored-draft class was largely consumed by the probe (**9 banked, 64%**). Singleton tail with drafts: 0/~20 (fresh per-fn verdicts recorded). Cookbook **§173** (symfix-first · per-group isolation · verdicts-without-drafts) + index regenerated (518). **R22 clean fleet: 213/213** with all T6 banks. Phase total so far: **17 banked, 0 agent tokens** (stubs 12,059 → 12,042).

- 2026-08-14 — **T7 COMPLETE (honest refutation).** `tools/family_align.py` built: aligned classifier (SequenceMatcher over FC.tok; LEN-LI/LEN-NOP/LEN-JTBL/LEN-STRUCT/STRUCT-ALIGNED/PURE/IMM verdicts) + li-cluster reconstructor (with the split-cluster absorb for the rs-changed addiu partner) + the aligned imm engine. **NC-1: 157/157 verdict-equivalence** with classify_member on banked pairs — the NC itself caught two real classifier gaps (R-type non-shift sa = STRUCT; registers tested BEFORE the reloc skip — a reloc-slot word with a different register is STRUCT). NC-2 parity 21/21. **The R37 probe then killed the planned driver before it was built: 0/26 LI-ONLY cards classify mechanically** (regfields drift ×19) — cousins are 0.85-similar DIFFERENT functions; §168 law 1 ("a cousin is a seeded crack, never a remap") re-derived by measurement. The engine's true consumer is **T8's LEN+N pile** (draft vs its own target = same function). Parked for T8: the reloc-vs-constant range discriminator for lui-bearing clusters. Decision-log entry written (R31).

- 2026-08-14 — **T8 COMPLETE (LEN+N lane).** Built: `match_one --emit-streams` (additive, stdout-identity NC'd) · `family_align.addr_true_rel` (the reloc-vs-constant range discriminator — full conservative set kept for pair semantics/NC-1 [157/157 regression], address-true subset for indel eligibility; synthetic probes: lui-bearing constant cluster now LEN-LI, address-anchored indel still refuses) · `tools/len_tells.py` (per-draft aligned classification + §172b tell tagging on target-side indels, detectors imported from atlas_features R33, cookbook text embedded in cards) · `tools/lenmiss_route.py` (pool-parallel per A8: **587 audit LEN rows re-verified live and routed in 24 s**). **Routing:** redraft **345** (frac>0.35 — the draft is not the function; reclassified APPEND-ONLY in the backlog, so near-miss metrics stop lying) · permuter-length **49** (|Δ|≤2 clean drift — grinder fuel) · cards **192** incl. **14 EXTPAIR/SELECT/NOP-tagged** (the audit's own detectors had emitted zero — these are new signal) · **mechanical 0 — an honest null**: stored drafts rarely get CONSTANTS wrong (agents copy them from asm); LEN drift is shape, so the LI-cluster swap lane has no fuel in this pile and family_align's value here is the classifier/detector. R32 accounting 587/587.

- 2026-08-14 — **T9 COMPLETE.** `tools/warmstart.py` (the permuter/grinder FEEDER): `--from-banked` walks a banked exemplar's h_seq family's still-open members, builds remapped proven-body drafts (`symbol_map` + `aprop_autodraft.build_draft`, refusing on reloc-count mismatch), **stream-classifies member-vs-seed with ZERO compiles** (masked_diff-shaped dicts from ground-truth bytes → `residual_class.classify_streams`), enqueues ONLY permuter-shaped (bucket==permuter or LENGTH-DRIFT |Δ|≤2) as backlog near-records; `--lenmiss` ingests T8's 49-route. **Grinder patch NOT needed** (its candidates() deliberately keeps unclassified records — "unknown is not a reason to skip" — so pre-filtered enqueues flow as-is; documented in the feeder's docstring). Armed live: **49 + 10 enqueued, 120 refused** by the stream filter (the anti-92%-wasted-CPU discipline working). `family_cousins --weak-cards`: **954 units** (the 0.70–0.85 annotate-only band, never before consumed) as seeded-crack cards, ins-ranked, §168 laws embedded, model-routed **haiku 804 / v3 43 / sonnet 86 / opus 21** (cheap tiers dominate — the token-efficiency shape), 0 unresolved `.s`.

## SESSION S53 (2026-08-16, ultracode) — wave R + the leftover-draft harvest

- 2026-08-16 — **S53-1 PREFLIGHT + ATLAS REGEN.** Tree clean at `commit:2416`, no gate in flight. `make atlas`
  regenerated at HEAD (the S52 atlas predated waves P+Q, whose banks grew main's matched seed pool 175→293):
  **4,985 groups / 11,352 open instances / 579,571 ins**, warm merges 880, seeded 4,714/6,911 skeletons, all
  assertions green. (Watch-for confirmed live: my own `pgrep -f atlas` waiter self-matched its shell wrapper —
  the bracket trick is mandatory.)
- 2026-08-16 — **S53-2 LEFTOVER-DRAFT HARVEST (R38: read the recorded verdicts before designing anything).**
  `.run/s53_scan_leftovers.py` re-verified every wave-P/Q main draft on disk with `match_one` rather than
  trusting the journals (R14). Of 141 drafts: **72 are already banked** (their `.s` is gone — the honest
  signal that splat stops emitting a matched function), **34 still verify MATCH and are still stubs**
  (3,075 ins of finished work nobody had banked), **35 are NEAR**. Oracle cross-check: all 34 MATCH and all
  35 NEAR are in `corpus.stubs('main')`; all 72 ERROR are not. Zero agent tokens.
- 2026-08-16 — **S53-3 PRE-GATE LADDER ON THE FREE SLATE (the S52 protocol, applied cold).** `reloc_identity
  --batch`: **33 AGREE / 1 MISMATCH** (`func_80034C24` names `D_80078F20` where the target references
  `cdReq_sectorHdrBuf+0xE0`; its `--dry-fix` rename to `D_80078F10` is unverified, so it was dropped, not
  guessed). `fragment_check`: **1 FAIL** — `MoveImage` DEFINES `SYS_OBJ_8F4`, a stub that still has its own
  `.s` (exactly the enclosing-function trap that cost wave Q a 3-hour bisect; caught in milliseconds).
  `reconcile_slate --apply` on the pruned 32: **11 compatible, 21 refused as human decisions** (7 TYPE,
  5 SIGNATURE, 3 DIFFERENT-STRUCT, 3 BROKE-MATCH, 1 DEF-SIDE-RETURN, 1 resourceIdMap TYPE, 1 alias).
  **The 11 were NOT gated on their own** — §176h.C2 says banking a subset hardens the rest's conflicts
  (last session: 1 of 18 parked drafts survived that), so all 32 ride one slate after repair.
- 2026-08-16 — **S53-4 WAVE R BUILT — and the main mass band is measurably SPENT.** `build_wave_atlas
  --only-bins main --min-ins 60 --max-ins 200 --rank mass` returned **917 ins / 10 cards** against a 6,500
  target: waves O/P/Q consumed main's mass band. Probes (R37 before costing): main widened to 30–400 yields
  44 cards / 4,600 ins in 10 gate groups; **fleet-wide 60–200 yields 63 cards / 6,525 ins in exactly 2 gate
  groups = 31.5 drafts per rebuild**, from a 1,546-candidate well. Wave R therefore = the fleet-wide draw
  (`ov_SC06_029` ×41, `ov_SC02_005` ×22) + main's last 10 mass cards, **7,442 ins across 73 fresh cards**.
- 2026-08-16 — **S53-5 WAVE R LAUNCHED (110 agents, 3 lanes, run `wf_c070b4fa-53b`).** Lane 1 = 73 fresh
  mass cracks. Lane 2 = the 21 declaration-blocked drafts (already byte-MATCH; the agent's job is to make the
  DRAFT agree with the TU, never the reverse, then re-verify — a declaration change is a codegen change).
  Lane 3 = 16 near-miss repairs, whose residuals were classified deterministically first: **10 of 16 are the
  §177 epilogue signature** (`addiu $sp / jr $ra / nop` vs `jr $ra / addiu $sp`, all in `800c3`), 4
  SCHEDULE-REORDER, 1 BRANCH-POLARITY, 1 OPCODE-MIXED. The prompt carries §177 as law 4 and §178's
  "REGALLOC-PERM is the most over-diagnosed class" as law 5.

## SESSION S52 TASK LIST (2026-08-15, ultracode) — the monitorable view (no TaskCreate tool in this harness build)

- [x] **S52-1 — Preflight + wave-selector repair.** Tree clean @ `commit:2390`, no gate/grinder in flight. Fixed `build_wave_atlas.py`: (a) the already-waved set was a hardcoded `'abcdefghijkl'` wave-letter literal → now a `glob('.run/wave_*_cards.json')` derivation (R33); **NC: old 634 → new 726 taken, strict superset, +92 previously-missable cards from waves m/n**; (b) `--exclude-bins` defaulted to `main` carrying the REFUTED link-defect rationale → default now empty, help corrected to the real (gate-path) reason; (c) new `--only-bins` allow-list (main waves need it — `gate_main` rebuilds once per SLATE, so main has no per-TU gate cost).
- [x] **S52-2 — Atlas regen** (`make atlas`, $0) — the selector was stale by ~448 banks (last regen predates waves J–N).
- [x] **S52-8 — `gate_lane` crash-vs-empty fixed.** A non-zero rc or a missing JSON line is now labelled `‼ CRASH`, prints the stderr tail, records `{'CRASH':True,…}` in the results JSON, lists the never-gated groups in the summary, and exits non-zero. R39 NC both ways: crash→CRASH, honest-empty→not-CRASH.
- [~] **S52-3 — Wave O: MAIN + the UNKNOWN probe** — LAUNCHED (`wf_278b05de-bae`, 49 cards / **6,266 ins**, 2 gate groups). **The selection finding that reshaped this wave: main's agent-lane pool at ≥20 ins is nearly SPENT (21 left after 113 already waved) — main's remaining 52,714 ins are overwhelmingly UNKNOWN-lever, as are 138k fleet-wide.** So wave O is deliberately three arms: 21 main head-crack (avg 145 ins, opus) + 18 main UNKNOWN (avg 122) + 10 overlay UNKNOWN (`ov_SC04_011`, avg 103, sonnet). The UNKNOWN arms are an R37 probe of the biggest unclaimed block on the atlas — 1,239 candidates at 60–120 ins alone. Wave prompt gained §175/§176A–C (statement-order-around-a-call first; pin the interloper; **a pin cannot schedule across a call and can silently DELETE an instruction**).
- [ ] **S52-4 — Independent re-verify (R14) + `gate_main.py --apply`** (one clean rebuild per slate).
- [ ] **S52-5 — R22 clean fleet 213/213 + commit** (task + this log together).
- [ ] **S52-6 — Wave P: overlay TU-packed**, drafted concurrently with the main gate (drafting is tree-free).
- [x] **S52-7 — 11 conflict-dropped main drafts recovered** (waves J/K/L). All 11 re-verified MATCH standalone; the TU-aware `gate_main` then named **7 real TU conflicts the old check missed entirely**, all repaired by adopting the TU's declaration verbatim + casting at the use site — including a NEW variant, casting the CALLEE through a function pointer when the TU prototypes it `(void)` and your call must pass an argument (`((void (*)(s32))func_8001C9D0)(a0)`). All 11 re-verified MATCH after repair; slate now 11/11 compatible, staged for the next main rebuild. **None needed a codegen change — every one was plumbing.** Cookbook **§176d**.
- [x] **S52-10 — `tools/reloc_identity.py` (NEW): the oracle that DISAGREES with `match_one` about symbol identity** (R34). match_one masks relocations, so it cannot see a wrong callee or a wrong global (§174 law 1c). But the target `.s` comment column is the FINAL LINKED WORD, so the true address behind each masked field is recoverable arithmetically and `symbols*.txt` maps it back to a name — $0, no rebuild, and it names the fix. **Three of its own bugs were caught by its negative controls before any verdict was believed:** splat-derived `func_`/`D_` names aren't in the symbol files (first run checked ZERO relocs while reporting clean — R32); a 0x4000 nearest-symbol window mislabelled `func_8001C9D0` as `SsGetMute+0xC50`; and **MIPS o32 REL relocations keep the addend IN THE INSTRUCTION**, so reading it off the operand string fabricated a mismatch for every struct-field/array access (the `+1/+2/+3` signature on `func_801F0734` was a byte-array walk, not three symbol errors). Also refuses to answer when streams aren't index-aligned.
- [~] **S52-11 — The 88-draft "MATCH but gate-rejected" pile, triaged deterministically for $0.** Result: **68 AGREE · 12 MISMATCH · 8 COMPILE-FAIL**. The 12 split into two named, actionable classes: **uniform-delta stale seed symbols** (§171 — `func_80130D48` all 5 relocs off by exactly `0xD1EC`, `func_8016D688` all 5 by `0x65450` → `aprop_symfix` STALE-DELTA rebase) and **wrong field offsets** (`func_80185D6C` +0x10, `func_8017F060` +0x4, `func_80188720` +0xC). `--fix` then mechanically repaired **10 of the 12** (2 correctly REFUSED as **SYMBOL-COLLAPSE** — one draft `extern` standing in for two distinct globals, which a rename cannot fix). MISMATCH 12 → 2, AGREE 68 → 77.
- [x] **S52-12 — LANE KILLED BY MEASUREMENT (R37).** Re-gating 20 of the AGREE drafts (5 groups) banked **1 — 5%**, statistically identical to the project's existing **A10 stored-verdict law** (~0–8%; T1 measured 0/23 on the same kind of pile earlier this phase). **The null is the finding: symbol verification does NOT improve stored-draft re-gate conversion** — a stored draft's rejection is almost never identity, it is TU plumbing or staleness. So `reloc_identity`'s real home is as a **pre-gate check on FRESH drafts** (seconds, removes a whole failure class before the rebuild), NOT as a backlog resurrection tool. The remaining 30 groups are NOT worth 30 rebuilds; lane closed. Banked `func_80186C44` + propagation. **R38 self-note: the 0/23 prior was already in this very log — I should have started from ~8%, not from optimism.**
- [ ] **S52-8 — Tooling debt: `gate_lane` swallows `gate_stage` stderr** (reports a crash as `0/0/0`).
- [ ] **S52-9 — Bank idioms into the cookbook + refresh this checkpoint** BEFORE any pause (memory `bank-idioms-before-checkpoint`).

## 📐 THE WAVE DOCTRINE (adopted 2026-08-15 by Drew, after wave O) — 6,000+ INSTRUCTIONS PER WAVE

**A wave is sized by INSTRUCTION MASS, not by card count.** The public metric is instruction-
weighted, so a wave is worth what its instructions are worth. The card lanes (12–42-ins cousins)
carried ~1,400 ins/wave ≈ 0.011pp of fleet ⇒ ~440 waves to finish. Wave O carried **6,266 ins for
the same gate cost and the same draft rate (47/49)**. That is the shape from here on.

**The recipe** (`--target-ins` implements it; the tool now refuses to under-fill silently):
```
.venv/bin/python tools/build_wave_atlas.py .run/wave_<id>_cards.json 80 \
    --target-ins 6500 --min-ins 60 --max-ins 200 --max-bins 4 \
    --levers head-crack,seeded-crack,redraft,len-vein,integration,family-sweep,UNKNOWN
```
- **`--target-ins 6500`** — draw cards until the instruction budget is met (capped by `n`).
- **`--min-ins 60 --max-ins 200`** — the mass band. Draft rate barely decays with size (wave M 98%
  at avg 51, wave N 92% at avg 65, **wave O 96% at avg 128**), so size is nearly free mass.
- **`--max-bins 4`** — gate cost scales with (binary, TU) GROUPS, not drafts.
- **UNKNOWN is now a first-class lane** (see below). `main` needs `--only-bins main` + `gate_main`.

**THE UNKNOWN UNLOCK (wave O's strategic result).** UNKNOWN is not a difficulty label — it is
"the atlas could not name a lever". Wave O ran 22 UNKNOWN cards as an R37 probe and they drafted
like any other lane. That moves ~138k ins into reach and re-scopes the whole endgame:

| pool (agent-draftable, incl. UNKNOWN) | fns | ins | waves @6k |
|---|--:|--:|--:|
| **mass band 60–200 ins** | 1,762 | **164,357** | **27** |
| 40–59 ins | 1,752 | 84,009 | 14 |
| <40 ins (the old card lanes) | 5,585 | 132,466 | 22 |
| >200 ins | 125 | 36,493 | 6 |
| **total agent-draftable** | **9,224** | **417,325 = 70% of all open ins** | **69** |

Non-agent levers hold the remaining ~175k ins (extend-tell, jtbl-carve, cc1, o0-lane, swaprepeat,
needs-autopsy, plumbing, frame-172) and still need their own lanes.
**Order of work: the mass band first** — 27 waves covering 164k ins, and it is where the
instruction-weighted metric moves fastest per agent spent.

**THE PRE-GATE PROTOCOL (do all five, in order — wave O proved each one earns its place):**
1. **Independently re-verify every claimed MATCH with `match_one`** (R14). Agent self-reports run
   optimistic; wave O happened to agree exactly (47/49), earlier waves did not (wave C claimed
   35/35 → 32 banked; the main probe claimed 6/6 → 4).
2. **`tools/reloc_identity.py --batch`** — the symbol-identity check `match_one` structurally
   cannot do. Seconds, $0, and it removes a whole failure class before a rebuild is spent.
   (Wave O: 46 AGREE / 0 MISMATCH — the first wave of the campaign with zero symbol errors.)
3. **`gate_main.py <slate>` DRY RUN, and iterate until `N -> N compatible, 0 dropped`.** Conflicts
   surface one layer at a time; each fix reveals the next.
4. **Reconcile declarations toward the form the MATCH needs, never arbitrarily** (§176f) — then
   re-verify every converted draft, because a declaration change is a codegen change.
5. **Gate.** main → `gate_main.py --apply` (one clean rebuild per slate). Overlays → `gate_lane`.

## Campaign velocity ledger (T10+)

| wave | lane | cards | standalone MATCH | banked | tokens | tok/bank | lesson banked |
|---|---|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|---|
| **O** | **mass — main head-crack + main UNKNOWN + overlay UNKNOWN (49 cards / 6,266 ins)** | 49 | **47/49 = 96%** / **6,040 ins** (my independent re-verify agreed exactly) | **50** — 46 main in ONE clean rebuild (`143dbb89` byte-identical) + 4 overlay | ~12.8M | ~256k | **THE 6k-INS WAVE SHAPE + THE UNKNOWN UNLOCK.** 4.4× the card lanes' mass at the same gate cost; UNKNOWN drafts like any lane (⇒ 138k ins re-scoped into reach). First wave with **0 symbol errors** (`reloc_identity` pre-gate). Declaration reconciliation took the slate 5-dropped → **0 dropped**, and 3 of 4 conflicts were load-bearing CODEGEN (§176f). Gate cost 8 attempts: 2 my errors, 3 real tool defects now fixed (typedef ordering, silent bisect-on-build-failure, `short`≠`s16` over-refusal), 3 reconciliation rounds |
| A | adapt SMALL-EDIT | 24 | 18 (75%) | **12** (+1 prop) | ~1.40M | **~117k** | zero stale seed-symbols (the §171 prompt-law works); 6 gate-fails all INTEGRATION shapes (3× decl-type vs TU, 1 arity, 2 TU-context DIFF) → wave-B prompt adds match-the-TU's-existing-decl |
| grinder-1 | permuter | 10 | — | 0 | $0 | — | func_800CB4CC parked at best-1 (warmstart seed); queue enriched +59+6 records since |
| C-probe | tell (3) | 3 | 1 (33%) | **1** | ~300k | ~300k | §174 **Law 4**: the TU's decl of YOUR OWN fn constrains the def sig — standalone MATCH gated 0/1 until canonical-sig + cast-at-use; tell attribution unreliable (2/3 residuals were a different class) |
| C | tell 11 + weak 24 | 35 | **35 (100%)** | **32** (8 propagated ×2) | ~2.39M | ~75k | Law 4 in-prompt → 0 symbol fails, 91% gate; **weak lane 24/24 on haiku — the 890-card vein is live**; 3 NEAR → grinder |
| E-probe | mass/main (6) | 6 | 4 (67%) | **0** | ~474k | — | **main is agent-draftable but LINK-BLOCKED**: 1 byte-correct fn ⇒ 2-byte whole-EXE diff, a `jal` retargeted game-code→PsyQ-archive symbol. Not a matching wall. `gate_lane` main-blindness fixed en route |
| D | adapt (48) | 48 | **47 (98%)** | **45** (40 main gate + 5 late-repair, 2 gates) | ~4.48M | **~100k** | repair stage rescued 5/6 first-pass DIFFs → gate them in a SECOND slate (the first slate is built before the repair stage lands); 23 gate groups for 42 drafts = the throughput ceiling → `build_wave_atlas.py` now packs by **(binary,TU)** = the real gate-group key; 1 NEAR at **close=1 DELAY-SLOT** → grinder |
| **MAIN** | **mass/atlas main probe (4 drafts, re-gated CLEAN)** | 4 | 4 | **4 BANKED — the first main-EXE functions of the campaign** | $0 (re-used the wave-E probe drafts) | — | `func_80013228`/`func_8001CB00`/`func_800142C8` (src/800.c) + `func_8001099C` (src/boot.c, -O0). `make clean && make extract BINARY=main && make build BINARY=main` → **143dbb89 BYTE-IDENTICAL**. These are the SAME drafts the incremental gate rejected 0/4 — the drafts were right, the gate path was wrong |
| **M** | mass/atlas — overlay, LARGER band (44) | 44 | **43/44** shape-verified / 2,212 of 2,249 ins | **40 banked**, ONE gate group; R22 213/213 | ~4.41M | ~110k | **The band test.** Cards avg 51 ins (up to 112) vs the 12–42-ins cousins the night opened with, and the draft rate HELD at 98%. Since the public metric is **instruction-weighted**, this is the band that moves it — and it is reachable by haiku/sonnet, not only the frontier tier. 1 NEAR (close=9, beqz+delay-slot reorder) → grinder |
| **L** | mass/atlas — MAIN (44) | 44 | **44/44 = 100%** | **42 banked** (2 dropped: dup `SVECTOR` typedef + `u8[]`-vs-`char[]`) — main 133 → **175** | ~1.96M | ~47k | First wave carrying **law 1c**. The compile-error shortcut named `SVECTOR at src/800.c:94` + the exact draft in SECONDS where the old bisect burned 28 min. Drove the `gate_main` typedef-stripper fix |
| **K** | **mass/atlas — MAIN (44)** | 44 | **44/44 = 100%** / 674 ins | re-gating (41 compatible / 3 conflict-dropped) — **an earlier "43 banked" report of mine was WRONG, see below** | ~2.36M | — | Third perfect sweep, all haiku. **`tools/gate_main.py` (NEW) drove it**: substitute batch → `make extract BINARY=main` → `make build` → SHA, with bisection. **MY TOOL BUG, caught by R22 not by the tool:** `gate_main` said BYTE-IDENTICAL, then the clean fleet check failed `[FAIL] main`. Cause: my `typesig()` split on the symbol name and kept only the PREFIX, so **`u8 D_x` and `u8 D_x[]` compared EQUAL** — three drafts declared `D_80078D98` inconsistently (1 scalar, 2 array) and the conflict reached the build. Fixed to keep the declarator suffix; NC'd both ways (wave-K conflict now caught; wave-J answer unchanged). **Both failure modes are now on record in the tool: v1 too STRICT (compared parameter names → discarded 2 good drafts), v2 too COARSE (ignored `[]` → passed a real conflict).** |
| **J** | **mass/atlas — MAIN (40)** | 40 | **39/40 = 98%** / 917 of 940 ins | **34 BANKED** (5 dropped for in-TU decl conflicts, 1 DIFF) — main now **38 matched** | ~2.65M | ~78k | **First full wave against the main EXE, and it drafts like any overlay (98%, all haiku).** Gated by the clean-rebuild batch path: substitute → `make extract BINARY=main` → `make build BINARY=main` → **143dbb89 BYTE-IDENTICAL**. **NEW CLASS — in-TU cross-draft decl conflicts:** batching N drafts into ONE `.c` means their `extern`s must agree with EACH OTHER, not just with the file (`D_800A4ED4` s16-vs-u16; `func_8001C9D0` void/void*/s32). Resolved greedily (keep-in-order, drop incompatible): cost 5. Dropped set is recoverable next session via cast-at-use — the same lever that fixed `func_80037368` (`extern u8 D_80076251;` verbatim from `src/shared/clearTbl40.h` + `(&D_80076251)[i]`) |
| I | mass/atlas (44) | 44 | **44/44 = 100%** / 1,602 ins, symfix clean ×44 | **44 BANKED**, ONE gate group | ~4.27M | ~97k | Second perfect sweep; 41 of 44 drawn by **haiku**. Gate reported `0/0/0` twice — an unreported `gate_stage` CRASH (`corpus.CorpusError`: 16 missing `.s`, fallout from MY `make clean`), not a result. Binary then built byte-identical with all 44 substituted; R22 213/213 confirmed (batch included a fleet-shared `engine_core.h` arity fix) |
| H | mass/atlas (40) | 40 | **38 (95%)** / 1,820 of 1,902 ins | **34** of 38, ONE gate group | ~5.05M | ~149k | 2 NEARs banked as permuter fuel with strong diagnoses. **SAFETY FINDING: a `register __asm__("$2")` PIN CAN BE A CORRECTNESS BUG, not just a scheduling choice** — on `func_80182EB0` a value was written before a call and read after it; the hard-reg pin made gcc treat the pre-call store as dead across the call and **silently DROP** `addiu v0,zero,-1` (49 vs 50 ins), then read garbage. Dropping the pin + storing the constant directly before the call recovered it and closed 19/25. Pins are our most-used lever — this failure mode needs a cookbook note |
| G | mass/atlas (36) | 36 | **36/36 = 100%** (independently re-verified) / 2,554 ins | **32** of 33 gated **in ONE gate group**; fleet 95.3→**95.4%** | ~3.16M | ~99k | **Best draft rate of the campaign, on FRESH CRACKS.** 3 held by the symfix audit for inventing symbol names where the target calls **PsyQ `RotTransSV`/`RotMatrixY`** — the just-fixed non-hex handling earned its keep immediately (pre-fix, one such name crashed the whole audit). Pattern: agents reconstruct the CODE reliably and guess PsyQ SYMBOL NAMES unreliably; the deterministic audit is what catches it |
| F | **mass/atlas (60)** — the TU-packed experiment | 60 | **55 (91%)** pre-repair → **59/60** post-repair / 3,508 ins | **56** total (50 + 6 stragglers) of 60, **1 rebuild each** | ~7.16M | ~143k | **THE WAVE SHAPE FOR THE REST OF THE CAMPAIGN.** Fresh-crack lane (no proven body to edit) converts like the seeded lanes; ~3× mass/card (avg 48 ins vs 12–42); **1 rebuild for 50 banks** vs wave D's 23 rebuilds for 45. 2 genuine STALE (agents invented `S80131E00`/`Mat32_…` where the target calls **PsyQ `Square0`/`RotMatrixY`**) held back; 5 "local-only" flags are just local type names (harmless). Straggler batch pending: the repair stage rescued ~6 more AFTER the slate was built (same lesson as wave D — **build the slate after the repair stage lands**) |

- 2026-08-14 — **CAMPAIGN OPEN (T10+, Ultracode).** Wave A: 24 adapt cards → 18/24 standalone (75%) → symfix-first (0 stale — the prompt-law worked) → gate **12 banked + 1 propagation** (~117k tok/bank e2e; stubs → 12,030). 6 NEARs (3 at close ≤3) enqueued to the grinder. Wave B (48 cards, all haiku, 29 binaries) launched with the decl-matching lesson. Grinder pass 1: 0/10 but func_800CB4CC at best-1.

- 2026-08-14 (resume session) — **Checkpoint resume steps 1–2 DONE.** (1) **R22 owed proof banked: `make clean && make extract-all && make check-all` → 213 passed, 0 failed of 213** (`.run/r22_p31_resume.log` EXIT=0) — wave B's banks verified fleet-clean. (2) **`make atlas` regenerated at HEAD `commit:2234`**: 363,525 feature rows / 92,855 distinct bodies (0 newly computed — memo hit); **5,144 groups / 11,994 open instances / 612,325 ins**; warm merges 1,014; seeded 4,710/7,247 skeletons; all assertions green. Open count 12,058→11,994 reconciles with the session's 65 banks. (3) Wave C fuel verified: `.run/wave_p31c_cards.json` = 38 cards (14 tell/sonnet + 24 weak/haiku); grinder idle (heartbeat `done`); gate free. Drew's re-extraction question answered (disc/splat layers gain nothing — deterministic + continuously regenerated; sig/atlas layer regenerated by this step; Ghidra-C re-analysis = targeted-probe candidate only, R37). NOTE: this harness build has no TaskCreate tool — this checklist + log is the monitorable task view (R28 noted plainly).

- 2026-08-14 (resume session, cont.) — **WAVE C COMPLETE: 32 banked, R22 213/213.** Probe→wave cadence (§174 law 3) paid: the 3-card probe cost ~300k tok and returned Law 4, which the 35-card wave then converted at 91% gate with zero symbol failures. Independent re-verify of all 35 drafts by me (R14) before gating: 35/35 MATCH held. **Reach measured honestly: 32 exemplars, only 8 had any sharer, each ×2 → ~1.25× effective.** The ×134 era is over (P25/29/30 harvested the shared cores); fleet-% now moves ~1:1 with exemplars banked, so THROUGHPUT is the lever, not leverage.
  - **THREE instrument defects found+fixed in my own new tooling this cycle** (the R32/R35/R39 class, and the reason R39 exists): (1) `build_wave.py`'s gate-guard used `pgrep -f` via `shell=True` — the wrapping `sh -c` carries the pattern in its own cmdline so it self-matched and refused forever; fixed by invoking pgrep without a shell. (2) The open-stub predicate did `fn in corpus.stubs(binary)` — but `stubs()` returns **addr→Stub**, so every card looked "already-banked" and BOTH pools reported ~0 candidates (I nearly concluded the 622-card adapt pile and 954-card weak pile were spent). Fixed to `{st.symbol for st in ...values()}` and **negative-controlled against the known population** (35 wave-C cards, 32 banked → exactly 3 still open: PASS). (3) I fired wave D once with hand-typed placeholder card names instead of the generated file — caught and stopped within a minute, relaunched from `.run/wave_p31d_args.json`. Recorded, not buried (P9).
  - **Pools are NOT spent (post-fix, honest): adapt 569 candidates, weak 890 candidates.**
  - **STRATEGIC (Drew's question "why are our waves so weak?" — he is right):** the card lanes I have been drawing from are the *mechanical leftovers* (12–42-ins cousins), ≈1,400 ins/wave against 612,325 open ins ≈ **0.23%/wave**. The Atlas already maps where the mass actually is: **head-crack 1,276 groups / 4,248 inst / 186,291 ins** (≈3.3 inst per group — a group head crack banks its members), **UNKNOWN 1,964 / 138,597**, extend-tell 575 / 76,730, redraft 280 / 46,769, jtbl-carve 190 / 45,673. And high-reach groups DO remain: gid `96f8b78ec8d3` = **265 instances / 6,084 ins** (integration lever, 31-ins exemplar), `75cec648ba15` = 116 inst / 3,002 ins, `152d63c1086d` = 64 inst / 1,559 ins. **Next: build the wave generator off `.run/atlas.json` groups (top instruction-mass first, routed by the group's measured lever) instead of the leftover card piles.**

- 2026-08-14 (resume session, cont. 2) — **THE TARGETING CORRECTION (Drew's "why are our waves so weak?" — he was right).** Measured the arithmetic: **635,744 ins open (4.7pp of fleet) across 11,994 fns**; the adapt/weak card piles I had been drawing are the 12–42-ins best-seeded tail ⇒ ~1,440 ins/wave = **0.011pp/wave ≈ 440 waves to finish**. The mass is elsewhere: cousin-multi 294k ins (avg 44), **cold 183k (avg 82, no seed)**, main-only 38k (avg 87). TWO fixes:
  1. **`tools/build_wave_atlas.py` (NEW)** — wave selection off `.run/atlas.json`, on two measured principles: **(a) gate cost scales with (binary,TU) GROUPS, not drafts** — each group is a whole-binary rebuild, and wave C was 35 drafts over 27 groups = 1.3 drafts/rebuild (~50 min of gate for 32 banks); the atlas selector concentrates a wave into few binaries (**96 drafts → 1 group**, ~70× the gate efficiency); **(b) mass beats count** for the instr-weighted metric. 7,430 draftable candidates available in the agent-lever bands.
  2. **`gate_lane` was STRUCTURALLY BLIND TO `main`** (R36/R33): it located a stub's home .c by `glob('src/<binary>/*.c')`, but main's sources live at `src/*.c` → every main draft grouped under `src=None`. Latent because **main has never been wave-gated** (main = 79,510 weighted ins at 0.5%, the largest coherent mass left). Fixed to derive from `corpus.stubs()[..].path`; NC'd 3 ways (still-open wave-C drafts 3/3 agree · overlay sample 96/96 agree · main now resolves `None`→`src/800.c`).
  - **MAIN PROBE (6 cards, R37 — never spend 96 agents on an unproven path): 4/6 standalone MATCH (67%)**, including the `-O0` boot-module fn `func_8001099C` (the main-specific trap: `asm/nonmatchings/boot` → `src/boot.c` is **-O0** per §6, so match_one needs `--o0`; flagged in the mass-lane prompt). **Main is agent-draftable.** Gate result pending.
  - **RULE VIOLATION CAUGHT (P9, recorded):** a wave-E agent wrote its body directly into `src/boot.c` instead of its draft dir — caught by `git status`, reverted, gate re-run clean. A dirty tree ABORTS the shared gate for the whole wave, so the wave prompt's HARD RULES were hardened (explicit "never write into the tree, not even to test; no state-changing git commands").
  - Wave D (48 adapt cards) drafted 47/48 concurrently — drafting and gating overlap safely (drafts land in `.run/`, the gate writes `src/`).

- 2026-08-14 (resume session, cont. 3) — **MAIN'S BLOCKER DIAGNOSED — it is LINK-LEVEL, not matching.** Main probe: 4/6 standalone MATCH (my independent re-verify; the workflow's own repair stage claimed 6/6 — the gate and my check disagree with the agents, R14), then **gate 0/4 banked, 4 near**. Reproduced one (`func_80013228`, a clean 27-ins `Square0` wrapper) through `harvest_verify` and byte-diffed the built EXE against the original: **exactly 2 bytes differ in 413,696**, and NOT inside the drafted function — a `jal` at **vaddr 0x80060E74** retargeted from **`func_80061FA8`** (game code, `build/src/800c2.o`) to **`firstfile`/`firstfile2`** (**PsyQ libapi object `build/psyq/apicard/A66.o`**, symbols.us.txt line: `firstfile2 = 0x80062248`). So adding ONE byte-correct C function to `src/800.c` perturbs **symbol resolution between game code and the LINKED PsyQ library objects** — the C is right; the link binds a call to a different definition. This is main-specific (main is the only binary with `psyq_integrate` archive objects, per the `ifeq ($(BINARY),main)` blocks) and explains why main has sat at 0.5%: it is an INTEGRATION wall, not a matching wall. **Main is NOT ready for bulk waves; it needs a named link-resolution investigation lane** (candidate leads: duplicate `.NON_MATCHING` symbol definitions visible in the map at both `Square0` and `func_80061FA8`; archive-member selection order when a new undefined ref appears in `src/800.o`). Recorded here + decision-log (R31). The 4 main drafts are preserved in `.run/wave_p31e/main/` as fuel for that lane.
- 2026-08-14 — **Campaign returned to the lanes that bank.** Wave D (48 adapt cards) drafted; independent re-verify **42/48 MATCH (87.5%)**; 6 DIFF handed to the near/grinder path. Gating now.

- 2026-08-15 — **Wave D closed: 45/48 banked. R22 clean fleet 213/213. Stubs 12,059 → 11,876** (183 banked this phase; ~118 tonight). Committed `commit:2324`. **Wave F LAUNCHED — the first TU-packed wave**: `build_wave_atlas.py` now packs by **(binary, home .c)** — the real `gate_lane` group key — giving **60 drafts / 3,508 ins in ONE gate group** (vs wave D's 42 drafts / 23 groups). Target `ov_SC02_011` `jr_8017AE2C`, avg 48 ins (vs the card lanes' 12–42), 70 head-crack + 17 redraft + 4 seeded + 2 integration + 2 len-vein + 1 family-sweep; 32 sonnet / 28 haiku. **This is the throughput experiment**: same gate cost as ~2 wave-D groups for 60 functions of larger mass. 6,981 candidates remain in the atlas's agent-draftable levers (`main` excluded).

- 2026-08-15 — **WAVE F RESULT: the TU-packing thesis is CONFIRMED, and the fresh-crack lane works.** 60 atlas `mass` cards (no proven seed to edit — agents decompile from the .s) → **55/60 = 91% standalone**, **3,203 of 3,508 instructions**, in **ONE gate group**. Wave D needed 23 whole-binary rebuilds for 42 drafts; wave F needs 1 for 60. Per-card mass is ~3× the card lanes'. **This is the wave shape for the rest of the campaign** — `build_wave_atlas.py --max-bins 1..6`, 60–96 cards.
  - **NEW TOOL DEFECT (logged, not yet fixed): `aprop_symfix` CRASHES on non-hex symbol names.** `deltas[int(new[-8:],16) - int(old[-8:],16)]` assumes every symbol is `func_XXXXXXXX`/`D_XXXXXXXX`; a draft calling **PsyQ `Square0`** raises `ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 16: 'Square0'` and takes the whole audit down. This will recur on every PsyQ-calling draft. **Fix wanted:** treat a stale pair whose names are not hex-suffixed as a direct 1:1 rename (no delta), and never let one unparseable pair abort the batch (R32: a crash is not a coverage answer). Workaround used: gate the 53 clean drafts, hold the 2 genuine STALE for a hand rename.
  - **Grinder ran concurrently with drafting** (free CPU, no tree writes during permute) on the close≤6 seeds: 3 ILS cycles each on the md_MAIN_* band, **0 banked, all parked at best-1** — plus it re-surfaced the Phase-22 split-file blindness (`func_800CB270: no .s under md_MAIN_027 — skip`). Stopped via the STOP sentinel to hand the tree to the wave-F gate (single-writer discipline; the gate is chained to start on grinder release).

- 2026-08-15 — **Wave G: 36/36 drafted (100%), 32 banked, fleet 95.3→95.4%.** Two TU-packed waves now confirm the shape. **`aprop_symfix` non-hex fix landed** (`commit:2330`): a curated PsyQ name (`Square0`) made `int(name[-8:],16)` raise and abort a 55-draft audit *after* the renames had already succeeded; now counted as a `named-1:1` rename and the batch survives. Verified on the literal incident values (old aborts, new completes + still buckets the hex pair by its `0x484c` delta); honest caveat — the live slates could not re-trigger the path because those drafts are banked, so the changed expression was exercised directly.
  - **Standing pattern worth keeping in the prompt:** agents reconstruct CODE reliably (91–100% standalone) but guess **PsyQ symbol NAMES** unreliably (wave F: `S80131E00`→`Square0`, `Mat32_…`→`RotMatrixY`; wave G: `SRM_…`/`STM_…`→`RotTransSV`, `Blk20_…`→`RotMatrixY`). The deterministic symfix audit — not the model, and not `match_one` (which masks relocations and is BLIND to a wrong callee name) — is what catches this every time. Consider adding "if the target's .s calls a PsyQ symbol, use that exact name" to the wave LAWS.

- 2026-08-15 — **`aprop_symfix` FALSE-POSITIVE class found (R39), and it cost real banks — my error, not the tool's alone.** I withheld 3 wave-G drafts from the gate because symfix reported them `STALE`/`AMBIGUOUS`. On inspection **all 3 already used the correct PsyQ names** (`RotMatrixY`, `RotTransSV`); what symfix flagged as "draft-only symbols" were **local identifiers** — a typedef (`Mtx8_8017DE10_8017E710`), inline-asm macro names (`SRM_80186334`/`STM_80186334`), and local struct typedefs (`Blk20_…`/`Vec32_…`). Gated unchanged: **3/3 banked** (wave G → 35/36). Two defects behind it: (a) the classifier counts local typedef/macro names as symbol references; (b) its draft-symbol extraction misses some `extern` declaration forms, so a name the draft *does* declare (`RotMatrixY`, line 8) still shows as `asm-only`.
  - **OPERATING RULE (adopt now): symfix flags are ADVISORY; the whole-binary gate is the arbiter.** Never withhold a standalone-MATCH draft from the gate on a symfix flag alone — gate it and let the bytes decide. R39's own wording applies to *me* here: a refusal check that silently discards good work is worse than one that lets a few failures through. (Law 1b in the wave prompt remains correct as *prevention* — the wave-F cases were genuinely wrong names.)

## Blockers
- 🔴 **CORRECTION (2026-08-15, R14/R35/P9 — I got this WRONG earlier tonight and reported it with confidence).** The "main is blocked on a LINK-RESOLUTION defect" conclusion below is **REFUTED**. It is a **stale-artifact / missing-extract** condition in the GATE'S BUILD PATH — the R22 corollary this project already documented at Phase 20 — not a linker bug and not anything to do with the drafts.
  - **The control that killed it:** with `src/` fully reverted and **NO draft at all**, `make build BINARY=main` still produced the "broken" `c4546248` and the identical 2-byte diff. A defect that reproduces with zero drafts is not caused by drafts.
  - **The fix, byte-proven both ways:** `make extract BINARY=main && make build BINARY=main` → **`143dbb89…` BYTE-IDENTICAL**, reproduced twice. `make build` alone → `c4546248` + the 2-byte `jal` diff, deterministically.
  - **Why main and not overlays:** main's `extract` runs the EXE-only `psyq_integrate` + `ld_interleave` steps (the `ifeq ($(BINARY),main)` Makefile blocks) which **rewrite the linker script**. `gate_stage`/`harvest_verify` build **without** re-extracting, so main gates against a stale `.ld` — exactly the "a reverted config needs a re-extract, not just a rebuild" corollary. Overlays have no such step, so they are unaffected (and every overlay bank tonight is R22-verified from a genuinely clean tree).
  - **What this means: main is very likely NOT blocked at all.** Its 79,510 weighted ins @ 0.5% are gated behind a TOOLING gap in the main gate path, not a compiler or linker wall. **Next step (do this first):** teach the main path to re-extract (or re-run `psyq_integrate`) before the gate build — then re-gate the 4 preserved drafts in `.run/wave_p31e/main/` (2 of which reference no PsyQ symbol at all). The earlier "archive-member selection" evidence (the broken map gaining ~20 PsyQ symbols + `firstfile` at `0x80062248`) is a **downstream symptom of the stale `.ld`**, not the cause.
  - **The false-lead ledger, kept honestly:** I built a 3-hypothesis theory on a measurement whose instrument I had not controlled, and only the null-draft control exposed it. Same lesson as the `corpus.stubs()` misread and the symfix withholding earlier tonight — three instrument errors in one session, all mine.
- *(superseded, kept for the trail)* ~~main is blocked on a LINK-RESOLUTION defect~~ — see the 2-byte `jal` retarget above. Needs its own lane before any main wave is worth running. Overlay/md lanes are unaffected and continue to bank.
  - **NARROWED 2026-08-15 (a specific, testable lead).** The call site is `asm/nonmatchings/libmcrd1/func_80060D9C.s` +0xD8, and it references the callee **BY NAME**: `jal func_80061FA8`. Original encodes `0x80061FA8`; our build with one extra C function encodes `0x80062248`. **The delta is exactly `0x2A0`, which the map shows is precisely the `.text` SIZE of `build/src/800c2.o`** — the object whose `.text` *starts* at `0x80061FA8` (map line 3712: `.text 0x80061fa8 0x2a0 build/src/800c2.o`, with `func_80061FA8` and `func_80061FA8.NON_MATCHING` both bound there, and `func_80062144` inside it). So the name `func_80061FA8` resolved to the **END** of that object instead of its start — i.e. one object's length later, landing on the next section's first symbol (`firstfile`, `build/psyq/apicard/A66.o`). **Hypotheses to test, in order:** (1) the duplicate `func_80061FA8` / `func_80061FA8.NON_MATCHING` pair — a second definition winning under a changed link order; (2) `800c2.o` being dropped/reordered when a new undefined ref appears in `src/800.o`, so the name binds to the following object; (3) an `undefined_syms_auto.txt` / `symbols.us.txt` absolute (`firstfile2 = 0x80062248`) shadowing the object-provided symbol. Everything needed to test is in `build/us/SLUS_007.26.map` + `.run/wave_p31e/main/*.c` (4 preserved main drafts).



## 🛑 SESSION CHECKPOINT — S52 FINAL (2026-08-15/16). Phase 31 CONTINUES. NOTHING IN FLIGHT.

**Tree CLEAN at `commit:2415`. No process running. R22 verified 213/213 from a clean tree after the last bank.**

### Banked this session: 131
Wave O 46 main + 4 ov · re-gate probe 1 · wave P 32 main + 8 md · wave Q 40 main.
**main 175 → 293 matched · stubs 1,881 → 1,763.** Fleet 213/213 byte-identical, 0 NON_MATCHING.

### Measured wave economics — the numbers to plan with
| wave | carded | drafted | BANKED | yield |
|---|--:|--:|--:|--:|
| O | 6,266 ins | 96% | 5,166 | **82%** |
| P | 6,589 ins | 97% | 4,501 | **68%** |
| Q | 6,249 ins | 58% (stopped early) + repair | ~3,000 | ~48% |

**~4,800 banked ins/wave when a wave runs to completion (≈75% of carded mass)** — NOT 6,000. I
quoted the *draft* rate for most of the session and that overstated it. Still ~5× the old card
lanes; ~87 waves for the 417k-ins agent-draftable pool.

### THE FOUR RESULTS THAT OUTLIVE THE COUNT
1. **UNKNOWN is not a difficulty label** — it means the atlas could not name a lever. A 22-card R37
   probe drafted it like any other lane ⇒ ~138k ins (a quarter of all open instructions)
   reclassified as ordinary wave fuel. Agent-draftable pool: **9,224 fns / 417,325 ins = 70%**.
2. **Matching is solved at this scale; INTEGRATION is the entire cost.** 96–97% draft rates with
   zero symbol errors, then ~14 clean rebuilds to bank them. Every failure was declaration plumbing.
3. **Reconcile BEFORE the first gate (§176h.C2).** Of 18 parked drafts still verifying MATCH, only
   **1** survived the conflict check after their wave banked, versus 5 before. Post-bank recovery
   banked **0**. Budget reconciliation into the wave.
4. **§177 — the epilogue return-delay slot is decided by the SAVED-REGISTER SET**, not scheduling
   (`mips.c:5376 mips_epilogue_delay_slots`). Eleven functions sat 1–3 instructions from banked,
   filed by every agent as an intrinsic wall. ~600 ins unblocked by forty lines of compiler source.

### Tooling built this session (all committed, all NC'd)
**NEW** `reloc_identity.py` (symbol identity — the oracle `match_one` structurally cannot be) ·
**NEW** `pregate_check.py` (validates a slate in 0.7s vs a 5-min rebuild) ·
**NEW** `reconcile_slate.py` (drives a slate to 0-dropped; auto-reverts any repair that moves a byte) ·
**NEW** `fragment_check.py` (the enclosing-function trap: a draft that SUBSUMES another symbol, or
that REDEFINES another stub's symbol in asm — the second cost a 3-hour bisect) ·
**NEW** `bisect_slate.py` (**null control FIRST**, per-step logging, true binary search — found the
culprit in 7 steps / 176s where `gate_main`'s built-in bisect ran 3 hours and named nothing) ·
`build_wave_atlas` `--target-ins`/`--only-bins`/`--rank mass` + 2 selector bugs · `gate_lane`
CRASH≠empty · **`gate_main` ×8 defects**.

### Cookbook banked: 543 → 564 sections
§176d–k (TU-seeded conflicts · symbol identity computable offline + its 5% null · declaration FORM
as a matching lever · the 6k-ins doctrine + 5-step pre-gate protocol · the batch-substitution hazard
map incl. **C2 reconcile-before-gating** · what a static pre-gate can/cannot prove · the cost of
stopping a wave + the measured repair-pass yield · two selector bugs) ·
**§177** epilogue delay slot ← saved-register set ·
**§178** six levers from the wave-P journals (the $0-add opaque copy vs `make_regs_eqv`;
return-const as a priority-1 hard-reg set; `birthing_insn_p` single-set rule; narrow-type copy
elision; the zero-offset alias hole; `MEM_IN_STRUCT_P` asymmetry) — leads with **"REGALLOC-PERM is
this project's most over-diagnosed class"** ·
**§179** eight more, harvested by 12 readers over 172 journal findings (loop-walked pointer
parameter → giv; the maspsx transcription checklist; no-epilogue functions; `gte_stflg` clobber;
struct-assignment block copy; pinning disables strength reduction; a pin creating a combine
LOG_LINK; mid-body `.global` fragment slicing).

### NEXT SESSION — in order
1. **Wave R the new way.** `build_wave_atlas --target-ins 6500 --min-ins 60 --max-ins 200
   --rank mass`, then **iterate `reconcile_slate --apply` → `fragment_check` → `pregate_check` →
   `gate_main` dry-run until `N -> N compatible, 0 dropped` BEFORE the first rebuild.** That
   sequence is the whole difference between 68% and ~95% yield, and every tool in it now exists.
   Use `bisect_slate.py`, never `gate_main --apply` without `--no-bisect`.
2. **Apply §177 to the eleven epilogue near-misses** (`800c`/`800c3`, closeness 1–3, ~600 ins).
   Pure lever application, no drafting: change what is live across the call, re-verify, gate.
3. **4 immovable-TU-declaration drafts** (`func_8002D034`, `func_8001ABBC`, …) need their own pass:
   edit the declaration in `src/800.c`, ONE clean rebuild, R22. They cannot ride a slate because
   `gate_main` reverts `src/` before every build.
4. Grinder fuel: `func_80015F04` at closeness 2 with a fully-derived sched1/sched2 LUID model and
   three seeds in `.run/p31p_15F04/`; plus wave-Q leftovers in `.run/wave_p31q/main/`.

### Watch-fors (all bit this session)
`gate_main`'s built-in bisect is near-linear and silent — use `bisect_slate.py`. · A wave stopped
mid-flight loses its in-flight tail; a repair-only pass recovers ~⅓ of it (12/39, 579 ins), but
resuming the workflow re-runs unfinished agents from scratch at full cost. · `pgrep -f` self-matches
its own shell wrapper — use the `[g]ate_main` bracket trick. · Closeness must be COUNTED, not read
off the first differing index. · A clean `pregate_check` is a licence to build, not a prediction of
success: link errors and byte mismatches are outside what any text check can see.

## 🛑 (superseded) SESSION CHECKPOINT — S52 mid-day

**Tree CLEAN at `commit:2407`. R22 verified 213/213 from a fully clean tree after the last bank. Nothing owed, nothing in flight.**

### Banked: 91 functions
46 main + 4 ov (wave O) · 1 (re-gate probe) · 32 main + 8 md (wave P). **main 175 → 253 matched · stubs 1,881 → 1,803.** Fleet 213/213 byte-identical, 0 NON_MATCHING.

### The two waves, measured honestly
| wave | cards / ins | drafted (my re-verify) | symbol errors | BANKED ins | yield |
|---|---|---|--:|--:|--:|
| O | 49 / 6,266 | 47/49 (96%) | 0 | 5,166 | 82% |
| P | 60 / 6,589 | 58/60 (97%) | 0 | 4,501 | 68% |

**The number to plan with is ~4,800 BANKED ins/wave (75% of carded mass), not 6,000** — I quoted the draft rate for most of the session and that overstated it. Still ~5× the card lanes' ~1,400. Revised projection: **~87 waves** for the 417k agent-draftable pool, not 69.

### THE THREE RESULTS THAT OUTLIVE THE COUNT
1. **UNKNOWN is not a difficulty label** — it means the atlas could not name a lever. A 22-card R37 probe drafted it like any other lane ⇒ ~138k ins (a quarter of everything open) reclassified as ordinary wave fuel. Agent-draftable pool is now **9,224 fns / 417,325 ins = 70% of all open instructions**.
2. **Matching is solved at this scale; INTEGRATION is the whole cost.** 96–97% draft rates and zero symbol errors across two waves, then ~14 clean rebuilds to bank them. Every failure was declaration plumbing — N standalone drafts having to agree with each other and with a TU none of them can see.
3. **Reconcile BEFORE the first gate (§176h.C2).** Measured: 18 parked drafts still MATCH, but only **1** survived the conflict check after their wave banked (vs 5 before). A banked draft's declarations become the TU's, so a sibling clash becomes a file clash, which is stricter. The post-bank recovery pass banked **0** — this law cost real work to learn.

### Tooling built/fixed (all committed, all NC'd)
**NEW** `tools/reloc_identity.py` (symbol identity, the oracle `match_one` structurally cannot be) · **NEW** `tools/pregate_check.py` (validates a slate in **0.7s** instead of a 5-min rebuild) · `build_wave_atlas --target-ins/--only-bins` + glob-derived taken-set · `gate_lane` CRASH≠empty · **`gate_main` ×8**: TU-seeded + per-file conflicts, definition-aware, trailing-comment-blind regexes (×2), typedef alias normalization, address-order walk, build errors surfaced instead of bisected, body+position-aware typedef handling.

### Cookbook banked
**§176d** TU-seeded conflicts + callee function-pointer cast · **§176e** symbol identity is computable offline (+ its honest 5% null) · **§176f** declaration FORM is a matching lever · **§176g** the 6k-ins doctrine + 5-step pre-gate protocol · **§176h** the batch-substitution hazard map (7 under-reporting holes, the 3 wrong typedef strategies, the spelled-name limit, **C2 reconcile-before-gating**).

### NEXT SESSION — in order
1. **Wave Q the NEW way**: build with `--target-ins 6500 --min-ins 60 --max-ins 200 --max-bins 4`, then **iterate `pregate_check` + `gate_main` dry-run to `N -> N compatible, 0 dropped` BEFORE the first rebuild.** That is the whole difference between 68% and ~95% yield.
2. The 4 **immovable-TU-declaration** drafts (`func_8002D034`, `func_8001ABBC`, …) need their own pass: edit the declarations in `src/800.c`, ONE clean rebuild, R22.
3. 5 genuine NEARs → grinder. `func_80015F04` is at **closeness 2** with a fully-derived sched1/sched2 LUID model (9/9 probes predicted) and three seed candidates in `.run/p31p_15F04/`.
4. Latent, unfixed: conflict detection compares spelled type NAMES; comparing struct **bodies** (the auto-reconciler already does this) is the real fix.

## 🛑 (superseded) checkpoint — S52 mid-session

**State at checkpoint:** tree CLEAN at `commit:2402` + wave-O bank commit. **R22 verified 213/213 from a fully clean tree** after wave O. Nothing owed.

### What S52 banked
**51 functions** — 46 main (ONE clean rebuild, `143dbb89` byte-identical) + 4 overlay (`ov_SC04_011`) + 1 from the re-gate probe. **main 175 → 221 matched, stubs 1,881 → 1,835.**

### THE TWO RESULTS THAT MATTER MORE THAN THE COUNT
1. **UNKNOWN IS NOT A DIFFICULTY LABEL.** It means "the atlas could not name a lever", and it had been routed as needing its own bespoke lane. Wave O's 22-card R37 probe drafted it like any other lane ⇒ **~138k ins (a quarter of everything open) reclassified as ordinary wave fuel.** With UNKNOWN in, **9,224 fns / 417,325 ins = 70% of all open instructions** are agent-draftable.
2. **THE 6k-INS WAVE DOCTRINE (adopted by Drew).** A wave is sized by INSTRUCTION MASS, not cards — see the doctrine section above for the recipe and the pre-gate protocol. Draft rate barely decays with size (M 98% @51 ins · N 92% @65 · **O 96% @128**), so mass is nearly free. Projection: **~69 waves**, mass band first (27 waves / 164k ins), vs ~440 under the card lanes.

### IN FLIGHT AT CHECKPOINT
**Wave P** (`wf_faa2b5e5-a80`, 60 cards / 6,589 ins, 2 gate groups: main ×51 + md_SC07_004 ×9) — hit the **weekly limit** at 18/60 drafted, then RESUMED (`w8xrn5y3i`). Cached agents replay; the 42 failures re-run. On completion: run the 5-step pre-gate protocol, then `gate_main --apply` for the main half and `gate_lane` for md_SC07_004.
- The 18 already-drafted are all MATCH-claimed; **my independent re-verify is still OWED** (the classifier rate-limited Bash mid-check). Do it before gating.

### Tooling fixed this session (all committed, all NC'd)
`reloc_identity.py` (**NEW** — the symbol-identity oracle `match_one` structurally cannot be, §176e) · `build_wave_atlas` (`--target-ins`, `--only-bins`, glob-derived taken-set, refuted main-exclusion default) · `gate_lane` (CRASH ≠ empty result) · `gate_main` ×4 (TU-seeded + per-file conflict table · typedef walk in ADDRESS order · build errors surfaced instead of silently bisected · `short`≡`s16` alias normalization).

### Cookbook banked this session
**§176d** TU-seeded conflicts + the callee function-pointer cast · **§176e** symbol identity is computable offline (+ the honest null: it does NOT rescue stored drafts, 5%) · **§176f** the declaration FORM is a matching lever · **§176g** the 6k-ins doctrine + the 5-step pre-gate protocol.

### Known-open items
1. `func_8002D034` — verified MATCH but needs `src/800.c`'s `D_800A4E74` decl changed u16→s16; `gate_main` reverts `src/` before building, so it cannot ride a slate. Recover as its own commit + verifying rebuild.
2. `func_80016224` — verified MATCH but requires `volatile D_800B9A02`, which is fatal to two other drafts. Near-fuel until the TU's form settles.
3. 6 of the 10 `ov_SC04_011` wave-O drafts failed the gate on TU plumbing (that overlay's own decl landscape).
4. The AGREE re-gate lane is CLOSED (measured 5% ≈ the A10 law). Do not reopen it.

## 🛑 (superseded) CHECKPOINT — OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN CLOSED 2026-08-15 (morning)

**Cron `be8fb48c` (23-min overnight heartbeat) is CANCELLED.** No wave will fire on its own. Nothing is in flight at handoff.

### What this session did (waves C–N)
**~448+ banked** · stubs **12,059 → 11,549** · fleet **95.4% instr** · **213/213 byte-identical after every single batch** · 0 NON_MATCHING · **main 0 → 175 matched**.
Draft rates 91–100% across twelve waves, overwhelmingly **haiku/sonnet writing byte-exact C from raw MIPS with no reference body**. Four perfect sweeps (36/36, 44/44, 44/44, 44/44).

### The three things that actually changed the campaign
1. **MAIN IS OPEN — and was never hard.** It sat at 0.5% for the whole project, written up as the largest/hardest remaining mass. The blocker was that `gate_lane`/`gate_stage` build INCREMENTALLY while main's `make extract` runs the EXE-only `psyq_integrate`/`ld_interleave` steps that REWRITE the `.ld` → false diff (R22's own rationale). Four byte-correct drafts were rejected; I diagnosed a "linker defect" and built 3 hypotheses on it. **A null-draft control killed it** (the defect reproduced with ZERO drafts substituted). Use **`tools/gate_main.py <slate> --apply`**: substitute batch → extract → build → SHA; ONE clean rebuild verifies a WHOLE batch (40+ per rebuild). ~913 main stubs remain and they draft at 98%.
2. **GATE-GROUP PACKING is the throughput lever.** Gate cost scales with **(binary, TU) groups**, not drafts — each group is a whole-binary rebuild. Wave D: 42 drafts / 23 groups. Waves F–N: 40–56 drafts / **1 group**. `tools/build_wave_atlas.py` packs by TU and ranks by instruction mass; `--min-ins 40` targets the band the public instr-weighted metric tracks (wave M held 98% at avg 51 ins; wave N 92% at avg 65).
3. **`match_one` VERIFIES SHAPE, NOT SYMBOL IDENTITY.** It masks jal/HI16/LO16, so a draft calling the wrong function or storing to the wrong global reports a clean MATCH (wave K: `func_8002A234` had two globals swapped — 5 gate attempts). Only the whole-binary gate catches it. Now law 1c in the wave prompt.

### Tooling built/fixed this session (all committed, all NC'd)
`tools/gate_main.py` (NEW — batch clean-rebuild gate for main; in-TU decl-conflict resolution on TYPE SIGNATURES ONLY; duplicate-typedef stripping; compile-error culprit naming instead of bisection; **rm-output+returncode check after it once reported a FALSE PASS off a stale binary**) · `tools/build_wave_atlas.py` (NEW — TU-packed, mass-ranked selection; `main` excluded by default) · `tools/build_wave.py` (NEW — adapt/weak pools) · `gate_lane` home-TU resolution derived from `corpus` (was blind to main) · `aprop_symfix` survives curated PsyQ names · cookbook **§174 law 1b/1c**, **§175** (caller-saved pins can DELETE an instruction across a call).

### Idioms banked before this checkpoint (Drew's rule, 2026-08-15 — memory `bank-idioms-before-checkpoint`)
**Everything learned this session is in `docs/matching-cookbook.md`, not just in commit text.**
- **§174 Law 1b/1c, Law 4** — PsyQ symbol names; `match_one` verifies SHAPE not SYMBOL IDENTITY; the DEF-side prototype constraint.
- **§175** — a pin to a CALLER-SAVED register can silently DELETE an instruction when the value's live range crosses a `jal`.
- **§176a/b/c** (mine, process-level) — the verification-layer laws (what each check can and cannot prove); batch-gating mechanics (gate cost scales with (binary,TU) groups; batched drafts must agree with each other; compile errors name their own culprit); main cannot be gated incrementally.
- **§176 A–F** (agent-discovered, mined from all 14 wave journals by a 15-agent workflow; 26 novel of 81, each cross-checked against the existing cookbook first):
  - **A — statement order around a call** is the FIRST check for any schedule/delay-slot/±1 residual. Two functions that first-pass agents filed as "irreducible tie-break / permuter fuel" went to MATCH by moving ONE statement above a call.
  - **B — a small REGALLOC-PERM is usually not allocation** (narrow-symbol aliasing; pin the interloper, not the contested value).
  - **C — 🔴 WALL REFUTATION, source-verified by me:** `gcc-2.7.2 sched.c:1704` tests `call_used_regs[i]` where every neighbouring line uses `regno + i`, so for a 1-word register it always tests `$zero` (call-used on MIPS) ⇒ **every hard-reg SET in a block gets a REG_DEP_ANTI on the last call**, while the pseudo arm is guarded by `reg_n_calls_crossed`. **A PIN CANNOT SCHEDULE AROUND A CALL — sometimes the fix is to UNPIN.** Refutes the universality of `sched.md` S11 step 1 and the "always try pins" reflex.
  - D/E/F — CSE levers in reverse, two cc1-probed spellings, and four residual verdicts that were lying.
  - The section ends with an explicit **"What is NOT banked here"** listing 7 mined items judged too thin — including two whose functions are still `INCLUDE_ASM` (so the lever is unverifiable) and one whose narrative **contradicts** the banked C. Nothing was silently dropped.

### Open work, in priority order
1. **Run main waves** — highest value, ~913 stubs, 98% draft, `gate_main` handles it.
2. **`gate_lane` swallows `gate_stage` stderr** — reports an unhandled crash as `0 banked / 0 near / 0 failed`, indistinguishable from an honest empty result (cost 2 cycles). Make it surface stderr / distinguish CRASH from NOTHING-BANKED.
3. **Recover ~10 conflict-dropped main drafts** (waves J/K/L) — verified-correct, need cast-at-use.
4. Grinder queue has fresh seeds incl. **close=1 DELAY-SLOT** (`func_80183578`) and count-exact `func_8017DAEC`.

### The methodological lesson (worth more than the count)
Every serious stall traced to **an instrument trusted without a control**, never to gcc: the main "linker defect"; `corpus.stubs()` read as names when it returns addr→Stub; 3 good drafts withheld on an ADVISORY symfix flag; `gate_lane` crash-as-zero; my conflict checker too strict then too coarse; my verifier passing without building. **Before believing a measurement, run the control that would make it fail** — a null input, a known-answer population, or an independent oracle. The counterweight: the safety architecture held every time. R22 caught the false pass, `corpus` refused to guess, and the byte-gate never accepted a wrong match.

## (superseded) mid-flight checkpoint

**Phase 31 CONTINUES.** Overnight campaign running under Drew's "waves and banking all night long" directive (Opus 5, ultracode, 23-min cron heartbeat `be8fb48c` as the loop's safety net).

**This session's arc:** resume R22 213/213 → atlas regen (5,144 groups / 11,994 open) → wave-C probe (3 tell) → wave C (35: 11 tell + 24 weak) **32 banked** → main probe (6) **0 banked, blocker diagnosed** → wave D (48 adapt) **47/48 standalone, gating now**. Session banked ≈ **59+** (18 mechanical/probe + 32 wave C + wave D in flight).

**THE TWO STRATEGIC FINDINGS (read these first on resume):**
1. **Reach is spent: ~1.25×.** 32 wave-C exemplars → only 8 had a sharer, ×2 each. The ×134 era ended in P25/29/30. Fleet-% now moves ~1:1 with functions banked ⇒ **throughput is the lever**, and the throughput bottleneck is the GATE, whose cost scales with **(binary,TU) groups, not drafts** (wave C: 35 drafts/27 groups; wave D: 42/23). `tools/build_wave_atlas.py` (NEW) concentrates a wave into few binaries (96 drafts → 1 group) and weights by instruction mass — **use it for every future wave**; the adapt/weak card piles are the 12–42-ins tail (~0.011pp fleet per 48-card wave ≈ 440 waves to finish).
2. **main is BLOCKED on a LINK defect, not on matching** (see Blockers). `--exclude-bins main` is the default in `build_wave_atlas.py`.

**🔑 THE NIGHT'S HEADLINE — MAIN IS OPEN (2026-08-15).** main (79,510 weighted ins, was 0.5%) was NOT blocked by a linker defect; that was my misdiagnosis off an uncontrolled measurement. It needs a **CLEAN REBUILD** to gate (`make clean && make extract BINARY=main && make build BINARY=main`), because main's extract runs the EXE-only `psyq_integrate`/`ld_interleave` steps that rewrite the `.ld` — exactly the trap **R22's own rationale** describes. **4 main functions are banked** (byte-identical, full clean build), drafted by the ordinary mass lane. **NEXT SESSION'S HIGHEST-VALUE TASK: give the main gate path a clean-rebuild mode** (one clean build verifies a whole BATCH — that is how 4 banked at once), then run main waves as ordinary campaign fuel. main has ~1,030 open stubs.

**📐 THE ONE METHODOLOGICAL LESSON OF THE NIGHT (worth more than the function count).** Every serious stall traced to *an instrument I trusted without controlling*, never to gcc:
- "main is link-blocked" → **refuted by a null-draft control** (the defect reproduced with ZERO drafts substituted). I had already written a 3-hypothesis linker theory on top of it.
- `corpus.stubs()` read as names when it returns **addr→Stub** → nearly reported both card pools exhausted.
- 3 good drafts withheld on an **advisory** symfix flag → all 3 banked unchanged when gated.
- `gate_lane` reporting an unhandled crash as **"0 banked / 0 near / 0 failed"** → indistinguishable from an honest empty result; cost 2 cycles.
- `gate_main.typesig()` **too strict** (parameter names) then **too coarse** (dropped `[]`) → discarded good work, then passed a real conflict that R22 caught.
**The rule that would have prevented all five: before believing a measurement, run the control that would make it fail.** A null input, a known-answer population, or an independent oracle. R35 says fix the instrument first; the sharper form is *confirm the instrument can even answer, and that it answers correctly on a case whose answer you already know.*

**⚠️ TOOLING DEBT FOUND TONIGHT (fix before the next long run):**
1. **`gate_lane` swallows `gate_stage`'s stderr** — it reported `banked 0, near 0, failed 0` twice while `gate_stage` was actually raising `corpus.CorpusError`. An unreported crash is indistinguishable from an honest empty result. It must surface stderr and distinguish CRASH from NOTHING-BANKED. (Running `gate_stage` directly gave the precise cause instantly.)
2. **`aprop_symfix` false-positives on LOCAL identifiers** (typedefs, inline-asm macro names) and its draft-symbol extraction misses some `extern` forms → it reported `STALE`/`AMBIGUOUS` for 3 drafts that were already correct. **Symfix is ADVISORY; the gate is the arbiter** — never withhold a standalone-MATCH draft on a flag alone.
3. **Never `make clean` mid-campaign** without immediately re-running `make extract-all` — it wipes every binary's `asm/` and every downstream tool then fails in confusing ways (cost 2 gate cycles tonight).

**📊 OVERNIGHT RESULT (2026-08-15, waves C–M).** ~408 banked · stubs 12,059 → **11,589** · fleet **95.4% instr** · **213/213 byte-identical after every batch** · **main 0 → 175 matched** (913 stubs left). Wave draft rates 91–100% across ten waves, mostly **haiku**, writing byte-exact C from raw MIPS with no reference body. Four perfect sweeps (36/36, 44/44, 44/44, 44/44).

**🔧 THE MAIN LANE — HOW TO RUN IT (this is the night's unlock).** main was 0.5% and written up as the hardest remaining mass; it was never hard, it was never *gated correctly*. Use **`tools/gate_main.py <slate.json> --apply`**: substitute the batch → `make extract BINARY=main` → `make build` → SHA. ONE clean rebuild verifies the WHOLE batch (42–43 banked per rebuild). It reports in-TU declaration conflicts and, on a compile error, names the culprit instead of bisecting. **Do NOT gate main through `gate_lane`/`gate_stage`** — they build incrementally and main's extract rewrites the `.ld`, producing a false diff (R22's own rationale).
- **Known next improvement (mechanical, recurring):** `gate_main` should strip DUPLICATE TYPEDEFS on substitution the way `harvest_verify` already does. `src/800.c` now carries local typedefs (e.g. `SVECTOR`) from previously banked functions, so any later draft defining its own collides and costs a draft per wave.
- The 5+3+2 conflict-dropped main drafts across waves J/K/L are **verified-correct and recoverable** with cast-at-use (adopt the other declaration verbatim, adapt at the use site).

**RESUME STEPS:**
1. `pgrep -f tools/gate_lane` — never run two gates, and never run `build_wave*.py` during one (R35 guard: `corpus.stubs()` misreports substituted drafts).
2. Gate the late-repaired wave-D drafts: `.run/wave_p31d_late_slate.json` (5 verified MATCH, rescued by the repair stage after the main slate was built).
3. R22 (`make clean && make extract-all && make check-all` → 213/213), then commit (task + this log together).
4. Next wave: `.venv/bin/python tools/build_wave_atlas.py .run/wave_p31f_cards.json 96 --max-bins 8` → convert to args (`{wavedir,cards_file,cards}`) → Workflow `scratchpad/p31_wave.js`. Lanes: `mass` (atlas), `adapt`/`weak` (`tools/build_wave.py <pool>`; adapt 569 + weak 890 candidates remain, both verified live after the predicate fix).
5. Grinder queue has 3 fresh high-value seeds incl. **`func_80183578` close=1 DELAY-SLOT** (§60a precedent: a close=1 delay-slot banked in ~6 min) and `func_8017DAEC` count-exact 113=113.

**Watch-fors (all bit tonight):** agent self-reports run OPTIMISTIC — always re-verify with `match_one` yourself, then the gate (wave C claimed 35/35→32 banked; main probe claimed 6/6→I measured 4/6→0 banked). An agent once wrote its body straight into `src/boot.c` (reverted; prompt hardened) — a dirty tree ABORTS the shared gate. `pgrep -f` self-matches its own shell wrapper (invoke without `shell=True`). `corpus.stubs()` is **addr→Stub**, not names.

## (superseded) checkpoint — 2026-08-14 pre-overnight

**Phase 31 CONTINUES (campaign-to-ceiling; do NOT close).** Session totals: **65 banked** (17 mechanical @$0 + wave A 12+1prop @~117k tok/bank + wave B **35/37 gated, 95% conversion** @~88k tok/bank — the decl-matching lesson nearly eliminated integration failures). Stubs ≈ **11,995** (from 12,059). All banks byte-gated + committed; wave banks propagated where sharers existed.

**RESUME STEPS (fresh session, after the standard load order):**
1. `git log --oneline -20` to see the wave-B bank commits; run **R22** (`make clean && make extract-all && make check-all` → expect 213/213) — it was NOT run after wave B (context ran out; the per-bank gates each verified their own binary, but the standing clean-fleet proof is owed FIRST).
2. `make atlas` (regenerates maps + atlas post-banks, ~15 min, $0).
3. **Wave C is STAGED, not launched**: `.run/wave_p31c_cards.json` (14 §172b tell-cards [sonnet] + 24 weak-seed haiku cards — measures the two untested agent lanes). Launch via the persisted workflow script `workflows/scripts/p31-adapt-wave-a-wf_2fbef223-859.js` pattern (args = the cards; NOTE the tell/weak cards have different fields than adapt cards — adapt the prompt per lane or write a v2 script). Needs `/effort ultracode` (R27).
4. Adapt pile remains ~630 SMALL-EDIT cards — the proven 73-95% lane; wave D+ = next 48 by the same selection (exclude banked; see `.run/wave_p31{a,b}_cards.json` for taken).
5. Grinder queue armed: 59 warmstart + 6 wave-A NEARs + 8 wave-B NEARs (4 at close ≤3). Relaunch: `GATE_PHASE=phase-31 .venv/bin/python tools/grinder.py --once --batch 15 …` (single-writer: never while a gate runs).
6. Ledger discipline: velocity row per wave (the table above); distill lessons per R16/R30; close the phase ONLY on measured multi-session yield decay (plan file §Leg-C).

**Watch-fors:** gate_lane aborts on dirty src/config (clean first); symfix-first before every gate (§173); the safety-classifier can rate-limit under 48-agent bursts (harmless — retry).

## (superseded) previous checkpoint (end of build arc)
**T0–T9 ALL COMPLETE AND COMMITTED** (through `commit:2181`). Phase totals: **17 banked, 0 agent tokens**; stubs 12,059 → 12,042; R22 213/213 verified twice (post-T1, post-T6). The machine: the Atlas (5,139 groups, `make atlas`), the widened lanes (symfix STALE-DELTA, recover_integration isolation + macro-externs/tu-scope, family_align + len_tells + lenmiss routing), the armed queues (grinder: 59 warmstart records; cards: 954 weak + 192 len + 704 adapt; permuter-49). NEXT = **T10+ the campaign loop**: L3 grinder running in background (launched at checkpoint time); **card/crack WAVES need Drew's `/effort ultracode` toggle first (R27)** — prompt and WAIT. Campaign cadence + close criterion: the plan file §Leg-C. If resuming fresh: read the approved plan + this log; check `.run/auto/grinder_heartbeat.json`; run `make atlas` to refresh; continue the loop.