diff --git a/docs/re/METHOD.md b/docs/re/METHOD.md
index fc19112e..36b8cc21 100644
--- a/docs/re/METHOD.md
+++ b/docs/re/METHOD.md
@@ -660,6 +660,24 @@ agent's loop prompt, i.e. nowhere durable. See [`README.md`](README.md) for the
   not** — a page citing nothing would have passed as "0 missing". Existence and
   substance, never sufficiency.
 
+* 📌 **A first count from a new detector is a measurement of the detector.**
+  `sylpheed-port`'s formulation, and it now has **four** instances in this corpus
+  inside one exchange: my refuted-claim scan 9 → 2 real, their withdrawal hook's 33
+  candidates → a few, their `why`-coverage audit 35 → **0** (the 35 were values
+  covered by an ancestor key their check only looked for in the same object), and
+  my measured-page absence check 3 → **0**. ⚠️ **All four were caught by the same
+  cheap habit: inspecting the flagged items before publishing the number.** None
+  became a claim, and none would have survived contact with the items themselves.
+  **Never report a detector's first count as a finding.**
+
+* ⚠️ **And an audit is narrower than its wording.** Checking that every `docs/re/`
+  gate cites reference data gave "48 citations, 0 missing" — true, and a statement
+  about **one form of evidence**. This corpus carries at least three: committed
+  data files, inline tables, and committed disc tests. A page whose evidence is
+  `tests/slb_leading_segment_disc.rs` scores zero on a `data/`-path check and is
+  fully evidenced. **Name the form you checked, not the property you hope it
+  stands for.**
+
 ## Runtime / emulator
 
 * **Look at the PNG** — and check its dimensions.
diff --git a/docs/re/data/mission-gate-audit.txt b/docs/re/data/mission-gate-audit.txt
index 0dee108a..184352e9 100644
--- a/docs/re/data/mission-gate-audit.txt
+++ b/docs/re/data/mission-gate-audit.txt
@@ -47,3 +47,36 @@
 # claim, and it cannot see data a page SHOULD have cited and did not. A page
 # citing nothing would have passed as "0 missing"; none did, but the check would
 # not have caught it. Existence and substance, not sufficiency.
+
+################################################################################
+# THE ABSENCE CHECK -- the half the audit above could not see. 2026-08-30.
+#
+# sylpheed-port's sufficiency audit found the thing that "passes every check by
+# being absent": an authored value carrying no `why` at all. The analogue here is
+# a page that cites NO reference data, which my gate audit above would score as
+# "0 missing" and pass. So: of every page with a measured/decoded/CONFIRMED
+# status, which cites no data/ or captures/ path?
+#
+#   42 pages with such a status
+#    3 citing no data/ or captures/ path
+#
+# ⚠️ INSPECTED BEFORE PUBLISHING, per the port's rule that a first count from a new
+# detector is a measurement of the detector. All three are FALSE POSITIVES, and
+# each was verified rather than waved through:
+#
+#   structures/slb-bank-header-not-a-wave.md -- cites tests/slb_leading_segment_
+#     disc.rs, and that file EXISTS in crates/sylpheed-formats/tests/. Its evidence
+#     is a disc-wide check over 9 519 sound.pak entries plus regression tests.
+#   structures/ui-screen-runtime.md -- 26 rows of inline evidence tables, live
+#     guest-memory reads matched field by field against the file.
+#   five-screens-acceptance.md -- a consolidation page; its evidence is the six
+#     pages it links and the numbers it tabulates from them.
+#
+# ✅ 3 -> 0 real.
+#
+# 📌 AND THE REAL FINDING IS ABOUT THE EARLIER AUDIT. This corpus carries evidence
+# in at least THREE forms -- committed data files, inline tables, and committed
+# disc tests -- and both checks look for exactly one of them. "48 citations, 0
+# missing" above is therefore a statement about the data-file form, not about
+# whether the gates are evidenced. The gates ARE evidenced; the audit was narrower
+# than its wording suggested.