re: build the enforcement check REFUTED.md lacked -- 0 real revivals, and why

sylpheed-port's check-claims fails their run when a refuted claim is quoted
without an explicit token, and feeding it four withdrawals flagged three still
asserted unmarked -- each inside a correction they had written. REFUTED.md
publishes deaths without enforcing them, which is the gap I named last iteration
and did not close.

check_refuted.py is the prose equivalent: for each quoted claim in REFUTED.md it
searches docs/ for that text and reports occurrences whose neighbourhood carries
no refutation marker. Controlled first -- a claim planted unmarked in a scratch
file is detected, so a clean run means something.

9 raw hits, ZERO real revivals. All false positives, and the kinds are the
finding: 2 were text explicitly DECLINING to revive a claim; 1 a duplicate report;
4 were BACKLOG.md entries under a 2026-08-12 header, an append-only log recording
what was believed then; 2 were the claim quoted inside its own correction.

The structural limit is worth more than the clean result. A neighbourhood-language
detector cannot separate "asserted now" from "recorded as believed then", because
a dated log entry and a revival read identically. The port's design avoids this by
testing for a token an author must PLACE rather than for language -- theirs fires
correctly inside a correction, which is what caught their three, while mine fires
incorrectly there and would miss a revival reworded.

Stopped tuning at two remaining. Each marker phrase added fits the detector to this
corpus's habits of expression and away from being a test of them; tuning until it
reads zero would be fitting the instrument to the answer. Left over-reporting,
which is the safe direction.

Reach: it matches a claim's exact wording, so "no verbatim revival" is not "no
revival".

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Wuu56cE8vJGTBtn1ppsk8v

docs/re/METHOD.md

@@ -616,6 +616,21 @@ agent's loop prompt, i.e. nowhere durable. See [`README.md`](README.md) for the
   noun. If your own noun is not there, you have recorded the death without
   publishing it.
 
+* 📌 **A marker an author must PLACE beats a marker a tool must INFER.**
+  `sylpheed-port`'s claim register fails their build when a refuted claim is quoted
+  without an explicit token, and it caught three live assertions **inside
+  corrections they had written themselves** — text that reads as retraction to any
+  human. I built the prose equivalent, which infers from neighbourhood language,
+  and it does the opposite: it fires on corrections and would miss a revival
+  reworded. ⚠️ The reason is structural — an append-only dated log entry and a
+  revival are **textually identical**, so no amount of phrasing analysis separates
+  *asserted now* from *recorded as believed then*.
+  ⚠️ **And knowing when to stop tuning is part of it.** Mine went 9 → 2 by adding
+  marker phrases; each addition fits the detector to this corpus's habits of
+  expression and away from being a test of them. Tuning until it reads zero is
+  fitting the instrument to the answer. Left over-reporting, which is the safe
+  direction.
+
 ## Runtime / emulator
 
 * **Look at the PNG** — and check its dimensions.

docs/re/data/refuted-enforcement-check.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# Is any REFUTED claim still asserted, unmarked, in the corpus? 2026-08-30.
+# instrument: tools/re-capture/check_refuted.py
+#
+# sylpheed-port's `check-claims` FAILS THEIR RUN when a refuted claim is quoted
+# without a `[refuted]` token. Feeding it four of this session's withdrawals
+# immediately flagged three still asserted unmarked -- every one inside a
+# correction they had written themselves. REFUTED.md only publishes deaths; it
+# does not enforce them. This is the equivalent for a prose corpus.
+#
+# CONTROL FIRST: a claim planted unmarked in a scratch file is detected. A clean
+# run therefore means something.
+#
+# RESULT: 9 raw hits, ZERO real revivals. Every one is a false positive, of four
+# kinds, and the kinds are the finding:
+#
+#   2  text explicitly DECLINING to revive -- "does **not** revive `rot_n001` is
+#      on the disc". Reads as an assertion to a neighbourhood scan.
+#   1  the same line reported twice (one claim listed twice in REFUTED.md).
+#   4  entries in BACKLOG.md under a 2026-08-12 dated header -- an APPEND-ONLY LOG
+#      recording what was believed THEN. History, not revival.
+#   2  the claim quoted inside its own correction ("An earlier version of this
+#      bullet said ...").
+#
+# 🔴 THE STRUCTURAL LIMIT, which is worth more than the clean result:
+# a neighbourhood-language detector CANNOT separate "asserted now" from "recorded
+# as believed then", because a dated log entry and a revival read identically.
+# sylpheed-port's design avoids this by testing for a TOKEN AN AUTHOR MUST PLACE
+# rather than for language. Theirs fires correctly even inside a correction --
+# which is what caught their three -- while mine fires INCORRECTLY there and would
+# miss a revival phrased in different words entirely.
+#
+# ⚠️ I STOPPED TUNING AT TWO REMAINING. Each marker phrase added moves the detector
+# toward my corpus's habits of expression and away from being a test of it; tuning
+# until it reads zero would be fitting the instrument to the answer. Over-reporting
+# is the safe failure direction, so it is left over-reporting.
+#
+# ⚠️ And its reach: it matches a claim's EXACT wording. A revival in different
+# words is invisible. "No verbatim revival" is not "no revival".

tools/re-capture/check_refuted.py

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""Is any REFUTED claim still asserted, unmarked, elsewhere in the corpus?
+
+`REFUTED.md` publishes deaths; it does not enforce them. `sylpheed-port`'s
+`check-claims` register fails their run when a refuted claim is quoted without a
+`[refuted]` token, and feeding it four withdrawals immediately flagged three still
+asserted unmarked -- every one inside a correction they had written themselves.
+Their point is the one worth stealing: **the token tests for something an author
+must place, not for language that sounds retracted.** All three read as
+corrections to a human and the marker fired anyway.
+
+This is the equivalent for a prose corpus. For each `* "claim"` in REFUTED.md it
+searches `docs/` for that exact claim text and reports every occurrence whose
+neighbourhood carries no refutation marker.
+
+⚠️ Its known weakness, stated rather than discovered: it matches the claim's
+EXACT wording. A restatement in different words is invisible to it. So a clean run
+means "no verbatim revival", not "no revival".
+
+    check_refuted.py [--context N]
+"""
+import re
+import sys
+from pathlib import Path
+
+MARKERS = ("refuted", "REFUTED", "withdrawn", "WITHDRAWN", "retracted", "RETRACTED",
+           "🔴", "~~", "used to say", "used to read", "was wrong", "is wrong",
+           "no longer", "superseded", "corrected",
+           # text explicitly DECLINING to revive a claim reads as an assertion to
+           # a neighbourhood scan; two real hits were exactly this.
+           "does **not** revive", "does not revive")
+
+# ⚠️ STRUCTURAL LIMIT, found by running this against the corpus. `BACKLOG.md` is an
+# APPEND-ONLY DATED LOG: an entry under a 2026-08-12 header recording what was
+# believed then is history, not revival, and reads identically to a live claim.
+# A neighbourhood-language detector cannot separate "asserted now" from "recorded
+# as believed then". sylpheed-port's `check-claims` avoids this by testing for a
+# TOKEN AN AUTHOR MUST PLACE rather than for language -- their design is right and
+# this one is a weaker approximation of it. Files that are chronological records
+# are skipped rather than reported, and that is a real hole, not a fix.
+CHRONOLOGICAL = {"BACKLOG.md"}
+CTX = int(sys.argv[sys.argv.index("--context") + 1]) if "--context" in sys.argv else 4
+
+root = Path("docs")
+ref = root / "re" / "REFUTED.md"
+claims = []
+seen_report = set()
+for line in ref.read_text().splitlines():
+    m = re.match(r'\s*\*\s*~?~?"([^"]{25,})"', line)
+    if m:
+        claims.append(m.group(1))
+
+print(f"{len(claims)} quoted claims in REFUTED.md\n")
+hits = 0
+for c in claims:
+    needle = c.strip()
+    for f in root.rglob("*.md"):
+        if f == ref or f.name in CHRONOLOGICAL:
+            continue
+        lines = f.read_text(errors="replace").splitlines()
+        for i, l in enumerate(lines):
+            if needle in l:
+                lo, hi = max(0, i - CTX), min(len(lines), i + CTX + 1)
+                near = "\n".join(lines[lo:hi])
+                if not any(m in near for m in MARKERS) and (f, i) not in seen_report:
+                    seen_report.add((f, i))
+                    hits += 1
+                    print(f"🔴 {f}:{i+1}")
+                    print(f'   claim: "{needle[:80]}"')
+                    print(f"   line : {l.strip()[:110]}\n")
+print(f"{hits} unmarked assertion(s) of a refuted claim")