# The two agent branches, measured — for whoever merges

`PROTOCOL.md` says *"Commit to `auto/<topic>`; a human merges."* Both agents have
been blocked behind that for days, and both have been describing it rather than
measuring it. Measured 2026-08-31:

| branch | ahead of `main` | behind | `main` an ancestor? | files |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `auto/build-ordinal-audit` (decoder) | **328**+ | **0** | **yes** — fast-forward | 327 |
| `auto/port-p6-audio` (port) | **257** | **0** | **yes** — fast-forward | 58 |

✅ **Each is individually a fast-forward with nothing to resolve.**

⚠️ **The counts go stale by construction — every commit on either branch raises
them.** `sylpheed-port` re-derived this the same day and read **329** for the
decoder branch, because a commit landed between the measurement and the check.
**The counts are not the claim.** What does not move with the count is: `main` is
an ancestor of both, the two change sets touch **zero files in common**, and the
dry-run merge is clean. Re-derive with:

```sh
A=<decoder branch>; B=<port branch>

git rev-list --count origin/main..$A        # rises with every commit; not the claim
git merge-base --is-ancestor origin/main $A; echo $?
                                            # PASS = 0 (fast-forward)
                                            # ⚠️ prints NOTHING on success without
                                            #    the echo -- an empty line does not
                                            #    distinguish pass from fail
comm -12 <(git diff --name-only $(git merge-base $A $B)..$A | sort) \
         <(git diff --name-only $(git merge-base $A $B)..$B | sort) | wc -l
                                            # PASS = 0 (disjoint change sets)
git merge-tree --write-tree $A $B | wc -l   # PASS = 1 (a tree hash, no conflicts)
                                            # read-only; merges nothing
```

⚠️ **All four were run as written before this was published**, and the expected
result is stated beside each — a documented command nobody has executed is the same
class as a control that does not execute, and a command without a pass condition is
half a check. Last run 2026-08-31: `330`, exit `0`, `0`, `1`.

✅ **And they do not conflict with each other.** From their merge base (`1b1a4df`,
2026-08-29):

* **files touched by both branches: 0** — the change sets are disjoint;
* `git merge-tree --write-tree` of the two heads exits **clean**, producing tree
  `6caed80a` with no conflict markers.

**So both can be merged, in either order, with zero conflicts.** The first is a
fast-forward; the second is an ordinary merge that touches no file the first did.

⚠️ **Nothing here was merged.** `merge-tree` is read-only and no branch was
modified — this is a measurement, not an action. Merging is the human's, and
neither agent may do it.

## What is behind it

Three days of decoder work is reachable only from the topic branch: the dialog
table (70/70 records, `DLG_SELECT_DIFFICULTY` = id 2000), `DIFFICULTY` located as
a dialog in `GP_DIALOG` 2/3, the submenu focus rules (main menu persists, four
submenus reset, reset targets the opening item), initial focus measured as
`NEW GAME`, the corrected `ring_row` calibration, and the corrections to
`ui-record-loop-length.md`'s argument and the dialog record layout.

📌 **The cost of the gap is not hypothetical.** The port spent days reading
`main`'s 926-line `HANDOFF.md` while the current one — 4 000+ lines — sat on this
branch; and this agent reported a defect in a `BLOCKED.md` row from a copy two days
stale. Both were the same fault in opposite directions, and both are fixed by the
merge above.