Two rules that look unrelated and are one failure, plus the change that makes
the second enforceable.
1. A FINDING REACHES `main` BEFORE THE CODE THAT CITES IT. A citation resolving
only on a peer branch is dead the moment it merges. Not hypothetical: 495
decoder and 366 port commits sit off `main`, and `port/scripts/boot.gd`
already cites two docs/re pages present on neither its own branch nor main.
2. A CHECK MAY ONLY SOFTEN AGAINST A CONDITION IT CAN TEST -- the Pi agent's
wording, and better than mine, because it is applicable while writing rather
than a call to be vigilant. The mechanical form:
Can this branch tell the difference between "not yet" and "no longer"?
`gitea-protect --verify` printed ⚪ "not a collaborator (yet)" and continued,
so the only instrument checking Write-not-Admin could not report that gate
being REMOVED. `check-citations` reported peer citations instead of failing
them, because under the old topology that was unfixable from the container.
Both were correct AND kind when written; neither recorded that the kindness
had a scope. Nobody edits these into being wrong -- the world moves and the
allowance stays, which is why they survive review. The smell is leniency with
an expiry date nobody set; the fix is the testable-condition rule.
check-citations gains `--for-merge`, which turns the peer class into a failure.
A flag rather than a new default because BOTH readings are still live: mid-work
on a topic branch the peer class really is unfixable noise. What the old code
could not express is where the code is GOING, and that is a condition the caller
can state. Measured on this tree: 19 citations resolve only on a peer branch --
which is the size of the #7-depends-on-#8 edge, not the 2 I had counted in
boot.gd.
The selftest gains that third class, because a flag whose classification is
unexercised is the shape this rule exists to catch. Controlled: emptying
PEER_REFS makes the peer case collapse into "nowhere" and the selftest reports
🔴 BROKEN, rc=2.
⚠️ Pre-existing and NOT from this change: the default run already exits 1 on 4
citations of `export/...` paths. Those are the generated tree, gitignored by
design, and main's copy of the tool fails identically. The CITE regex treats
`export/` as a repo prefix. Reported, not fixed -- it is the port's file and its
call whether the regex or the citations are wrong.
2d5496f754