fix(coord): a branch that predates docs/BACKLOG.md is not a ledger violation#10
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…olation Publishing docs/BACKLOG.md (#6) broke the ledger gate on every branch cut before that merge, including PR #7 -- whose diff touched release.yml and leak-gate docs and nothing near a ledger: OSError: git show HEAD:docs/BACKLOG.md failed (128): fatal: path 'docs/BACKLOG.md' does not exist in 'HEAD' CI's change set is `diff base HEAD`. Once origin/main gained the file, a branch that predates it lists docs/BACKLOG.md as CHANGED -- as a deletion relative to base -- despite never touching it. check_backlog then read HEAD for a copy that was never there. `base_has` (added when the file was imported) covers the opposite end: absent on BASE, being added. This is the mirror case -- present on base, absent on HEAD -- and it is the one that fires repeatedly, because it hits every open branch at once rather than the single commit that publishes the file. Both probes now share `_obj_exists`, which asks `git cat-file -e` directly rather than inferring absence from an exception: `git()` must keep raising on real failures, since an error swallowed as "empty ledger" reads as "no numbers taken" -- the false-clean this gate exists to prevent. "The path is not on that ref" is the one non-failure, so it gets its own probe instead of a broad `except`. `head_has` mirrors `head_text`'s ref exactly (HEAD in CI, the INDEX locally), so the guard cannot disagree with the read it guards. Mutation-verified: neutralise the guard and the new test fails with the same exit-128 shape seen in CI. Worth noting for whoever meets this next: the failure looked like an unrelated flake on somebody else's PR, and the first re-run "fixed" nothing -- the run before it had failed for a genuinely different, genuinely random reason (a 3-char needle colliding with base64 ciphertext, fixed separately). Two different faults on consecutive attempts of the same leg is exactly the shape that gets misread as one flaky test.
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Publishing
docs/BACKLOG.md(#6) broke the ledger gate on every branch cut before that merge — including PR #7, whose diff touchedrelease.ymland leak-gate docs and nothing near a ledger:Why
CI's change set is
diff base HEAD. Onceorigin/maingained the file, a branch that predates it listsdocs/BACKLOG.mdas changed — as a deletion relative to base — despite never touching it.check_backlogthen read HEAD for a copy that was never there.base_has(added when the file was imported) covers the opposite end: absent on base, being added. This is the mirror case — present on base, absent on HEAD — and it's the one that fires repeatedly, because it hits every open branch at once rather than the single commit that publishes the file.The fix
Both probes now share
_obj_exists, which asksgit cat-file -edirectly rather than inferring absence from an exception.git()must keep raising on real failures — an error swallowed as "empty ledger" reads as "no numbers taken", the false-clean this gate exists to prevent. "The path is not on that ref" is the one genuine non-failure, so it gets its own probe instead of a broadexcept.head_hasmirrorshead_text's ref exactly (HEAD in CI, the index locally), so the guard can't disagree with the read it guards.Mutation-verified: neutralise the guard and the new test fails with the same exit-128 shape seen in CI.
A note on how this was found
It surfaced as an unrelated-looking failure on someone else's PR, and the first re-run "fixed" nothing — the attempt before it had failed for a genuinely different, genuinely random reason (a 3-char needle colliding with base64 ciphertext, fixed in #8). Two different faults on consecutive attempts of the same leg is exactly the shape that gets misread as one flaky test and re-run until it goes green.
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