Spec Kitty

Research memo — rc5 consolidate regressions

Audience: spec-kitty maintainers (software-engineer persona). Date: 2026-10-03. Base: skupstream/main @ c11d043e5. All file:line below are on that tree. Sources: grounding squad (debugger-debbie ×4, paula-patterns, researcher-robbie), tickets #5569 #5570 #5571 #5572, PRs #5012 (c830944174), #5020 (8b769edeec), #5031 (9eae015382), #5359/#5046 (5ae9a41887), changelog note #5587 (4bf748a795). Codegraph was available (index of the sibling primary checkout); line numbers were re-verified in this tree with rg/sed.

Verdict: four separate predicates → one WP per issue

Pair	Verdict	Why
#5570 ↔ #5572	separate	Same family (act on the coord ref from a stale capture), but #5570 is check-then-branch -D, #5572 is heal-time recomputation of the strand set. Different code, different fix.
#5569 ↔ #5571	separate	#5569 is claim authorship in reconciliation; #5571 is the resume preflight remedy for the coord worktree.
all others	separate	No shared missing predicate.

Shared-file risk: consolidation/executor.py is touched by #5570 (teardown triple) and #5572 (marker writer + heal caller) and #5571 (pre-mutation preflight). The touched functions are disjoint; WPs keep disjoint function ownership.

#5569 (P0) — canceled dependency-lane content on an approved lane's first-parent spine

dependent lane fast-forwards, so WP01's commit sits on lane-b's first-parent spine.

as approved authorship; :1592 _collect_excluded (lane_tip_shas - authored_shas) drops it from the excluded set; :1224 _mixed_lanes never selects a lane holding only a canceled WP; :1372-1378 _closed_world_anchors exempts dependency-lane tips.

base) is canceled content and must never count as authorship of another lane.

parent; plant_canceled_commit (tests/terminus/conftest.py:1170-1225) always builds a true merge, so the test went green.

test_fully_canceled_dependency_lane_content_ideally_does_not_ship (tests/consolidation/test_canceled_content_residuals.py, strict xfail, #5330). #5569 is its non-mixed variant. The fix flips residual 7 to a regular test instead of adding a parallel unit pin; the entry-point test covers the non-mixed shape.

patch-ids, blobs) and stop using a fully-canceled dependency lane tip as a closed-world anchor. One claim correction covers squash and --strategy merge. Allocator --no-ff is rejected (prevents new cases only) and refusing the cancel is a policy change.

• lanes/worktree_allocator.py:1613-1625: dependency merge without --no-ff; a fresh
• consolidation/reconciliation.py:1732 _collect_authored (spine walk 1782-1789) claims it
• Missing predicate: a commit reachable from a fully-canceled lane's tip (after its
• rc5 miss: the #4977 exclusion assumed smuggled commits arrive behind a merge's second
• Residual link: this is the predicate pinned by residual 7,
• Fix: subtract the fully-canceled lanes' commits from the authored claim (SHAs,

#5571 (P0) — resume gives "Commit" advice for a lagging coordination worktree

assert_worktree_clean(coord_worktree)) raises MERGE_UNSAFE_WORKTREE_DIRTY with the generic remedy at git/destructive_guard.py:206.

_recover_behind_head_primary_on_resume (:3819-3880, gate at :3848) apply only to MERGE_UNSAFE_PRIMARY_DIRTY. classify_resume_dirty_remedy / is_pure_behind_head_lag (consolidation/preflight.py:778-838, :840+) are never applied to the coord worktree.

pure behind-own-HEAD lag (base state.pre_mutation_coord_sha).

merges inside the coord worktree, which leaves it clean.

when the lag is provably pure; otherwise print the "Do NOT stage or record" advice. The ancestry-only "already integrated" skip stays as designed.

• consolidation/executor.py:3368-3369 (_pre_mutation_safety_preflight,
• The behind-own-HEAD advice (executor.py:3784-3795) and in-place recovery
• Missing predicate: the coord-worktree refusal on --resume is not classified as a
• rc5 miss: the fix assumed only the repository root checkout can lag; test_repro_4982.py:82
• Fix: reuse the same classifier + in-place refresh for the coord worktree on --resume

#5570 (P1) — coord teardown deletes a branch that moved after the CAS check

:198); teardown then writes the retrospective (:354) and removes the worktree (:362).

git branch -D (:2888); expected tip comes from coord_tip_after_projection (:1619).

before the gate; nothing commits inside the window.

branch, non-zero exit. Smaller than holding feature_status_lock, and also covers raw git commits. Same flaw noted at orchestrator_api/commands.py:990 (follow-up candidate, assessed in plan).

• coordination/teardown.py:185-207 _enforce_projection_teardown_gate (one rev-parse,
• consolidation/executor.py:2863-2897 _delete_mission_branch runs an unconditional
• Missing predicate: the delete is not compare-and-delete against the gated tip.
• rc5 miss: test_teardown_aborts_when_coord_tip_moved_since_checkpoint moves the tip
• Fix: git update-ref -d refs/heads/<b> <expected_sha>; on mismatch raise, keep the

#5572 (P1) — doctor --fix reverts a reviewer's later reopen

commit SHAs. coordination/coherence.py:546-580 _recorded_strand_shas re-derives "recorded" as every status-log commit in captured_sha..HEAD; repair_coord_strand (:613) reverts them; guard _head_shape_is_expected (:471-503).

done bake); heal reverts only those; refuse (no revert, no "Healed", non-zero) when the range holds any other status-log commit or the marker predates the field. The --resume caller shares the primitive.

• Marker writer consolidation/executor.py:1075-1110 (schema :1102-1109) stores no
• Missing predicate: the strand's own commits are not recorded at write time.
• rc5 miss: test_repro_4973.py:84-87 uses a non-status-log third-party commit.
• Fix: persist strand_shas when the marker is written (every write site runs after the

Changelog contradiction map (rc5 ### Fixed)

Issue	Parent	rc5 entry contradicted (CHANGELOG.md, this tree)
#5569	#4977	L182-184
#5571	#4982	L183, L192
#5570	#4981	L186
#5572	#4973 (doctor leg)	L191

The #5587 Upgrade Notes entry is at L23-29 under [Unreleased] - 4.0.0rc6; new Fixed entries go under ### Fixed (L35).

Escalation check

None of the three operator-escalation triggers fire: no fix weakens CAS or the closed world (#5569 tightens the anchor set), residual 7 is fixed in-mission rather than deferred, and no fix relies on --attest-canceled-superseded.