WP01 — Guardrail: arch-gate for stale moved-module path literals (#3818)

Priority: P1 · Concern: IC-01 · Requirements: FR-001, FR-002, NFR-002, C-002 Owned files: tests/architectural/test_no_stale_charter_path_literals.py (new) Dependencies: none (independent lane)

Goal

Add an architectural gate that fails when any src/, tests/, or live docs/ file names a moved charter module by its old top-level path as a string literal or relative link — the straggler class the import-rewrite misses (arch-gate path-literal allowlist tuples, patch("charter.<old>...") mock targets, and .. doc links). Complements the C-004 import gate.

Context

The M2b split (#3807) relocated the activation-side modules to src/charter/activation/. Relocations keep leaving stale string references that only surface as a red CI shard post-move (#3800/#3806/#3807 each paid a landing fold). This gate catches them at construction time. The maintainer already wrote the census logic during the #3807 landing — reuse that shape: derive the moved-module set from the modules physically under src/charter/activation/ (top-level .py minus __init__ + subpackage dirs), then scan for charter.<moved> deep-path references NOT under charter.activation. in string literals and markdown links.

Subtasks

scan src/, tests/, and live docs/ for charter.<moved> string literals and src/charter/<moved>.py relative links that should now be charter.activation.<moved> / src/charter/activation/<moved>.py. Use word-boundary matching so context never false-matches context_state; exclude same-name-different-package (specify_cli.cli.commands.charter.*).

src/charter/<moved>.py path and assert the gate flags it (file, line, token); assert it passes on the real merged tree (0 findings). Mirror the committed-tmp_path shape of tests/architectural/test_charter_offering_does_not_import_activation.py.

(immutable snapshots) — assert an archived stale reference is NOT flagged.

tests/architectural/marker_baseline.txt, and the golden test-count baseline. Declare pytestmark = pytest.mark.architectural. (These baseline edits are shared across lanes — they are reconciled by union at integration; make your additions minimal and additive.)

T001 — Write the gate: compute the moved-module set from src/charter/activation/;
T002 — Non-vacuity self-test: seed a tmp_path fixture that names an old
T003 — Exclude historical archives: kitty-specs/, docs/adr/, docs/plans/**
T004 — Join the completeness baselines for the new test file: tests/_arch_shard_map.py,

Acceptance (SC-001)

Gate fails the seeded synthetic stale-path fixture; passes (0 findings) on the merged tree.
Green on the tests/architectural/ shard within its time budget (NFR-002, no new >5s outlier).
ruff + mypy clean; marker-convention + shard-map + golden-count gates pass.

Notes

and archive-exclusion cases are the ones to get right).

Read docs/development/how-to/pr-landing.md census discussion and the #3818 body.
This is the keystone guardrail — keep it strict but false-positive-free (the word-boundary

Spec Kitty

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