ranjiao · ranjiao · Aug 20, 2026 · Aug 20, 2026 · Aug 20, 2026 · Aug 20, 2026
diff --git a/.perry/conformance.md b/.perry/conformance.md
@@ -12,16 +12,19 @@
 
 | File | Shape version | Declared | Route |
 |---|---|---|---|
-| .perry/config.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| .perry/hook.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| BOARD.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| DECISIONS.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| OKR.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| design/DESIGN-001-resumable-pipelines.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| design/DESIGN-002-namespace-collision.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| design/DESIGN-003-work-modes.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| design/DESIGN-004-deterministic-writes.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| design/DESIGN-005-state-and-contracts.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| design/DESIGN-006-roles-and-knowledge.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| phase/001-linkage.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
-| phase/001-work-modes-live.md | 2 | 2026-08-17 | declare |
+| .perry/config.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| .perry/hook.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| BOARD.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| DECISIONS.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| OKR.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| design/DESIGN-001-resumable-pipelines.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| design/DESIGN-002-namespace-collision.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| design/DESIGN-003-work-modes.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| design/DESIGN-004-deterministic-writes.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| design/DESIGN-005-state-and-contracts.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| design/DESIGN-006-roles-and-knowledge.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| design/DESIGN-007-the-entity-model.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| knowledge/toolchain/pycache-staleness.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| phase/001-linkage.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| phase/001-work-modes-live.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
+| phase/002-fields-are-typed.md | 2 | 2026-08-20 | declare |
diff --git a/.perry/events.jsonl b/.perry/events.jsonl
@@ -444,3 +444,9 @@
 {"ts": "2026-08-20T15:08:17", "event": "evidence", "id": "TASK-107", "title": "the dispatch safety gate matches its fragments as bare substrings, so ordinary English trips it", "track": "main", "actor": "agent", "from": "—", "to": "evidence/2026-08/TASK-107-spec.md"}
 {"ts": "2026-08-20T15:13:45", "event": "add", "id": "TASK-108", "title": "LOAD-03 counts prose about a decision, so documenting an open question makes the count go up", "track": "main", "mode": "project", "priority": "P1", "actor": "agent", "summary": "", "depends_on": [], "from": null, "to": "not_started"}
 {"ts": "2026-08-20T15:16:40", "event": "start", "id": "TASK-108", "title": "LOAD-03 counts prose about a decision, so documenting an open question makes the count go up", "track": "main", "actor": "agent", "from": "not_started", "to": "in_progress"}
+{"ts": "2026-08-20T15:25:23", "event": "next", "id": "TASK-047", "title": "Flip the conformance gate to enforce", "track": "main", "actor": "agent", "from": "user decides the subjective line: enforce by default while both 2026-08-18 blockers are still live, or revert to advisory (one line). Then merge PR #8", "to": "PR #8 merged and the gate enforces on this branch; awaiting the user's V5 sign-off text (name, date, what was checked)"}
+{"ts": "2026-08-20T15:26:29", "event": "start", "id": "TASK-085", "title": "Decision status has no word for a proposal, and lives in three places", "track": "main", "actor": "agent", "from": "not_started", "to": "in_progress"}
+{"ts": "2026-08-20T15:41:45", "event": "done", "id": "TASK-047", "title": "Flip the conformance gate to enforce", "track": "main", "owner": "Coding Agent", "role": "", "actor": "agent", "from": "review", "to": "done", "evidence": "evidence/2026-08/TASK-047-dispatch-2026-08-20-1416.md", "rung": "V5"}
+{"ts": "2026-08-20T15:47:04", "event": "evidence", "id": "TASK-108", "title": "LOAD-03 counts prose about a decision, so documenting an open question makes the count go up", "track": "main", "actor": "agent", "from": "—", "to": "evidence/2026-08/TASK-108-dispatch-2026-08-20-1547.md"}
+{"ts": "2026-08-20T15:47:05", "event": "status", "id": "TASK-108", "title": "LOAD-03 counts prose about a decision, so documenting an open question makes the count go up", "track": "main", "actor": "agent", "depends_on": [], "from": "in_progress", "to": "review", "reason": ""}
+{"ts": "2026-08-20T15:49:41", "event": "add", "id": "TASK-109", "title": "a V5 sign-off is composed by selection from measured facts, not authored from memory", "track": "main", "mode": "project", "priority": "P1", "actor": "agent", "summary": "", "depends_on": [], "from": null, "to": "not_started"}
diff --git a/bin/README.md b/bin/README.md
@@ -236,11 +236,46 @@ discovered in the field.
 | | What it costs | What removes the cost |
 |---|---|---|
 | **1 · migration does not always reach zero on a real board** | On a `~/proj/gimegime-pmo` copy, `perry-migrate` takes `BOARD.md` from 3 errors to **1**, and the residue is a row reading `Status: 半解`. That file stays refused until a human edits it and runs `perry-conform declare BOARD.md`. The refusal names both commands, so it is a door that needs a hand — not a wall. | A path for the residue that is not a hand edit. The three classes seen were: a `Status` cell in the user's own words, a tier-1 file over its size cap, and a KR table whose columns are the project's. **Not** widening the enums — `半解` is a real distinction the user drew, and coercing it to `in_progress` is the confidently-wrong-value class. |
-| **2 · a brand-new project asks for one declaration before its first write** | A project with **zero** lint errors is still `undeclared`, and undeclared is refused. `SKILL.md § Conformance gate` forbids an agent from running `perry-conform declare` on the user's behalf (`perry/OKR.md` — *adoption proposes; the user declares*), so the first `perry-task add` on a project Perry itself just wrote asks the user for one command. | Setup or adopt ending in the user's own declaration — one prompt, at the point where the files are created. That is a better first run than a refusal, but it is a convenience, not a road: the road already exists and the refusal names it. |
+| **2 · every new file is born undeclared, in a new project and an old one alike** | A file with **zero** lint errors is still `undeclared`, and undeclared is refused. `SKILL.md § Conformance gate` forbids an agent from running `perry-conform declare` on the user's behalf (`perry/OKR.md` — *adoption proposes; the user declares*), so the first `perry-task add` on a project Perry itself just wrote asks the user for one command. **This is not confined to first runs** — see the measurement below. | Setup or adopt ending in the user's own declaration — one prompt, at the point where the files are created. That is a better first run than a refusal, but it is a convenience, not a road: the road already exists and the refusal names it. |
 
 Both are checked by `tests/test_conformance.py § TestTheGateEnforces`, so the day
 either becomes false a test says so rather than the paragraph going stale.
 
+**Cost 2 was first written at the wrong scope, and the correction is the part
+worth keeping.** It read *a brand-new project asks for one declaration*, which
+is true and too narrow: the same thing happens to **every file Perry creates
+after the last declaration, in a project that has been declared for weeks**.
+Measured 2026-08-20 on a declared scratch project with the gate enforcing:
+
+```
+perry-decide bootstrap        →  wrote ['decisions/', 'DECISIONS.md']
+perry-conform status          →  · DECISIONS.md   undeclared
+perry-decide new <slug> …     →  refused — DECISIONS.md already matches Perry's
+                                 shape at version 2, but no one has declared it
+```
+
+Two facts hold that together, and only both make it survivable:
+
+- **Creation is not gated.** The file is written. A gate that refused creation
+  would leave a project unable to open a phase, a decision or a knowledge card
+  at all, which is not a door needing a hand — it is the wall this checklist
+  exists to avoid.
+- **The next write to it is.** The refusal names `perry-conform declare` with
+  the exact path, so the road is one command, exactly as in row 1.
+
+Concretely, in Perry's own repository on the day of the flip: `phase/002`,
+`DESIGN-007` and one knowledge card were undeclared, because the last
+declaration ran 2026-08-17 and all three were created on the 18th and 19th. None
+of them was malformed. They were simply younger than the last time a human said
+*yes, this is Perry's shape*.
+
+This is a **consequence of the design, not a gap in it.** A writer that declared
+its own output would be certifying its own work, which is the thing ADR-004's
+*adoption proposes; the user declares* exists to prevent. Naming the real scope
+does not argue for changing it — it argues that "one declaration at setup" is
+the wrong mental model, and "a declaration each time the shape of your state
+grows" is the right one.
+
 **Going back is per project, not per release.** A project that wants the old
 behaviour sets `- Conformance gate: advisory` in `.perry/config.md`; a single
 command gets `PERRY_CONFORMANCE=advisory`. Both branches stay live and both stay