audit docs-honesty-lint: milestone close — CLEAN, carry-on, no ratify

Architect clean (one [medium] advisory Sweep-5 self-match wart filed
as P3, not a fix iteration). Bench causally exonerated: HEAD vs
5bb7211/de66eb7 — all 5 firing bench binaries cmp-byte-identical, ail
sha256 identical at all 3 commits; the check.py firings are the two
tracked-P2 environmental classes (*.bump_s anchor staleness; *.max_us
-n5 tail-jitter, 4th on a zero-runtime-change milestone), NOT this
milestone — NO baseline ratify (Iron Law forbids ratifying noise).
compile_check 0/24, cross_lang 0/25 EXIT 0. No fieldtest (zero
authoring-surface change). docs-honesty-lint CLOSED: roadmap [~]->[x],
WhatsNew appended, INDEX line added.

docs/journals/INDEX.md

@@ -92,3 +92,4 @@
 - 2026-05-18 — audit remove-mut-var-assign (milestone close, CLEAN after one inline `.tidy`): scope `48e7774..07f0802`. Architect drift: one `[high]` — `crates/ailang-core/specs/form_a.md` (live in-tree Form-A grammar still documented the full `mut`/`var`/`assign` construct: EBNF 286-288, prose 308-328, dangling `like mut` at 332); the spec named it for deletion, the iter missed it. Root cause = recon-undercount class **4th recurrence + a Boss error**: a plan-time grep checked only `docs/form_a.md` (dir-scoped), got "No such file", and the Boss propagated that unverified non-existence claim into the recon brief — the real file is `crates/ailang-core/specs/form_a.md`, actively maintained, and a stale doc never produces a compile error so the implement compile-sweep could not catch it. Fixed inline as a Boss `.tidy` (CLAUDE.md context-already-loaded carve-out; full review discipline kept — tree-wide verified zero construct residue except the roadmap entry that names the milestone itself; grammar reads coherently reuse-as→loop→recur). One `[medium]` process-drift: escalated the existing loop-recur.tidy `ailang-plan-recon` P2 in place — broadened from cross-crate-caller to a structural recon-contract defect with two named gaps (non-compile-checked spec-named sites; unverified "X does not exist" claims inheriting into a recon brief) + a concrete fix (compile-driven enumeration as authoritative code-site set PLUS an `ls`-verified spec-named-path existence table). Bench: `compile_check.py` 0/24 + `cross_lang.py` 0/25 exit 0; `check.py` exit 1 (3 firings: `bench_list_sum.bump_s` +12.51%, `latency.{explicit,implicit}_at_rc.max_us` +108%/+66%). Bencher causal exoneration **decisive**: HEAD vs `48e7774` `list_sum_bump`/`lat_expl_rc`/`lat_impl_rc` binaries `cmp`-byte-identical — the −2520-line removal alters zero bytes of these fixtures' machine code, no causal mechanism; `bump_s` = the tracked P2 environmental staleness, both `*.max_us` = single-sample `-n 5` jitter (`explicit_at_rc.max_us` +108%→**-2.30% ok** on identical-code rerun, medians held). **PRISTINE met on the merits; NO baseline ratify** (Iron Law forbids ratifying noise, spec forecloses it). Filed a NEW distinct P2 (separate from `*.bump_s` staleness): `check.py` RC-latency `*.max_us` at `-n 5` is a 3-for-3 structural false-positive on no-runtime-change milestones → drop from gating / raise `-n` / cpuset-pin. Milestone audit **CLEAN**; only `fieldtest` (surface-touching) remains before close → 2026-05-18-audit-remove-mut-var-assign.md
 - 2026-05-18 — fieldtest remove-mut-var-assign (milestone CLOSE, clean — removal thesis empirically confirmed): post-audit downstream-LLM-author field test of the post-removal Form-A surface. The fieldtester (DESIGN.md + form_a.md + public examples only, never compiler source) wrote 4 FRESH real-world programs an imperative-trained author would instinctively reach for a mutable local for — running sum-of-squares accumulator (`loop`/`recur`, 2 binders → `385`), grade-classification cascade (let-threaded flag through 4 `if` → `4`/`2`/`0`), Horner polynomial straight-line build-up (5 `let acc` shadows → `73`), multi-state bracket-balance scanner threading `(rest,depth,ok)` by tail recursion → `true`/`false`) plus an out-of-tree `mut`-keyword rejection probe. **0 bugs, 0 friction, 0 spec_gap, 4 working**: every task expressed cleanly and correctly on the FIRST try with only `let`/`if`/`loop`/`recur`; all 4 `ail parse|render|parse` byte-identical. The closest-to-friction case (the multi-state machine must restate the full state tuple at every tail-call even when a branch changes one component) was carefully classified `working` not `spec_gap` — that explicit-dataflow cost IS the local-reasoning pillar working as designed, and `mut`'s implicit cross-iteration persistence of un-restated state is precisely the clause-3 failure the removal eliminates; the fieldtester explicitly noted the only conceivable sugar (a record to bundle state) is an orthogonal additive future question, NOT evidence against the removal (refused the scope-creep). The `mut` rejection is fail-closed with an actively-guiding diagnostic that enumerates the surviving term heads incl. `loop`/`recur`/`let` (no tombstone, no-nostalgia, as spec'd). Independent Boss verification: all 4 fixtures re-run → `385`/`4 2 0`/`73`/`true false`, zero `mut`/`var`/`assign` construct tokens in any fixture (a doc-faithful author did not produce the removed construct — the affirmative clause-1 evidence). **Verdict: the removal thesis is confirmed** — `mut` was redundant with `let`/`if`/`loop`/`recur` in 100% of the fresh real tasks; no expressivity lost. **The remove-mut-var-assign milestone is fully ratified and CLOSED**: spec+plan+iter, audit clean (architect `[high]` form_a.md fixed in `.tidy`, bench causally exonerated), fieldtest clean on the removal axis. Fixtures `examples/fieldtest/remove-mut_*.ail` + spec `docs/specs/2026-05-18-fieldtest-remove-mut-var-assign.md`; roadmap P0 flipped `[~]`→`[x]`, WhatsNew.md user-facing entry appended; next queue item (DESIGN.md/docs honesty-lint) is a NEW milestone = a /boss new-milestone bounce-back (not auto-started) → 2026-05-18-fieldtest-remove-mut-var-assign.md
 - 2026-05-18 — iter docs-honesty-lint.1 (single-iteration milestone, DONE): canonical docs made present-tense-honest. Stripped Wunschdenken (forward intent stated as fact) + non-citation post-mortem/doc-archaeology from `docs/DESIGN.md` (14 corrections: L484 iter-anchor, L503/L1318/L1504/L2027/L2065/L2135 post-mortem, L650 malformed-Wunschdenken, L655 dated-heading, L1513/L1837/L2046/L2519 Wunschdenken, + the Task-4-Step-14 procedural-catch-all FIX at the Form-B prose-projection bullet "was deferred from milestone 22 entirely … A future iter ships" — a soft-wrapped site the spec's illustrative regex would have missed, the procedural enumeration working exactly as designed) + `docs/PROSE_ROUNDTRIP.md` (tool-use/MCP paragraph); genuine forward intent (LLM tool-use/MCP/LSP) relocated to roadmap P3. Codified the two-pronged tense+modality discriminator as a present-tense `### What this document is — and the honesty rule it holds itself to` meta-subsection in DESIGN.md §"Project ecosystem". Anti-regrowth two ways: wrap-robust enumerated absent/present pin `crates/ailang-core/tests/docs_honesty_pin.rs` (a `norm()` whitespace-collapse helper structurally discharges the recurring grep/contains line-wrap failure family — strictly better than the effect-doc-honesty "keep-on-one-line" precedent; resolves spec Testing-item 0 + planner self-review item 6 at once) + wrap-robust advisory Sweep 5 in `bench/architect_sweeps.sh` (contiguous-fragment regex, since DESIGN.md is hard-wrapped ~70col) with full sweep-count lockstep (header + "All four"→"All five" tail + `ailang-architect.md` "four"→"five sweeps") + a new `ailang-architect.md` "DESIGN.md honesty drift" bullet citing the meta-subsection. Protected-exception KEEPs preserved + pinned-present (Diverge-reserved, regions-considered-and-rejected, the self-labelled "tiebreaker, not a rationale"); `form_a.md` correctly left untouched/unpinned. One plan-internal DONE_WITH_CONCERNS (Task-1 pin string omitted a `**…**` bold the Task-3 body added; resolved by dropping the non-load-bearing emphasis, pin is the contract) — planner self-review-item-3 calibration note. Independent Boss verification: pin 4/4 GREEN, full `cargo test --workspace` 0 failures (delta = +4 pin tests only), sentinel trio (`design_schema_drift`/`spec_drift`/`schema_coverage`) green, `cargo build --workspace` clean, scope = ONLY THE PIN in `crates/` (zero language/checker/codegen/runtime change, `ail check`/`run`/`build` byte-unchanged by construction). Post-iter sweep residue = only the 3 documented deliberate KEEPs (Sweep-1 L50 doc-roles-pointer date + L2060 true `(iter str-concat)` provenance; Sweep-5 L62 self-referential discriminator-catalogue), EXIT=1 architect-adjudicated-expected. Milestone-close `audit` is the next pipeline step (no fieldtest — zero authoring-surface change). spec `docs/specs/2026-05-18-docs-honesty-lint.md` (grounding-check PASS 10/10), plan `docs/plans/docs-honesty-lint.1.md` → 2026-05-18-iter-docs-honesty-lint.1.md
+- 2026-05-18 — audit docs-honesty-lint (milestone close, CLEAN — carry-on, NO ratify): scope `928e1c0..e50b400`. Architect `clean`: scope claim exact (zero `crates/**/src/**` + `runtime/`; sole crates/ change the additive RED-first-now-GREEN `docs_honesty_pin.rs`; lockstep pairs untouched), all 14 DESIGN.md corrections genuinely present-tense with the 4 protected KEEPs (`Diverge`-reserved/`Regions`-rejected/`tiebreaker`/`No deriving`) un-stripped, agent-def "four→five" lockstep complete, sweep residue exactly the 3 documented deliberate KEEPs. One `[medium]` standing advisory wart — Sweep 5's regex self-matches the discriminator subsection's own forbidden-phrasing catalogue (DESIGN.md L62) forever (architect-flagged; orchestrator-adjudicated → filed as a P3 todo, NOT a fix iteration — not a new failure mode since the script is advisory-with-residue by design). Bench: `compile_check.py` 0/24 + `cross_lang.py` 0/25 EXIT 0 (cross_lang independently reads the same `bench_list_sum` bump path +5.95% within tol); `check.py` EXIT 1, 3 firings (`bench_list_sum.bump_s` +13.42%, `latency.implicit_at_rc.{p99_9,max}_us` +37.65%/+134.70%). Bencher causal exoneration **decisive**: HEAD vs `5bb7211` vs `de66eb7` — all 5 firing bench binaries `cmp`-byte-identical, `ail` sha256 identical at all three commits ⇒ zero causal mechanism; `*.max_us` = tracked-P2 `-n 5` tail-jitter (4th occurrence on a zero-runtime-change milestone, median/p99 rock-steady), `*.bump_s` = tracked-P2 environmental-anchor-staleness (persistent ~+15%, stale 0.046s anchor). **EXONERATED, NO baseline ratify** (Iron Law forbids ratifying noise; spec forecloses a zero-codegen baseline bump). Two pre-existing standing P2 items kept orchestrator-owned, explicitly NOT bundled into this close (bencher recommendation honoured). Milestone audit **CLEAN**; no fieldtest (zero authoring-surface change — the wrap-robust pin + Sweep 5 ARE the regression coverage). **docs-honesty-lint fully ratified and CLOSED**: spec (grounding-check PASS 10/10) + plan + single iter + audit clean; roadmap P0 flipped `[~]`→`[x]`, WhatsNew.md user-facing entry appended → 2026-05-18-audit-docs-honesty-lint.md