## U12 part 9 — the flag census now answers itself
Independent of the #2530 rebase; adds one test file, no production
changes.
## The answer, first: NO, the settings key cannot be deleted yet
**Three files reference the raw flag on current main (`3ff98aae5`):**
```
packages/core/src/store.ts ← declares it
packages/core/src/task-store/moves.ts:363 ← U2b: `useWorkflow`
packages/core/src/task-store/workflow-task-create-ops.ts:351 ← U2b: move-policy preflight
```
Everything else that greps is a comment, a test writing the flag
deliberately to reach the dead path, or the unrelated
`workflowColumns.*` i18n namespace for the Columns editor panel.
**Why I can't remove them.** Both are on the move path and belong to
**U2b**, which carries an equivalence-proof obligation because the two
move implementations it arbitrates have never both run in production.
They are also **not separable from each other**:
`workflow-task-create-ops.ts:351` computes the `movePolicyPreflight`
that `moves.ts` consumes and validates, so un-gating it alone would
start evaluating workflow move policies — with their plugin-gate side
effects — while the branch consuming the result stays off. That is a
behaviour change with no consumer, which is worse than either end state.
**U2b has not landed.** Program history on main runs `#2466 → #2467 →
#2468 → #2469 → #2479 → #2500 → #2512 → #2513 → #2525 → #2528 → #2535`.
#2468 was Phase A2 **steps 1–2 only** — the differential
characterisation. No convergence PR exists.
## Why this is a PR and not another status message
You have asked this question three times. I have answered it three times
by grepping, and each answer was a number nobody could re-derive later —
including me, which is why I re-ran the audit from scratch each time.
That is exactly the shape this program keeps finding: a fact everyone
believes, maintained by nobody.
So the census is now a test. It **fails in both directions**,
deliberately:
- **A new read appears** → someone re-gated behaviour on a flag that is
`false` for every real project, so the feature behind it will not run.
That is the defect class U12 spent its length finding (the capacity
gate, the U5 guards, the move policies — all looked enforced, none
were).
- **The last read disappears** → U2b has landed, and the settings key
can finally go. The removal steps are written at the assertion.
The second case is the one that matters. It converts "remember to delete
the settings key someday" into a failing test at the exact moment that
becomes possible, instead of a note in a PR body that ages out.
## Verified in both directions, not assumed
- Adding a reference in `lifecycle-ops.ts` → fails with `+
"packages/core/src/task-store/lifecycle-ops.ts"`.
- Dropping `moves.ts` from the allowlist → fails with `+
"packages/core/src/task-store/moves.ts"`.
Equality rather than subset is what makes the second case possible; a
subset check would let the last reader vanish silently and leave the key
orphaned forever.
Two supporting assertions, both there because of failure modes this
program has already hit:
- **No production code WRITES the key.** That is the premise the entire
unit rests on — if a writer appears, every "this branch is unreachable"
conclusion in U12 needs revisiting.
- **The scan sees >200 files.** A broken path glob would otherwise make
every assertion vacuously green: a guard reporting success without
checking anything.
## Verification
`pnpm test:gate` (414 + 10 + 71), `pnpm lint`, `pnpm verify:fast`, core
typecheck green.
## Standing offer
If you want U12 actually closed rather than ratcheted, the remaining
work is U2b's convergence. I have the inventory and the divergence list
its characterisation suite does not yet cover (plugin column gates, the
`transitionPending` marker, `workflowId` in `task:move` run-audit,
move-policy preflight). I would want the current U2b worker stood down
from `moves.ts` first — two writers on the file this whole program
pivots on is the one hazard I would not take on my own authority.
<!-- This is an auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai
-->
## Summary by CodeRabbit
* **Tests**
* Added a new automated Vitest “census ratchet” to ensure only an
approved, fixed set of production reads is made for the workflow columns
compatibility flag.
* Added checks that disallow hardcoded `workflowColumns: true/false`
assignments in production sources.
* Added allowlist validation, including per-file occurrence counts,
required rationale text length, and confirmation that referenced files
exist.
<!-- end of auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai -->
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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