Pre-launch input for the 779-guard fleet. **The backlog number does not
move: 784 before, 784 after.** This adds a second number beside it.
## The problem it measures
A guard is not the only way a legacy column id decides behaviour:
```ts
const todo = await this.store.listTasks({ column: "todo", slim: true });
```
That is a **source query** — it selects the rows a sweep considers *at
all*. On a renamed or merged board it returns nothing, so a sweep whose
per-task predicate was correctly converted still does nothing, while
looking converted. `self-healing.ts:2849` names the pairing in prose,
and #2560 had to repair exactly that combination after a converted
predicate was left with a literal query.
The census walks comparison `BinaryExpression`s. A `PropertyAssignment`
is not one, so this class was invisible to the instrument **and to its
ratchet** — it could grow silently.
Measured: **83 query filters, 43 IR node definitions.**
I proved one live consequence earlier on #2648:
`recoverStuckMergeDeadlocks` cannot see a renamed board at all — the
renamed rows exist and none appear in its three-literal union
(`renamedInsideUnion=0`, on a live PG store).
## Why this matters *before* the fleet is briefed
The fleet rule is *"the baseline ratchet must shrink by exactly the
converted count."* In `self-healing.ts` — the largest batch at 111 —
both classes sit in the same functions, so today a worker either:
- converts only the comparisons → arithmetic is clean, and sweeps whose
source query still filters a dead literal stay blind; or
- converts the query too → the count does **not** move by the converted
amount, and a more-correct PR looks like a miscount.
The second punishes the better worker. With a second pinned number,
converting a query becomes visible work instead of an apparent error.
## Counted separately, deliberately
`totals.column` is a published shape — the baseline, the reporter, and
other workers' in-flight PRs read it, and the completion bar is defined
against it. Growing it would move a number the program is actively
driving to zero.
So the new counts live in `summary.properties` / `queryByFile`, under
their own baseline keys, with their own both-directions ratchet (same
rule as #2633's, including the stale-allowance half). `totals` keeps its
**exact** shape — two existing tests assert it with `toEqual`, and
breaking a contract others depend on mid-flight to add a number is not
worth it.
## Definitions are not queries
Workflow IR graph nodes carry `column:` to declare where a node lives —
`{ id: "review", kind: "...", column: "in-review" }`. That is the
lineage describing itself: not a lookup, not convertible, and ~43 of the
raw matches. They are told apart **structurally** (an `id`/`kind`
sibling in the same object literal), not by filename, so a definition
written anywhere classifies the same way.
## Baseline seeding, stated plainly
`--update-baseline` could not pin a **new** category: the regression
check runs before the write, and with no prior key every file reads as a
rise. I seeded the three new keys once, directly, leaving every guard
field byte-identical. The diff is purely additive — no removals.
## Finding, not caused by this change
**`--strict` is already red on clean main**:
`register-task-workflow-routes.ts` is **23** against a baseline of
**22**. Verified by stashing this branch and re-running on an unmodified
tree. Until that is reconciled the guard ratchet is passing nothing —
worth fixing before the fleet starts relying on it as the work order.
## Verification
- census suites **44 green**, 6 new cases: counted; kept out of the
backlog; definition-not-query; both instruments independent (a bug
routing comparisons into the query bucket would otherwise look clean on
both); `DELIBERATE-LITERAL` honoured; non-legacy id ignored
- `node scripts/lifecycle-column-census.mjs` → backlog still 784
- `pnpm lint` exit 0, `pnpm test:gate` exit 0 (695)
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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