## The hazard
The column backlog is **0**. The two largest numbers the census prints
are now `ROLE (12)` and `STATUS (185)`, sitting directly beneath it,
labelled only `(not guards)`.
That is a verdict with no reason. For a worker under a directive to
drive a census down — finding the backlog line already at zero and two
bigger numbers underneath — "(not guards)" is thin protection. This PR
puts the reason where the numbers are.
## Why they are genuinely not backlog
Both classify by **receiver**, not by the literal
(`ROLE_RECEIVER_TOKENS` = `role, agentType, agent, lane, capability,
sessionPurpose, surface, purpose, agentRole`; status matches
`/status/i`). A legacy column id next to one of those is a different
domain that happens to share vocabulary with the old board. Sampled from
the current tree, not reasoned:
| site | receiver | what it actually is |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `packages/cli/src/commands/task.ts:529` | `outcome === "archived"` | a
task **outcome** |
| `.../routes/register-chat-routes.ts:894` | `type === "done"` | a chat
**message type** |
| `.../cli-agent/telemetry-hub.ts:304` | `kind === "done"` | a telemetry
**kind** |
| `packages/cli/src/commands/goals.ts:178` | `status === "archived"` | a
**goal's** status |
| `packages/cli/src/commands/mission.ts:145` | `status ===
"in-progress"` | a **mission's** status |
None is a task column, so none has a workflow lane to resolve against.
Converting a goal's `status === "archived"` to a column trait would not
remove a legacy id — **it asks the wrong object for a lane it does not
have**, and the resulting bug would be invisible on the default board
for precisely the reason every inert conversion is. That is 185
opportunities to inject a real defect while a number goes down.
## Output-only, verified
Counts, JSON, baseline comparison and exit codes are untouched:
```
--strict exit=0
json totals: {"column": 0, "role": 12, "status": 185, "deliberate": 150} # byte-identical
```
60 census tests pass (`lifecycle-column-census.test.ts`,
`census-reclassification-message.test.ts`). `lifecycle-columns`,
`move-target-literals`, `inert-sync-lanes`, `quarantine-ledger` all exit
0.
## Provenance
I raised "role/status have no inertness proof behind them" several times
as a reason not to touch them, which was too weak — it implied the work
might be valid pending proof. Rather than leave that hanging I went and
looked. They are not unproven conversions; they are **not conversions at
all**. Correcting my own earlier framing, and putting the finding where
the next person will hit it instead of in a report they will not read.
No changeset — internal tooling.
79b08a2e99