[guard.docs.rho.D8+] a construction-status page is the most rot-prone file in a repo, because it is what people write instead of measuring

STATUS.md would have been true for about a day. Gate 6 now checks the one part of
it that can be checked mechanically — the facet inventory — in BOTH directions,
and the two directions fail differently:

  a facet directory with no row  -> UNDERSTATES the system (someone shipped and
                                    did not say). A reader cannot catch an omission.
  a row naming no directory      -> OVERSTATES it (renamed or deleted, still
                                    advertised). A reader cannot catch this either,
                                    and this is the direction that becomes a lie.

Keyed on the real path fragment `facets/<dir>/` rather than on prose: "the Fields
facet" is not checkable, and a check keyed on wording would convict whoever
rewrites a sentence — which is the backwards gate this repo already argued against
when the physics README gate was built.

RED PROOF, both directions, through scripts/lib/mutate.mjs so the mutation is
asserted to have changed the bytes before any verdict is read: dropping
`facets/field-wields/` -> exit 1 "has no row in"; renaming `facets/bond-atlas/`
to a facet that does not exist -> exit 1 "does not exist on disk"; restored ->
exit 0, STATUS.md byte-identical.

Also: the four documents now declare their own division of labour at the top of
ARCHITECTURE.md, by ROT RATE rather than by topic — architecture rots when a layer
boundary moves, the spec when a contract changes, STATUS on any commit, ROADMAP
when the terminal state changes. That is the reason they are four files and not
one: a document that mixes a yearly fact with a per-commit fact is stale on the
day it is written, and the per-commit half is what gets believed.

Deployment status is now stated in exactly ONE place (STATUS.md) with the short
version repeated at the top of ARCHITECTURE.md, because that question — "is any of
this live?" — is the one a reader asks first and the one this repo answered wrongly
by accident for weeks.

Author: ivanicu

ARCHITECTURE.md

@@ -2,7 +2,18 @@
 
 This is the WHY and the growth map. For the WHAT — types, wire schemas, state
 machines, failure model, named constants — read `SPEC.md`; this file does not
-restate it. Verified against `HEAD` `54c24d4`, 2026-08-11. The previous version
+restate it. **Four documents, four rot rates, one home per fact:**
+
+| document | answers | rots when |
+|---|---|---|
+| `ARCHITECTURE.md` | why the layers are cut where they are | a layer boundary moves |
+| `SPEC.md` | the interfaces, flows and failure model | a contract changes |
+| `STATUS.md` | what is actually built, and what is a seam with nothing writing to it | any commit |
+| `ROADMAP.md` | how these seams reach the terminal state without a rewrite | the terminal state changes |
+
+**Deployment status lives in exactly one place — `STATUS.md`.** Short version, so
+nobody has to guess: NOT DEPLOYED, no auth, no public URL, three hand-started
+processes. Verified against `HEAD` `54c24d4`, 2026-08-11. The previous version
 of this file (removed here) was written 25 commits earlier, at `545f9f2`
 (2026-08-10 20:30) — before either of the two migrations that this document is
 mostly about existed. It described an `/embed` endpoint that returns "a

SPEC.md

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ N: 8901-endpoints=2 consumers · facet-callsites=11 · field_cube-writers(py)=1
 spec-budget: 600 lines / one session
 staleness-predicate: `python3 ~/.claude/skills/software-spec/scripts/spec_lint.py SPEC.md --rerun`
 INTERFACE: `contracts/iface.pyi` (Python half) · `contracts/iface.d.ts` (TS half)
+BUILD STATE: `STATUS.md` (what is shipped vs a seam with no writer) · `ROADMAP.md` (the phases and their rewrite tripwires). This spec describes the contracts, NOT how much of them is wired — asking one document to be both is how a spec starts lying about a system that has moved.
 FIGURE-2: §4 = the two stubs + the three STATE×EVENT tables + JOIN LEDGER + CONSTANT LEDGER + failure cells. Prose outside §4 is WHY.
 
 ## 0 · MEASUREMENT

scripts/check_docs_facts.mjs

@@ -310,6 +310,53 @@ for (const relFile of COMMAND_DOC_FILES) {
     }
 }
 
+// ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+// 3. STATUS.md's FACET TABLE vs the facets on disk — BOTH directions
+//
+// A construction-status document is the single most rot-prone artifact in a
+// repo, because it is the one people write instead of measuring. This check
+// makes the facet inventory the part that cannot drift: a facet directory with
+// no row is UNDOCUMENTED (someone shipped and did not say), and a row naming a
+// directory that does not exist is a STALE CLAIM (something was renamed or
+// removed and the status page still advertises it).
+//
+// Both directions matter and they fail differently: the first understates the
+// system, the second overstates it. Only one of those gets caught by a reader.
+// ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+{
+    const FACET_DIR = 'src/app.frontend.facets.molstar-rdkit.editable/facets';
+    let dirs = [];
+    try {
+        dirs = fs.readdirSync(path.join(ROOT, FACET_DIR), { withFileTypes: true })
+            .filter(d => d.isDirectory() && !d.name.startsWith('_'))
+            .map(d => d.name);
+    } catch (e) {
+        violate('STATUS.md', 0, `cannot read ${FACET_DIR} (${e.message}) — this check is `
+            + 'BLIND, which is not the same as passing');
+    }
+    if (dirs.length) {
+        const statusText = read('STATUS.md');
+        // A row must reference the facet by its real path fragment, not by a
+        // prose name: `facets/field-wells/` is checkable, "the Fields facet" is
+        // not, and a check keyed on prose would convict on rewording.
+        for (const d of dirs) {
+            if (!statusText.includes(`facets/${d}/`)) {
+                violate('STATUS.md', 0, `facet \`${FACET_DIR}/${d}/\` has no row in `
+                    + `STATUS.md — an undocumented facet makes the status page understate `
+                    + `the system, and nobody notices an omission`);
+            }
+        }
+        for (const m of statusText.matchAll(/facets\/([a-z0-9-]+)\//g)) {
+            if (!dirs.includes(m[1])) {
+                violate('STATUS.md', 0, `STATUS.md claims a facet \`facets/${m[1]}/\` that `
+                    + `does not exist on disk — a stale claim OVERSTATES the system, which `
+                    + `is the direction a reader cannot catch`);
+            }
+        }
+        info.push(`STATUS.md facet table: ${dirs.length} facet directories, both directions checked`);
+    }
+}
+
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