@@ -63,6 +63,24 @@ import { isEntrypoint } from './invoked-as.mjs';
 const REPO_ROOT = join(dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..');
 const MANIFEST_PATH = 'sdui.manifest.json';
 const OUT_DIR = 'content/docs/ui/components';
+
+/**
+ * The repo-root file this generator reads, declared for `scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs`.
+ *
+ * The derivation reads SOURCE TEXT, and `MANIFEST_PATH` above is a literal with
+ * no separator, which `hintCovers` refuses as too generic. `OUT_DIR` was always
+ * visible and the manifest was not, so a diff that changed only the manifest
+ * never derived `pnpm check:sdui-reference` -- the one diff this gate exists to
+ * catch, since a regenerated manifest beside a stale reference reds it in CI.
+ *
+ * The `/**` suffix is the repo-root-file spelling of the idiom (the same one
+ * `scripts/check-sdui-manifest.mjs` declares for this file): a bare
+ * single-segment literal builds no hint, and the collapse reduces this one back
+ * to the single file it names and to nothing else. The self-test holds it equal
+ * to `MANIFEST_PATH`, so a moved read reds there instead of leaving the
+ * declaration describing the old file.
+ */
+const ROOT_FILE_WATCH_HINTS = ['sdui.manifest.json/**'];
 const URL_BASE = '/docs/ui/components';
 const COMMAND = 'node scripts/gen-sdui-reference.mjs';
 
@@ -657,6 +675,23 @@ function selfTest() {
     }
   }
 
+  // ── The dispatch-gates population declaration ──────────────────────────
+  // Outside the cases table on purpose: each row there is a declared battery
+  // about the rendering, and this asserts what the derivation can see.
+  const declFail = (message) => {
+    console.error(`✗ self-test: ${message}`);
+    failed += 1;
+  };
+  const declaredReads = ROOT_FILE_WATCH_HINTS.map((h) => h.replace(/\/\*+$/, ''));
+  if (declaredReads.length !== 1 || declaredReads[0] !== MANIFEST_PATH) {
+    declFail(`ROOT_FILE_WATCH_HINTS declares ${JSON.stringify(declaredReads)}, not the manifest this script reads `
+      + `(${MANIFEST_PATH}) — an undeclared read is how a manifest-only diff stopped deriving this gate.`);
+  }
+  if (!ROOT_FILE_WATCH_HINTS.filter((h) => !h.replace(/\/\*+$/, '').includes('/')).every((h) => h.endsWith('/**'))) {
+    declFail('a repo-ROOT file is declared without the subtree suffix — a bare single-segment literal is '
+      + 'refused by hintCovers as too generic, so it would contribute no hint at all.');
+  }
+
   const floorFailure = (message) => {
     console.error(`✗ self-test floor: ${message}`);
     failed += 1;
 
@@ -3525,6 +3525,15 @@ export function selfTest({ tier = 'full' } = {}) {
   t('a one-root declaration does not reach the other root file', !proseHints.some((h) => hintCovers(h, 'CLAUDE.md')));
   const anchorRootHints = extractWatchHints(readFileSync(nodePath.join(ROOT, 'scripts/check-doc-anchors.mjs'), 'utf8'), 'scripts/check-doc-anchors.mjs');
   t('and the doc-anchors pair claims neither instruction file', !anchorRootHints.some((h) => hintCovers(h, 'AGENTS.md') || hintCovers(h, 'CLAUDE.md')));
+  // The same class on a non-instruction root file, driven end to end through the
+  // live fleet: `check:sdui-reference` reads the repo-root `sdui.manifest.json`
+  // and reds in CI when the manifest moves without the reference, so the
+  // manifest alone must place it. Fixed by the gate's own declaration, never by
+  // admitting bare root literals here. If the gate stops reading the manifest,
+  // delete these cases with the declaration.
+  const sduiReference = discoverFamilies().byCheck.get('check:sdui-reference');
+  t('a diff of sdui.manifest.json alone derives pnpm check:sdui-reference', Boolean(sduiReference) && placeFamily(sduiReference, ['sdui.manifest.json']).verdict === 'matched');
+  t('and that declaration claims no same-named file inside a directory', Boolean(sduiReference) && placeFamily(sduiReference, ['examples/sdui.manifest.json']).verdict !== 'matched');
 
   // A THIRD shape of the same class, and the one with the worst failure
   // direction (#13207): a gate whose declared population was its OWN GUARDED