Exempt non-HTML sitemap entries from production page assertions

The production checker applied HTML assertions to the assistant guide,
reporting three defects for a plain-text surface that cannot carry a
canonical link or JSON-LD. It now honours nonHtmlSitemapPaths the same
way the offline checker does, checking reachability only.

Records the 2026-08-28 machine-lane observations: both contracts clean
against deployed 1484e31, with live date agreement spot-checked.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: snapsynapse

ops/search-indexing.md

@@ -149,13 +149,17 @@ because provider state later changed; add a new dated file instead.
 
 ## Current classified state
 
-As of 2026-08-20. Evidence: [`ops/search/GoogleSearchConsole/2026-08-20/audit.md`](search/GoogleSearchConsole/2026-08-20/audit.md).
+Machine lanes as of 2026-08-28; console lane as of 2026-08-20. Console
+evidence: [`ops/search/GoogleSearchConsole/2026-08-20/audit.md`](search/GoogleSearchConsole/2026-08-20/audit.md).
 
 | Lane | Date | Result |
 |---|---|---|
-| Repository and generated artifact | 2026-08-20 | Pass. All gates green at `49c9317`. |
-| Production HTTP | 2026-08-20 | Pass against deployed `93feb3d`, spot-checked on `49c9317`. 24 of 24 sitemap URLs 200, canonical-exact, unique non-empty descriptions. |
-| Google Search Console | 2026-08-20, Page indexing report dated 2026-08-16 | Five defects resolved. Two rows pending recrawl. |
+| Repository and generated artifact | 2026-08-28 | Pass. All gates green at `1484e31`, CI green on Node 18 and 20. Offline search contract: 24 sitemap pages, 0 defects. |
+| Production HTTP | 2026-08-28 | Pass against deployed `1484e31`. Production search contract: 24 sitemap pages, 0 defects, 0 infrastructure failures. Spot-checked live JSON-LD and sitemap `lastmod` / `article:modified_time` / JSON-LD `dateModified` agreement on `/demo/container/nist-csf/`. |
+| Google Search Console | 2026-08-20, Page indexing report dated 2026-08-16 | Five defects resolved. Two rows pending recrawl. Not re-observed since; see "Next review". |
+
+Both machine lanes are now contract-checked rather than hand-verified. The
+2026-08-20 observations they replace remain in the dated evidence file above.
 
 Provider state at observation: 2 indexed, 8 not indexed, 10 known URLs against
 24 declared targets. Both sitemaps now read Success on 2026-08-20 with 2 and 22

scripts/check-production-search.mjs

@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@
 // change_summary: Revalidated unchanged for the v5 bundle; the portable repository contract remains v4.
 // Upstream: portfolio-search-indexing-audit contract v4.
 // Release-triggered HTTP validation. Exit 2 means infrastructure is unavailable.
+// Local adaptation for this repository: sitemap entries listed in
+// config.nonHtmlSitemapPaths (the assistant guide, an unresolved sitemap-policy
+// decision) are checked for reachability only, matching scripts/check-search.mjs.
 'use strict';
 
 import fs from 'node:fs';
@@ -262,6 +265,14 @@ function lastmodAgreement(html, url, sitemapLastmod) {
 
 async function checkPage(canonical) {
     const target = deployedUrl(canonical);
+    // Non-HTML sitemap entries (this property publishes the assistant guide as
+    // one) are checked for reachability only; canonical, JSON-LD, and noindex
+    // assertions do not apply to a plain-text surface.
+    if ((config.nonHtmlSitemapPaths || []).includes(new URL(canonical).pathname)) {
+        const plain = await fetchText(target, { contentTypes: ['text/plain'] });
+        if (plain && plain.response.url !== target) report('defect', `${target}: final URL is ${plain.response.url}`);
+        return;
+    }
     const result = await fetchText(target, { contentTypes: ['text/html'] });
     if (!result) return;
     if (result.response.url !== target) report('defect', `${target}: final URL is ${result.response.url}`);