Owner decision: let master runs finish, make ledger lag pending, then require the ratchets (epic #6595) #10193

Owner decision, part of epic #6595 (items A and B). Every item below is a .yml or .py change, so the only-t27 gate correctly refuses it from an agent. Each one needs the owner's commit or the owner-approved-foreign label. The pure-t27 half of the work landed as #10192: the t27b ledger steward now applies the safe rows when one finding is refused.

Boundary

• .github/workflows/corpus-ratchet.yml, dupe-ratchet.yml, cli-tri.yml, t27b-native.yml, issue-gate.yml (the issue-shape job), queen-publish.yml (job derived-records).
• Ruleset 14813367 t27-master-protection (repo settings).
• No .t27 change: the rules are already written in specs/ci/derived_data.t27, specs/tri/t27b/ledger_steward.t27 and specs/policy/required_contexts.t27.

Scenarios

Measured on 2026-10-18 between 00:00 and 04:00Z:

1. Master moved 112 first-parent commits in 12.5 hours (about 9 an hour). corpus-ratchet.yml, dupe-ratchet.yml and cli-tri.yml use cancel-in-progress: true on github.ref, master included. Of their last 100 master runs:

   • Corpus Ratchet: 88 cancelled, 10 failed, 2 succeeded.
   • Duplicate Body Ratchet: 72 cancelled, 12 failed, 16 succeeded.
   • t27b native: 73 cancelled, 27 failed, 0 succeeded.

   A master commit is almost never judged, so a red that lands is found by the next PR, not by the commit that caused it.

2. The ruleset requires only validate, check-linked-issue, parse-ratchet and own-language. It sets strict_required_status_checks_policy=false and has no merge queue. A PR that turns Corpus ratchet, cli-tri, duplicate-bodies or t27b-native-ratchet red still merges, and every later PR inherits the red (see ci: master red again -- 8 stale corpus-ledger rows after #10101/#10095, census not re-pinned after #10087 #10171, fix(ci): master green again -- stale corpus-ledger rows, census re-pin, t27mcp duplicate helpers (Closes #10171) #10172).

3. Ledger lag is red, not pending. t27b-native-ratchet on master reports UNLISTED 263 and nothing else. specs/ci/derived_data.t27 already says lag (UNLISTED, UNEXPECTED PASS, MOVED, STALE) is V_PENDING and that one bot re-derives it, but its wiring into the workflows was never done (t27b: repair crypto and rust_convert; distinguish PR ledger lag #9637, open since 10-15, waits on the label).

4. The steward's refusal issues (ledger: the steward refuses master ...) and its APPLY tracking issues carry no Boundary/Scenarios/Requirements/Criteria headings. The issue-shape gate closes each one within about 12 seconds, so no one reads them.

Requirements

FR-001: corpus-ratchet.yml, dupe-ratchet.yml and cli-tri.yml MUST cancel only superseded PR runs: cancel-in-progress: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' }} (the same block as #7569), so every master commit gets a verdict.

FR-002: t27b-native.yml and corpus-ratchet.yml MUST report ledger lag (UNLISTED, UNEXPECTED PASS, MOVED, STALE) as pending, not failure, as specs/ci/derived_data.t27 says; a regression (UNEXPECTED FAILURE, a defect) MUST stay red. #9637 is the candidate and needs the label.

FR-003: The issue-shape job MUST skip issues labelled t27b-ledger-steward, as it already skips epic and roadmap; the alternative is for queen-publish to write the template's sections into the bodies it opens.

FR-004: Once FR-001 to FR-003 hold, the ruleset MUST require Corpus ratchet, cli-tri, duplicate-bodies and t27b-native-ratchet, and the merge queue SHOULD be enabled (#6595 item A). Without FR-002 first, a required ratchet would block every PR on lag no PR caused.

Success Criteria

• gh run list -w corpus-ratchet.yml -b master -L 20 shows no cancelled master run.
• t27b-native-ratchet on master is neutral or green while only lag is present (its step ends with exit 0), and red on an UNEXPECTED FAILURE.
• A steward issue stays open until its PR closes it.
• The ruleset lists the four checks, and a PR that breaks one of them cannot merge.

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