gate-probe

# Gate probe A green gate may be protecting the product or looking at nothing. Deliberately breaking the protected property is how to tell. - A **gate** is an automated check that blocks a violation: lint, contract test, e2e spec, or CI step. - A **probe** is a defect planted on purpose to prove that gate turns red. This repository has shipped gates that searched generated prose instead of the screen, stayed green after the subject was deleted, checked only a function name, matched zero files, or were invoked by no workflow. None had been probed. ## 0. State the property Write one sentence describing the product fact the gate protects. Distinguish the fact from its implementation. “The three installation stages remain reachable” is a property; “scroll equals zero” is an implementation detail. ## 1. Inventory before enabling For a new rule, count every current hit and classify it by pattern and legitimacy. Confirm the real violations fit one pull request. Hundreds of new warnings are noise that hides existing signal. A global raw-shadow ban once raised warnings from 144 to 548; a measured selector found five actual defects. If signal cannot be separated from noise, do not create the rule. Record the inventory and why the gate was rejected. ## 2. Plant the defect and require RED Temporarily restore the exact defect or insert one violating line. Run the gate. If it stays green, the gate does not exist. - Change only the probe line; never use `git checkout -- <file>`...