# α close-out — Cycle 418

**Cycle:** [cnos#418](https://github.com/usurobor/cnos/issues/418) — Sub 4 of [cnos#404](https://github.com/usurobor/cnos/issues/404)
**Date:** 2026-05-22.

## Summary

α landed Sub 4 of the cnos#404 handoff/coordination extraction wave: two new sub-skills at canonical handoff paths (mid-flight/SKILL.md 348 lines; artifact-channel/SKILL.md 361 lines); HANDOFF.md two-row update to Landed; extraction-map.md §4 + §5 + §8 rows marked migrated; cross-references repaired in handoff/{cross-repo,dispatch,SKILL.md,README.md} + cdd/{alpha,beta,gamma} + cds/CDS.md (two pointer paragraphs). β APPROVE-d R1.

## Findings

### F1 (no-patch) — Mid-flight rescue rate-of-fire is the inverse signal of dispatch-time pinning quality

**Class:** observation / cross-protocol-relationship.
**Trigger:** drafting the §3.6 rule ("The rescue is a structural escape valve, not a routine cadence") in mid-flight/SKILL.md.
**Description:** The mid-flight rescue mechanism's rate-of-fire across cycles is the inverse signal of dispatch-time implementation-contract pinning quality. Across the cnos#388–#412 wave, most post-codification cycles shipped with zero `gamma-clarification.md` events; the rescue channel was operationally rare because the dispatch-time gate at `dispatch/SKILL.md §3` caught the omissions. A cycle with > 1–2 clarifications is a dispatch-time signal. The skill names this in §3.6 as a non-routine cadence rule; ε reads the pattern and codifies if needed.
**Disposition:** **no-patch** — the rule is documented; no further action this cycle. If a future cycle ships with 3+ clarifications, file an ε finding against the dispatch protocol.

### F2 (no-patch) — Sub 4 dispatcher's Q3/Q5 rulings preserved per-mechanism cohesion

**Class:** retrospective ruling justification.
**Trigger:** open question Q3 (Sub 4 unification) in extraction-map.md.
**Description:** The Sub 4 dispatcher's ruling to split mid-flight + artifact-channel into two skills (rather than unify into one `intra-cycle/SKILL.md`) preserved per-mechanism cohesion. Mid-flight is asynchronous γ-to-in-flight-α; artifact-channel is sequential α→β→γ. Different rates of fire, different protocols. The combined file would have conflated two mechanisms with different load-bearing structure. The split is empirically motivated (cnos#391 anchors mid-flight specifically; the channel-shape was empirically stable across all cycles since pre-#364) and structurally cleaner.
**Disposition:** **no-patch** — the ruling is recorded in gamma-scaffold.md and extraction-map.md; the split is the structural decision Sub 4 makes.

### F3 (no-patch) — Sub 5 (receipt-stream) is the natural Sub 4 follow-on

**Class:** observation / dependency ordering.
**Trigger:** authoring artifact-channel/SKILL.md §2.5 "Cross-cycle aggregation" pointer to receipt-stream/SKILL.md (forthcoming under Sub 5).
**Description:** The artifact-channel skill names the per-cycle `cdd-iteration.md` artifact and points to `.cdd/iterations/INDEX.md` as the cross-cycle aggregator, but defers the per-finding shape, INDEX.md row format, and cross-repo trace bundle rules to Sub 5 / receipt-stream/SKILL.md. The Sub 4 → Sub 5 dependency is natural: Sub 4 owns the per-cycle channel; Sub 5 owns the cross-cycle aggregation. Sub 5's authoring will cite this skill for the channel substrate.
**Disposition:** **no-patch** — Sub 5 is the next sub in the cnos#404 wave; the dependency is documented and the Sub 5 dispatcher will pick up from here.

## Protocol-gap count

`protocol_gap_count: 0` — no `cdd-protocol-gap` / `cdd-skill-gap` / `cdd-tooling-gap` / `cdd-metric-gap` findings this cycle. Courtesy stub `cdd-iteration.md` filed per cnos#401 cadence rule.
