# β Close-Out — #287

**Cycle:** #287 — γ creates the cycle branch — α and β only check out `cycle/{N}`
**Branch:** `cycle/287`
**Reviewer:** β (`beta@cdd.cnos`)
**Issue:** [#287](https://github.com/usurobor/cnos/issues/287)
**Merge commit:** `a5d0f21ee8f3907c02c18893c6c48d682d52eb82` (`Closes #287` on `main` at 2026-04-30 00:46 UTC)

This file is written incrementally per `CDD.md` §1.4 large-file authoring rule + `alpha/SKILL.md` §2.5 incremental-write discipline (extension to β by parity per `review/SKILL.md` Output Format). Voice: factual observations and patterns only — no dispositions; γ owns triage in PRA.

---

## 1. Cycle summary

**Selection:** β received `#287` via dispatch prompt with the new `Branch: cycle/287` line — the first cycle to use the new dispatch-prompt format AC 4 introduces. The cycle's substantive work is the spec change moving branch creation from α to γ and renaming canonical branches `cycle/{N}`. Markdown-only diff in 6 spec files (5 in the cycle diff after stale-fetch correction; the 6th, `cdd/SKILL.md` frontmatter, was not touched because it does not encode branch ownership).

**β-side execution:**

1. β intake at 2026-04-30 ~00:00 UTC. β refused harness pre-provisioned branch `claude/cnos-skill-module-x9jTE` per `beta/SKILL.md` §1 Role Rule 1 (the very rule this cycle expands in AC 11). β polled `origin/cycle/287` for α's review-readiness signal, which γ had pre-created at 2026-04-30 ~00:00 UTC per the new γ Phase 1 step 3a (AC 12 self-application).
2. R1 review at 2026-04-30 00:26–00:29 UTC — REQUEST CHANGES with 4 findings (F1 D, F2 C, F3 C, F4 A). β-review.md written incrementally in 3 passes per `review/SKILL.md` Output Format incremental-write discipline (rule canonical on `main` since σ's `70ff2b1`, applied in R1 in good faith).
3. γ filed `gamma-clarification.md` at 2026-04-30 00:32 UTC capturing the mechanical fact that `origin/main` had advanced to `70ff2b1` between α dispatch and β R1 review — fact β had not observed because β's polling Monitor watches `origin/cycle/287` only.
4. β re-fetched `origin/main` synchronously, verified γ's fact, and wrote R2 at 00:35 UTC withdrawing F1 + F2 as β-side stale-fetch artifacts; F3 + F4 still standing.
5. α responded with fix-round at 00:40–00:42 UTC: F3 fixed via β R2 path (a) — retroactive re-author + force-push so all α commits use canonical `alpha@cdd.cnos`. F4 fixed in `de32200` with §4.1 row 2 polish parenthetical. α's fix-round narrative explicitly disclosed the rebase + force-push procedure with the new SHAs.
6. β R3 at 00:44 UTC — APPROVED. Search-space closed.
7. β merged `cycle/287` into `main` at 00:46 UTC with `Closes #287` (commit `a5d0f21`).
8. (post-merge) α writes `.cdd/unreleased/287/alpha-closeout.md`; β writes this file; β starts release flow.

**Round count:** 3 (R1 + R2 + R3). `CDD.md` §9.1 review-rounds-> 2 trigger fires on the strict-rounds reading. Root-cause analysis recorded in §3 below.

## 2. Narrowing pattern across rounds

A clean β review converges on a narrowing finding set per round: each round either resolves prior findings or surfaces strictly fewer / smaller ones. This cycle's narrowing trajectory:

| Round | D | C | B | A | Total | Narrowing | Notes |
|-------|---|---|---|---|-------|-----------|-------|
| R1 | 1 (F1) | 2 (F2, F3) | 0 | 1 (F4) | 4 | — | 2/4 findings (F1, F2) were β-side stale-fetch artifacts, not real diff incoherence |
| R2 | 0 | 1 (F3) | 0 | 1 (F4) | 2 | F1 + F2 withdrawn after fresh `origin/main` fetch + γ-clarification | β R2 explicitly named root cause as β-side stale local `origin/main` |
| R3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | F3 + F4 closed on α's fix-round | search-space closed; no new findings |

Real-finding narrowing (excluding the two β-side artifact findings F1+F2 from the count):

| Round | D | C | B | A | Total |
|-------|---|---|---|---|-------|
| R1 (real findings only) | 0 | 1 (F3) | 0 | 1 (F4) | 2 |
| R3 (closure round) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

The cycle's actual finding pattern was **2 real findings → 0 in one fix round**. The R2 round was procedurally necessary (β must explicitly withdraw R1's false-positive findings before proceeding to approval) but did not add work to α's queue beyond what R1 already requested. The visible "3 rounds" count is an artifact of the β-side stale-fetch error, not of α's diff requiring multiple correction passes.

## 3. β-side findings — factual observations

Per `beta/SKILL.md` β close-out voice rule: factual observations and patterns only. No dispositions ("patch now", "file issue", "recommend option X"). γ owns triage in PRA.

### O1 — β-side stale `origin/main` blind spot in cycle-branch polling

**Pattern:** β's `Monitor` polling loop (per `CDD.md` §1.4 β step 3 reference snippet) watches `origin/cycle/{N}` head SHA only. The loop runs `git fetch --quiet origin cycle/{N}` per iteration; it does not run `git fetch origin main`. β's local `origin/main` ref is therefore last-updated at intake time (when β first ran a generic `git fetch`) and stays stale through the cycle unless β re-fetches `main` manually.

**This cycle's manifestation:** β intake fetched `origin/main` at `a8e67b7`. σ pushed `70ff2b1` to `main` at 2026-04-30 00:12 UTC. β's polling loop was already armed (watching `origin/cycle/287` only); the σ push to `main` produced no transition event on the watched surface. β's R1 review at 00:26 UTC computed `git diff main..cycle/287` against the stale local `origin/main` = `a8e67b7`, which mis-classified σ's commit as on-cycle. R1 raised F1 (D, scope drift) + F2 (C, status truth) on this basis. γ-clarification at `c91cf87` synchronously re-fetched `origin/main`, confirmed `70ff2b1`, and surfaced the mechanical fact. β R2 verified γ's fact and withdrew F1 + F2.

**Surface affected:** `beta/SKILL.md` §1 (β intake / polling discipline); `review/SKILL.md` Phase 1 (contract integrity — review-diff base computation); `CDD.md` §1.4 β step 3 (β polling reference snippet); `CDD.md` §Tracking polling-query table.

**Coverage of new spec:** The new spec this cycle introduces (AC 8: `git fetch --quiet` reliability dependency with N=10 re-probe rule) addresses transport-flake on the cycle branch — `origin/cycle/{N}` ref staleness due to fetch failure. It does not address `origin/main` lag due to the polling target's scope (cycle branch only). The two failure modes share one phrase ("`git fetch --quiet` is silent") but are distinct surfaces.

**Same class as #283 polling silent-failure observation:** #283 β observation #3 noted `git fetch --quiet` masking auth/network flake on the cycle branch. #287 β R1 false-positive surfaced an orthogonal silent-failure mode: the polling-source-not-the-review-base mismatch. Both share the underlying property that β's review-diff base depends on `origin/main` freshness, which the cycle-branch-focused polling design does not guarantee.

### O2 — α git identity drift at session start

**Pattern:** α set `git config user.email "alpha@cnos.local"` at session start, deviating from `CDD.md` §1.4 α algorithm step 2 mandate (`alpha@cdd.{project}` = `alpha@cdd.cnos` for this project). Self-coherence.md L7 metadata declared the canonical form (`Author: α (alpha@cdd.cnos)`); the metadata was aspirational truth — α did not honor the spec but recorded the spec's value. The pre-review gate (10 rows) does not include a row checking `git config user.email` against the canonical pattern, so the drift was not caught locally.

**This cycle's manifestation:** R1 F3 (C, identity-truth). β verified by `git log --pretty="%h %an <%ae>" origin/main..origin/cycle/287` and found `alpha@cnos.local` on all 3 R1 α commits. α R2 fix-round adopted β R2 path (a): re-authored 3 commits via `git rebase -i {merge-base} --exec 'git commit --amend --reset-author --no-edit'` + `git push --force-with-lease`. R3 verification confirmed all 5 α commits use canonical `alpha@cdd.cnos`.

**Surface affected:** `alpha/SKILL.md` §2.1 (dispatch intake step 1 — git identity configuration); `alpha/SKILL.md` §2.6 (pre-review gate row set — currently 10 rows, none of which check git author email matches canonical pattern); `review/contract/SKILL.md` Status truth check (β's contract integrity could include git-author-email matches `{role}@cdd.{project}` since the spec names role-identity-is-git-observable in `review/SKILL.md` "Review identity"); `CDD.md` §1.4 (α/β/γ step 2 mandates the canonical email but no executable check enforces it).

### O3 — Operator (`sigma@cdd.cnos`) mid-cycle main commit

**Pattern:** σ pushed `70ff2b1` (incremental-write discipline for α self-coherence and β review) to `origin/main` at 2026-04-30 00:12 UTC, between γ pre-creating `origin/cycle/287` (~00:00 UTC) and α's first cycle commit (00:17 UTC). The σ commit modifies `alpha/SKILL.md` §2.5 + §2.7 and `review/SKILL.md` Output Format with parallel role-side rules duplicating `CDD.md` §1.4 large-file authoring rule into role-skill surfaces. α observed `origin/main` had advanced and rebased onto `70ff2b1` per `alpha/SKILL.md` §2.6 row 1 (transient-row discipline working as designed); the rebase brought σ's commit transitively into `cycle/287`'s ancestry without enlarging the cycle-diff scope.

**Surface affected:** `alpha/SKILL.md` §2.5 + §2.7; `review/SKILL.md` Output Format; `CDD.md` §1.4 large-file authoring rule. The σ rule's content is reasonable and aligned with `CDD.md` §1.4. The rule duplicates a canonical surface into role-skill surfaces; if either canonical site evolves independently the two surfaces could drift.

**Interaction with O1:** the β-side stale-fetch (O1) caused β to misclassify σ's commit as on-cycle (R1 F1). γ-clarification corrected the classification. Without O1 — i.e., if β's review-base fetch had been current — σ's commit would have been correctly seen as part of the merge base and the cycle-diff scope would have read identically to its current value at R1 time.

### O4 — Cycle-branch identity-validation row missing from α pre-review gate

**Pattern:** α's §2.6 pre-review gate (10 rows) does not check `git config user.email` against `{role}@cdd.{project}`. O2's identity drift survived all 10 rows of α's pre-review gate and α's full self-coherence draft. β's R1 review was the first surface to catch it. A symmetric gap exists for β and γ on their own session-start git config; β and γ in this cycle happened to have canonical emails by default but the absence of an executable check applies to all three roles.

**Surface affected:** `alpha/SKILL.md` §2.6 (pre-review-gate row set); `review/contract/SKILL.md` (could include identity-truth as a contract-integrity row); `cdd/SKILL.md` (loader could potentially validate git config at role-load time, though that crosses runtime boundaries the canonical doc currently keeps outside skill scope).

### O5 — Force-push on cycle/287 to resolve a contract finding

**Pattern:** F3 resolution required α to force-push `cycle/287` (β R2 explicitly authorized path (a)). The procedure worked: 5 α commits + 3 β commits + 1 γ commit + 1 β R2 commit re-applied with new SHAs (force-with-lease semantics protected against concurrent third-party pushes during the rewrite). β re-fetched `cycle/287` post-force-push, hard-reset local to origin, and re-verified the diff content against the new SHAs.

**Surface affected:** `release/SKILL.md` §3.6 already documents `--force-with-lease` for amend-after-CI-failure within the release commit. The use of force-push to fix an *upstream* contract finding (identity drift, in this cycle) is a parallel procedure not currently named at the role-skill level. β's R1+R2 verdict text references pre-rewrite SHAs (`6a897a4`, `3336fe3`, `6f44dbb`); those references describe the historical state before the fix and remain coherent (no rewriting needed).

This is the first observed cycle in this project's history where force-push resolved a contract finding rather than a CI failure or release-commit amendment. The procedure ran cleanly; the absence of an explicit role-skill description meant α had to derive it from `release/SKILL.md` §3.6 + `git rebase --exec` knowledge.

### O6 — Round-count vs real-finding-count divergence

**Pattern:** R3 round count exceeds 2 (the `CDD.md` §9.1 trigger threshold) but the real-finding count was 2/cycle (F3 + F4), all resolved in α's R2 fix-round, which would normally close the cycle at R2. R3 was procedurally necessary because R1 raised F1 + F2 as findings (later withdrawn at R2 after γ-clarification surfaced the β-side stale-fetch), and the protocol requires β to commit the withdrawal as a verdict round before approving. The "extra" round is procedurally correct; the framing question is whether the §9.1 trigger fires on raw round count or on rounds-with-real-findings.

**Surface affected:** `CDD.md` §9.1 (trigger conditions — currently "review rounds > 2" without distinguishing real-finding rounds from artifact-finding rounds); `post-release/SKILL.md` (γ's PRA cycle-iteration triage section).

— β (`beta@cdd.cnos`) at 2026-04-30 00:48 UTC

---

## 4. Release evidence (Pass 3)

**Release commit:** `25da053` on `origin/main` (`release: 3.62.0 — γ creates the cycle branch`).

**Version stamping:**
- `VERSION`: `3.61.1` → `3.62.0`
- `cn.json`: `3.61.1` → `3.62.0`
- `src/packages/cnos.core/cn.package.json`: version `3.61.0` → `3.62.0`, `engines.cnos` `3.61.0` → `3.62.0`
- `src/packages/cnos.cdd/cn.package.json`: version `3.61.0` → `3.62.0`, `engines.cnos` `3.61.0` → `3.62.0`
- `src/packages/cnos.eng/cn.package.json`: version `3.61.0` → `3.62.0`, `engines.cnos` `3.61.0` → `3.62.0`
- `bash scripts/check-version-consistency.sh` — PASSED — all version-stamped files agree at `3.62.0`.

**Release artifacts on `main`:**
- `CHANGELOG.md` ledger row added: `| 3.62.0 | A- | A- | A- | B+ | L7 (diff: L7; cycle cap: L6) | …`
- `RELEASE.md` authored at repo root as the 3.62.0 release body (Outcome / Why it matters / Changed / Added / Fixed / Removed / Validation / Known Issues sections per `release/SKILL.md` §2.5).

**Cycle directory move (per `release/SKILL.md` §2.5a):**
- `.cdd/unreleased/287/` → `.cdd/releases/3.62.0/287/` as part of the release commit.
- 5 artifacts moved: `self-coherence.md` (α), `beta-review.md` (β R1+R2+R3), `gamma-clarification.md` (γ R1.5), `alpha-closeout.md` (α post-merge), `beta-closeout.md` (this file).
- `.cdd/unreleased/` is empty after the release commit.

**Tag:**
- Local: `3.62.0` created at `25da053` (bare version per `release/SKILL.md` §2.6 + §3.6).
- **Push: deferred to δ (HTTP 403 env constraint).** Two `git push origin 3.62.0` attempts at 00:58–01:00 UTC both returned `RPC failed; HTTP 403 curl 22 The requested URL returned error: 403; send-pack: unexpected disconnect while reading sideband packet; fatal: the remote end hung up unexpectedly`. Same env constraint as the 3.61.0 → 3.61.1 release boundary (3.61.1 ledger row: "Tag 3.61.0 pushed (β deferred due to HTTP 403)"). Per `CDD.md` β step 8: "If tag push fails due to env constraints (e.g. sandbox HTTP 403), commit all release artifacts to main and defer tag push to δ (operator) — do not block closure on it." All release artifacts are committed to `main` at `25da053`; the tag is local; δ to execute `git push origin 3.62.0` and the release CI (`release.yml`) triggers on tag receipt at the upstream remote.
- γ algorithm Phase 2 step 7 handles the operator request: "If β deferred tag push or other release mechanics (env constraint per β step 8), request δ to execute the gate action. δ confirms completion to the requesting role."

**Branches to clean (per `release/SKILL.md` §2.6a; deferred to δ alongside tag push):**
- `origin/cycle/287` (cycle complete, merged into main as `a5d0f21`).
- `origin/claude/cnos-skill-module-x9jTE` (β-side harness pre-provisioned branch; never used; refused per `beta/SKILL.md` §1).
- `origin/claude/alpha-cdd-skill-1aZnw` (α-side harness pre-provisioned branch; α switched off it at intake per `alpha/SKILL.md` §2.1 step 2; never used).
- Any other `origin/claude/*` merged branches per the standard `git branch -r --merged origin/main | grep -v main | grep -v HEAD | sed 's/origin\///' | xargs -I{} git push origin --delete {}` sweep.

**Branch CI status:**
- **`cycle/287` (in-flight):** deferred (no CI workflow runs on `cycle/*` branch pushes in this repo; β verified diff coherence directly at R3 per `alpha/SKILL.md` §2.6 row 10 escape hatch).
- **`main` (post-merge):** `build-verify.yml` will run on the merge commit `a5d0f21` and on the release commit `25da053`. β to verify post-push (this commit's push is the trigger).
- **Tag `3.62.0` (post-tag-push):** `release.yml` will run on the `3.62.0` tag arrival upstream. β cannot verify until δ pushes the tag; δ confirms completion per `operator/SKILL.md` §3.3.

**Validation:**
- The cycle's substantive change is markdown-only spec text. No executable surface to deploy or runtime path to exercise. The integration test is AC 12 self-application: the cycle implementing the new contract executed under the new contract end-to-end (γ-creates-branch-before-dispatch, α/β-never-create, single-named-target polling, role-identity-canonical, force-push-as-contract-repair). β verified by execution at every round.
- `release/SKILL.md` §2.9 ("validate with the specific fix") is satisfied by the cycle's own self-application: the `cycle/287` git history *is* the validation artifact.

## 5. Cycle handoff to γ for PRA

This file is β's input to γ's `gamma-closeout.md` triage and the post-release assessment per `post-release/SKILL.md`. The β-side observations (§3 above) are factual; dispositions are γ's call. γ's PRA inputs:

- **β close-out (this file)** — review context, narrowing pattern, 6 β-side findings, release evidence.
- **α close-out (`alpha-closeout.md`)** — α-side cycle summary, findings, friction log, observations, engineering reading.
- **γ-clarification (`gamma-clarification.md`)** — captures the mid-cycle synchronous-fetch fact that collapsed F1+F2.
- **`beta-review.md`** — round-by-round verdict (R1 P1+P2+P3, R2, R3) with all findings and dispositions.
- **`self-coherence.md`** — α's authoring-time artifact with CDD Trace, AC mapping, peer enumeration, pre-review gate, R2 fix-round narrative.

§9.1 trigger awareness: review rounds = 3 fires the trigger; root-cause analysis is in this file's §3 (O1 + O6) and α's close-out (O1 — α identity drift, plus α §Friction log). The trigger calls for a cycle-iteration entry in the PRA naming the recurring friction class and the MCA candidate; β voice rule applies (factual observation here; γ disposes).

— β (`beta@cdd.cnos`) at 2026-04-30 ~01:00 UTC. β work complete. Cycle handoff to γ for PRA + close-out triage. Tag push + branch sweep deferred to δ (HTTP 403 env constraint per CDD.md β step 8).
