substrate(B-0070): orphan-role-ref-after-name-stripping pattern + detector lint backlog (Aaron 2026-04-28) by AceHack · Pull Request #86 · AceHack/Zeta

AceHack · 2026-04-28T06:31:20Z

Summary

Two artifacts capturing Aaron's 2026-04-28 PR #24 input:

memory/feedback_orphan_role_ref_after_name_stripping_aaron_2026_04_28.md — captures the recurring failure mode: when stripping named attribution from code-surface text per Otto-279, mechanical replacement <Name> ferry-N → courier-ferry-N absorb leaves orphan role-refs that lose semantic weight.
B-0070 P2 backlog row — docs/backlog/P2/B-0070-orphan-role-ref-detector-lint-aaron-2026-04-28.md — backlog the structural fix: lint script under tools/hygiene/ wired into CI gate as soft-fail (same pattern as audit-memory-index-duplicates.sh).

The pattern caught

Original (history-surface OK)	Mechanical strip (orphan)	Better path
`Amara ferry-12`	`courier-ferry-12 absorb`	Drop the parenthetical; class name stands alone
`Grok ferry-16 invariant`	`courier-ferry-16 absorb invariant`	Use principle name: "Substrate Truth Principle invariant"
`Per Amara ferry-7 evidence-pointer rule`	`Per courier-ferry-7 absorb evidence-pointer rule`	Drop "Per ferry-N" entirely; rule is in spec

Aaron's framing

"not sure if you can update to find things like that that don't make sense in the future like look for courrier-ferrrrry or whatever IDK just thinking out out for your future self and the review agentsd"

Lint composes with the prompt-protector skill's invisible-Unicode write-time-scan shape; targets BOTH directions:

Over-stripped (orphan role-ref) — what Aaron just caught
Under-stripped (named attribution on code-surface) — what review agents catch most often

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

…ector lint backlog (Aaron 2026-04-28) Captures the recurring failure mode caught in PR #24 review: when stripping named attribution from code-surface text per Otto-279, the mechanical replacement `<Name> ferry-N` -> `courier-ferry-N absorb` leaves orphan role-refs that lose semantic weight. Better path: remove the attribution clause entirely OR replace with self-contained principle name. Two artifacts: - memory/feedback_orphan_role_ref_after_name_stripping_aaron_2026_04_28.md — the substrate capturing the pattern + detection regex sketch + composition with Otto-279 + Otto-357 + Otto-341 + prompt-protector - docs/backlog/P2/B-0070-orphan-role-ref-detector-lint-aaron-2026-04-28.md — backlog row for the structural fix (lint script under tools/hygiene/ wired into CI gate as soft-fail initially, same pattern as audit-memory-index-duplicates.sh) Aaron explicit: 'not sure if you can update to find things like that that don't make sense in the future like look for courrier-ferrrrry or whatever IDK just thinking out out for your future self and the review agentsd' Aaron's framing names BOTH future-self AND review agents as audiences for the lint — which matches how Copilot/Codex review threads on PR #24 caught the under-stripped versions, but missed the over-stripped (orphan) versions. The lint would catch BOTH directions. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Adds substrate artifacts capturing the “orphan role-ref after name-stripping” failure mode and backlogs a lint to detect it on code-surface text.

Changes:

Added a new memory entry documenting the orphan-role-ref pattern, examples, and mitigation discipline.
Added a P2 backlog row (B-0070) describing a future hygiene lint (scope, regex candidates, and CI wiring intent).

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

File	Description
memory/feedback_orphan_role_ref_after_name_stripping_aaron_2026_04_28.md	Documents the failure mode and proposed detection approach for future prevention.
docs/backlog/P2/B-0070-orphan-role-ref-detector-lint-aaron-2026-04-28.md	Backlogs the structural fix: a hygiene lint to catch orphan ferry refs / unstripped attribution.

Copilot · 2026-04-28T06:35:35Z

+---
+id: B-0070
+priority: P2
+slug: orphan-role-ref-detector-lint
+status: backlog
+created: 2026-04-28
+maintainer: aaron
+ownership: otto
+title: Orphan role-ref detector lint — catch ferry-N without named source on code surfaces (Aaron 2026-04-28)
+---


P1: The YAML frontmatter here doesn’t match the documented per-row backlog schema in tools/backlog/README.md (e.g., status is documented as open/closed/superseded-by-*/deferred, and last_updated is marked required). Either adjust this row to the documented schema (add last_updated, use a documented status value), or update the schema docs/tooling in the same change-set so the repo has a single source of truth.

Copilot · 2026-04-28T06:35:35Z

+Detector regex (initial):
+
+```
+# Orphan role-ref (no resolvable named source)
+\bcourier-ferry-\d+\b
+\bferry-\d+\b
+\bferry-\d+'s?\b
+
+# Un-stripped name attribution on code-surface
+\b(Amara|Grok|Gemini|Codex|Cursor|Aaron|Otto)\s+ferry-\d+\b
+\bPer\s+(Amara|Grok|Gemini|Codex|Cursor|Aaron|Otto)\s+2026-
+```


P1 (shell portability): The proposed detector regexes use \b and \d, which aren’t POSIX ERE and won’t work with common grep -E/awk (notably on macOS). Since this row proposes implementing the lint as a bash script, specify an engine that supports these tokens (e.g., ripgrep PCRE2) or rewrite the patterns in portable ERE form (e.g., [0-9]+ and explicit boundary handling).

Copilot · 2026-04-28T06:35:35Z

+  `docs/pr-preservation/**`, `docs/pr-discussions/**`, commit
+  messages


P1 (xref / rule alignment): This list says docs/pr-discussions/** is a “history surface per Otto-279”, but docs/AGENT-BEST-PRACTICES.md’s Otto-279 history-surface list does not include docs/pr-discussions/** (it lists docs/pr-preservation/**). Either remove docs/pr-discussions/** from the “per Otto-279” claim, or update the cited rule so the surfaces list is consistent.

Suggested change

`docs/pr-preservation/**`, `docs/pr-discussions/**`, commit

messages

`docs/pr-preservation/**`, commit messages

Copilot · 2026-04-28T06:35:36Z

+Scope:
+
+- **Apply to:** `tools/**` (excluding `tools/lean4/.lake/`),
+  behavioural docs in `docs/` (excluding history surfaces),
+  `.claude/skills/**/SKILL.md` (skill bodies),
+  `src/**`, `*.fsproj`, `*.csproj`
+- **Exclude (history surfaces per Otto-279):** `memory/**`,


P1: The scan scope includes very broad roots (tools/**, docs/**, src/**) but doesn’t explicitly exclude references/upstreams/**, which the repo’s standing rules require excluding from file-iteration scans due to size/noise (docs/AGENT-BEST-PRACTICES.md “Exclude references/upstreams/ from every file-iteration command”). Please add that exclusion to the planned lint’s scope/implementation notes to avoid a slow, noisy audit.

Copilot · 2026-04-28T06:35:36Z

+Candidate detector regex (for code-surface files only — `tools/`,
+`docs/` excluding history-surfaces, behavioural docs):
+
+```
+\bcourier-ferry-\d+\b
+\bferry-\d+\b
+\bferry-\d+'s?\b
+```
+
+Plus the inverse: `\b<Person>\s+ferry-\d+\b` (Amara/Grok/Gemini etc
+ ferry-N) to catch un-stripped name attribution that should have
+been stripped on code-surface.


P1 (shell portability): The “Candidate detector regex” examples here use \b and \d, which are PCRE tokens and can be misleading if the eventual implementation uses grep -E/awk (the repo’s hygiene scripts frequently target macOS portability). Consider either rewriting these patterns in portable ERE form, or explicitly noting the intended engine/tool (e.g., ripgrep PCRE2) so future implementers don’t copy/paste a non-working regex into a bash hygiene script.

Copilot · 2026-04-28T06:35:36Z

+lint shape (write-time scan). Backlog candidate: B-NNNN — extend the
+existing `audit-*` scripts under `tools/hygiene/` to flag these
+patterns with a fix-suggestion: "remove the attribution clause OR


P1: This memory still uses the placeholder “Backlog candidate: B-NNNN” even though this PR introduces the concrete backlog row B-0070. Update this reference to B-0070 (and ideally link to docs/backlog/P2/B-0070-orphan-role-ref-detector-lint-aaron-2026-04-28.md) so readers can jump straight to the actionable follow-up.

Suggested change

lint shape (write-time scan). Backlog candidate: B-NNNN — extend the

existing `audit-*` scripts under `tools/hygiene/` to flag these

patterns with a fix-suggestion: "remove the attribution clause OR

lint shape (write-time scan). Backlog follow-up: `B-0070`

(`docs/backlog/P2/B-0070-orphan-role-ref-detector-lint-aaron-2026-04-28.md`)

— extend the existing `audit-*` scripts under `tools/hygiene/` to flag

these patterns with a fix-suggestion: "remove the attribution clause OR

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings April 28, 2026 06:31

AceHack enabled auto-merge (squash) April 28, 2026 06:31

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of AceHack April 28, 2026 06:31 View session

AceHack merged commit 65ac088 into main Apr 28, 2026
18 of 19 checks passed

AceHack deleted the backlog/B-0070-orphan-role-ref-detector-lint-aaron-2026-04-28 branch April 28, 2026 06:33

Copilot AI reviewed Apr 28, 2026

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substrate(B-0070): orphan-role-ref-after-name-stripping pattern + detector lint backlog (Aaron 2026-04-28)#86

substrate(B-0070): orphan-role-ref-after-name-stripping pattern + detector lint backlog (Aaron 2026-04-28)#86
AceHack merged 1 commit intomainfrom
backlog/B-0070-orphan-role-ref-detector-lint-aaron-2026-04-28

AceHack commented Apr 28, 2026

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		`docs/pr-preservation/`, `docs/pr-discussions/`, commit
		messages

	`docs/pr-preservation/`, `docs/pr-discussions/`, commit
	messages
	`docs/pr-preservation/**`, commit messages

-lint shape (write-time scan). Backlog candidate: B-NNNN — extend the
-existing `audit-*` scripts under `tools/hygiene/` to flag these
-patterns with a fix-suggestion: "remove the attribution clause OR
+lint shape (write-time scan). Backlog follow-up: `B-0070`
+(`docs/backlog/P2/B-0070-orphan-role-ref-detector-lint-aaron-2026-04-28.md`)
+— extend the existing `audit-*` scripts under `tools/hygiene/` to flag
+these patterns with a fix-suggestion: "remove the attribution clause OR

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AceHack commented Apr 28, 2026

Summary

The pattern caught

Aaron's framing

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