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+name: backlog-index-integrity
+
+# Enforces that `docs/BACKLOG.md` (the generated index) stays in
+# sync with the per-row files under `docs/backlog/P[0-3]/B-<NNNN>-*.md`.
+# When a row file is added/modified/removed, the index must be
+# regenerated via `tools/backlog/generate-index.sh` in the same
+# commit (or PR) so a fresh reader sees the same row set in both
+# places.
+#
+# Phase 1c per the BACKLOG-per-row-file ADR
+# (docs/DECISIONS/2026-04-22-backlog-per-row-file-restructure.md
+# §"Existing substrate Phase 1a prior work" → Phase 1c OWED).
+# This workflow IS the lint-index gate; it wraps
+# `generate-index.sh --check` rather than introducing a separate
+# `tools/backlog/lint-index.sh` wrapper, since there is no
+# pre-commit-hook framework currently wired up in this repo —
+# the CI surface is the equivalent enforcement point.
+#
+# Note: until Phase 2 bulk-migration runs, `docs/BACKLOG.md` is
+# still the monolithic authoritative file. Phase 2 will overwrite
+# it with the generated index. This workflow becomes load-bearing
+# at that point. Until then it primarily guards the per-row
+# files themselves are well-formed (B-0001 example, B-0002
+# Otto-287 Noether) and skips the equivalence check.
+#
+# Safe-pattern compliance (mirrors memory-index-integrity.yml):
+#   - SHA-pinned action versions (actions/checkout@de0fac2...)
+#   - Explicit `permissions:` minimum
+#   - Only first-party trusted context (github.sha) — no
+#     user-authored text is referenced.
+#   - Concurrency group + cancel-in-progress: false.
+#   - runs-on: ubuntu-24.04 pinned.
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    paths:
+      - "docs/backlog/**"
+      - "docs/BACKLOG.md"
+      - "tools/backlog/**"
+  push:
+    branches: [main]
+    paths:
+      - "docs/backlog/**"
+      - "docs/BACKLOG.md"
+      - "tools/backlog/**"
+  workflow_dispatch: {}
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+concurrency:
+  group: backlog-index-integrity-${{ github.ref }}
+  cancel-in-progress: false
+
+jobs:
+  check:
+    name: check docs/BACKLOG.md generated-index drift
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@de0fac2e4500dabe0009e67214ff5f5447ce83dd # v6.0.2
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 1
+
+      - name: verify per-row + index parity
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+
+          # Existence preconditions — fail fast (chatgpt-codex P1 +
+          # copilot P1 review on PR #492). A missing docs/BACKLOG.md
+          # or missing generator must NOT silently fall into
+          # pre-Phase-2 mode and exit 0; that would let an accidental
+          # delete of the authoritative backlog ship green.
+          if [ ! -f docs/BACKLOG.md ]; then
+            echo "ERROR: docs/BACKLOG.md is missing." >&2
+            echo "This file is the authoritative backlog (pre-Phase-2)" >&2
+            echo "or the generated index (Phase 2+). Either way it" >&2
+            echo "must exist. Restore it or revert the deletion." >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          if [ ! -x tools/backlog/generate-index.sh ]; then
+            echo "ERROR: tools/backlog/generate-index.sh missing or" >&2
+            echo "non-executable. Phase 1a tooling is required." >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+          # Pre-Phase-2 sentinel: if docs/BACKLOG.md still looks
+          # monolithic (lacks the "AUTO-GENERATED" header line
+          # emitted by generate-index.sh), the drift check would
+          # fire false-positives on every per-row edit since the
+          # legacy file isn't yet the generated output. In that
+          # case, only verify the per-row files themselves are
+          # well-formed (parseable frontmatter), and skip the
+          # index-equivalence check.
+          if ! head -5 docs/BACKLOG.md | grep -q "AUTO-GENERATED by tools/backlog/generate-index.sh"; then
+            echo "Phase pre-2 mode: docs/BACKLOG.md is the monolithic" >&2
+            echo "authoritative file; skipping generated-index drift" >&2
+            echo "check. Verifying per-row files instead." >&2
+
+            # Per-row file parseability check (copilot P2 review on
+            # PR #492). The generator is forgiving — a row file with
+            # bad frontmatter would silently produce empty index lines,
+            # not error out. So we explicitly require id+status+title
+            # extraction to succeed for every row file, with non-empty
+            # values, before declaring "parseable".
+            #
+            # Frontmatter-scoped extraction (chatgpt-codex P2 follow-up
+            # review): the awk match is restricted to lines BETWEEN the
+            # opening and closing `---` markers, mirroring
+            # tools/backlog/generate-index.sh's extract_field state
+            # machine. Without this scope, a row with malformed
+            # frontmatter could falsely pass if the body happened to
+            # contain `id:` / `status:` / `title:` text (e.g., in a
+            # code block or example). The frontmatter-scoped match
+            # closes that hole.
+            extract_frontmatter_field() {
+              local file="$1" field="$2"
+              awk -v field="$field" '
+                BEGIN { state = 0 }
+                /^---$/ {
+                  if (state == 0) { state = 1; next }
+                  if (state == 1) { exit }
+                }
+                state == 1 && $0 ~ "^"field":[[:space:]]+" {
+                  sub("^"field":[[:space:]]+", "")
+                  print
+                  exit
+                }
+              ' "$file"
+            }
+
+            row_count=0
+            bad_count=0
+            while IFS= read -r -d '' row; do
+              row_count=$((row_count + 1))
+              id=$(extract_frontmatter_field "$row" "id")
+              status=$(extract_frontmatter_field "$row" "status")
+              title=$(extract_frontmatter_field "$row" "title")
+              if [ -z "$id" ] || [ -z "$status" ] || [ -z "$title" ]; then
+                echo "  bad: $row (missing id/status/title in frontmatter)" >&2
+                bad_count=$((bad_count + 1))
+              fi
+            done < <(find docs/backlog -type f -name 'B-*.md' -print0)
+
+            echo "  per-row files: $row_count total, $bad_count malformed" >&2
+
+            if [ "$bad_count" -gt 0 ]; then
+              echo "ERROR: $bad_count per-row file(s) have malformed" >&2
+              echo "frontmatter (missing id/status/title). Each row" >&2
+              echo "must have all three fields per Otto-181 schema." >&2
+              exit 1
+            fi
+
+            # Belt-and-suspenders: also exercise the generator end-to-end
+            # to catch any structural issues the field-only check missed.
+            ./tools/backlog/generate-index.sh --stdout > /dev/null
+
+            echo "per-row files parseable + generator runs cleanly" >&2
+            exit 0
+          fi
+
+          # Phase 2+ mode: docs/BACKLOG.md is the generated index;
+          # any drift between it and the per-row tree is a violation.
+          ./tools/backlog/generate-index.sh --check