diff --git a/ROADMAP.md b/ROADMAP.md
index e5fd0b9c3a0..40abc60911e 100644
--- a/ROADMAP.md
+++ b/ROADMAP.md
@@ -57,7 +57,8 @@ This window = a few days of STABILITY — shrink the fail-open surface, don't "l
 - [ ] **confront the skipped modeling decisions** — the `🟡` comment backlog ([Disposition plan](docs/plans/disposition-carrier.md))
 - [ ] **axiom + syllogism lens** (DESIGN open thread #1) — every claim chains back to an axiom, no orphan/cycle; stays `[ ]` until it runs executably over this doc ([scope](docs/plans/axiom-syllogism-lens.md))
 
-## ✦ Ergonomics LANE — make the fold the path of least resistance *(proposed; slots in the §0–§4 stability band, upstream of §0 — bright-stag to number/place)*
+## ✦ Ergonomics LANE — make the fold the path of least resistance *(lead lane of the stability band, upstream of §0 — placed bright-stag-194)*
+→ [charter: spine + ranked focus](docs/plans/fold-ergonomics.md)
 
 Why a tier: **"it compiles but nothing works" traces to non-fold residue** — a hand-rolled `match` has a
 `_ =>` fail-open escape; a fold over a closed coproduct is total by construction and has none. So the chain
@@ -69,8 +70,8 @@ Guardrail (§6 — ergonomics is the #1 purity-trap magnet): every item **names
 friction it retires** (displaced cost), never "cleaner."
 
 **◆ Milestones:** staging/`then_outcome` combinator seeded ✓ (#5512 — compiler front-end de-pyramided to a
-stage fold) → **▸ inert-abstraction lens (measure the residue)** → fold reachable by default (the combinators
-that stop hand-rolling) → new non-fold residue can't merge (pairs with §0 wall)
+stage fold) → **▸ measure the residue (inert-abstraction lens) + fix the root (generic inference)** → fold
+reachable *by default* → new non-fold residue can't merge (pairs with §0 wall)
 
 **Audit half — measure the friction + the residue (decidable; wall-able):**
 - [ ] **inert-abstraction lens** *(keystone)* — flag any item *defined + self-tested + zero non-test consumers*; generalizes the inert-lens backstop (#5433) from lenses to all carriers. **First RED witness = `Placement` / `Materialization` / `RealizationObjective`** (charter §4: "modeled + witness-passing, no non-test consumer") — a genuinely-inert carrier the lens *fires* on day one, so the lens isn't itself inert (its own §6 guardrail). (`cached_stage` is the *resolved* case — now wired, see Fix half — so it's the worked example, not the witness.)
@@ -78,9 +79,9 @@ that stop hand-rolling) → new non-fold residue can't merge (pairs with §0 wal
 - [ ] **fold-friction audit** — what makes the fold awkward to reach (the #5512 pre-state: generic fn-params mis-inferred as kernel `Witness`/`Optional`, forcing typed-param workarounds) — the friction predicts where new residue appears
 
 **Fix half — make the fold the path of least resistance:**
+- [ ] **generic-inference fix** *(fix keystone — #1, start here)* — the root that makes the fold reachable *by default*, not just reachable; collapses a fan-out of hand-rolls (`qualified_name` trio · `ParseTable` · `cached_stage` indirection) and is the prereq for §0's realization-grounding (~120 `Value` bridges become a fold, not a 131-site grind). Dissolve-on `feature:free-monoid-entry-generic-inference` ([charter](docs/plans/fold-ergonomics.md) §3)
 - [ ] **generalize the staging combinator** — `then_outcome` (Kleisli for the `Outcome` monad) seeded the pattern (#5512); lift it to the standard way to compose fail-closed stages, so a pipeline is a fold of typed stages, not a `bind_outcome` pyramid
 - [ ] **wire the seams, don't strand them** — an abstraction lands *consumed* or scaffold-marked with a dissolution trigger ([construction-justification rule](docs/plans/construction-justification-rule.md), #5476). Worked example (the full arc): `cached_stage` seeded inert (#5512) → caught by the keystone lens → wired with a `Miss`-stub wrapping `stage_resolve`. **Boundary:** this lane owns only that the seam *lands consumed-or-marked*; **§1/§2 own *enabling* the resolve-cache** (the realization work) — one home each.
-- [ ] **fold ergonomics in the type system** — fix the inference friction the audit surfaces so the typed-param workaround isn't needed (composes with §0's fail-closed-inference work)
 
 **Own runway — down-ranked (the lane's §6 guardrail applied to its own scope):**
 - [ ] **ban source comments** (`.dag` + `.rs`) — *separate runway, sequenced BELOW the fold items.* Orthogonal to folds (it's documentation-hygiene), load-bearing (grammar `02_parse`/`syntax`), and the item most likely to swallow the lane. Displaced cost: reviewer reads multiples of the real diff (a comment-heavy `.dag` fn is ~10% code) + LOC inflation; that's the pain, not "cleaner." Construction arc: model the live-state survivors → migrate → **delete the rest aggressively** (git is the backup) → **parser refuses free `//`** (§5, lands LAST). *(calm-seal-13: pilot CI-gate files → fan out → wall; deletion has no modeling-blocker — no gate text-scans comment bodies)*
diff --git a/docs/plans/fold-ergonomics.md b/docs/plans/fold-ergonomics.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c3f6c14d7c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/plans/fold-ergonomics.md
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+# Plan — fold ergonomics: make the fold the path of least resistance
+
+**Status:** charter + ranked focus · **DESIGN.md + the carriers remain the authority** (DESIGN §6). A
+task's real state is its branch/PR, not this file. Linked from `ROADMAP.md` ✦ *Ergonomics LANE*.
+
+**Carrier facts below were gathered by two tree-wide sweeps (fold inventory + non-fold-residue/friction),
+2026-06-22. Re-grep the live counts before acting — they rot.**
+
+---
+
+## 0. Thesis — "it compiles but nothing works" traces to non-fold residue
+
+A hand-rolled `match` carries a `_ =>` fail-open escape; a fold over a *closed* coproduct is total by
+construction and has none. So the causal chain is **ergonomics → adoption → fail-closed**: when the fold
+is awkward to reach, people hand-roll, and every hand-roll reintroduces a fail-open arm. This lane
+**stops new residue by making folds ergonomic**; §0's fail-open-shape walls **retire the old**. The two
+together drain the [model↔realization fork](model-realization-fork.md), the residue's deepest instance.
+
+Guardrail (DESIGN §6 — ergonomics is the #1 purity-trap magnet): every item **names the fail-open class
+or measured friction it retires** (displaced cost), never "cleaner."
+
+## 1. The spine is already real (accomplishments, with receipts)
+
+The fold is not aspirational here — it is the actual architecture, at scale:
+
+- **`fold_node`** (`src/v2/std/node.dag:228`) — one catamorphism, **69+ call sites across 7 stages**
+  (translate 43, eval 12, name_resolve 7, infer 3, resolve 2, compile 2). Traversal is not re-coded per
+  stage; operations come from *inhabitance*, not per-type op lists (DESIGN §4/§6).
+- **`bind_outcome`** (`src/v2/std/diagnostic.dag:225`) — **246+ sites** (translate 172, eval 31, compile
+  31, ingest 12). The `Outcome` railway monad is the genuine spine, not a demo.
+- **`coercion_fold`** (`src/v2/std/coercion.dag:279`) — **50+ sites**, *one* procedure asked three
+  directions (ingest-forward / emit-inverse / homomorphism check) via the same `find_witness`
+  catamorphism. The **model-side coercion fold is already built** (this reframes any "build the coercion
+  fold" framing — see Root A).
+- **#4699** — `06_translate` de-accumulated: 4,912 → 3,973 lines, `_go` accumulators **35 → 0**. The
+  single largest "stop hand-rolling recursion-with-accumulator" receipt in the tree.
+- **#5512** — front-end de-pyramided: `compile_ingest_staging` went from a 5-deep `bind_outcome` pyramid
+  to a fold of five first-class typed stages under **`then_outcome`** (Kleisli for the `Outcome` monad);
+  `cached_stage` wired live (seam consumed, not stranded). The seed this lane names.
+- **#5428 / cardinality P4** — numeric tower grounded fail-closed; cardinality propagates through folds
+  as a homomorphism, uint8 overflow → typed `Rejected`. A model↔realization fork instance *closed*.
+- **`merge_envs`** — a 6-line root fix cut reconcile from 81% → 6% of the pipeline (~2× self-compile).
+  The canonical "fix the language layer, not the symptom" win — the lane's whole thesis in one diff.
+
+## 2. The diagnosis — two roots, the lane's two halves
+
+**Root A — the realization side isn't folded (the fail-open).** The model side folds; the Rust `Value`
+enum is reconciled by **~120 per-site `_ => false` bridges** — `Value::eq` (`v1_interpreter.rs:707`),
+binop coercion, 63 inference mismatches, 91 in `complexity.rs`. A modeled coproduct (`Nat = Zero|Succ`)
+vs its native realization (`Int`) is compared per-site, and a miss is a *silent false*
+(`nat_add(85,32) == 117` → `false`). This is DESIGN's model↔realization fork, and it is where wrong
+answers actually hide. The deepest remaining instance is the **`Value::Null` split**:
+`Optional`/`Witness`/miss overloaded onto one sentinel across **~131 sites** — it resists a blanket
+guard because it *is* a fork, so it needs grounding, not an error arm.
+
+**Root B — generic inference is weak, so the fold is awkward to reach (the friction).** Two concrete
+failures:
+- generic fn-param results mis-infer as kernel `Witness`/`Optional` → must route through a typed param
+  (the `resolve_probe` workaround in `staging.dag`; same in `target_model.dag`);
+- generic type-alias instantiation fails — `type QualifiedName = FreeMonoid<Symbol>` won't define
+  ("variant not found in type `FreeMonoid`") → **55 lines of hand-rolled `qualified_name_eq`/`for_all`**
+  (`qualified_name.dag:25–57`), and it is the *same* root that makes v2 still hand-roll `ParseTable`.
+
+Root A is the fail-open class the lane retires; Root B is the friction that keeps producing it.
+
+## 3. Ranked focus (displaced cost named, per the §6 guardrail)
+
+**#1 — fix generic inference** *(fix keystone — the root with measured fan-out)*. **Retires:** the
+typed-param-workaround tax and the `FreeMonoid<Symbol>` block. One well-scoped inferencer change collapses
+a fan-out of hand-rolls — `qualified_name`'s trio → `fold_list`/`==`, `ParseTable` → the Realization
+carrier, the `cached_stage` indirection → a plain inline match. This is the literal "make the fold the
+path of least resistance": today the fold is reachable but *taxed*; after this it is reachable *by
+default* — the only item that changes the default, which is the whole point of an ergonomics lane.
+Dissolution trigger already exists (`feature:free-monoid-entry-generic-inference`); a root fix, not a
+grind. **Prerequisite for #2** (makes the realization grounding expressible as a fold, not a 131-site
+hand-grind).
+
+**#2 — ground each primitive into its realization** *(highest safety / displaced cost)*. **Retires:** the
+~120 silent-`false` `Value` bridges. Make the straddle *unwritable* — native form `==` modeled form by
+construction, so the per-site arms disappear (exactly what #5428 did for the numeric tower, fail-closed).
+The deep sub-root is the `Value::Null` split (~131 sites, own runway). The safety axis literally: every
+silent `false` is a deferred bug paid later at interest.
+
+**#3 — the lens backstop** *(cheapest gate; gates #1/#2 so new residue can't merge)*. The
+**inert-abstraction lens** (generalize the inert-lens backstop #5433 from lenses to *all* carriers — flag
+*defined + self-tested + zero non-test consumers*) and the **non-fold-residue audit** (`_ =>` over closed
+coproducts · `unwrap_or_default` in inference · hand-rolled recursion where a fold exists). A pure reader
+over the same `Node` tree (zero substrate edits). Decidable, wall-able. First RED witness =
+`Placement`/`Materialization` (a genuinely-inert carrier — *not* the now-wired `cached_stage`, so the lens
+isn't itself inert).
+
+**Start with #1.** It is the most elegant (a root with measured fan-out), it is the prerequisite that
+makes #2 a fold instead of a grind, and it is the only one that changes the default.
+
+## 4. Dissolution trigger (DESIGN §6)
+
+Delete this doc when the fold is reachable by default — generic inference no longer forces typed-param
+workarounds (Root B closed), the realization side grounds into the model with no per-site `_ => false`
+bridges (Root A closed), and the inert-abstraction lens gates new residue on the floor. At that point the
+absent residue + the green lens *are* the authority and this charter is redundant.