fix(thetacog-mcp): redpill demo self-audit ledger crashes with a raw stack trace outside a git repo

Live-verified `npx -y thetacog-mcp@latest attest-demo` in a fresh empty non-git
folder — Adam's exact "run-together" instructions — ahead of today's redpill
demo call. It crashed inside "THE SELF-AUDIT LEDGER — pmu-verify," the
trust-building "we became the skeptic" section, with a raw Node.js
TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE] stack trace.

Root cause: packages/thetacog-mcp/package.json shipped only
data/pmu/study/.gitkeep, not the real study JSON, so claims-check.mjs's
latestStudy() found an empty dir and resolve(dir, undefined) threw. Worse,
attest-demo.mjs treated any non-empty subprocess stdout+stderr as a valid
ledger, so it printed the crash trace as if it were content.

- Bundle the real data/pmu/study/ (184KB, no secrets) instead of the placeholder.
- latestStudy() now throws a clean, named NO_STUDY_DATA error instead of an
  opaque internal TypeError.
- attest-demo.mjs gates on the subprocess exit status before rendering its
  output — a nonzero exit is a crash trace, never legitimate ledger content.
- Guard: packages/thetacog-mcp/tests/claims-check-npx-cold-run.test.mjs packs
  the real npm artifact and runs it from a fresh non-git dir (the actual
  Adam scenario), plus source guards on both fixes.

Originating-Terminal: 🎩 operator
Relevant-Rooms: 🔨 builder, 🎩 operator, 🧪 laboratory
Story: RPM item 9 (Adam's in-lane momentum) scheduled a live run-together demo
call; verifying the exact instructed command before/during the call surfaced
a real, 100%-reproducible crash in the trust-building self-audit section —
fixed at the root (bundling) with a guard against the cascading symptom
(rendering a crash as content), not just a patch.

Receipt-Verified: σ=2.00 · cell=C · witness-agreement=GZIP_ONLY · lens=gzip · receipt=169d956d

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

commit eef9a2def — 144×144 lattice triptych (on-chip)

◎ the ingest chose A1,B2 — Strategy·Law × Tactics·Deal — acting on C,C3 — Operations × Operations·Flow (grip 0.781) · the walk starts at the ACTOR's row · 4 file(s)

⏱ ingest 100.2ms (corpus→lattice) · definer walk 258ms (row→transpose→row, ballistic XOR per hop) · total 478ms
ingest here = commit-scoped SENSING only (this commit's message + changed files → lit anchors) — deep seed authoring lives in the reef-self-loop, off the commit path

rows = ACTOR (lens) · cols = PATIENT (object) · diagonal = self-reference; ◎ at actor-row × patient-col — every panel, same orientation. Heat above the diagonal = actors ranking ShortLex-earlier than their patients (the walk follows definers uphill in rank).
The 12 canonical lanes (rows top→bottom, cols left→right): A·Strategy · B·Tactics · C·Operations · A1·Law · A2·Goal · A3·Fund · B1·Speed · B2·Deal · B3·Signal · C1·Grid · C2·Loop · C3·Flow

PAIR LATTICE (the map we normally see)

PRE-WALK SENSE · INTENT grid — the snapshot, no point of view

the no-point-of-view snapshot — what the sensor lit before any walk; the leaf walk below is what bridges the two grids

	ABC A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N A1–C3
ABC A1–C3 A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N

PRE-WALK SENSE · REALITY grid — the snapshot, no point of view

the no-point-of-view snapshot, reality side — same sensor law

	ABC A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N A1–C3
ABC A1–C3 A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N

PRE-WALK Δ · straight comparison of the two ingested grids (green both · cyan intent-only · amber reality-only) · 1% overlap · ◎ = where the competence pixel sits in the raw overlap

good = green overlap without being a copy — near-100% is self-similarity, not alignment

	ABC A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N A1–C3
ABC A1–C3 A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N

◎ the pixel this commit belongs to

A1,B2 — Strategy·Law × Tactics·Deal (actor) acting on C,C3 — Operations × Operations·Flow (patient) · grip 0.781

actor seed A1,B2 — Binding rules in law regulate each deal exchange and negotiation rate through a governance article. EU AI Act Article 14 requires human-on-the-loop oversight, with the supervisor able to interrupt the system at any moment. Compliance attaches to the artifact the artifact cannot escape — provenance is a regulatory primitive, not a feature. Constraints precede objectives. The cap-table, the license text, the consent envelope — each draws the inviolate line the action must respect, and the line is enforced before the optimization runs. The deal sets the exchange rate between two value substrates. Mis-priced exchange is a slow-bleed; correctly priced exchange compounds both sides, because each cycle of trade enriches the bench on both ends. Terms are the API between two organizations — every clause is a contract method that survives the handshake. Renegotiation is the breaking change; the deal is the stable interface either side can build against. Negotiation closes at the moment both parties' BATNAs cross. Push past that point and you've bought regret at retail; stop short and you've left margin on the table that the next deal will not return to you. A signed counterparty is more valuable than an unsigned promise. The signature is the substrate; the conversation that preceded it is the exhaust the signature converted into substrate.

patient seed C,C3 — Maintaining the daily cadence and operational execution ensures flow throughput and delivery rate across the finish. Flow is the rate at which committed work crosses the finish line. Inventory accumulates upstream; flow is the only thing the customer pays for, and the only thing the operator can measure honestly. Movement is the irreversible delivery of value across the boundary. Anything stationary is cost; anything moving is either revenue, deferred revenue, or the exhaust of revenue not yet realized. Throughput dominates utilization. A ninety-nine-percent utilized system at low throughput pays the same wages as a fifty-percent utilized system at twice the throughput, but the second one ships the customer's order. Operations is the loop that runs whether anyone watches. The daily commit, the hourly hook, the per-request fingerprint — the substrate of the substrate, ambient and unwatched. Process is what you forget to do; ops is what does itself. Convert manual moves into ambient state, because the tax of remembering compounds faster than the tax of automating. The daily friction is the diff between your intent and your harness. Close the diff or pay the tax twice — once in the slip, once in the apology to the next agent. Operations earns its keep by being boring. The day the routine is interesting is the day it has already failed and is being narrated rather than executed.

INTENT · leaf-walk clouds · BLUE→VIOLET by ply (◎ = the competence pixel: actor∩patient)

good = the clouds concentrate where the commit SAYS it works

	ABC A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N A1–C3
ABC A1–C3 A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N

REALITY · leaf-walk clouds · ORANGE→RED by ply (◎ = the same pixel — the shared perspective)

good = the same clouds as intent — shipped where declared

	ABC A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N A1–C3
ABC A1–C3 A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N

DELTA · graded cloud divergence (green agree · magenta declared-not-done · amber done-not-declared) · 1% agree

good = mostly green; magenta = said-not-done (chase it in the code), amber = done-not-said (chase it in the docs)

	ABC A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N A1–C3
ABC A1–C3 A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N

TOLERANCE · cloud topology (dim green in-shape · hot amber bleed · red orthogonal concentration) · ⚠ TOO MANY

red only matters above the flip — a few amber is normal bleed

	ABC A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N A1–C3
ABC A1–C3 A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N

SHORTLEX-3 PROJECTION (ABC · A1..C3 · the 132 children — candidate, pre-ratchet)

PROJECTED INTENT · the commit’s claims, head→axis_i tail→axis_j (cyan)

the three-length view — good = claims land inside their own zone

	ABC A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N A1–C3
ABC A1–C3 A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N

PROJECTED REALITY · same projection law (amber)

same projection law — good = reality occupies the zones intent does

	ABC A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N A1–C3
ABC A1–C3 A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N

STRAIGHT COMPARISON · green both · cyan intent-only · amber reality-only · 6% overlap

good = the zones agree; cross-zone scatter is the drift to read

	ABC A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N A1–C3
ABC A1–C3 A1A–O A2A–O A3A–O B1A–O B2A–O B3A–O C1A–N C2A–N C3A–N

shortlex-3 zone occupancy (lit cells per diagonal square)
INTENT: 0 in the 3×3 ABC corner · 6 in the 9×9 A1..C3 square · 1697 in the 132×132 children square · 348 cross-zone
REALITY: 0 in the 3×3 ABC corner · 8 in the 9×9 A1..C3 square · 1948 in the 132×132 children square · 316 cross-zone
axes: identical 144 ShortLex names both sides (symmetric); weights asymmetric
zone 3 = candidate children, pre-ratchet (repo-derived dumps not yet past the perturbation-probe gate) · intent 45 claims @ θ 0.625 · reality 29 claims @ θ 0.6094 · projection 408ms

SHAPE-MATCH σ = -2.23 — the real intent↔reality definer walk vs random-reality (actual 0.0097 vs random 0.074). >0 = the walk distinguishes real alignment from noise; aggregate over independent walks → the divergent series.
σ_drift · noise · below zero — this read is noise, not a measurement

Most out-of-lane row: B1 · Speed — that lane is drifting most (read the red band in that row).

Three-colour tolerance (out-of-lane = reality fires where intent is weak, in orthogonal blocks): green=in-lane agreement · amber=a few out-of-lane (tolerated) · red=FIRED — orthogonal out-of-lane 34% vs tolerance 25%.
537 green · 394 amber · 469 red · 146 XOR-friction cells.

Both axes = the 144 ShortLex anchors, cell=row⊕col, on the chip. INTENT=docs+rules · REALITY=code · DELTA=friction.

tile dump — what the SimHash matched on the diagonal (inspect the sensor; tap to expand)

A,A The lattice we build today is what next year's underwriter inherits.

intent 69% Root cause: packages/thetacog-mcp/package.json shipped only data/pmu/study/.gitkeep, not the re

reality 73% This change operates in the ui frontend domain, involving page render. This change operates in

B,B Tactics is the choice of which leverage to pull at which beat.

intent 69% (no distinctive match)

reality 78% (no distinctive match)

C,C Operations is the loop that runs whether anyone watches.

intent 78% (no distinctive match)

reality 83% (no distinctive match)

A1,A1 EU AI Act Article 14 requires human-on-the-loop oversight, with the supervisor able to interrupt the system at

intent 75% (no distinctive match)

reality 80% (no distinctive match)

A2,A2 The target is the cell coordinate the system MUST occupy by end-of-quarter.

intent 72% (no distinctive match)

reality 80% (no distinctive match)

A3,A3 Every dollar builds either the floor (substrate that lifts future bets) or the ceiling (cap on the next round)

intent 72% - Bundle the real data/pmu/study/ (184KB, no secrets) instead of the placeholder. - latestStudy

reality 66% (no distinctive match)

B1,B1 Latency is the price of a missed beat.

intent 69% (no distinctive match)

reality 70% (no distinctive match)

B2,B2 The deal sets the exchange rate between two value substrates.

intent 72% (no distinctive match)

reality 72% (no distinctive match)

B3,B3 Signal-to-noise is the inverse cube of bandwidth — narrow the channel, the message arrives; broaden it, recipi

intent 66% Receipt-Verified: σ=2.00 · cell=C · witness-agreement=GZIP_ONLY · lens=gzip · receipt=169d956d

reality 72% (no distinctive match)

C1,C1 Power flows where the grid lets it.

intent 73% (no distinctive match)

reality 72% (no distinctive match)

C2,C2 Each iteration is a hypothesis tested against the ground truth of the world.

intent 69% (no distinctive match)

reality 70% (no distinctive match)

C3,C3 Flow is the rate at which committed work crosses the finish line.

intent 77% Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

reality 78% (no distinctive match)

commit context — 4 file(s)

fix(thetacog-mcp): redpill demo self-audit ledger crashes with a raw stack trace outside a git repo

Live-verified `npx -y thetacog-mcp@latest attest-demo` in a fresh empty non-git
folder — Adam's exact "run-together" instructions — ahead of today's redpill
demo call. It crashed inside "THE SELF-AUDIT LEDGER — pmu-verify," the
trust-building "we became the skeptic" section, with a raw Node.js
TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE] stack trace.

Root cause: packages/thetacog-mcp/package.json shipped only
data/pmu/study/.gitkeep, not the real study JSON, so claims-check.mjs's
latestStudy() found an empty dir and resolve(dir, undefined) threw. Worse,
attest-demo.mjs treated any non-empty subprocess stdout+stderr as a valid
ledger, so it printed the crash trace as if it were content.

- Bundle the real data/pmu/study/ (184KB, no secrets) instead of the placeholder.
- latestStudy() now throws a clean, named NO_STUDY_DATA error instead of an
  opaque internal TypeError.
- attest-demo.mjs gates on the subprocess exit status before rendering its
  output — a nonzero exit is a crash trace, never legitimate ledger content.
- Guard: packages/thetacog-mcp/tests/claims-check-npx-cold-run.test.mjs pac

packages/thetacog-mcp/package.json
packages/thetacog-mcp/tests/claims-check-npx-cold-run.test.mjs
scripts/pmu/attest-demo.mjs
scripts/pmu/claims-check.mjs

Produced on the chip by the running pipeline (scripts/pmu/pipeline.mjs → runPipeline → walk + xor), commit-scoped · on-chip per-walk 763.80ns (this commit). Recompute: node scripts/pmu/commit-triptych.mjs --commit eef9a2def

Commit artifacts (open on a computer — Gmail mobile won't follow file:// links; the inline images above are the phone-viewable form): reef grid · this triptych · the HDL — all three are also attached to this email.