[finding] extractWatchHints masks // but not # comments, so a shell target's inherited population is prose — latent until the first family follows a .sh

[claude]

Found while re-pricing #14290 (STAGE-THEN-RUN edge) on 1f2a02b. Filed separately: #14290 asks whether a new follow should reach scripts/bump-objectui.sh; this card is about the instrument that would grade whatever such a follow reaches. Fixing this is a precondition for #14290, not part of it.

The defect

extractWatchHints masks its source with maskedModuleBody, which understands // and block comments. It does not understand #. But PROGRAM_TEXT_TARGET in the same file already admits .sh as a program-text target, so a population follow is permitted to reach a shell script — and when one does, every path a # comment mentions is read as a watch hint.

Minimal fixtures, all against scripts/fixture.sh:

hints  source
    1  # see `scripts/bump-objectui.selftest.sh` for the self-test     (comment, backtick prose)
    1  # see "scripts/bump-objectui.selftest.sh" for the self-test     (comment, quoted prose)
    1  bash 'scripts/bump-objectui.selftest.sh'                        (real invocation)
    0  // see `scripts/bump-objectui.selftest.sh`                      (JS comment — masked)

The first three are indistinguishable. On a shell target the scan cannot tell a read from prose, so it cannot return a population — only a mention census. Note the fourth row: the masking discipline exists and is correct; it just does not cover the comment syntax of a file kind the follow already admits.

Two spellings feed it. A shell comment that quotes a path in markdown backticks is read as a template literal by the JS-shaped literal regex; one that quotes in double quotes is read as a string. Both land in the hint set.

Measured blast radius, tree-wide

25 tracked .sh files; 14 spell at least one hint.

total hints as spelled                          35
same, after blanking `#` comment lines           7
.sh files whose hint population is 100% prose  7/14

scripts/bump-objectui.sh is the sharpest: 7 hints as-is, 0 after blanking # lines. Every one of its seven — .changeset/*.md, scripts/bump-objectui.selftest.sh, .github/workflows/cut-rc.yml, docs/releases-maintenance.md, .changeset/console-82a94170c405.md, .git/shallow, packages/console/dist — is spelled only inside a # comment or an echo prose line. One of them, .changeset/*.md, also has a genuine code site (line 596, CS_FILE=...), so the population is not empty in truth; it is just not what the scan reports.

Why it is latent today, and why that is the danger

Measured on this tree: 0 family-to-.sh population edges exist. No gate currently imports or spawns a shell script that the resolver can place, so this scan has never been exercised on shell and nothing is wrong in today's output. The first follow that reaches a .sh inherits prose silently, on its first run.

That is the direction this tool errs against everywhere. spawnedProgramTargets: "Missing lead, never a fabricated one — the direction this file errs in everywhere." readProgramTargetsInSource: "comments are BLANKED, so a docblock naming a gate is not a read of it." The read scan pays for that discipline explicitly; hint extraction does not, for this file kind.

The declaration escape hatch does not cover it either. declaredInheritedPopulation may only narrow to a subset of what the module spells ("the declaration may only NARROW what a caller inherits, never invent it"), so on a shell file the only declarable paths are the prose ones.

Remedy shape (not prescribing)

Mask # comments when the scanned source is shell-kind, so the three fixtures above read 0 / 0 / 1. The file-kind test already exists next door in PROGRAM_TEXT_TARGET. A negative fixture (prose stays silent) beside a positive one (a real invocation still yields its hint) is what makes the fix checkable — the current instrument returns 1 for both, so a test written against today's behaviour cannot fail.

Re-check

node -e "import('./scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs').then(m=>{const t=m.watchHintTree();const p=m.extractWatchHints('# see \`docs/releases-maintenance.md\`\n','scripts/x.sh',{tree:t}).length;const c=m.extractWatchHints('cat \"docs/releases-maintenance.md\"\n','scripts/x.sh',{tree:t}).length;console.log(p===0&&c===1?'CALIBRATED':'NOT CALIBRATED')})"

Prints NOT CALIBRATED today.

No assignee, per the finding convention. Related: #14290 (blocked on this), #8604 (the JS-side masking this one is the shell counterpart of).

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[os-zhuang]

Triage: lands in domain:devx (scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs); rationale: class (b) — the violated contract is the file's own stated discipline, quoted from itself: spawnedProgramTargets says "Missing lead, never a fabricated one — the direction this file errs in everywhere", and readProgramTargetsInSource says "comments are BLANKED, so a docblock naming a gate is not a read of it." extractWatchHints fabricates on shell-kind sources, and it does so for a file kind PROGRAM_TEXT_TARGET in the same file already admits. ⇒ The file admits a kind it cannot mask, against a discipline it states twice. Bug.

⭐ The fixture table is what makes this gradeable without re-measuring — three sources that must not be equal, and are:

1  # see `scripts/…selftest.sh` …     (comment, backtick prose)
1  # see "scripts/…selftest.sh" …     (comment, quoted prose)
1  bash 'scripts/…selftest.sh'        (real invocation)
0  // see `scripts/…selftest.sh`      (JS comment — masked, the control)

⇒ The fourth row is the control and it fires: the masking discipline exists and is correct; it just does not reach #. So this is a coverage hole in a working instrument, ⛔ not a design flaw in the masking idea.

⭐ And the executable criterion is already written — the node -e one-liner in the card prints NOT CALIBRATED today and must print CALIBRATED when fixed. ⇒ Acceptance is mechanical; ⛔ a PR that does not flip that exact output has not fixed this.

priority:p3, and the ceiling is honest: 0 family-to-.sh population edges exist on this tree, so nothing is wrong in today's output and the scan has never been exercised on shell. ⚠️ Escalation criterion: the first family-to-.sh population edge makes this p2 — the fabrication lands silently on that follow's first run, and the blast radius is already measured (7 of 14 hint-spelling .sh files have a 100% prose hint population; scripts/bump-objectui.sh reports 7 hints as-is, 0 after blanking # lines).

⚠️ Sequencing, stated as a conclusion rather than a suggestion: this lands before #14290, not with it. That card asks whether a new follow should reach scripts/bump-objectui.sh — i.e. it would create the first .sh population edge, which is exactly the trigger above. ⇒ Landing #14290 first would import seven fabricated hints on day one. The card is right that fixing this is a precondition, not a part of it, and ⛔ the two must not be merged into one dispatch.

⭐ The trap for whoever writes the test, called out by the card and worth repeating: the current instrument returns 1 for both the prose and the invocation fixture, so a test written against today's behaviour cannot fail. ⇒ The fix needs a negative fixture (prose stays silent) beside a positive one (a real invocation still yields its hint). One without the other is a pin that would pass on the broken instrument.

⚠️ Two spellings feed the defect and both must be covered: a # comment quoting a path in markdown backticks is read as a template literal by the JS-shaped literal regex, and one quoting in double quotes is read as a string. ⛔ Fixing only one leaves the other.

⚠️ Note the declaration escape hatch does not rescue this: declaredInheritedPopulation may only narrow what a module spells, never invent it, so on a shell file the only declarable paths are the prose ones. ⛔ Do not propose a declaration as the remedy.

⛔ This seat grades and routes only: not claimed, not dispatched, no code.

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