feat(u6): benches — a registry with identity, and the rule enforced

The standing link board carried three jobs because only one of them had a
surface. Re-measured before contracting, its 221 rows split into 178 booth
announcements (156 already dead) and 43 non-booth rows, of which 8 are the same
bench re-posted. U5 gave the booth announcement a home; this gives the running
service one, and refuses the one shape that now has somewhere better to go.

- booth/benches.py (new, stdlib-only and sibling-free): the Bench record, URL
  normalization as the identity, a lenient read on the render path and a strict
  read on the write path, atomic replace under an flock, and a stated total
  order (state rank, name casefolded, id).
- links.booth_target: ONE predicate for "is this a booth URL", consumed by the
  CLI refusal, the board's dead marker and bench import. Host-agnostic,
  path-shaped, percent-decoded, never raises.
- booth link refuses a booth URL, names `booth new --why`, and writes nothing —
  not the row, not the board directory, not the announcement.
- The board marks rows whose booth has been swept. Nothing here deletes a row:
  removal stays the operator's two clicks through the existing bulk control.
- booth bench add|ls|state|rm|import. import writes nothing without --apply and
  never edits links.md.
- docs/archive/links-2026-09-22.md: the board archived verbatim into git.

Identity is the FULL normalized URL, not the origin, and that was measured:
origin identity collapses the 43 non-booth rows to 19 groups by merging eight
distinct gitea repositories into one row, three unrelated HuggingFace model
cards into one, and the two LRPG surfaces on 10.100.10.50:8321 — the design
doc's own example of two real benches — into one. Full-URL identity still
collapses both cases that doc names: talk 5 to 1, Peedlar 3 to 1.

booth link is NOT deprecated. Roughly 14 of the 35 distinct non-booth targets
are reference bookmarks for which the board is the right and only home; the
design doc's plan to deprecate it would have evicted a third of its live
content. Corrected there, along with what "normalized URL" means.

The seam review found three real defects in the contract before any code: the
claim that test_stdlib_only already forbids sibling imports (it exempts `booth`
on purpose), naming resolve_booth as the dead marker's existence check (it
raises HTTPException(404), so one swept booth would have 404'd the whole board
page), and silence on percent-encoding (booth links are emitted through
quote(name, safe=""), so a raw comparison marks every encoded booth dead
forever). That both list_booths and sweep_once skip the registry was verified
against the real functions rather than assumed.

444 -> 555 tests. Deployed and verified live: 23/23 booths 200, and the board
renders 156 dead of 221 rows, matching an independent pre-implementation count.

NOT TAGGED: both cold gates are in flight (contract review
01M35BWCJ806MT75NA630Y4WFH, code review 01M35CK8YKEKMV7T15JXEF6A8N) and the
bug-hunt has not run. Per the v0.2.0 lesson, the tag waits for the gates.

ROADMAP.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # The Booth — roadmap
 
 Design: [`docs/design/information-architecture.md`](docs/design/information-architecture.md).
-Current version: `0.5.0` (U1, U2, U3, U4 and U5 landed; extracted from eshpfi 2026-09-21).
+Current version: `0.5.0` (U1 through U6 landed; extracted from eshpfi 2026-09-21).
 
 ## v1 target
 
@@ -15,17 +15,27 @@ defect — not a wish. The measurements are in the IA doc.
 | 3 | ~~**Declared embed seam**~~ — **landed `87e2c53`, released `v0.5.0`** | 6 regexes injected into arbitrary author HTML, load-bearing for asks | U3 |
 | 4 | ~~**Derived lifetime**~~ — **landed `c3a97c1`, released `v0.4.0`** | 70% of booths on the `.forever` escape hatch (54% when first counted) | U4 |
 | 5 | ~~**Self-announcing booths**~~ — **landed `c015a91`, released `v0.3.0`** | job 5 had no home, so it lived on the link board as 145 dead rows | U5 |
-| 6 | **Benches** — registry, identity, enforced rule, migration | 69% link-board rot; the same bench posted 5× | U6 |
+| 6 | ~~**Benches**~~ — registry, identity, enforced rule, migration | 69% link-board rot; the same bench posted 5× | U6 |
 | 7 | **Navigation at 270 items** — sections, rail, filters, grid keyboard | one flat wall; subfolder structure discarded at render | U7 |
 
 Ordering is dependency-driven, not priority-driven: **U1 → U2 → {U3, U4, U5} →
 U7**, with **U6 independent** of all of them (different storage, different
 surface) and therefore the safest thing to land first or in parallel.
 
-**U1, U2, U3, U4 and U5 are landed — the whole middle tier is closed.** U6
+**U1 through U6 are landed.** **U7 is the last unit before the 1.0 cut** — its
-remains independent and unstarted; **U7 is now unblocked**, since its only
+only dependency was `{U3, U4, U5}` and that closed with U3.
-dependency was `{U3, U4, U5}`. Two units left to v1, and they do not depend on
+
-each other, so either can go next.
+⚠ **Before starting U7, read
+`persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-u7-section-premise-half-wrong.md`, and re-count
+the booths first.** Half its premise is already known to be wrong — every booth
+that actually needs navigation is FLAT — and the booth set churned again on
+2026-09-22: the four large booths U7 was sized against (`pancake-v3-full` and
+`pancake-v4-full` at 270 items, `sindra20-engines`, `sindra-finalists`) have all
+been swept. The largest live booth is now `miranda-is` at 92 items, flat. Two of
+23 booths have subfolders (`pewpew-ui-brief`, `dfa-concepts`) and **both are
+reports** — the job where grid navigation matters least. Sections, one of U7's
+four named components, buys close to nothing. The rail, the filters and the grid
+keyboard are the unit.
 
 **U5's adoption is a measured prediction, not a finished result**, and it is
 TWO predictions rather than one. The operator declined a fleetwide announcement
@@ -75,6 +85,8 @@ Where it already binds, and what the rule is in each case:
 | legacy ask import | `(mtime, name)`, which is the order `list_asks` gave them |
 | link board rows | pinned first, then newest-first |
 | a booth's announcement | not a collection — one flat record per booth, nothing to order (U5) |
+| the bench registry | `(state rank, name casefolded, id)` — live before promoted before retired, then alphabetical, with the id as a TOTAL tie-break so two benches sharing a name cannot swap (U6) |
+| the link board's dead marker | not an order — a per-row stamp read from the existing `order_for_display` sequence, so marking cannot move a row (U6) |
 | embed anchors in a verbatim report | **document order** — what `querySelectorAll` yields, so the author's markup decides (U3) |
 | the embed tail (fragments the author did not place) | **payload order**, which is the marks order `(created, id)` — one rule, whether a fragment lands at an anchor or at the end (U3) |
 | questions within a pick | declaration order, in the payload's `questions` LIST — carried by the format rather than by object-key insertion order (U3) |
@@ -92,7 +104,9 @@ ordering: one rule, one place, every surface reading it.
 Where it is still to be decided, and must be before the unit ships: **U7's
 section ordering and its compare pairing** (sections need a stated order among
 themselves, not just within; pairing by filename needs a rule for what happens
-to an unpaired file), and **U6's bench listing**.
+to an unpaired file). **U6's bench listing is settled** — the row above.
+Compare pairing is parked to v1.1 with compare mode itself, so U7 carries one
+undecided rule, not two.
 
 The test for any new ordered surface: *can you write the rule down in one line?*
 If not, it does not have one yet.

booth/app.py

@@ -165,10 +165,19 @@ from booth.manifest import (  # noqa: E402
     read_manifest,
     write_manifest,
 )
+from booth.benches import (  # noqa: E402
+    BENCH_STATES,
+    normalize_bench_url,
+    read_benches,
+    remove_bench,
+    set_bench_state,
+    upsert_bench,
+)
 from booth.links import (  # noqa: E402
     LINK_LOCK,
     LINKS_FILE,
     PINS_FILE,
+    booth_target,
     link_entry_id,
     order_for_display,
     parse_link_entries,
@@ -917,6 +926,15 @@ def create_app(
                 # `read_manifest` already take. A booth whose `links.md` cannot
                 # be read renders as a booth with no board.
                 "board": _board_rows(booth),
+                # The bench registry, rendered on the STANDING BOARD's page and
+                # nowhere else: it belongs to exactly one booth, and a read per
+                # gallery page view would buy noise. `_board_rows` is empty for
+                # every other booth, so this pair is read only when it renders.
+                # `read_benches` never raises; a damaged registry costs its own
+                # panel and says so, which is the v0.2.2 lesson.
+                **dict(zip(("benches", "benches_error"),
+                           read_benches(data_dir) if (booth / LINKS_FILE).is_file()
+                           else ([], None))),
                 # Marks: operator judgment attached to this booth or to one of
                 # its items — a session's question (`pick`), the operator's own
                 # remark (`note`), the operator's selection (`flag`). Rendered
@@ -951,13 +969,41 @@ def create_app(
         try:
             if not (booth / LINKS_FILE).is_file():
                 return []
-            return order_for_display(
+            rows = order_for_display(
                 parse_link_entries((booth / LINKS_FILE).read_text()),
                 read_pins(booth),
             )
+            # DEAD = the row points at a booth that no longer exists. 156 of the
+            # board's 221 rows are exactly that, and nothing on the page could
+            # tell them apart, so the bulk-delete control that has existed since
+            # before this unit was unusable at that scale. Marking is all this
+            # does: removal stays the operator's two deliberate clicks, because
+            # "a migration that deletes anything" is not in v1.
+            for row in rows:
+                target = booth_target(row["url"])
+                row["dead"] = target is not None and not _booth_exists(target)
+            return rows
         except (OSError, ValueError, UnicodeDecodeError):
             return []
 
+    def _booth_exists(name: str) -> bool:
+        """Whether a booth name is a live directory. NEVER RAISES.
+
+        SEAM REVIEW SR-2: this deliberately does NOT call `resolve_booth`, which
+        raises HTTPException(404) — called once per board row, one swept booth
+        would 404 the whole page, which is the opposite of the marker's purpose.
+        `booth_target` has already applied the same addressability rules
+        `resolve_booth` enforces, so the two cannot disagree about what is
+        reachable; all that is left is the existence check itself.
+
+        Cost: one stat per booth-shaped row per render of the standing board —
+        178 of 221 rows today, on the ONE booth that carries a links.md.
+        """
+        try:
+            return (data_dir / name).is_dir()
+        except OSError:
+            return False
+
     def _mark_redirect(name: str, form, anchor: str) -> RedirectResponse:
         """Land where the form was: the standalone marks page for a verbatim
         booth (its own index.html cannot show the recorded judgment), else the
@@ -1459,6 +1505,47 @@ def create_app(
         toggle_pin(resolve_booth(name), entry)
         return RedirectResponse(url=f"/b/{quote(name, safe='')}/", status_code=303)
 
+    @app.post("/b/{name}/bench-add")
+    def bench_add(name: str, url: str = Form(...), bname: str = Form("", alias="name")):
+        """Register or update a bench by normalized URL.
+
+        A rejected URL must not 500 the page it was posted from. THE REJECTION
+        IS SILENT HERE, and that is stated rather than dressed up: the form's
+        `type="url"` catches the ordinary typo in the browser before the post,
+        and this `except` is the last resort for what slips past it — the bench
+        simply does not appear. Surfacing the reason would need a flash message,
+        which this service has no mechanism for; inventing one for a path the
+        browser already guards is not worth a unit's scope.
+
+        `resolve_booth` is called for its 404: a POST at a booth that does not
+        exist is not a silent no-op.
+        """
+        resolve_booth(name)
+        try:
+            upsert_bench(data_dir, url, bname, "operator")
+        except (ValueError, OSError):
+            pass
+        return RedirectResponse(url=f"/b/{quote(name, safe='')}/", status_code=303)
+
+    @app.post("/b/{name}/bench-state")
+    def bench_state(name: str, bench: str = Form(...), state: str = Form(...)):
+        resolve_booth(name)
+        if state in BENCH_STATES:
+            try:
+                set_bench_state(data_dir, bench, state)
+            except (ValueError, OSError):
+                pass
+        return RedirectResponse(url=f"/b/{quote(name, safe='')}/", status_code=303)
+
+    @app.post("/b/{name}/bench-remove")
+    def bench_remove(name: str, bench: str = Form(...)):
+        resolve_booth(name)
+        try:
+            remove_bench(data_dir, bench)
+        except (ValueError, OSError):
+            pass
+        return RedirectResponse(url=f"/b/{quote(name, safe='')}/", status_code=303)
+
     def _safe_next(nxt: str) -> str:
         """Where to land after keep/unkeep. Defaults to the index; a booth page
         can ask to stay put. Only same-site absolute paths are honoured — `//`

booth/benches.py

@@ -0,0 +1,341 @@
+"""Benches: a running thing, registered.
+
+A bench is NOT a booth and NOT a bookmark. It is a durable middle-to-long-term
+testing surface — jackdaw's current bench, talk's current bench, the things that
+get promoted to Homepage when they are fully deployed. The standing link board
+absorbed the job because it was the only surface on offer, and an O_APPEND log
+with no identity turns "here is the bench again" into a fifth row rather than an
+update: `talk` is on the board five times and Peedlar's root three.
+
+STDLIB ONLY, AND SIBLING-FREE, ON PURPOSE. `scripts/booth` imports this through
+a `python3 -c` heredoc under the system python3 with no venv, exactly as it
+imports `marks`, `asks`, `links` and `manifest`. A third-party import breaks
+`booth bench` on every fleet host; a `from booth.links import ...` breaks it on
+any host where both modules are not importable together, which is a second way
+for the same invariant to fall. `tests/test_benches.py` forbids both.
+
+SINGLE-WRITER, MANY-READER — the opposite shape from `links.md`. The board is a
+multi-writer append log because seventeen agent handles post to it at once. This
+is the operator in one browser plus occasional CLI calls, so it is one file,
+rewritten whole under a lock, replaced atomically. Inheriting the append-log
+design here would be the mistake CLAUDE.md names by name.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import fcntl
+import json
+import os
+from dataclasses import dataclass, replace
+from datetime import datetime, timezone
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Iterable
+from urllib.parse import urlsplit, urlunsplit
+
+# At the DATA ROOT, not inside a booth. A dotfile there is invisible to
+# `list_booths` and to `sweep_once` — both skip a child that is not a directory
+# AND a child whose name starts with a dot, so the registry fails two guards
+# rather than one. Verified against both functions (seam review SR-4, SR-5)
+# rather than assumed: had either guard been absent, the sweeper would have
+# eaten this file on its first tick.
+BENCHES_FILE = ".benches.json"
+BENCH_LOCK = ".benches.lock"
+
+# live → promoted (to Homepage) → retired. Order is meaningful: it is the
+# first key of the rendered order, so a retired bench sinks.
+BENCH_STATES = ("live", "promoted", "retired")
+_STATE_RANK = {s: i for i, s in enumerate(BENCH_STATES)}
+
+# Display budgets, not storage limits — these land in a panel row.
+NAME_MAX, OWNER_MAX, URL_MAX = 120, 64, 2048
+
+# The read is on the render path, so it is bounded. 256 KiB holds thousands of
+# benches; the live board has 43 non-booth rows total.
+BENCHES_MAX_BYTES = 256 * 1024
+
+_SCHEMES = ("http", "https")
+
+
+@dataclass(frozen=True)
+class Bench:
+    """One registered bench.
+
+    `id` and `url` are two fields ON PURPOSE. The identity must be normalized so
+    that re-posting updates rather than appends; the href must be verbatim so a
+    server that cares about a trailing slash, a case-sensitive path or a query
+    still works when the operator clicks it. Collapsing them would make the
+    registry quietly change where a link goes — a bug that surfaces as "the
+    bench 404s" and is never traced back here.
+    """
+
+    id: str                    # the normalized URL — identity, and the key on disk
+    url: str                   # the URL as posted — what a click goes to
+    name: str
+    owner: str                 # an althing handle, or "booth" for the service
+    state: str
+    added: str                 # ISO-8601 with offset, from the FIRST registration
+    updated: str               # ISO-8601 with offset, from the most recent upsert
+    error: str | None = None   # a read-time verdict; never stored
+
+
+def normalize_bench_url(url: str) -> str:
+    """The identity of a bench. Raises ValueError with a reason a human can act on.
+
+    THE RULE, in full, because a vague identity is worse than a wrong one:
+
+      * surrounding whitespace stripped
+      * scheme lowercased; anything but http/https refused
+      * userinfo (`user:pass@host`) REFUSED, never stripped
+      * host lowercased; an empty host refused
+      * port dropped when it is the scheme default (80 http, 443 https)
+      * path kept verbatim, except that a bare "/" becomes ""
+      * query kept verbatim INCLUDING parameter order (a query is opaque)
+      * fragment dropped
+
+    WHY THE FULL URL AND NOT THE ORIGIN — measured, not chosen. Collapsing the
+    live board's 43 non-booth rows by origin yields 19 groups; by full URL, 35.
+    The difference is not duplication: it is eight distinct gitea repositories
+    merged into one row, three unrelated HuggingFace model cards merged into
+    one, and the two LRPG surfaces on `10.100.10.50:8321` merged into one —
+    which are the information-architecture doc's own example of two real
+    benches. Origin identity destroys more than it deduplicates. Full-URL
+    identity still collapses both cases that doc names: talk 5 → 1, Peedlar 3 → 1.
+
+    WHY THE QUERY IS IN AND THE FRAGMENT IS OUT. Three ShutterChute rows on the
+    board differ only by `?token=`; they are three genuinely different one-shot
+    links, and dropping the query would merge them into a bench that is none of
+    them. A fragment is a position inside a page, never a different resource.
+    """
+    raw = (url or "").strip()
+    if not raw:
+        raise ValueError("a bench needs a URL")
+    if len(raw) > URL_MAX:
+        raise ValueError(f"URL is longer than {URL_MAX} characters")
+    try:
+        parts = urlsplit(raw)
+    except ValueError as exc:                       # malformed IPv6 literal, etc.
+        raise ValueError(f"could not parse that URL: {exc}") from exc
+
+    scheme = parts.scheme.lower()
+    if scheme not in _SCHEMES:
+        raise ValueError(
+            f"a bench must be http or https, not {parts.scheme or '(no scheme)'}"
+        )
+    if "@" in parts.netloc:
+        # Refused, NOT stripped. Stripping would register a bench whose URL no
+        # longer works while telling the poster it succeeded — and would put a
+        # credential on a board that renders on an unauthenticated LAN surface
+        # on the way there.
+        raise ValueError("a bench URL must not carry credentials; strip the user:pass@ and re-post")
+    try:
+        host = (parts.hostname or "").lower()
+        port = parts.port
+    except ValueError as exc:                       # a non-numeric port
+        raise ValueError(f"could not read the host or port: {exc}") from exc
+    if not host:
+        raise ValueError("that URL has no host")
+
+    default = {"http": 80, "https": 443}[scheme]
+    netloc = host if port in (None, default) else f"{host}:{port}"
+    # A bare "/" is the same resource as no path at all; a trailing slash on a
+    # REAL path is not, and is left alone.
+    path = "" if parts.path == "/" else parts.path
+    return urlunsplit((scheme, netloc, path, parts.query, ""))
+
+
+# ---- storage ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+def _now() -> str:
+    return datetime.now(timezone.utc).isoformat(timespec="seconds")
+
+
+def _cap(value: object, limit: int, field: str) -> str:
+    if not isinstance(value, str):
+        raise ValueError(f"{field} must be text, not {type(value).__name__}")
+    return value[:limit]
+
+
+def _bench_from(bench_id: str, row: object) -> Bench:
+    """One stored row to a record. Raises ValueError on any shape it cannot
+    trust — this is the STRICT half, used by the write path and by the read
+    path's single try/except."""
+    if not isinstance(row, dict):
+        raise ValueError(f"{bench_id}: expected an object, found {type(row).__name__}")
+    state = row.get("state", "live")
+    if state not in BENCH_STATES:
+        raise ValueError(f"{bench_id}: unknown state {state!r}")
+    return Bench(
+        id=bench_id,
+        url=_cap(row.get("url", bench_id), URL_MAX, "url"),
+        name=_cap(row.get("name", ""), NAME_MAX, "name"),
+        owner=_cap(row.get("owner", ""), OWNER_MAX, "owner"),
+        state=state,
+        added=_cap(row.get("added", ""), 64, "added"),
+        updated=_cap(row.get("updated", ""), 64, "updated"),
+    )
+
+
+def _read_bytes(path: Path) -> bytes:
+    """Read at most BENCHES_MAX_BYTES + 1 bytes.
+
+    BOUNDS THE READ, NEVER THE STAT. A FIFO reports st_size 0 and then blocks
+    forever; a size cap that trusts `st_size` inherits a meaning it does not
+    have, and the 2026-09-22 incident in this repo was exactly that — a bound
+    that opened a service-wide hang. Reading one byte past the cap is how you
+    learn you are over it without reading the rest.
+    """
+    with path.open("rb") as fh:
+        return fh.read(BENCHES_MAX_BYTES + 1)
+
+
+def _load_strict(root: Path) -> dict[str, Bench]:
+    """Every bench, or ValueError. The write path's reader.
+
+    Whole-file, not per-row: a registry with one unreadable row is a registry
+    somebody has to look at, and quietly dropping the row is how a bench
+    disappears without anyone being told.
+    """
+    path = Path(root) / BENCHES_FILE
+    if not path.exists():
+        return {}
+    blob = _read_bytes(path)
+    if len(blob) > BENCHES_MAX_BYTES:
+        raise ValueError(f"registry is larger than {BENCHES_MAX_BYTES} bytes")
+    try:
+        raw = json.loads(blob.decode("utf-8"))
+    except (UnicodeDecodeError, json.JSONDecodeError) as exc:
+        raise ValueError(f"registry is not valid JSON: {exc}") from exc
+    if not isinstance(raw, dict):
+        raise ValueError(f"registry must be an object keyed by URL, found {type(raw).__name__}")
+    return {k: _bench_from(k, v) for k, v in raw.items()}
+
+
+def read_benches(root: Path) -> tuple[list[Bench], str | None]:
+    """Every registered bench in the rendered order, plus a read-time error.
+
+    NEVER RAISES. This runs on the render path, and the v0.2.2 lesson in this
+    repo was learned the expensive way: a poisoned `.marks.json` returned 500
+    for `/` and `/healthz` across all 25 booths. A registry that cannot be read
+    costs its own panel, never the page.
+
+    ABSENT AND DAMAGED ARE DIFFERENT and must render differently — only one of
+    them needs a human. Absent is `([], None)`; damaged is `([], "why")`.
+    """
+    try:
+        return order_benches(_load_strict(root).values()), None
+    except ValueError as exc:
+        return [], str(exc)
+    except OSError as exc:
+        return [], f"registry could not be read: {exc}"
+
+
+def _write_all(root: Path, benches: dict[str, Bench]) -> None:
+    """Atomic replace. Caller holds the lock.
+
+    Temp file + os.replace, so a reader never sees a partial file and a crash
+    mid-write cannot truncate the registry into a shorter — and therefore
+    quieter — set of benches. CLAUDE.md invariant 5.
+    """
+    root = Path(root)
+    path = root / BENCHES_FILE
+    payload = {
+        b.id: {"url": b.url, "name": b.name, "owner": b.owner,
+               "state": b.state, "added": b.added, "updated": b.updated}
+        # The key IS the id, so the record does not carry it twice — two copies
+        # of one fact is two things that can disagree.
+        for b in benches.values()
+    }
+    tmp = path.with_suffix(path.suffix + f".tmp.{os.getpid()}")
+    tmp.write_text(json.dumps(payload, indent=2, sort_keys=True) + "\n")
+    os.replace(tmp, path)
+
+
+class _Locked:
+    """Exclusive flock over the whole read-modify-write, on a sidecar."""
+
+    def __init__(self, root: Path):
+        self.root = Path(root)
+        self.root.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+        self.path = self.root / BENCH_LOCK
+
+    def __enter__(self):
+        self.path.touch(exist_ok=True)
+        self.fh = self.path.open("r+")
+        fcntl.flock(self.fh, fcntl.LOCK_EX)
+        return self
+
+    def __exit__(self, *exc):
+        fcntl.flock(self.fh, fcntl.LOCK_UN)
+        self.fh.close()
+        return False
+
+
+def upsert_bench(root: Path, url: str, name: str, owner: str) -> tuple[Bench, bool]:
+    """Register or update by normalized URL. Returns (bench, created).
+
+    READS ARE LENIENT, WRITES ARE STRICT — and this is the strict side. A write
+    over a registry that cannot be parsed RAISES rather than starting a fresh
+    one: on 2026-09-21 this repo learned that a tolerant writer over a damaged
+    `.marks.json` wipes the operator's judgment, and a tolerant reader is a
+    completely different decision from a tolerant writer.
+
+    `added` survives an update; `state` survives too, so a promoted bench that
+    re-announces itself after a deploy is not silently demoted.
+    """
+    bench_id = normalize_bench_url(url)
+    with _Locked(root):
+        benches = _load_strict(root)          # raises on damaged — deliberate
+        prior = benches.get(bench_id)
+        now = _now()
+        bench = Bench(
+            id=bench_id,
+            url=(url or "").strip(),
+            name=_cap(name or "", NAME_MAX, "name"),
+            owner=_cap(owner or "", OWNER_MAX, "owner"),
+            state=prior.state if prior else "live",
+            added=prior.added if prior else now,
+            updated=now,
+        )
+        benches[bench_id] = bench
+        _write_all(root, benches)
+    return bench, prior is None
+
+
+def set_bench_state(root: Path, bench_id: str, state: str) -> Bench | None:
+    """Move a bench between live / promoted / retired. None if no such bench."""
+    if state not in BENCH_STATES:
+        raise ValueError(f"state must be one of {', '.join(BENCH_STATES)}, not {state!r}")
+    with _Locked(root):
+        benches = _load_strict(root)
+        prior = benches.get(bench_id)
+        if prior is None:
+            return None
+        moved = replace(prior, state=state, updated=_now())
+        benches[bench_id] = moved
+        _write_all(root, benches)
+    return moved
+
+
+def remove_bench(root: Path, bench_id: str) -> Bench | None:
+    """Drop one bench. Returns the removed record, or None."""
+    with _Locked(root):
+        benches = _load_strict(root)
+        gone = benches.pop(bench_id, None)
+        if gone is None:
+            return None
+        _write_all(root, benches)
+    return gone
+
+
+def order_benches(benches: Iterable[Bench]) -> list[Bench]:
+    """ORDER: (state rank, name casefolded, id).
+
+    live before promoted before retired, then alphabetical, with the id as a
+    TOTAL tie-break so two benches sharing a name cannot swap between renders.
+    CLAUDE.md invariant 6 — the Booth's job is comparison, and an order that
+    moves between page loads files the operator's judgment against the wrong
+    row. Pure: no I/O, and the input sequence is not mutated.
+    """
+    return sorted(benches, key=lambda b: (_STATE_RANK.get(b.state, len(BENCH_STATES)),
+                                          b.name.casefold(), b.id))

booth/links.py

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import hashlib
 import os
 import re
 from pathlib import Path
+from urllib.parse import unquote, urlsplit
 
 # ---- the standing link board ------------------------------------------------
 #
@@ -194,3 +195,52 @@ def order_for_display(entries: list[dict], pinned: set[str]) -> list[dict]:
     stamped = [{**e, "pinned": e["id"] in pinned} for e in entries]
     stamped.reverse()  # newest first
     return [e for e in stamped if e["pinned"]] + [e for e in stamped if not e["pinned"]]
+
+
+# ---- what counts as a booth link -------------------------------------------
+
+
+def booth_target(url: str) -> str | None:
+    """The booth NAME a URL points at, or None when it is not a booth link.
+
+    ONE PREDICATE, THREE CALLERS — the CLI's `link` refusal, the board's
+    dead-row marker, and `bench import`'s classifier. They must agree: a rule
+    that refuses a shape the board then fails to mark as dead (or the reverse)
+    is two readers of one truth, which is the bug this repo has now paid for
+    three times. `tests/test_benches.py` runs one table through every caller.
+
+    HOST-AGNOSTIC AND PATH-SHAPED. A row is a booth link when its path is
+    `/b/<name>` or `/b/<name>/...`, whatever the host. NOT a host allowlist: the
+    fleet reaches this service as `10.100.10.50:8090`, `localhost:8090` and
+    `nh3-dev.nh3.internal:8090`, and an allowlist would silently fail to refuse
+    from whichever name somebody used next — a rule that fails OPEN on the exact
+    case it exists to catch. The accepted cost is that a third-party URL with a
+    `/b/<x>` path reads as a booth link; that failure is visible (a refusal
+    naming the reason) rather than silent, and no such URL is on the board.
+
+    THE NAME SEGMENT IS PERCENT-DECODED. `app.py` emits booth links through
+    `quote(name, safe="")`, so a booth whose name needs encoding appears on the
+    board encoded. Comparing the raw segment against a directory name would mark
+    every such booth permanently dead and echo the encoded form back at the
+    poster in the refusal message.
+
+    The returned name passes the SAME addressability rules `resolve_booth`
+    enforces (non-empty, no leading dot, no separator, no `..`), so the two
+    cannot disagree about what is reachable.
+
+    NEVER RAISES. A board row is arbitrary operator-editable text; a predicate
+    that raises on one row takes the whole page.
+    """
+    try:
+        parts = urlsplit((url or "").strip())
+        if parts.scheme.lower() not in ("http", "https"):
+            return None
+        segments = parts.path.split("/")
+        if len(segments) < 3 or segments[1] != "b":
+            return None
+        name = unquote(segments[2])
+    except (ValueError, UnicodeDecodeError):
+        return None
+    if not name or name.startswith(".") or "/" in name or "\\" in name or ".." in name:
+        return None
+    return name

booth/templates/base.html

@@ -496,7 +496,30 @@
   .markdown-body table{border-collapse:collapse;display:block;overflow-x:auto}
   .markdown-body th,.markdown-body td{border:1px solid var(--rk-line,#252a35);padding:.4em .7em}
   .markdown-body img{max-width:100%}
-</style>
+
+    /* U6 — the bench registry, on the standing board's page only. */
+    .benches{margin:1rem 0;border:1px solid var(--line,#2a2a2a);border-radius:6px;overflow:hidden}
+    .bench-head{display:flex;gap:.6rem;align-items:baseline;padding:.5rem .7rem;background:rgba(255,255,255,.03)}
+    .bench-title{font-weight:600}
+    .bench-note,.bench-empty{opacity:.6;font-size:.85em}
+    .bench-empty{padding:.6rem .7rem}
+    .bench-err{padding:.6rem .7rem;color:#f2b8b5;background:rgba(242,184,181,.08)}
+    .bench-row{display:flex;gap:.6rem;align-items:center;padding:.45rem .7rem;border-top:1px solid var(--line,#2a2a2a)}
+    .bench-row.is-retired{opacity:.5}
+    .bench-state{font-size:.7em;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.06em;padding:.1rem .4rem;border-radius:3px;background:rgba(255,255,255,.08)}
+    .bench-row.is-live .bench-state{background:rgba(120,200,140,.18)}
+    .bench-row.is-promoted .bench-state{background:rgba(130,170,240,.18)}
+    .bench-main{flex:1;min-width:0}
+    .bench-url{font-size:.78em;opacity:.55;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap}
+    .bench-acts{display:flex;gap:.3rem}
+    .bench-to,.bench-rm{font-size:.75em;padding:.15rem .4rem;cursor:pointer}
+    .bench-add{display:flex;gap:.4rem;padding:.5rem .7rem;border-top:1px solid var(--line,#2a2a2a)}
+    .bench-add input[type=url]{flex:2;min-width:0}
+    .bench-add input[type=text]{flex:1;min-width:0}
+    /* A board row whose booth has been swept. Marked, never auto-removed. */
+    .board-row.board-dead{opacity:.45}
+    .board-dead-tag{font-size:.9em;color:#f2b8b5;opacity:.9}
+  </style>
 </head>
 <body>
 <header class="topbar">

booth/templates/booth.html

@@ -66,7 +66,64 @@
   {% else %}
     <h1>{{ name }}</h1>
   {% endif %}
-  <span class="sub">{% if uploaded %}<span class="badge">⬆ pickup</span> {% endif %}{% if board %}{{ board|length }} link{{ '' if board|length == 1 else 's' }}{% if items %} · {{ items|length }} file{{ '' if items|length == 1 else 's' }}{% endif %} · {{ lifetime(kept, hold, expires_in) }}{% else %}{% if marks_open %}<span class="badge badge-mark">{{ marks_open }} open</span> · {% endif %}{{ items|length }} item{{ '' if items|length == 1 else 's' }} · {{ lifetime(kept, hold, expires_in) }}{% endif %}</span>
+  <span class="sub">{% if uploaded %}<span class="badge">⬆ pickup</span> {% endif %}{% if board or benches or benches_error %}
+  {# THE BENCH REGISTRY. A bench is a running thing — jackdaw's current bench,
+     talk's current bench, the things that get promoted to Homepage when they
+     are fully deployed. NOT a booth (a booth announces itself and is swept) and
+     NOT a bookmark (a repo page, a model card — those stay on the board below).
+
+     Identity is the NORMALIZED URL, so re-announcing a bench updates its row
+     instead of appending a fifth. `talk` was on the board five times.
+
+     ORDER: state (live → promoted → retired), then name, then id as a total
+     tie-break so two benches sharing a name cannot swap between renders.
+
+     The href is `b.url` — the URL AS POSTED — never `b.id`. The id is
+     normalized for identity; a server that cares about a trailing slash or a
+     case-sensitive path would 404 on it. #}
+  <div class="benches">
+    <div class="bench-head">
+      <span class="bench-title">{{ benches|length }} bench{{ '' if benches|length == 1 else 'es' }}</span>
+      <span class="bench-note">a running thing, registered · re-posting updates the row</span>
+    </div>
+    {% if benches_error %}
+      {# DAMAGED AND ABSENT MUST NOT RENDER THE SAME. Only one of them needs a
+         human, and the v0.2.2 outage was learned by treating them alike. #}
+      <div class="bench-err">the bench registry could not be read: {{ benches_error }}</div>
+    {% elif not benches %}
+      <div class="bench-empty">no benches registered yet — <code>booth bench add &lt;url&gt; &lt;name&gt;</code></div>
+    {% endif %}
+    {% for b in benches %}
+    <div class="bench-row is-{{ b.state }}">
+      <span class="bench-state">{{ b.state }}</span>
+      <div class="bench-main">
+        <a class="bench-link" href="{{ b.url }}" target="_blank" rel="noopener">{{ b.name or b.url }}</a>
+        <div class="bench-url">{{ b.url }}</div>
+      </div>
+      <div class="bench-meta">
+        {% if b.owner %}<span class="bench-who">{{ b.owner }}</span>{% endif %}
+      </div>
+      <form class="bench-acts" method="post" action="/b/{{ name_url }}/bench-state">
+        <input type="hidden" name="bench" value="{{ b.id }}">
+        {% for s in ("live", "promoted", "retired") %}
+          {% if s != b.state %}
+          <button type="submit" name="state" value="{{ s }}" class="bench-to">{{ s }}</button>
+          {% endif %}
+        {% endfor %}
+        <button type="submit" class="bench-rm" formaction="/b/{{ name_url }}/bench-remove"
+                title="remove this bench">&times;</button>
+      </form>
+    </div>
+    {% endfor %}
+    <form class="bench-add" method="post" action="/b/{{ name_url }}/bench-add">
+      <input type="url" name="url" placeholder="https://host:port/" required>
+      <input type="text" name="name" placeholder="what it is">
+      <button type="submit">register</button>
+    </form>
+  </div>
+{% endif %}
+
+{% if board %}{{ board|length }} link{{ '' if board|length == 1 else 's' }}{% if items %} · {{ items|length }} file{{ '' if items|length == 1 else 's' }}{% endif %} · {{ lifetime(kept, hold, expires_in) }}{% else %}{% if marks_open %}<span class="badge badge-mark">{{ marks_open }} open</span> · {% endif %}{{ items|length }} item{{ '' if items|length == 1 else 's' }} · {{ lifetime(kept, hold, expires_in) }}{% endif %}</span>
   {% if items %}<a class="dl-link" href="/b/{{ name_url }}/?download=1" title="download this booth as a zip">⬇ zip</a>{% endif %}
   {{ provenance(manifest) }}
     {# A durable multi-writer board gets no one-click wipe — same rule as the
@@ -143,14 +200,17 @@
               formaction="/b/{{ name_url }}/unlink-many">🗑 delete <span id="board-selcount">0</span></button>
     </div>
     {% for e in board %}
-    <div class="board-row{% if e.pinned %} is-pinned{% endif %}">
+    {# DEAD: the row points at a booth that has been swept. 156 of 221 rows.
+       MARKED, never removed — removal is the operator ticking the box and using
+       the bulk control that was already here. #}
+    <div class="board-row{% if e.pinned %} is-pinned{% endif %}{% if e.dead %} board-dead{% endif %}">
       <input class="board-check" type="checkbox" name="sel" value="{{ e.id }}" aria-label="select {{ e.desc }}">
       <button type="submit" class="board-pin{% if e.pinned %} on{% endif %}" formaction="/b/{{ name_url }}/pin"
               name="entry" value="{{ e.id }}" aria-pressed="{{ 'true' if e.pinned else 'false' }}"
               title="{{ 'unpin' if e.pinned else 'pin to top' }}">{{ '★' if e.pinned else '☆' }}</button>
       <div class="board-main">
         <a class="board-link" href="{{ e.url }}" target="_blank" rel="noopener">{{ e.desc }}</a>
-        <div class="board-url">{{ e.url }}</div>
+        <div class="board-url">{{ e.url }}{% if e.dead %} <span class="board-dead-tag">booth is gone</span>{% endif %}</div>
       </div>
       <div class="board-meta">
         {% if e.who %}<span class="board-who">{{ e.who }}</span>{% endif %}

docs/archive/links-2026-09-22.md

@@ -0,0 +1,234 @@
+# Standing link board — verbatim archive, 2026-09-22
+
+Captured before U6 (benches) shipped, per the ROADMAP rule that a migration
+destroys nothing. 221 rows: 178 booth URLs (156 of them pointing at booths
+already swept) and 43 non-booth rows, 35 distinct after normalization.
+
+U6 itself deletes NOTHING — the dead rows are marked and removal stays the
+operator's two clicks. This archive exists so the board is recoverable
+off-box once he starts pruning, and so the measurements above are checkable
+against the bytes they were taken from.
+
+```markdown
+- [LRPG Authoring Studio — live demo endpoint (ldp-saga)](http://10.100.10.50:8321/Authoring%20Studio.dc.html) <sub>· ldp-dev · 2026-08-19 10:04</sub>
+- [LRPG GM Player — live demo endpoint (ldp-saga; open in iPhone Safari for native)](http://10.100.10.50:8321/GM%20Playback.dc.html) <sub>· ldp-dev · 2026-08-19 10:04</sub>
+- [Scriberr — self-hosted transcription + speaker diarization (ana-ml2 GPU1); also http://10.250.50.54:8080](http://scriberr.ana.internal:8080/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-08-23 19:31</sub>
+- [talk — chat with a fleet voice (HTTPS, trusted cert, no warning)](https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-06 23:35</sub>
+- [YTVC noise floor A/B — raw vs shipped vs +75 Hz high-pass (2 clips)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/ytvc-noise/) <sub>· yt-voice-clipper-dev · 2026-09-09 10:58</sub>
+- [the interview noise floor measured — denoise BEFORE distilling carries 4x better](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/noise-floor/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 11:00</sub>
+- [the 5 distillation sources staged for professional denoising — drop back as <name>-clean.wav](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/denoise-in/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 11:01</sub>
+- [hamr: the sliver lever + mutual-block pairing -- the operator four sites at two lever settings (2026-09-09)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-sliver-lever/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-09 11:13</sub>
+- [YTVC subtractive denoiser audition — raw vs RNNoise vs DeepFilterNet 3 vs anlmdn, 2 clips + numbers](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/ytvc-denoise/) <sub>· yt-voice-clipper-dev · 2026-09-09 11:13</sub>
+- [denoise-in — 5 clone sources handed to yt-voice-clipper-dev for a proper deep denoise pass](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/denoise-in/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 12:49</sub>
+- [hamr: why the gear circle and peak edges read rough -- source vs output vs difference, measured (2026-09-09)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-rough-edges/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-09 12:52</sub>
+- [hamr: CLEAN mode rendered on six marks -- and the 1024-vs-4096 test showing my instrument was under-resolved (2026-09-09)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-clean-mode/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-09 13:29</sub>
+- [denoise A/B — 5 sources before/after, level-matched; emmie regressed](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/denoise-ab/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 13:56</sub>
+- [REDO step 1 — pick anchors for lawson/jo/nichols/ana on the cleaned sources (one form)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/redo-anchors/asks) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 14:01</sub>
+- [hamr: the sliver lever re-rendered at 4x -- the operator width's chunk is real geometry and 7x the default's edge residual (open ask: lever-default)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-sliver-lever/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-09 14:31</sub>
+- [hamr: the golden corpus re-rendered at 4x -- the 1024 px instrument inflated edge roughness by 80% on a reading it could not resolve; the colour numbers were never affected](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-corpus-4x/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-09 14:44</sub>
+- [REDO step 2 — lawson register picks on the cleaned source (7 inline)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/redo-lawson/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 14:49</sub>
+- [REDO step 2 — jo register picks on the cleaned source (7 inline)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/redo-jo/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 14:49</sub>
+- [REDO step 2 — nichols register picks on the cleaned source (7 inline)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/redo-nichols/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 14:49</sub>
+- [REDO step 2 — ana register picks on the cleaned source (7 inline)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/redo-ana/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 14:49</sub>
+- [lawson warm rescue — seed axis vs instruction axis (warm is the corpus's untuned string)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/lawson-warm/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 15:04</sub>
+- [bank denoise vs source redo — v3+DN hits 49.8 dB; may make the whole redo unnecessary](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/bank-denoise/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 15:16</sub>
+- [bank denoise A/B — lawson +26 dB, jo +21 dB; 4 of 10 banks would be DAMAGED by it](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/bank-dn-ab/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 15:31</sub>
+- [Margaery step 1 — anchor picks; ⚠ 15.44s single-clip source, thinnest yet](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/margaery-anchor/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 15:43</sub>
+- [hamr: 1-2 px regions -- the operator's hue/lightness rule separates 10-25x on his own artwork; lightness does the work; the eye survives at today's default](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-thin-regions/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-09 15:44</sub>
+- [pewpewstudio web UI restyled on PowerPellet (arcade design system): every screen, dark + daylight (2026-09-09)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pewpew-powerpellet/) <sub>· pewpew-dev · 2026-09-09 15:47</sub>
+- [Margaery — 7 registers x 5 seeds, pick one per register (step 2 of 3)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/margaery-registers/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 16:03</sub>
+- [Margaery — denoise A/B on the spliced bank (step 3 of 3)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/margaery-denoise/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 16:19</sub>
+- [hamr: the blend-distance gate landed -- the crest's eye ring survives STRIP_WIDTH, the gear's rims and peak's dark-teal strip still go](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-thin-regions/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-09 17:10</sub>
+- [Breeze — probing the 7 unused direction axes (vendor instructions verbatim)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/breeze-axes/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 17:11</sub>
+- [ERP run 7 decision brief — gate failure, exposure, 5 decisions awaiting Vuong](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/run07-decisions/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-09 18:10</sub>
+- [R47 tune line runs 4-7 — run 7: length FLAT, RP shape markers moved (quote-first 29%→15%)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/r47-runs/) <sub>· brokkr-smithy-dev · 2026-09-09 18:46</sub>
+- [hamr: the blend gate rendered -- the crest's eye ring comes back at STRIP_WIDTH, the gear's rims and peak's strip still go](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-thin-regions/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-09 18:52</sub>
+- [Tag sweep redone — leak test = vocabulary test; the ear questions](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/tag-sweep/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 22:49</sub>
+- [hamr henge/66 peak: which site is 'the chunk' -- ask + the four candidate sites](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-henge66-peak/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-09 23:13</sub>
+- [Chunk seams A/B — paragraph-only chunking, and the render ceiling is lower than we thought](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/chunk-seams/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-09 23:29</sub>
+- [hamr peak: the operator's chunk (the small peak's left face) -- under the size levers, before/after the apex unit](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-peak-left-face/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-10 07:26</sub>
+- [hamr: the peak's halo -- the tint reach null, the sliver lever, the support rule (henge/66 third rule)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-peak-halo/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-10 07:58</sub>
+- [Level decay is LENGTH-driven, not soft/whisper — every direction collapses at 1400 chars](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/level-decay/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-10 08:47</sub>
+- [BabyBronte voice A/B — base vs H02 LoRA on 9 neutral prompts, 2 seeds each](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/babybronte-voice/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-10 15:08</sub>
+- [hamr: the 2.5 fold -- frame closing fix, the O(N) vote (byte-identical peak), the VMDE engine document read against hamr](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-2-5-fold/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-10 15:57</sub>
+- [hamr: the region-energy segmenter spike (henge 71) -- the Potts prior in the vote's seat, against the landed 2.5](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-region-energy/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-10 16:05</sub>
+- [BabyBronte rung 2 — 1.7B base vs 1.7B tuned vs 0.6B tuned, 9 prompts, 2 seeds](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/babybronte-1p7b/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-10 22:38</sub>
+- [hamr: the state of the pipeline at c18c4e1 (v1.3.0 + the hygiene unit) -- seven reference marks and the synthetic corpus, source | 1x | 4x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-state-2026-09-11/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-10 23:20</sub>
+- [BabyBronte rung 3 — 4B base vs 4B tuned vs 1.7B tuned, + the Abernathy frame prompt](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/babybronte-4b/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-11 05:35</sub>
+- [bragi :8196 — the fleet direction layer, LIVE 2026-09-11 (U1 null director, +2.32ms TTFA cost, cap 6400)](http://irv-ml1.nh3.internal:8196/health) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-11 05:47</sub>
+- [BabyBronte rung 3 (step-75 recut) — 4B base vs 4B tuned vs 1.7B, + frame and embedded-instruction prompts](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/babybronte-4b/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-11 05:54</sub>
+- [Bragi U2 spike — blinded 5-arm fast-director audition, 7 inline asks, ear verdict gates U2](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/bragi-u2-spike/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-11 06:00</sub>
+- [Skaldsong beat→paragraph — 10 formats on the adapted 4B vs an instruct model, + stitched story](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/skaldsong-beats/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-11 06:24</sub>
+- [hamr state booth at a7ee4ab: seven reference marks + sixteen synthetic cases, source | 1x | 4x, after the ridge-order and test-hygiene units](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-state-2026-09-11-a7ee4ab/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-11 08:41</sub>
+- [hamr state booth, clean mode default (colour_geometry 3.13): only the crest's white tick changes against a7ee4ab](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-state-2026-09-11-clean/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-11 10:23</sub>
+- [hamr run_smoothing 2.2, the corner core: circuit/gear/peak/crest/vastblue at the new corner rule, with corner overlays](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-corner-core/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-11 11:12</sub>
+- [hamr regularizer 3.0, the run solve (U7 on runs): circuit/gear/peak/crest/vastblue after the stretch pool and solve, with the circuit site the first form broke](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-run-solve/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-11 13:50</sub>
+- [hamr regularizer 3.1, the junction at the meet: the circuit's pads 3.0 vs 3.1 and the five marks](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-run-solve-31/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-11 15:02</sub>
+- [BabyYarros eval — voice A/B + beat→paragraph + delta_cb (Base@125 vs Instruct vs base control)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/babyyarros-voice/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-11 15:59</sub>
+- [bifrost 1.2.0 on the gitea PyPI index — wire v0.8 memory.* record profile (#17)](https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/-/packages/pypi/bifrost/1.2.0) <sub>· bifrost-dev · 2026-09-11 16:58</sub>
+- [bifrost #17 — wire v0.8 record profile (adoption arc, gates, release)](https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/bifrost/issues/17) <sub>· bifrost-dev · 2026-09-11 16:58</sub>
+- [bifrost 1.2.1 — supplement-fold patch (explicit record-engine guards; descriptor ownership boundary)](https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/-/packages/pypi/bifrost/1.2.1) <sub>· bifrost-dev · 2026-09-11 17:32</sub>
+- [BabyYarros — Janis beat: 4 prompt arms x 4 seeds, beat->paragraph formula fitting](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/babyyarros-janis/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-11 21:15</sub>
+- [hamr on five fresh arbo marks (owl, bee, rocket, wolf, lantern) -- landed pipeline, clean mode, 1x + 4x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-arbo-logos/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-11 22:35</sub>
+- [FV colo on-site playbook — print before the trip (OPNsense + fv-ml1, anti-lockout)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/fv-onsite/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-12 07:54</sub>
+- [hamr arbo marks AFTER colour_decomposition 2.10 (the interior-ends tint reading): owl before/after, the four others byte-identical](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-arbo-logos-2/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-12 07:55</sub>
+- [hamr: the midline rule (colour_geometry 3.14) on the owl -- source | before | midline | far, 4x, and the runs the instrument flagged](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-midline/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-12 22:18</sub>
+- [Qwen3.8-Flash-Next ABLITERATED NVFP4 + FP8 PLE — candidate for the fv-ml1 single-card gen seat](https://huggingface.co/dealignai/Qwen3.8-Flash-Next-ABLITERATED-NVFP4) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-12 22:21</sub>
+- [vLLM canonical Qwen3.8-Flash-Next recipe — PLE CPU-offload + the don't-enable-MTP measurement](https://recipes.vllm.ai/Qwen/Qwen3.8-Flash-Next/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-12 22:21</sub>
+- [hamr: FAR shipped (colour_geometry 3.16) -- the five arbo marks before | after at 4x, and the per-run instrument](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-far/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-13 00:13</sub>
+- [hamr: edge-pixel rule spike -- census overlays (third-layer boundary pixels, green explained / red not) and the geometry arms](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-edge-pixels/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-13 09:28</sub>
+- [hamr: colour_geometry 3.17 the line clause -- crest eye ring gone, lens kept; owl / circuit / lantern byte-identical at 4x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-width-clause/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-13 14:00</sub>
+- [hamr: the golden corpus at colour_geometry 3.17 (the line clause) -- seven reference marks, faces and runs, source | 1x | 4x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-corpus-3.17/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-13 16:53</sub>
+- [hamr: the DXF cut document beside the SVG runs profile on the seven corpus marks (source | SVG | DXF, 1x and 4x zooms; .dxf files alongside)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-dxf/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-13 23:18</sub>
+- [Flash-Next gen-large candidate #1: abliterated + W4A16 weight-only experts + FP8 PLE; blocked only by a missing ple_embedding_dtype config key](https://huggingface.co/gorbatjovy/qwen3.8-flash-next-abliterated-NVFP4-plefp8) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-14 02:16</sub>
+- [Flash-Next gen-large candidate #2: fully weight-only (W4A16 experts + FP8_PB_WO dense), loads as-is, but NOT abliterated](https://huggingface.co/lovedheart/Qwen3.8-Flash-Next-NVFP4-W4A16-4-Over-6-FP8) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-14 02:16</sub>
+- [cyberprev-27b — abliterated Qwen3.8-27B sec seat (fv-ml1 GPU0, dflash k=7), replaced sentinel-r3](http://10.251.50.54:8025/docs) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-14 04:29</sub>
+- [hamr-server 1.5: the SPA booth pass with Download DXF (state 08b) and the refused-selection state re-pinned to server 1.6](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-server-1.5/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-14 10:22</sub>
+- [hamr web front end UI brief (requirements and flow for a design system; also docs/design/ui-brief.md)](https://claude.ai/code/artifact/eae98fde-784b-4f4d-b0e3-c87a229da564) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-14 10:25</sub>
+- [https://claude.ai/code/artifact/eae98fde-784b-4f4d-b0e3-c87a229da564](https://claude.ai/code/artifact/eae98fde-784b-4f4d-b0e3-c87a229da564) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-14 10:25</sub>
+- [hamr web front end UI brief, boothed (kept): index.html + ui-brief.md](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-ui-brief/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-14 10:56</sub>
+- [pewpewstudio web front end UI brief, boothed (kept): index.html + ui-brief.md + the integration package (tarball + fixtures)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pewpew-ui-brief/) <sub>· pewpew-dev · 2026-09-14 12:42</sub>
+- [pewpewstudio web front end UI brief (flow, shape, requirements for a design agent; also docs/design/ui-brief.md)](https://claude.ai/code/artifact/281bcdc7-bcce-46d7-b0ca-ec90df22151f) <sub>· pewpew-dev · 2026-09-14 12:42</sub>
+- [Headscale: Tailscale setup for macOS/iOS/tvOS — GUI steps + downloadable config profiles](https://headscale.phasefinal.com/apple) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-14 13:49</sub>
+- [pewpewstudio: the UI blueprint vendored (Claude Design handoff from booth 28-indigo) -- provenance, state inventory, fidelity notes; source at docs/design/blueprint/](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pewpew-ui-brief/blueprint/README.md) <sub>· pewpew-dev · 2026-09-14 18:38</sub>
+- [pewpewstudio web: the blueprint implemented -- one still per surface per state (67), cabinet + daylight](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pewpew-blueprint/) <sub>· pewpew-dev · 2026-09-14 20:55</sub>
+- [hamr: the C kernel for the cubic fit -- where its geometry differs from 2.4 (4x panels) and the ask on the gate](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-cubic-kernel/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-14 22:28</sub>
+- [Homepage — Parakeet ASR card now live under AI - Audio Tools (fv-ml1 GPU 3, :8300)](http://10.0.50.45:5100/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-15 01:41</sub>
+- [talk v10 — Sindra with ears: push-to-talk STT via ext-stt + barge-in (nh3-dev)](https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-15 08:27</sub>
+- [talk v10 — the fleet speaks AND listens (Grima push-to-talk + barge-in)](https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-15 08:28</sub>
+- [Open-weight releases landscape scan 2026-09-15 — LLM/image/TTS, ranked + licenses verified](https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/brokkr-smithy/src/commit/6adcde6/research/landscape-scans/open-weight-releases-2026-09-15.md) <sub>· brokkr-scan-dev · 2026-09-15 09:20</sub>
+- [ldp-saga — voice-over step with authored words: GM stage (iPhone) + Studio drawer screenshots](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/ldp-vo-body/) <sub>· ldp-dev · 2026-09-15 11:31</sub>
+- [talk PREVIEW (v11 unreleased) — kiosk persona + prompt library + hands-free VAD; http so no mic](http://10.100.10.50:8095/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-15 14:08</sub>
+- [talk v12 LIVE — hands-free VAD + 4 personas (assistant/sindra/narrator/kiosk) + Grima STT](https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-15 14:13</sub>
+- [talk v12 — internal IP (accept the cert warning; wildcard covers names, not IPs). Hands-free + 4 personas.](https://10.100.10.50:8092/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-15 14:18</sub>
+- [hamr circuit: census of thin surviving regions, source|1x|4x per site (2026-09-16)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-circuit-slivers/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-15 15:03</sub>
+- [hamr circuit: the full cut file (SVG runs profile + DXF) on white, 1x and 4x whole (2026-09-16)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-dxf/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-15 15:10</sub>
+- [hamr owl (arbo 00-seed7777): the full cut file on white, 1x and 4x (2026-09-16)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-owl-cut/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-15 15:17</sub>
+- [hamr circuit: the ten arrowed sites (possum-51), source | faces 4x | runs 4x, with the runs and junctions at each (2026-09-16)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-circuit-arrows/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-15 15:17</sub>
+- [hamr: the owl before/after the shade rule (colour_decomposition 2.12), the four arrowed sites at 1x and 4x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-owl-shades/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-15 20:01</sub>
+- [hamr unit 2: the circuit's edge teeth before/after (colour_geometry 3.27) -- the ten arrowed sites and two interior seam sites, SOURCE | before | after at 1x and 4x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-circuit-teeth/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-15 22:57</sub>
+- [hamr 3.27: every thin excursion the clause reads on twenty marks at the pixel bar (175 panels; GOES/stays in each caption)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-excursions-f10/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-15 22:57</sub>
+- [BabyYarros beat→paragraph: same beat, 4 arms (base / raw-text / pair-SFT 2ep / 3ep)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/babyyarros-beats/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-16 07:29</sub>
+- [hamr v2 S0: the smoother's chain vs potrace's fallback on every refused mono node of the eight marks, worst site per node at 4x (2026-09-16)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-v2-s0-smoother/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-16 08:55</sub>
+- [hamr U0 — the truth-corpus acceptance gate: 24 conditions, potrace 3x vs the extractor's iso-contours, table + overlays at 1x and 4x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-u0-acceptance/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-16 11:11</sub>
+- [hamr acceptance 1.2 verdict table -- 24 conditions, three arms over the raster per condition (from hamr-dev's fold of two Heid panels)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-u0-acceptance/) <sub>· heid · 2026-09-16 11:17</sub>
+- [Assistant voice — accent calibration: 7 endpoints from the existing battery, inline ask](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/assistant-accent/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-16 11:18</sub>
+- [Assistant voice — the blend n=5, matched-seed triples vs both endpoints](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/assistant-blend/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-16 11:20</sub>
+- [Peedlar repo (photo → eBay/FB Marketplace listing metadata) — minted 2026-09-16](https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/peedlar) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-16 11:26</sub>
+- [Sun and Sea Pro — concept tiles A/B/C + the rulings ask (design-systems)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sunsea/) <sub>· design-dev · 2026-09-16 11:35</sub>
+- [Peedlar — UI design brief + northstar/frame/invariants/interview record (vor-ui pass 2026-09-16)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/peedlar-design-brief/) <sub>· peedlar-dev · 2026-09-16 14:01</sub>
+- [hamr U1 the tracer skeleton (tracer 3.0): the v2 tree over the eight marks with ids and holes, potrace beside it, 4x windows, the rule fixtures](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-u1-tracer/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-16 14:23</sub>
+- [Peedlar — vor-plan draft bundle (plan, frame, invariants, northstar, record) for teardown, 2026-09-16](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/peedlar-plan-draft/) <sub>· peedlar-dev · 2026-09-16 16:17</sub>
+- [Peedlar — spike R-4 report: gen schema adherence, 180/180 valid (2026-09-16)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/peedlar-spike-r4/) <sub>· peedlar-dev · 2026-09-16 17:18</sub>
+- [hamr U2 (ir 7.0): the mono SVG before/after the IR moved onto points, eight marks, 1x and 4x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-u2-ir/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-16 17:22</sub>
+- [JackDAW audition bench — live HEAD of main (self-signed HTTPS, one-time trust prompt)](https://10.100.10.50:4500/) <sub>· jackdaw-dev · 2026-09-16 18:32</sub>
+- [Peedlar UI in Sun and Sea Pro — nine surfaces + DESIGN.md (design-systems, for peedlar-dev)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/peedlar-ui/) <sub>· design-dev · 2026-09-16 19:27</sub>
+- [Assistant anchor — rp-s113 vs the existing emily, collision check before building a bank](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/assistant-anchor/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-16 19:29</sub>
+- [imogen — register bank ear gate before freezing (5 registers off rp-s113)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/imogen/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-16 19:45</sub>
+- [imogen — gentle + dry re-roll, 3 draws each vs the rejected originals](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/imogen-reroll/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-16 19:50</sub>
+- [Peedlar — spike R-3 report: split heuristic on the cedarwood-4 pile (pairwise VLM + identify-and-merge, 4-image cap), 2026-09-16](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/peedlar-spike-r3/) <sub>· peedlar-dev · 2026-09-16 19:53</sub>
+- [hamr U4: the colour spine on owner fields at 1x -- v1.6.1 (3x potrace) vs colour_spine 3.0, eight marks, 1x + 4x diff windows, the 1x/3x A/B table](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-u4-readers/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-16 20:26</sub>
+- [imogen LIVE — voice 22 on the roster, all five registers through the gateway](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/imogen-live/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-16 20:34</sub>
+- [talk v15 — imogen is the default voice; 22 voices, 4 personas, hands-free](https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-16 20:39</sub>
+- [Peedlar v0.1.0 — U0 scaffold deployed on nh3-dev (health placeholder SPA + /healthz)](http://10.100.10.50:8094/) <sub>· peedlar-dev · 2026-09-16 23:42</sub>
+- [hamr U3: the mono smoothing -- every refused node's chain (blue) beside the polyline it replaces (red), eight marks, 1x and 4x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-u3-mono-smoothing/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-17 00:11</sub>
+- [2026-09-17 Civitai batch A/B — 6 promotion/retirement decisions, inline asks (comfy-dev)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/civitai-20260917-ab/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-17 01:49</sub>
+- [Breeze v5 vendor-pin rebase — A/B clips, gate numbers, two decisions](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/breeze-v5-gate/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-17 02:36</sub>
+- [ldp-saga U4 — control panel + bootstrap view screenshots (polish-pass input)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/ldp-u4-panel/) <sub>· ldp-dev · 2026-09-17 02:38</sub>
+- [lv voices four arms — same beat, same neutral prompt: control vs Bronte vs Yarros vs Hemingway (2026-09-17)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/lv-voices-four-arms/) <sub>· infra-ops · 2026-09-17 07:52</sub>
+- [hamr U6: the eight marks' faces and cut on white, v1.6.1 (potrace) beside main (own tracer), 1x + 4x worst window, trace timings](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-u6-before-after/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-17 08:06</sub>
+- [ldp-demo-kit 2026-09-17-0816 (build 99040b2): VO authored words in Eric's kit](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/ldp-demo-kit/) <sub>· ldp-dev · 2026-09-17 08:17</sub>
+- [hamr U6 regression sites: crest/circuit/owl difference clusters at 4x, SOURCE | v1.6.1 | main | candidate (coverage-field evidence)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-u6-sites/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-17 08:33</sub>
+- [talk favicon commission — comfy-dev raster candidates, hamr-dev SVG trace](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/talk-favicon/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-17 08:43</sub>
+- [Peedlar U2 ingest screen — four phone states from a real headless Chromium run](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/peedlar-u2/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-17 09:19</sub>
+- [Peedlar v0.2.3 live — U2 ingest: photograph a pile from a phone, send it, top an item up](http://10.100.10.50:8094/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-17 10:15</sub>
+- [Peedlar v0.2.4 live — U2 ingest, all three review rounds folded (17 defects)](http://10.100.10.50:8094/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-17 11:04</sub>
+- [hamr circuit: the five sites where main's runs depart from v1.6.1's (SOURCE | v1 | main at 4x)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-u6-departures/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-17 11:05</sub>
+- [hamr circuit: the trace-to-pad corners on both trees at 4x -- the indented-lines family](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-u6-dents/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-17 11:05</sub>
+- [Peedlar ingest UI — before/after in six states, with an open ask on fonts + pricing pills](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/peedlar-ui-polish/) <sub>· design-dev · 2026-09-17 11:25</sub>
+- [hamr run_smoothing 3.4: the chord-of-a-curve clause -- the circuit's pads and trace ends as lines, before/after at 6x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-short-stretches/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-17 11:56</sub>
+- [ldp-demo-kit 2026-09-17-1243 (a912928): Eric's 09-17 canonical + VO words — install this one](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/ldp-demo-kit/) <sub>· ldp-dev · 2026-09-17 12:43</sub>
+- [Peedlar v0.2.5 — surface 1 dressed in Sun and Sea Pro (design-dev), four phone states](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/peedlar-u2-design/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-17 15:54</sub>
+- [talk favicon — the traced mark (B) and its 16/32/64px proof](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/talk-favicon/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-17 15:58</sub>
+- [Peedlar v0.3.0 — the first release a seller can use (ingest + top-up; split is U3)](https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/peedlar/releases/tag/v0.3.0) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-17 15:59</sub>
+- [hamr corner response A/B: 3.4 as landed vs the capped response by angle -- the circuit's bends, the crest's and gear's small fillets](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-corner-ab/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-17 17:24</sub>
+- [ldp-demo-kit 2026-09-17-1752 (a28e8d5): Eric's 09-17 canon + VO words + GM Markdown subset](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/ldp-demo-kit/ldp-demo-kit-2026-09-17-1752.zip) <sub>· ldp-dev · 2026-09-17 17:52</sub>
+- [Sun and Sea Pro v1.1.0 — rulings + the Peedlar ingest before/after that started it](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/peedlar-ui-polish/) <sub>· design-dev · 2026-09-17 17:59</sub>
+- [ldp-demo-kit 2026-09-17-1804 (265a3ad): + _underline_](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/ldp-demo-kit/ldp-demo-kit-2026-09-17-1804.zip) <sub>· ldp-dev · 2026-09-17 18:04</sub>
+- [ldp-saga — GM Markdown subset samples (source + renders)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/ldp-markdown/) <sub>· ldp-dev · 2026-09-17 18:06</sub>
+- [hamr colour_spine 3.7, the paired witness: circuit arrows 1-3 at 12x, every departure site before/after at 1x+4x, the crest's eye](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-witness/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-17 18:48</sub>
+- [Dragonfire Acoustics — three concept directions + the five rulings that gate the build](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/dfa-concepts/) <sub>· design-dev · 2026-09-17 18:49</sub>
+- [Dragonfire Acoustics — sample landing page, standalone HTML for client screenshots](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/dfa-landing/) <sub>· design-dev · 2026-09-17 18:58</sub>
+- [hamr run_smoothing 3.5, the corner response by angle between two stretches: circuit arrows 2-3 and new corners, crest's curves unkinked, at 8x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-corner-guard/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-17 18:59</sub>
+- [hamr: golden corpus on main 53356c5, faces and cut on white, 1x sheets and 4x wholes](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/hamr-corpus-2026-09-18/) <sub>· hamr-dev · 2026-09-17 21:51</sub>
+- [Peedlar surface 2 — a live split of the R-3 pile, ready to confirm (U3)](http://10.100.10.50:8094/batches/6fb2952b-e3b1-4fbd-9694-5f3f3f5d75d0/split) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-18 07:08</sub>
+- [Peedlar surface 2 — a scratch split to poke at (merge/split/move/drop/restore all live)](http://10.100.10.50:8094/batches/a7058924-a855-40b3-bfc5-11f3f258df27/split) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-18 07:13</sub>
+- [Peedlar U3 — surface 2 on desk and phone, plus an interaction run](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/peedlar-u3/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-18 07:16</sub>
+- [tag placement A/B — does moving (giggle) stop it overlapping the next line? (ask inside)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/tag-placement/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-18 07:17</sub>
+- [seam gap audition — 0-500ms between generations, 11 arms (ask inside)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/seam-gap/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-18 07:27</sub>
+- [FleetTools index lives at ~/FLEETTOOLS.md on nh3-dev — agent-family-agnostic fleet capability map](http://10.100.10.50:8090/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-18 07:35</sub>
+- [Peedlar v0.4.0 — the split ships; capability 1 of five is MET](http://10.100.10.50:8094/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-18 08:54</sub>
+- [talk favicon — inverted, transparent, before/after proof at 4 sizes](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/talk-favicon/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-18 13:53</sub>
+- [ShutterChute macOS app icon — 3 variants + the 16px proof sheets (comfy-dev, for shutter-dev)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/shutterchute-icon/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-18 14:00</sub>
+- [NH3↔Anaheim mesh now DIRECT (was DERP-relayed): cross-site HTTP 1.2s→0.015s, STT 1.4s→0.25s — ana-gw UDP 41641 port-forward 2026-09-18](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/links/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-18 14:17</sub>
+- [talk favicon — three-way blue comparison (live vs page accent vs comfy remake)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/talk-favicon/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-18 14:26</sub>
+- [DNS fixed fleet-wide 2026-09-18: cross-site resolver ring + AdGuard ratelimit 20-per-/24 set to 0 — .internal stalls 1-in-8 to zero](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/links/) <sub>· nh3-dev · 2026-09-18 14:35</sub>
+- [ShutterChute on Paula's mini (v0.9.7) — session token rotates on every restart, read it from /Users/Shared/shutterchute/app.url or the deploy output](http://10.100.10.50:8477/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-18 14:46</sub>
+- [asking arbo vs directing it — both icon commissions re-run on the corrected chain, with the 16px verdicts](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/arbo-asked/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-18 14:54</sub>
+- [Blind A/B/C: is Imogen's 39.96s register bank worth 116ms a turn? (breeze v8)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/imogen-register/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-18 20:30</sub>
+- [Sindra identity scouting — 5 SFW/NSFW pairs on moody-krea2 (comfy-dev, for adhoc-agent)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-face-1/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-19 12:44</sub>
+- [Sindra casting — 5 different women, 2 fixed scenes (gym / beach), comfy-dev](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-cast/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-19 15:25</sub>
+- [the three MiniMax Music 3 songs (Aug 2026) — recovered from render scratch, kept, captions carry the recovered lyrics](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/music3-songs/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-19 15:26</sub>
+- [Sindra A — curvier stepped across 4 levels, face frozen (comfy-dev)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-curve/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-19 15:36</sub>
+- [the settled Sindra — 5 SFW environments + 5 NSFW poses, identity block verbatim (comfy-dev)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-set/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-19 15:44</sub>
+- [NVV markers by ear: is (chuckle) real? + the leak test is dead on breeze v8](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/nvv-probe/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-19 17:05</sub>
+- [tts-bench — type/direct/render against the live TTS seat (voice picker, custom directions, marker palette)](http://nh3-dev.nh3.internal:8095/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-19 17:14</sub>
+- [Sindra voice audition (adhoc-agent commission) — designed synthetic, 3 registers x 2 takes + polyglot probe](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-voice-1/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-19 22:49</sub>
+- [Sindra ANCHOR field — n=15 on the intimate prompt, 13 in the 8-10s window, pick one to freeze](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-anchor/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-19 22:55</sub>
+- [Sindra is LIVE — new designed voice replaces the NZ contralto; bank vs anchor A/B inside](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-live/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-19 23:14</sub>
+- [Cicada repo (was Imogen) — embodied voice assistant, design bundle + embodiment](https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/cicada) <sub>· brokkr-smithy-dev · 2026-09-20 14:11</sub>
+- [ShutterChute: denoise strength + EV lift on the 4 darkest Pancake Breakfast frames (1:1 crops)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sc-denoise-ev/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-20 15:12</sub>
+- [ShutterChute: DSC03888.ARW (ISO 12800, darkest frame) + current style — for authoring a working denoise in darktable](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sc-denoise-raw/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-20 15:27</sub>
+- [Cutesy robot girl — 5 briefs x 2 seeds, 259-372 Hz, plus three robot textures (EVE / classic / WALL-E)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/robot-girl/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-20 15:53</sub>
+- [cicada-raw is LIVE — fastest voice on the fleet at 220.2 ms; reference + clones + the defect I retracted](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/cicada-raw/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-20 16:06</sub>
+- [ShutterChute: denoise strength ladder on the REPAIRED split — 1:1 crops, 4 dark frames](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sc-denoise-strength/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-20 16:24</sub>
+- [ShutterChute: four-way denoise comparison — no denoise / classical / SCUNet (automatable) / neural restore](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sc-denoise-fourway/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-20 17:25</sub>
+- [ShutterChute: RawNIND UtNet2 pre-demosaic — 8.01 to 2.07 at 2.8s/frame, running outside darktable](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sc-rawdenoise/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-20 18:47</sub>
+- [ShutterChute: frequency-selective detail recovery after raw AI denoise](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sc-detail-recovery/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-20 18:54</sub>
+- [ShutterChute: raw AI denoise @70% across six frames, mean luminance 20 to 148](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sc-iso-spread/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-20 18:58</sub>
+- [raw-denoise first real-model run: A raw vs B linear TIFF (black) vs C sRGB-encoded (tonality right, colour wrong)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/denoise-first-run/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 06:45</sub>
+- [Pancake Breakfast low-light: raw vs denoised+2EV, full res + 1:1 crops; 3.3-3.5x noise reduction measured](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-denoise/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 07:02</sub>
+- [raw-denoise: TIFF handoff vs LinearRaw DNG handoff - the colour fix, before/after](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/dng-handoff/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 07:38</sub>
+- [EV ladder on a denoised Pancake frame: face luma vs frame median vs the 18% grey reference](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/ev-ladder/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 07:51</sub>
+- [golden-frame candidates for the one-and-done white balance: two lighting clusters, two each](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/golden-candidates/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 07:57</sub>
+- [Sindra @ 20 (v2, replaced) — 5 NSFW engines x 4 scenes x 2 seeds, 40 renders + 4 sheets + the age-lever diagnostic](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra20-engines/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-21 07:57</sub>
+- [vibrance/saturation spike: 4 steps on a well-lit and a recovered frame; which colorbalancergb float is which, measured](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/vibrance-spike/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 08:29</sub>
+- [face metering measured on all 696 keepers: gate 20.7% -> 34.2%, 94 frames newly caught](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/face-metering/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 08:29</sub>
+- [darktable 5.6.1 on nh3-dev: the versions disagree, and the vibrance pick was made on 4.2.1](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/dt56-recheck/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 09:05</sub>
+- [Pancake Breakfast re-delivery: all 270 heroes, exposure + denoise + vibrance, SmugMug-ready](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-v2-delivery/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 09:48</sub>
+- [Draupnir — agent-directed parametric CAD for 3D printing; many harnesses propose, one gate decides](https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/draupnir) <sub>· brokkr-smithy-dev · 2026-09-21 10:47</sub>
+- [Pancake lift spike — Paula vs ours-zero-lift vs ours-metered, 8 frames](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-lift-spike/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 10:55</sub>
+- [Pancake dark band (face 17-42) — Paula vs ours at zero lift](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-dark-band/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 10:57</sub>
+- [Lift ladder — your 15 labelled frames at zero / +0.67 / +1.33 EV](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-lift-ladder/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 11:22</sub>
+- [Saturation+vibrance ladder — current / 75% / 50%, zero lift throughout](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-saturation/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 11:22</sub>
+- [Pancake v3 — the full 270 at cap 4/3, saturation 33%, gate/meter split](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-v3-full/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 13:29</sub>
+- [Pancake v3 — the 53 lifted frames vs Paula, worst blown first](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-v3-lifted/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 13:29</sub>
+- [Sigmoid colour test — Paula vs per-channel / RGB-ratio / smooth, 6 lifted + 2 unlifted controls](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-sigmoid/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 14:15</sub>
+- [Draupnir: 5 of 6 gate checks real — min-wall lands and the control pair finally separates (thin-wall FAILs at 1.0001mm vs 1.2mm floor); renders, STLs, calibration data](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/draupnir-first-stl/) <sub>· draupnir · 2026-09-21 14:25</sub>
+- [Closed loop — 12 samples: Paula vs open-loop vs closed-loop, with EV and blown %](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-closed-loop/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 14:46</sub>
+- [Draupnir first commission: puck-light diffuser cap — 90.4mm shroud, 55.9% open, renders + STL/STEP (and the gate bug this part found)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/draupnir-puck-cap/) <sub>· draupnir · 2026-09-21 14:49</sub>
+- [Pancake v4 — the full 270 through the closed loop](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-v4-full/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 15:46</sub>
+- [Pancake v4 — the frames the loop changed, Paula / open / closed, worst blown first](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/pancake-v4-changed/) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 15:46</sub>
+- [ShutterChute v0.9.14 on the mini — final triage over the 270 closed-loop deliveries](http://10.100.10.50:8477/?token=wtIRzaqmRQ3Qg2cjUwMZjd-OvNFB9UP3GXyGjDW2d-E&triage=/Users/paulahoang/Photos/PancakeBreakfast/deliver-shutterchute-260921) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 21:07</sub>
+- [ShutterChute v0.9.15 on the mini — triage, fit fixed](http://10.100.10.50:8477/?token=dG9y44XQmJfH7q8Wy_o2KKeIxGnUeP5zh8yADOoEYA4&triage=/Users/paulahoang/Photos/PancakeBreakfast/deliver-shutterchute-260921) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 21:50</sub>
+- [ShutterChute v0.9.16 — triage: centred delete tag, 1:1 pans](http://10.100.10.50:8477/?token=Nx9zEhTOXIfCrmpA72OEqEHGz7atxKQL8y5v3ecoW98&triage=/Users/paulahoang/Photos/PancakeBreakfast/deliver-shutterchute-260921) <sub>· shutter-dev · 2026-09-21 22:01</sub>
+- [cr123a-to-d-sleeve — renders, STL + STEP, gate WARN on the 0.8 mm shoulder](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/cr123a-to-d-sleeve/) <sub>· draupnir · 2026-09-21 23:14</sub>
+- [Sindra @ 20 EVIDENCE BOARD — all 20 sheets + diagnostics, zero single frames (replaces the 122-image finalists board)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-evidence/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-21 23:33</sub>
+- [infra-ops: five ERP run-7 decisions, open and unanswered since 2026-09-09](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/run07-decisions/) <sub>· brokkr-smithy-dev · 2026-09-21 23:52</sub>
+- [Moody vs Realism BAKEOFF — 8 new scenes (4 SFW / 4 NSFW, no bedroom), 32 renders; verdict is a framing-dependent split](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-bakeoff/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-22 00:20</sub>
+- [krea2 LoRA portability test — RAW-trained LoRAs DO activate on distilled turbo checkpoints (3 seeds, null+negative+positive controls)](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/krea2-lora-portability/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-22 01:53</sub>
+- [The High Seat — SVOS board + Miranda (nh3-dev)](http://10.100.10.50:8770) <sub>· svos-dev · 2026-09-22 08:29</sub>
+- [Sindra training corpus pass 1 (54 frames) + the two validated fixes before the corrected re-render](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-corpus-v1/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-22 09:10</sub>
+- [Miranda re-minted Icelandic — 4 briefs x 2 seeds + Swedish/Norwegian discrimination controls + the incumbent](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/miranda-is/) <sub>· tts-dev · 2026-09-22 10:41</sub>
+- [Sindra nude selection pool — 36 frames (10 rear), pick ~10 matching body shapes](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-nude-pool/) <sub>· comfy-dev · 2026-09-22 11:08</sub>
+```

docs/contracts/u6_benches.contract.md

@@ -0,0 +1,413 @@
+---
+contract_version: "1.0"
+module: "booth.benches"
+purpose: "A bench is a running thing, registered -- not a booth, and not a bookmark. The standing link board absorbed all three jobs because only one of them had a surface, and it now carries 221 rows of which 178 (80%) are booth announcements and 156 (71% of the whole board) point at booths that were swept. U5 gave the booth announcement a home; this unit gives the RUNNING SERVICE one, and closes the loop by refusing the one shape that now has somewhere better to go. Identity is the normalized URL, so re-announcing a bench UPDATES its row instead of appending a fifth -- `talk` is on the board five times and Peedlar's root three. Nothing on the board is deleted by this unit: the dead rows are MARKED so the operator can see and remove them with the bulk control that already exists."
+depends_on:
+  - "booth.links (`booth_target` is DEFINED here and consumed there -- see INV-2. The board's existing parse/remove/pin machinery is untouched: rows keep their content-hash identity, `links.md` stays an O_APPEND multi-writer log, and no row is rewritten by anything this unit adds.)"
+  - "booth.app (the dead-row marker needs a booth-exists predicate. IT CANNOT USE `resolve_booth`: that is a CLOSURE inside `create_app` (app.py:798), not importable, and it RAISES HTTPException(404) -- calling it per row would turn one swept booth into a 404 for the whole board page, which is the opposite of the marker's purpose. The marker gets its own non-raising predicate carrying the SAME name-safety rules (no leading dot, no separator, no `..`) and returning False where `resolve_booth` raises. A row is dead when its target directory is absent, not when its target is nearly expired -- no new lifetime arithmetic. Verified against the real function, not assumed: seam review SR-2.)"
+language: "python"
+complexity: "medium"
+estimated_loc: 320
+confidence: 0.80
+used_by:
+  - "scripts/booth (`bench add|ls|state|rm|import` are new; `link` gains ONE refusal and is otherwise unchanged)"
+  - "booth.app.booth_view (the board's rows gain a `dead` stamp; the benches panel renders on the standing board's page)"
+  - "booth.app.list_booths (unchanged -- named here because it was checked and does NOT need to change: benches live outside the booth namespace and are invisible to it)"
+touches:
+  - "booth/benches.py (new -- the record, normalization, the lenient read, the atomic upsert, the stated order)"
+  - "booth/links.py (ONE new function, `booth_target`. No existing function changes.)"
+  - "booth/app.py (`_board_rows` stamps `dead`; the booth view passes `benches`; three POST routes for add/state/remove)"
+  - "booth/templates/booth.html (the benches panel; the dead-row marker on a board row)"
+  - "booth/templates/base.html (the .bench-* and .board-dead CSS)"
+  - "scripts/booth (the five bench verbs, the link refusal, the usage block, the header doc block)"
+  - "tests/test_benches.py (new)"
+  - "tests/test_cli.py (the bench verbs and the refusal, run against the real script under system python3)"
+  - "tests/test_marks.py (test_stdlib_only's parametrize list gains `benches`)"
+  - "docs/design/information-architecture.md (two corrections the measurement forces -- see 'What the measurement changed')"
+  - "ROADMAP.md (the bench listing order rule, which was one of the two undecided rows in the deterministic-order table)"
+assumptions:
+  - "IDENTITY IS THE FULL NORMALIZED URL, NOT THE ORIGIN, AND THIS WAS MEASURED RATHER THAN CHOSEN. Collapsing the board's 43 non-booth rows by origin yields 19 groups; by full URL, 35. The 16-group difference is not duplication -- it is EIGHT distinct gitea repositories merged into one row, THREE unrelated HuggingFace model cards merged into one, and the two LRPG surfaces on `10.100.10.50:8321` (`Authoring Studio.dc.html` and `GM Playback.dc.html`) merged into one, which are the IA doc's own example of two real benches. Origin identity would have destroyed more than it deduplicated. Full-URL identity still collapses both cases the IA doc named: `talk` 5 rows to 1, Peedlar's root 3 to 1."
+  - "THE QUERY STRING IS PART OF THE IDENTITY, the fragment is not. Measured: three ShutterChute rows differ ONLY by `?token=`, and they are three genuinely different one-shot links, not one bench posted three times -- dropping the query would merge them into a bench that is none of them. A fragment is a position inside a page, never a different resource, so it is dropped. Userinfo (`user:pass@`) is REFUSED rather than stripped: a credential must not reach a board that renders on an unauthenticated LAN surface, and silently stripping it would register a bench whose URL no longer works while telling the poster it succeeded."
+  - "`booth_target` IS HOST-AGNOSTIC AND PATH-SHAPED. A row is a booth link when its path is `/b/<name>` or `/b/<name>/...`, whatever the host. NOT a host allowlist: the fleet reaches this service as `10.100.10.50:8090`, `localhost:8090` and `nh3-dev.nh3.internal:8090`, and an allowlist would silently fail to refuse from whichever name somebody used next -- a rule that fails OPEN on the exact case it exists to catch. The accepted cost is that a third-party URL with a `/b/<x>` path would be misread; the failure is visible (a refusal naming the reason, or a row marked dead) rather than silent, and no such URL exists on the board today."
+  - "NOTHING THIS UNIT SHIPS DELETES A ROW. ROADMAP names 'a migration that deletes anything' as explicitly not in v1. `links.md` is archived verbatim before the registry is seeded, the import writes nothing without `--apply`, and the 156 dead rows are MARKED, not pruned -- removal stays the operator's two deliberate clicks through the `unlink-many` control that has existed since before this unit. The marker is what makes the existing control usable at 221 rows; it is not a second delete path."
+  - "THE SERVICE NEVER PROBES THE NETWORK. `read_benches` is a filesystem read on the render path, exactly like `read_manifest` and `marks_for`. A bench's liveness is not checked by this unit at all -- see Out of scope, where the decision and its reversal cost are stated."
+  - "`booth/benches.py` IS STDLIB-ONLY and joins the CLAUDE.md invariant 1 list, for the same reason `manifest.py` did: `scripts/booth` imports it through a `python3 -c` heredoc under the system python3 with no venv. It must also be SIBLING-FREE -- it does not import `links`, `marks`, `asks` or `manifest`, because a cross-import between two stdlib-only modules is a second way for that invariant to break. `booth_target` therefore lives in `links.py` (the board's module, where the board's callers already are) and `benches.py` does not call it; the CLI and `app.py` each import both."
+  - "THE REGISTRY IS ONE FILE AT THE DATA ROOT, `~/booth-data/.benches.json` -- a dotfile OUTSIDE the booth namespace. It is therefore not a booth, cannot be swept, cannot be mistaken for one by `list_booths` (which iterates directories), and needs no exclusion rule anywhere. Single-writer with many readers, like marks and unlike `links.md`: the operator in one browser plus CLI calls, so it is a per-file atomic replace under an flock on the read-modify-write, NOT an append log. Inheriting the append-log shape here would be the multi-writer/single-writer mistake CLAUDE.md names."
+  - "THE ON-DISK SHAPE IS AN OBJECT KEYED BY ID, not a list. Two rows with the same identity are then impossible BY CONSTRUCTION rather than by an upsert remembering to check -- which is the whole point of giving a bench an identity. The rendered order is separate and stated (INV-4); the file's key order is not load-bearing and is never read as an order."
+open_questions:
+  - "ONE BENCH, TWO URLS. `talk` is reachable as both `https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/` (trusted cert) and `https://10.100.10.50:8092/` (internal IP, cert warning), and both are on the board with descriptions that say so. Full-URL identity correctly keeps them as two rows, because they ARE two URLs -- but they are one bench. An alias field would merge them; so would letting a bench carry a list of URLs. Neither is designed here: aliasing is a judgment about what counts as the same thing, the registry is ~14 rows, and two rows for one bench is legible. Deferred, not solved."
+  - "WHETHER `booth link` SHOULD ALSO NUDGE TOWARD `bench add` for a URL that looks like a service root. It is not refused -- measured, roughly 14 of the 35 distinct non-booth targets are reference bookmarks (repos, model cards, docs) for which the board is the right and only home, so a second refusal would break a job the board legitimately still does. A non-blocking hint is defensible and is not in this unit."
+---
+
+# U6 — benches
+
+## The defect, stated precisely
+
+Re-measured 2026-09-22 against the live board, because the numbers in the IA
+doc are a day old and the board grew:
+
+| | IA doc, 2026-09-21 | today |
+|---|---|---|
+| rows on the standing board | 211 | **221** |
+| rows that are booth URLs | not split out | **178 — 80% of the board** |
+| …whose booth no longer exists | 145 (69%) | **156 — 71% of the whole board** |
+| rows that are not booth URLs | ~40 | **43** |
+| …distinct after normalization | — | **35** |
+
+The headline number in the IA doc — *69% rot* — is **two different defects
+wearing one number**, and separating them is what makes this unit the right
+size:
+
+1. **Booth-announcement rot (178 rows).** A session posted a booth URL because
+   a booth could not announce itself. **U5 closed the cause**: a booth now
+   carries `.booth.json` and the index is the feed. Nothing yet stops the
+   habit, so the board took 11 more of these rows in the day since it was
+   measured. This unit's *enforced rule* is the stopper, and the *dead marker*
+   is what lets the operator clear what already landed.
+
+2. **Bench re-post (8 rows).** `booth link` is an append with no identity, so
+   re-announcing a bench creates a row rather than updating one: `talk` five
+   times, Peedlar's root three. This unit's *registry* is the fix, and it is
+   the smaller half — which is worth saying plainly, because the IA doc's
+   single 69% figure implies otherwise.
+
+A third thing the measurement found, which the IA doc does not describe: **the
+board has a legitimate residual job.** Of the 35 distinct non-booth targets,
+roughly 14 are running services (benches) and roughly 14 are reference
+bookmarks — gitea repositories, HuggingFace model cards, a vLLM recipe, a
+Headscale setup page. The IA doc plans for `booth link` to survive "as a
+deprecated alias". That would deprecate the only home a third of its live
+content has. **`booth link` is not deprecated by this unit.** It loses exactly
+one shape — the booth URL — and keeps the rest.
+
+## What the measurement changed
+
+Two lines of `docs/design/information-architecture.md` are wrong and are
+corrected in the same commit, rather than left for a reader to trip over:
+
+- **`id : normalized URL`** stays, but the doc does not say what normalized
+  means, and the obvious reading — the origin — is measurably destructive here
+  (8 gitea repos into one row). The doc gains the rule and the number behind it.
+- **"`booth link` … survives as a deprecated alias rather than vanishing"** is
+  struck. It survives as itself, minus one refused shape, for the reason above.
+
+## The record
+
+```python
+@dataclass(frozen=True)
+class Bench:
+    id: str        # the normalized URL — the identity, and the dict key on disk
+    url: str       # the URL AS POSTED — what a click goes to
+    name: str      # what it is
+    owner: str     # the althing handle that registered it, or "booth"
+    state: str     # "live" | "promoted" | "retired"
+    added: str     # ISO-8601 with offset, from the FIRST registration
+    updated: str   # ISO-8601 with offset, from the most recent upsert
+    error: str | None = None   # a read-time verdict; never stored
+```
+
+`id` and `url` are two fields on purpose. The identity must be normalized so
+that re-posting updates; the href must be verbatim so that a URL whose server
+cares about a trailing slash, a case-sensitive path or a query still works when
+clicked. Collapsing them would make the registry quietly change where a link
+goes, which is the kind of bug that surfaces as "the operator clicked a bench
+and got a 404" and is never traced back here.
+
+`added` survives re-registration; `updated` does not. That is the same shape as
+U5's `created`, and for the same reason: an upsert is the same bench saying
+something new about itself, not a new bench.
+
+Caps, applied at the write and again at the read: `name` 120, `owner` 64, `id`
+and `url` 2048, `state` one of three. Each is a display budget, not a storage
+limit.
+
+## Signatures
+
+```python
+BENCHES_FILE = ".benches.json"       # at the DATA ROOT — not inside a booth
+BENCH_LOCK   = ".benches.lock"
+BENCH_STATES = ("live", "promoted", "retired")
+NAME_MAX, OWNER_MAX, URL_MAX = 120, 64, 2048
+BENCHES_MAX_BYTES = 256 * 1024
+
+
+def normalize_bench_url(url: str) -> str:
+    """The identity of a bench. Raises ValueError with a reason a human can act
+    on -- the CLI prints it verbatim.
+
+    THE RULE, in full, because it is the identity and a vague identity is worse
+    than a wrong one:
+      * surrounding whitespace stripped
+      * scheme lowercased; anything but http/https is refused
+      * userinfo (`user:pass@host`) is REFUSED, never stripped
+      * host lowercased; an empty host is refused
+      * port dropped when it is the scheme default (80 for http, 443 for https)
+      * path kept verbatim, except that a bare "/" becomes ""
+      * query kept verbatim, INCLUDING its parameter order (a query is opaque)
+      * fragment dropped
+    """
+
+
+def read_benches(root: Path) -> tuple[list[Bench], str | None]:
+    """Every registered bench, in the order of `order_benches`, plus a read-time
+    error or None. NEVER RAISES -- this is on the render path (v0.2.2 lesson)."""
+
+
+def upsert_bench(root: Path, url: str, name: str, owner: str) -> tuple[Bench, bool]:
+    """Register or update by normalized URL. Returns (bench, created).
+    `added` is preserved on update; `url`, `name`, `owner`, `updated` are
+    replaced. `state` is preserved on update and is "live" on create."""
+
+
+def set_bench_state(root: Path, bench_id: str, state: str) -> Bench | None:
+    """Move a bench between live / promoted / retired. None if no such bench."""
+
+
+def remove_bench(root: Path, bench_id: str) -> Bench | None:
+    """Drop one bench. Returns the removed record, or None."""
+
+
+def order_benches(benches: Iterable[Bench]) -> list[Bench]:
+    """ORDER: (state rank, name casefolded, id) -- live before promoted before
+    retired, then alphabetical, with the id as a total tie-break so two benches
+    sharing a name cannot swap between renders. CLAUDE.md invariant 6."""
+```
+
+And in `booth/links.py`, the one addition:
+
+```python
+def booth_target(url: str) -> str | None:
+    """The booth NAME a URL points at, or None when it is not a booth URL.
+
+    ONE PREDICATE, THREE CALLERS -- the CLI's refusal, the board's dead marker,
+    and the import's classifier. They must agree: a rule that refuses a shape
+    the board then fails to mark as dead (or the reverse) is two readers of one
+    truth, which is the bug this repo has now paid for three times.
+
+    THE NAME SEGMENT IS PERCENT-DECODED. `app.py` emits booth links through
+    `quote(name, safe="")`, so a booth whose name needs encoding appears on the
+    board encoded. Comparing the raw segment against a directory name would mark
+    every such booth dead and would print the encoded form back at the poster in
+    the refusal message. Seam review SR-7.
+
+    Returns the DECODED name. A path of `/b/` with no name, or a decoded name
+    that is empty, starts with a dot, or contains a separator or `..`, is not a
+    booth link (None) — the same rules `resolve_booth` enforces, so the two
+    cannot disagree about what is addressable.
+    """
+```
+
+## The enforced rule
+
+`booth link <url>` refuses when `booth_target(url)` is not None:
+
+```
+$ booth link http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-bakeoff/ "the bakeoff"
+booth link: that is a booth, and a booth announces itself now.
+  booth new sindra-bakeoff --why "the bakeoff"     (or --why on `booth add`)
+  the index at http://10.100.10.50:8090/ is the feed.
+exit 2
+```
+
+Three properties this refusal must have, each of which is an invariant below:
+
+- **It names the alternative.** The teaching moment belongs at the point of use;
+  17 handles have the muscle memory and a bare "refused" would send them to a
+  human.
+- **It writes nothing.** Not the row, and not the board's `.booth.json`
+  announcement that `booth link` creates on first use — a refused call must not
+  leave a new booth behind as a side effect.
+- **It is the ONLY new refusal.** A reference bookmark is still a link.
+
+## What renders
+
+On the standing board's page, above the rows:
+
+- **The benches panel** — each bench as name, URL, owner, state, and the date
+  it was added; ordered by `order_benches`. Controls to change state and to
+  remove, both POST, both reversible in one click except remove.
+- **A board row whose booth is gone is marked dead** — visibly, with its
+  checkbox pre-reachable by the existing select-all, so the operator can tick
+  and use the `unlink-many` control already on the page. **No new delete path.**
+
+A registry that cannot be read renders as a panel carrying its error, never as
+an absent panel and never as a 500 — the v0.2.2 lesson, which this repo learned
+by returning 500 for `/` and `/healthz` across all 25 booths.
+
+## The CLI surface
+
+```
+booth bench add <url> <name>      register or update; prints created/updated
+booth bench ls                    list, in the rendered order, with ids
+booth bench state <id|url> <s>    live | promoted | retired
+booth bench rm <id|url>           remove one
+booth bench import [--apply]      classify the board's rows; WRITES NOTHING
+                                  without --apply, and never touches links.md
+```
+
+`import` prints three groups — **booth rows** (skipped; `booth_target` matched),
+**candidates** (would be registered, with the normalized id beside the raw URL
+so a collapse is visible before it happens), and **refused** (normalization
+raised, with the reason). Under `--apply` it upserts the candidates and prints
+the same three groups plus what it did. It is not automatic and it is not run by
+this unit: roughly 14 of 35 candidates are reference bookmarks that belong on the
+board, and a machine cannot tell a bench from a bookmark by its URL. The
+operator seeds the registry by reviewing that list.
+
+## The migration
+
+1. `links.md` is archived verbatim to `~/booth-data/links/links-archive-2026-09-22.md`
+   **and committed to this repo**, before anything else. Nothing the operator
+   wrote is destroyed, and the archive is version-controlled rather than living
+   only on one box.
+2. `booth bench import` proposes; the operator applies.
+3. The 156 dead booth rows are marked, and removed by him or not at all.
+
+## Scope — the blast-radius pass
+
+`graphify explain` over `remove_link_entry`, `parse_link_entries`,
+`order_for_display`, `read_pins` and `toggle_pin`, cross-checked with grep
+because graphify cannot see the CLI's `python3 -c` import (it reports the
+`app.py` importers and the test callers; `scripts/booth:353` is invisible to it
+— the exact blindness CLAUDE.md names).
+
+No existing function in `links.py` changes signature or behaviour. The board's
+rows keep their content-hash identity, so every pin, every `unlink` id in the
+operator's history, and every concurrent `booth link` append keep working
+untouched.
+
+## Out of scope
+
+- **Liveness probing.** The IA doc's BENCH shape carries `last_checked` /
+  `last_ok`; ROADMAP's v1 row does not — it names *registry, identity, enforced
+  rule, migration*, and the parking lot already parks the uptime history. This
+  unit ships none of it, deliberately: it is the only part that does network
+  I/O, which is the part that reliably takes 2–5 follow-up patches for cases the
+  first shape did not anticipate — the accretion signature this whole rewrite is
+  undoing. The record is designed so adding it later is purely additive (the
+  read is lenient to unknown keys, so an older Booth reading a newer file does
+  not break). **This is a scope reduction against the IA doc and the operator
+  can reverse it; the cost of reversing it is one field pair and one CLI verb.**
+- **Pruning the board.** Not in v1, by ROADMAP.
+- **Bench aliases.** See open questions.
+- **A bench page.** A bench is a link to somewhere else; giving it a page here
+  would make the Booth a directory service.
+- **Any change to how booths announce themselves.** That was U5 and it landed.
+
+## Invariants
+
+**INV-1 — one module knows the registry's filename and shape.**
+`booth/benches.py` is the only place `.benches.json` is named, parsed or
+written. No route body and no CLI branch constructs the path or reads the JSON.
+*Falsifiable:* a test that fails if the literal `.benches.json` appears anywhere
+outside `benches.py` — and specifically fails under the change that defeats it,
+which is a route reading the file directly to save an import. Asserting only
+that the panel renders would pass under exactly that change.
+
+**INV-2 — one predicate decides what a booth URL is.** `links.booth_target` is
+the only implementation, and the CLI's refusal, the dead marker and the import's
+classifier all call it.
+*Falsifiable:* the defeating change is a second implementation — a `/b/` check
+inlined in the shell for speed, or a regex in `app.py`. The test asserts
+AGREEMENT rather than behaviour: a table of URLs (trailing slash, no slash,
+nested path, query, uppercase host, a non-Booth host with a `/b/` path, a `/b/`
+with no name) is run through the CLI's refusal AND the render's dead marker, and
+the two must classify every row identically. A test that only checked the
+refusal would stay green while the marker drifted.
+
+**INV-3 — a refused link writes nothing.** No row, no board directory, no
+`.booth.json`, no lock file.
+*Falsifiable:* the defeating change is moving the refusal after the `mkdir -p` /
+`announce` block in the `link` branch — which is where it would naturally land
+if written without thinking. The test refuses a link into a data root with NO
+`links` booth and asserts the directory still does not exist, not merely that
+`links.md` lacks the row. Asserting the row's absence alone would pass under the
+defeating change.
+
+**INV-4 — the rendered bench order is total and stated.** `(state rank, name
+casefolded, id)`.
+*Falsifiable:* the defeating change is dropping the `id` tie-break, which leaves
+two benches sharing a name in whatever order the dict yielded. The test
+registers two benches with the SAME name in both insertion orders and asserts
+the same output sequence from both. A test over distinct names would pass with
+no tie-break at all.
+
+**INV-5 — the read cannot raise, and cannot cost the caller unboundedly.**
+`read_benches` returns `([], "...")` for damaged, absent, oversized, or
+unreadable; it never propagates. Over `BENCHES_MAX_BYTES` is refused by size
+before it is parsed.
+*Falsifiable:* the defeating change is `json.load` without the guard. The test
+GETs the standing board's page with the registry (a) absent, (b) holding
+non-JSON bytes, (c) holding valid JSON of the wrong shape, (d) holding a
+well-formed record with a wrong-typed field, (e) over the size cap, and (f)
+chmod'd unreadable, asserting 200 for all six AND that (b)–(f) render a visible
+error rather than an empty panel. Case (d) is the one that matters: it is the
+shape that is currently 500ing the gallery elsewhere in this service.
+
+**INV-6 — the identity collapses a re-post and nothing else.** Upserting the
+same normalized URL updates one row; upserting two URLs that differ in path,
+query or host creates two.
+*Falsifiable:* the defeating change is normalizing to the origin. The test
+registers the eight gitea URLs measured on the live board and asserts **eight**
+benches, then registers `talk`'s five rows and asserts **one** — the same
+fixture proves both directions. A test that only checked the talk collapse would
+pass under origin normalization, which is precisely the wrong rule.
+
+**INV-7 — `url` is what a click goes to; `id` is never rendered as an href.**
+*Falsifiable:* the defeating change is rendering `bench.id` in the anchor
+because it is "the clean one". The test registers a URL whose normalization
+differs from its raw form (a trailing slash on a non-empty path, an uppercase
+host, a fragment) and asserts the anchor's `href` is the raw string, byte for
+byte.
+
+**INV-8 — nothing this unit ships removes a board row.** The dead marker is a
+render-time stamp; `import` without `--apply` writes nothing anywhere; `import`
+with `--apply` writes only `.benches.json`.
+*Falsifiable:* the defeating change is `import --apply` "tidying up" the rows it
+consumed. The test snapshots `links.md` byte for byte, runs the full unit's CLI
+surface against it — refusal, import, import --apply, bench add, bench rm — and
+asserts the file is unchanged, including its mtime-independent content hash.
+
+**INV-9 — stdlib-only, and sibling-free.** `booth/benches.py` imports nothing
+outside the standard library and nothing from `booth.*`.
+*Falsifiable:* the defeating change is `from booth.links import booth_target` —
+which is the natural thing to write, since `booth_target` is the predicate this
+unit's CLI branch also needs.
+
+**The existing parametrized `test_stdlib_only` (tests/test_marks.py:280) DOES
+NOT CATCH THAT, and an earlier draft of this contract claimed it did.** Its
+failure set is `{r for r in roots if r != "booth" and r not in
+sys.stdlib_module_names}` — it exempts `booth` explicitly, so a sibling import
+passes it clean. The sibling-free clause exists only in the stricter copy at
+tests/test_manifest.py:209. Adding `benches` to the parametrized list therefore
+buys stdlib-only and NOT sibling-free. So: `benches` joins that list AND
+`tests/test_benches.py` carries its own stricter copy, mirroring `manifest`'s,
+which fails on a `booth` root. Verified by reading the real test — seam review
+SR-1.
+
+## Seam review — what the real sibling surfaces said
+
+Run in-session against the actual `.py` files rather than their contracts,
+after the cold panel was dispatched and before any code. Seven checks, five
+findings, three of them real defects in this document. `/heid-contract-review`
+is artifact-only by design and structurally cannot run this pass: its arms read
+this file and are forbidden the siblings it borrows from.
+
+| # | seam | what the real surface said | disposition |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| **SR-1** | `test_stdlib_only` (tests/test_marks.py:280) | **The contract was wrong.** It claimed the parametrized test "already carries" the sibling-free clause. It does not — its failure set is `{r for r in roots if r != "booth" and ...}`, which exempts `booth` on purpose. Only tests/test_manifest.py:209 has the strict copy. | **Fixed.** INV-9 now requires both: the parametrize entry AND a stricter copy in `tests/test_benches.py`. Without this the unit would have shipped with its own INV-9 untested. |
+| **SR-2** | `resolve_booth` (app.py:798) | **The contract invited an outage.** It named `resolve_booth` as the existence check for the dead marker. That function is a closure inside `create_app` (not importable) and **raises HTTPException(404)** — called per row, one swept booth would 404 the entire board page. It also calls `.resolve()`, a syscall per row, 178 of them on this board. | **Fixed.** `depends_on` now forbids it explicitly and specifies an own non-raising predicate with the same name-safety rules. Cost stated below. |
+| **SR-7** | `quote(name, safe="")` (app.py, booth link emission) | **The contract was silent on encoding.** Booth links are emitted percent-encoded. A `booth_target` comparing the raw path segment to a directory name marks every encoded-name booth permanently dead and echoes the encoded form back in the refusal. | **Fixed.** `booth_target` decodes, and applies `resolve_booth`'s own addressability rules so the two cannot disagree. |
+| **SR-6** | `scripts/booth` dispatch (flat `case "$cmd"`, 13 single-word verbs) | Not a defect — a gap. **`bench add` would be the first two-word verb in this script.** Nothing about the existing dispatch anticipates one, and `booth bench` with no sub-verb must not fall through into the generic usage in a way that hides which word was wrong. | **Recorded.** A nested `case` under `bench)`, and a bare `bench` prints the bench verbs specifically. Named so the implementer does not invent a third pattern. |
+| **SR-3** | `data_dir` (app.py:704) vs `DATA` (scripts/booth:120) | The service resolves and expands its root in `create_app`; the CLI derives it from `$BOOTH_DATA_DIR`. Two independent derivations of one path. | **No change.** This is already true of `links.md`, `.marks.json` and `.booth.json` — pre-existing and out of this unit's scope. Recorded so it is a known property rather than a discovery. |
+| **SR-4** | `list_booths` (app.py:418) | **Confirmed, not assumed.** `if not child.is_dir() or child.name.startswith("."): continue` — `.benches.json` fails both guards. The index cannot see the registry. | **Verified.** The assumption stands on read code. |
+| **SR-5** | `sweep_once` (app.py:386) | **Confirmed, not assumed — and this was the dangerous one.** The sweeper iterates the data root and could in principle delete the registry. It cannot: the same `is_dir()` + leading-dot pair guards it, and `shutil.rmtree` is reached only past both. | **Verified.** Had either guard been absent this unit would have shipped a design that eats its own registry on the first tick. |
+
+**The per-render cost, stated because SR-2 surfaced it.** The dead marker runs
+once per board row: 221 rows today, 178 of which parse as booth links and cost
+one `is_dir()` each. That is one `stat` per booth row per render of the standing
+board's page — and the page already does a `booth_items` walk plus a `hold_read`
+per booth on the index, so it is not a new order of magnitude. It is bounded by
+the row count, it touches no network, and it is confined to the ONE booth that
+carries a `links.md`. If the board ever grows past a few thousand rows this
+becomes worth caching; at 221 it would be premature.

docs/design/information-architecture.md

@@ -162,6 +162,7 @@ session that posted the set.
 ```
 BENCH
   id     : normalized URL (the identity — re-posting UPDATES, never appends)
+           NORMALIZED MEANS THE FULL URL, NOT THE ORIGIN — see below
   name   : what it is
   owner  : the agent handle that registered it
   state  : live → promoted (to Homepage) → retired
@@ -173,8 +174,51 @@ BENCH
 - `booth bench add <url> "<what>"` upserts on the normalized URL. The 5 `talk`
   rows and 4 `peedlar` rows collapse to one each, by construction.
 - **`booth link` refuses a `…:8090/b/…` URL** and names the right surface. It
-  survives as a deprecated alias rather than vanishing — 17 handles have the
+  is **not deprecated** — 17 handles have the muscle memory, the teaching moment
-  muscle memory, and the teaching moment belongs at the point of use.
+  belongs at the point of use, and (corrected 2026-09-22, U6) the board has a
+  legitimate residual job: of the 35 distinct non-booth targets on it, roughly
+  **14 are reference bookmarks** — gitea repositories, HuggingFace model cards,
+  a vLLM recipe, a Headscale setup page — for which the board is the right and
+  only home. Deprecating it would evict a third of its live content. It loses
+  exactly one shape, the booth URL, and keeps the rest.
+
+### What "normalized URL" means, and why it is not the origin
+
+Corrected 2026-09-22 while U6 was being contracted. This doc said *normalized
+URL* and left it there; the obvious reading is the origin
+(`scheme://host:port`), and that reading is **measurably destructive**.
+
+Collapsing the board's 43 non-booth rows by origin yields 19 groups; by full
+URL, 35. The 16-group difference is not duplication:
+
+| what origin identity would merge | rows |
+|---|---|
+| eight distinct gitea repositories, issues and package versions | 8 → 1 |
+| three unrelated HuggingFace model cards | 3 → 1 |
+| **the two LRPG surfaces on `10.100.10.50:8321`** — this doc's own example of two real benches | 2 → 1 |
+| two different claude.ai artifact briefs | 2 → 1 |
+
+Full-URL identity still collapses both cases this doc names — `talk` 5 rows to
+1, Peedlar's root 3 to 1 — which is the entire win, without the losses.
+
+The **query string is part of the identity** and the **fragment is not**: three
+ShutterChute rows differ only by `?token=` and are three genuinely different
+one-shot links, while a fragment is a position inside a page. Credentials in a
+URL are **refused rather than stripped** — stripping registers a bench whose URL
+no longer works while telling the poster it succeeded.
+
+### One number that was two defects
+
+This doc's headline **69% rot** is two different defects wearing one number, and
+U5 already closed the cause of the larger one:
+
+| defect | rows (2026-09-22) | what fixes it |
+|---|---|---|
+| **booth-announcement rot** — a session posts a booth URL because a booth cannot announce itself | 178 rows, 156 already dead | **U5** gave job 5 a home; U6's refusal stops the habit; U6's dead marker clears what landed |
+| **bench re-post** — an append log with no identity | 8 rows | U6's registry |
+
+Worth stating plainly because the single figure implies the registry is the big
+half. It is the smaller one.
 - Liveness is *flagged*, not enforced. A bench that stops answering gets a
   marker and a date; deleting is the operator's call. Nothing here deletes the
   operator's data on a timer.

persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-one-number-was-two-defects.md

@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+# The 69% link-board rot was two defects wearing one number
+
+_2026-09-22 · booth_
+
+**Re-measuring the board before writing U6's contract split its headline number
+in half, and the half U6 owns is the smaller one.** The IA doc records *211
+rows, 145 (69%) pointing at booths that no longer exist*. Re-counted on
+2026-09-22 the board was 221 rows — and the split nobody had taken before:
+
+| | count | share |
+|---|---|---|
+| rows that are booth URLs | **178** | 80% of the board |
+| …whose booth is already swept | **156** | **71% of the whole board** |
+| rows that are NOT booth URLs | 43 | 19% |
+| …distinct after full-URL normalization | 35 | |
+| …collapsed by the re-post problem U6 names | **8 rows** | |
+
+So the 69% is:
+
+1. **Booth-announcement rot — 178 rows.** A session posted a booth URL because
+   a booth could not announce itself. **U5 already closed the cause.** Nothing
+   stopped the habit, so the board took 11 more of these in the day after it was
+   first measured.
+2. **Bench re-post — 8 rows.** An append log with no identity. This is the part
+   the registry fixes, and it is an order of magnitude smaller.
+
+**The third thing, which the IA doc does not describe at all:** of the 35
+distinct non-booth targets, roughly **14 are running services (benches)** and
+roughly **14 are reference bookmarks** — gitea repos, HuggingFace model cards, a
+vLLM recipe, a Headscale page — with the rest ephemeral one-shot links. The IA
+doc planned for `booth link` to survive "as a deprecated alias". That would have
+evicted a third of the board's live content from the only home it has. **U6 does
+not deprecate `booth link`**; it removes exactly one shape from it.
+
+**Why this is worth keeping.** The single 69% figure implies the registry is the
+big win. It is not — the enforced rule and the dead marker are. A unit scoped
+off the unsplit number would have built the registry, declared victory, and left
+178 rows rotting. Re-measure before contracting; the number in the design doc is
+a day old the moment it is written.

persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u6-benches-landed.md

@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+# U6 landed — three surfaces, three jobs, one predicate
+
+_2026-09-22 · booth_
+
+**The sixth of seven v1 units. Only U7 is left.** 444 → 555 tests, suite green,
+deployed and verified live: 23/23 booths 200, and the board renders **156 dead
+of 221 rows** — the exact count an independent shell measurement produced before
+a line of code was written, from two different implementations.
+
+## What shipped
+
+- **`booth/benches.py`** (new, stdlib-only AND sibling-free): `Bench`,
+  `normalize_bench_url`, lenient `read_benches`, strict `upsert_bench`,
+  `set_bench_state`, `remove_bench`, `order_benches`. Registry at
+  `~/booth-data/.benches.json` — a dotfile at the DATA ROOT, keyed by id, so two
+  rows with one identity are impossible by construction.
+- **`links.booth_target`** — ONE predicate for "is this a booth URL", consumed
+  by three callers (the CLI refusal, the board's dead marker, `bench import`).
+  Host-agnostic and path-shaped; percent-decodes the name.
+- **`booth link` refuses a booth URL**, names `booth new --why`, and writes
+  nothing — not even the board directory.
+- **The board marks dead rows.** Removal stays the operator's two clicks through
+  the bulk control that already existed. Nothing in the unit deletes a row.
+- **`booth bench add|ls|state|rm|import`**; `import` writes nothing without
+  `--apply` and never touches `links.md`.
+- `docs/archive/links-2026-09-22.md` — the board archived verbatim into git.
+
+## The decision that mattered most, and it was measured
+
+**Identity is the FULL normalized URL, not the origin.** Collapsing the 43
+non-booth rows by origin gives 19 groups; by full URL, 35. The difference is not
+duplication — it is **eight distinct gitea repos merged into one**, three
+unrelated HuggingFace model cards merged into one, and **the two LRPG surfaces
+on `10.100.10.50:8321`, which are the IA doc's own example of two real benches**,
+merged into one. Origin identity destroys more than it dedups. Full-URL identity
+still collapses both cases the doc names (talk 5→1, Peedlar 3→1).
+
+Query is IN the identity (three ShutterChute rows differ only by `?token=` and
+are three real links); fragment is OUT; credentials are REFUSED, not stripped.
+
+## The seam review earned it again — three real contract defects
+
+Run in-session against the real `.py` files, after the cold panel was dispatched:
+
+- **SR-1** — the contract claimed `test_stdlib_only` already forbids sibling
+  imports. **It does not**: its failure set is `{r for r in roots if r !=
+  "booth" and ...}`, which exempts `booth` on purpose. Only test_manifest.py has
+  the strict copy. INV-9 would have shipped untested.
+- **SR-2** — the contract named `resolve_booth` as the dead marker's existence
+  check. That function is a closure inside `create_app` and **raises
+  HTTPException(404)** — per row, one swept booth would 404 the whole board page.
+- **SR-7** — booth links are emitted through `quote(name, safe="")`, so a
+  predicate comparing the raw segment marks every encoded-name booth dead
+  forever.
+
+SR-4 and SR-5 were **verified rather than assumed**: both `list_booths` and
+`sweep_once` skip a child that is not a directory AND one whose name starts with
+a dot, so the registry is safe from the sweeper by two guards, not one. Had
+either been absent the design would have eaten its own registry on tick one.
+
+## Still open at the time of writing
+
+Both cold gates are IN FLIGHT — contract review `01M35BWCJ806MT75NA630Y4WFH`,
+code review `01M35CK8YKEKMV7T15JXEF6A8N`. The bug-hunt has not run. **Committed
+but NOT tagged**, per the v0.2.0 lesson: if a gate is outstanding, the tag waits.

persistent-memory.md

@@ -44,16 +44,29 @@ _As of 2026-09-22:_
   deliberate and it CHANGES HOW THE 2026-10-06 RE-COUNT READS: the hold rides
   for free, but not-pressing-`keep` has to be learned, so a flat `.forever` rate
   does not falsify anything. Read its entry before measuring.
-- **TWO UNITS LEFT TO v1, and they do not depend on each other.** U6 (benches,
+- **U6 LANDED 2026-09-22 — ONE UNIT LEFT TO v1.** Benches: a registry keyed by
-  independent, closes the 69% link-board rot) and U7 (navigation at 270 items,
+  normalized URL, `booth link` refusing a booth URL, dead rows marked on the
-  which U3 just unblocked — its only dependency was {U3, U4, U5}). Which goes
+  board, and a non-destructive `bench import`. 444 → 555 tests, deployed and
-  next is the operator's call. ⚠ Before starting U7, read
+  verified live (23/23 booths 200, 156 of 221 rows marked dead — matching an
-  `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-u7-section-premise-half-wrong.md`: every booth
+  independent pre-implementation count exactly). ⚠ **COMMITTED BUT NOT TAGGED
-  that actually needs navigation is FLAT, so half its premise is already known
+  AND NOT RELEASED**: both cold gates were still in flight at commit time
-  to be wrong. **No recommendation is recorded for this one on purpose** — U6
+  (contract review `01M35BWCJ806MT75NA630Y4WFH`, code review
-  and U7 are genuinely independent, they close different defects, and the last
+  `01M35CK8YKEKMV7T15JXEF6A8N`) and the bug-hunt had not run. Per the v0.2.0
-  two units before a 1.0 cut are a scope-direction call rather than a
+  lesson, the tag waits for the gates. → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u6-benches-landed.md`
-  dependency one.
+- ⚠ **U6 WAS CHOSEN WITHOUT THE OPERATOR ANSWERING.** He set an autonomous goal
+  ("hydrate and land next unit stated in handoff") and the handoff named no
+  unit. The session recommended U6 on measured grounds (its defect compounds —
+  145 → 156 dead rows in a day — while U7's is dormant, and U6 had no
+  unresolved design questions) and proceeded rather than blocking. **The scope
+  call is still his to reverse**; nothing is pushed and nothing is tagged.
+- **U7 IS THE LAST UNIT, and its premise degraded again.** ⚠ Read
+  `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-21-u7-section-premise-half-wrong.md` AND
+  re-count first. On 2026-09-22 the four large booths U7 was sized against
+  (`pancake-v3-full`/`pancake-v4-full` at 270 items, `sindra20-engines`,
+  `sindra-finalists`) had ALL been swept. Largest live booth is `miranda-is` at
+  **92 items, flat**. Two of 23 booths have subfolders and **both are reports**.
+  Sections buy close to nothing; the rail, filters and grid keyboard are the
+  unit.
 - **U3's tier was MINOR and the operator approved it** (2026-09-22). The
   argument that settled it, recorded because the tie-break rule says patch: a
   capability arrived AND one left — the verbatim path gained a declared public
@@ -108,6 +121,8 @@ _As of 2026-09-22:_
 
 ## Recent decisions
 
+- `[2026-09-22]` **U6 landed — three surfaces, three jobs, one predicate** — the seam review caught three real contract defects incl. a per-row `resolve_booth` that would have 404'd the board; NOT TAGGED, gates in flight → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u6-benches-landed.md`
+- `[2026-09-22]` **The 69% link-board rot was two defects wearing one number** — READ BEFORE SCOPING ANY LINK-BOARD WORK; U5 closed the larger half and full-URL-vs-origin identity is a measured call → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-one-number-was-two-defects.md`
 - `[2026-09-22]` **U3 landed — the page declares the seam, the Booth mounts into it** — ten regexes against author HTML replaced by a substring test and a `+` → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-u3-declared-embed-seam-landed.md`
 - `[2026-09-22]` **A wrong-shaped answer 500s the gallery and the marks page** — PRE-EXISTING (measured at `42ea67f`), NOT U3; the v0.2.2 lesson is only half-implemented → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-a-wrong-shaped-answer-500s-the-gallery.md`
 - `[2026-09-22]` **The browser became a test surface** — READ BEFORE TOUCHING `playwright` IN pyproject; the pinned upper bound is the foot-gun, and these tests SKIP rather than fail → `persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-the-browser-became-a-test-surface.md`

scripts/booth

@@ -16,9 +16,29 @@
 #                                        pick holds its own booth, see below)
 #   booth unkeep <name>                 hand it back to the sweeper
 #   booth link   <url> [description]    append a link to the standing link board
+#                                       REFUSES a booth URL — a booth announces
+#                                       itself now; use `booth new --why`
 #   booth links                         list the board, numbered, with entry ids
 #   booth unlink <id|index>             remove ONE link from the board
 #
+#   booth bench add <url> <name>        register or UPDATE a bench (upsert)
+#   booth bench ls                      list benches, live -> promoted -> retired
+#   booth bench state <id|url> <state>  live | promoted | retired
+#   booth bench rm <id|url>             remove one
+#   booth bench import [--apply]        classify the board's rows; writes NOTHING
+#                                       without --apply, and never edits links.md
+#
+# THREE SURFACES, THREE JOBS. Telling them apart is the whole of U6:
+#   a BOOTH is a review surface you post work to. It announces itself and is
+#     swept 24h after its last activity. `booth new` / `booth add`.
+#   a BENCH is a running thing — jackdaw's bench, talk's bench, the things that
+#     get promoted to Homepage. Durable, and identified BY ITS URL, so posting
+#     it again updates the row instead of adding a fifth. `booth bench add`.
+#   a LINK is a reference bookmark — a repo, a model card, a doc page. The
+#     standing board, unchanged and NOT deprecated. `booth link`.
+# The board carried all three because only one of them had a surface: 178 of its
+# 221 rows were booth URLs and 156 of those pointed at booths already swept.
+#
 #   booth ask    <name> <id> <prompt> <option>... [--no-notes]
 #                                       pose a multiple-choice question in a booth
 #   booth marks  <name> [--wait [SECS]] print every mark in a booth as JSON;
@@ -184,8 +204,31 @@ whoami_handle() {
   echo "${ALTHING_HANDLE:-${BOOTH_SOURCE:-$(hostname -s 2>/dev/null || echo unknown)}}"
 }
 
+# Where booth/*.py lives, for the `python3 -c` calls below. The CLI runs under
+# the SYSTEM python3 with no venv, which is why every module it imports is
+# stdlib-only (CLAUDE.md invariant 1) and why no AST extractor can see these
+# imports — `tests/test_cli.py` runs the real script, and is the only thing that
+# catches a third-party import before a fleet host does.
+booth_src() {
+  (cd "$(dirname -- "$(readlink -f -- "$0")")/.." && pwd)
+}
+
+# The booth NAME a URL points at, or empty. ONE PREDICATE — this shells out to
+# booth.links.booth_target rather than pattern-matching `:8090/b/` here, because
+# the board's dead-row marker and `bench import` use that same function and a
+# second implementation in the shell would classify the host-agnostic and
+# percent-encoded cases differently (INV-2).
+booth_target_of() {
+  BOOTH_SRC="$(booth_src)" BOOTH_Q="$1" python3 -c '
+import os, sys
+sys.path.insert(0, os.environ["BOOTH_SRC"])
+from booth.links import booth_target          # stdlib only — no venv needed
+sys.stdout.write(booth_target(os.environ["BOOTH_Q"]) or "")
+'
+}
+
 usage() {
-  echo "usage: booth {new <name> [--why W] [--title T]|add <name> <file>... [--why W] [--title T]|url <name>|ls|rm <name>|keep <name>|unkeep <name>|blur <name> <file>...|unblur <name> <file>...|link <url> [description]|links|unlink <id|index>|ask <name> <id> <prompt> <option>... [--no-notes]|marks <name> [--wait [SECS]]|asks <name> (deprecated alias for marks)|answer <name> <id> [--wait [SECS]]|marks-import <name>}" >&2
+  echo "usage: booth {new <name> [--why W] [--title T]|add <name> <file>... [--why W] [--title T]|url <name>|ls|rm <name>|keep <name>|unkeep <name>|blur <name> <file>...|unblur <name> <file>...|link <url> [description]|links|unlink <id|index>|ask <name> <id> <prompt> <option>... [--no-notes]|marks <name> [--wait [SECS]]|asks <name> (deprecated alias for marks)|answer <name> <id> [--wait [SECS]]|marks-import <name>|bench add <url> <name>|bench ls|bench state <id|url> <live|promoted|retired>|bench rm <id|url>|bench import [--apply]}" >&2
   exit 2
 }
 
@@ -279,6 +322,21 @@ case "$cmd" in
     [ $# -ge 1 ] || usage
     link_url="$1"; shift
     desc="${*:-}"
+    # THE REFUSAL COMES FIRST, BEFORE ANY WRITE (INV-3). A booth announces
+    # itself now (U5), so a booth URL on the board is a row that rots the
+    # moment the booth is swept — 156 of the board's 221 rows are exactly
+    # that. Refusing AFTER the mkdir/announce below would leave a new booth
+    # behind as the side effect of a call that failed.
+    refused_name="$(booth_target_of "$link_url")"
+    if [ -n "$refused_name" ]; then
+      {
+        echo "booth link: that is a booth, and a booth announces itself now."
+        echo "  booth new $refused_name --why \"${desc:-what the operator is looking at}\""
+        echo "  (or --why on \`booth add\`; re-announcing keeps the original stamp)"
+        echo "  the index at $URL/ is the feed."
+      } >&2
+      exit 2
+    fi
     board="$DATA/$LINKS_BOARD"
     mkdir -p -- "$board"
     : > "$board/$KEEP"                             # the board is durable by definition
@@ -357,6 +415,112 @@ if removed is None:
 print("removed: %s  %s" % (removed["desc"], removed["url"]))
 ' "$board" "$target"
     ;;
+  bench)
+    # SEAM REVIEW SR-6: the first two-word verb in this script. A nested case,
+    # and a bare `bench` names the bench verbs rather than falling through to
+    # the generic usage, which would hide which of the two words was wrong.
+    sub="${1:-}"; shift || true
+    case "$sub" in
+      add|ls|state|rm|import) ;;
+      *)
+        echo "usage: booth bench {add <url> <name>|ls|state <id|url> <live|promoted|retired>|rm <id|url>|import [--apply]}" >&2
+        exit 2 ;;
+    esac
+    BOOTH_SRC="$(booth_src)" BOOTH_DATA="$DATA" BOOTH_SUB="$sub" \
+    BOOTH_WHO="$(whoami_handle)" BOOTH_BOARD="$LINKS_BOARD" \
+    python3 -c '
+import os, pathlib, sys
+sys.path.insert(0, os.environ["BOOTH_SRC"])
+# stdlib only — no venv needed. benches.py imports no sibling either (INV-9).
+from booth.benches import (normalize_bench_url, order_benches, read_benches,
+                           remove_bench, set_bench_state, upsert_bench)
+from booth.links import booth_target, parse_link_entries
+
+root = pathlib.Path(os.environ["BOOTH_DATA"])
+sub, who = os.environ["BOOTH_SUB"], os.environ["BOOTH_WHO"]
+argv = sys.argv[1:]
+
+def die(msg, code=2):
+    print("booth bench: %s" % msg, file=sys.stderr)
+    raise SystemExit(code)
+
+def row(b):
+    # ONE LINE PER BENCH, in the rendered order — state first, so a retired
+    # bench sinks, then name, then id as a total tie-break (INV-4).
+    return "%-9s %-28s %-52s %s" % (b.state, b.name[:28], b.url[:52], b.owner)
+
+if sub == "add":
+    if len(argv) < 2: die("bench add <url> <name>")
+    try:
+        bench, created = upsert_bench(root, argv[0], " ".join(argv[1:]), who)
+    except ValueError as exc:
+        die(exc)
+    print("%s: %s" % ("registered" if created else "updated", bench.id))
+elif sub == "ls":
+    benches, err = read_benches(root)
+    if err:
+        die("the registry could not be read: %s" % err, 3)
+    if not benches:
+        print("no benches registered yet")
+    for b in benches:
+        print(row(b))
+elif sub in ("state", "rm"):
+    if not argv: die("bench %s <id|url>%s" % (sub, " <state>" if sub == "state" else ""))
+    try:
+        bench_id = normalize_bench_url(argv[0])
+    except ValueError as exc:
+        die(exc)
+    if sub == "rm":
+        gone = remove_bench(root, bench_id)
+        if gone is None: die("no such bench: %s" % bench_id, 1)
+        print("removed: %s" % gone.url)
+    else:
+        if len(argv) < 2: die("bench state <id|url> <live|promoted|retired>")
+        try:
+            moved = set_bench_state(root, bench_id, argv[1])
+        except ValueError as exc:
+            die(exc)
+        if moved is None: die("no such bench: %s" % bench_id, 1)
+        print("%s is now %s" % (moved.url, moved.state))
+elif sub == "import":
+    apply = "--apply" in argv
+    board = root / os.environ["BOOTH_BOARD"] / "links.md"
+    if not board.is_file(): die("no link board at %s" % board, 1)
+    skipped, candidates, refused = [], [], []
+    for e in parse_link_entries(board.read_text()):
+        name = booth_target(e["url"])
+        if name is not None:
+            skipped.append((e, name)); continue
+        try:
+            candidates.append((normalize_bench_url(e["url"]), e))
+        except ValueError as exc:
+            refused.append((e, str(exc)))
+    print("SKIPPED — booth rows; a booth announces itself now (%d):" % len(skipped))
+    for e, name in skipped:
+        print("  %-30s %s" % (name, e["url"]))
+    print()
+    print("CANDIDATES — would be registered (%d rows, %d distinct):"
+          % (len(candidates), len({i for i, _ in candidates})))
+    for i, e in candidates:
+        print("  %-52s %s" % (i, e["desc"][:60]))
+    print()
+    print("REFUSED — normalization said no (%d):" % len(refused))
+    for e, why in refused:
+        print("  %-52s %s" % (e["url"], why))
+    if not apply:
+        print()
+        print("nothing was written. re-run with --apply to register the candidates.")
+        print("NOTE: a machine cannot tell a bench from a bookmark by its URL —")
+        print("      roughly 14 of 35 live candidates are repos, model cards and docs,")
+        print("      for which the board is the right home. Review before applying.")
+        raise SystemExit(0)
+    for i, e in candidates:
+        upsert_bench(root, e["url"], e["desc"], e["who"] or who)
+    print()
+    print("applied: %d distinct benches registered. links.md was NOT modified."
+          % len({i for i, _ in candidates}))
+' "$@"
+    ;;
   ask)
     # booth ask <name> <id> <prompt> <opt>... [--no-notes]
     [ $# -ge 5 ] || usage

tests/test_benches.py

@@ -0,0 +1,542 @@
+"""U6 — benches: a running thing, registered.
+
+The contract is docs/contracts/u6_benches.contract.md. Every test here names
+the invariant it falsifies, and each is written to go RED under the change that
+defeats that invariant — not merely to assert the outcome the author had in
+mind. (The U4 round shipped seven falsifiers of which five stayed green under
+the very change they forbade; see persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-vacuous-falsifiers.md.)
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import ast
+import json
+import os
+import pathlib
+import sys
+
+import pytest
+
+sys.path.insert(0, str(pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.parent))
+
+from booth.benches import (  # noqa: E402
+    BENCHES_FILE,
+    BENCH_STATES,
+    Bench,
+    normalize_bench_url,
+    order_benches,
+    read_benches,
+    remove_bench,
+    set_bench_state,
+    upsert_bench,
+)
+from booth.links import booth_target  # noqa: E402
+
+
+# ---- INV-6: the identity collapses a re-post and NOTHING else ---------------
+#
+# Both directions from ONE fixture. A test that only checked the talk collapse
+# would pass under origin normalization, which is the measurably wrong rule:
+# on the live board it merges eight distinct gitea repositories into one row.
+
+# Measured on the live board, 2026-09-22.
+GITEA_EIGHT = [
+    "https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/bifrost/issues/17",
+    "https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/brokkr-smithy/src/commit/6adcde6/research/landscape-scans/open-weight-releases-2026-09-15.md",
+    "https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/cicada",
+    "https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/draupnir",
+    "https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/-/packages/pypi/bifrost/1.2.0",
+    "https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/-/packages/pypi/bifrost/1.2.1",
+    "https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/peedlar",
+    "https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/peedlar/releases/tag/v0.3.0",
+]
+TALK_FIVE = ["https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/"] * 5
+
+
+def test_eight_distinct_repos_stay_eight(tmp_path):
+    """INV-6, the direction origin-normalization gets WRONG. Defeating change:
+    normalizing to scheme://host:port. This goes red under it; the collapse
+    test below does not."""
+    for i, u in enumerate(GITEA_EIGHT):
+        upsert_bench(tmp_path, u, f"repo {i}", "vh")
+    benches, err = read_benches(tmp_path)
+    assert err is None
+    assert len(benches) == 8, [b.id for b in benches]
+
+
+def test_five_reposts_of_one_bench_collapse(tmp_path):
+    """INV-6, the direction the IA doc names. `talk` is on the live board five
+    times; the registry must hold one row, carrying the LAST name."""
+    for i, u in enumerate(TALK_FIVE):
+        _, created = upsert_bench(tmp_path, u, f"talk v{i}", "nh3-dev")
+        assert created is (i == 0)
+    benches, _ = read_benches(tmp_path)
+    assert len(benches) == 1
+    assert benches[0].name == "talk v4"
+
+
+def test_two_lrpg_surfaces_on_one_origin_stay_two(tmp_path):
+    """INV-6. The IA doc's OWN example of two real benches shares an origin."""
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://10.100.10.50:8321/Authoring%20Studio.dc.html", "authoring", "ldp-dev")
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://10.100.10.50:8321/GM%20Playback.dc.html", "gm", "ldp-dev")
+    assert len(read_benches(tmp_path)[0]) == 2
+
+
+def test_query_is_part_of_the_identity(tmp_path):
+    """INV-6. Three ShutterChute rows differ ONLY by `?token=`; they are three
+    links, not one bench posted three times. Defeating change: dropping query."""
+    base = "http://10.100.10.50:8477/?token="
+    for tok in ("aaa", "bbb", "ccc"):
+        upsert_bench(tmp_path, base + tok, "shutterchute", "nh3-dev")
+    assert len(read_benches(tmp_path)[0]) == 3
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("a,b", [
+    ("http://x.test/", "http://X.TEST"),             # host case + bare-slash path
+    ("http://x.test:80/p", "http://x.test/p"),        # default port
+    ("https://x.test:443/p", "https://x.test/p"),
+    ("http://x.test/p#frag", "http://x.test/p"),      # fragment dropped
+    ("  http://x.test/p  ", "http://x.test/p"),       # whitespace
+])
+def test_these_pairs_are_one_bench(a, b):
+    """INV-6. Each pair is the SAME resource reached two ways."""
+    assert normalize_bench_url(a) == normalize_bench_url(b)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("a,b", [
+    ("http://x.test/p", "http://x.test/p/"),          # trailing slash on a REAL path
+    ("http://x.test/p", "http://x.test/P"),           # path case
+    ("http://x.test/?a=1&b=2", "http://x.test/?b=2&a=1"),  # query order is opaque
+    ("http://x.test:8092/", "https://x.test:8092/"),  # scheme
+])
+def test_these_pairs_are_two_benches(a, b):
+    """INV-6, the other direction. Each pair MAY be two different resources, and
+    the registry must not decide otherwise on the operator's behalf."""
+    assert normalize_bench_url(a) != normalize_bench_url(b)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("bad", [
+    "", "   ", "not a url", "ftp://x.test/f", "file:///etc/passwd",
+    "http://", "https:///path", "//x.test/p", "javascript:alert(1)",
+])
+def test_refused_urls_raise_with_a_reason(bad):
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError) as e:
+        normalize_bench_url(bad)
+    assert str(e.value).strip(), "a refusal with no reason is a refusal the CLI cannot print"
+
+
+def test_credentials_are_refused_not_stripped():
+    """Stripping would register a bench whose URL no longer works while telling
+    the poster it succeeded — and put a credential on an unauthenticated LAN
+    surface on the way. Defeating change: `netloc.rpartition('@')[2]`."""
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError):
+        normalize_bench_url("https://user:hunter2@x.test/p")
+
+
+# ---- INV-7: `url` is what a click goes to; `id` is never the href -----------
+
+
+def test_the_stored_url_is_the_raw_string(tmp_path):
+    """INV-7. Defeating change: storing the normalized form as `url` because it
+    is 'the clean one'. Every field that differs is asserted, byte for byte."""
+    raw = "  HTTP://X.Test:80/Some%20Path/?b=2&a=1#frag  "
+    bench, _ = upsert_bench(tmp_path, raw, "n", "o")
+    assert bench.url == raw.strip()
+    assert bench.id != bench.url
+    assert bench.id == "http://x.test/Some%20Path/?b=2&a=1"
+    assert read_benches(tmp_path)[0][0].url == raw.strip()
+
+
+# ---- INV-4: the rendered order is TOTAL and stated --------------------------
+
+
+def test_same_name_benches_do_not_swap(tmp_path):
+    """INV-4. Defeating change: dropping the `id` tie-break. Two benches with
+    the SAME name, registered in both orders, must render identically — a test
+    over distinct names passes with no tie-break at all."""
+    def build(order):
+        root = tmp_path / f"r{order}"
+        root.mkdir()
+        for u in (["http://a.test/", "http://b.test/"] if order else
+                  ["http://b.test/", "http://a.test/"]):
+            upsert_bench(root, u, "same name", "o")
+        return [b.id for b in read_benches(root)[0]]
+    assert build(0) == build(1)
+
+
+def test_state_ranks_before_name(tmp_path):
+    """INV-4. live → promoted → retired, THEN name. Defeating change: ordering
+    by name alone, which a fixture of three same-state benches cannot see."""
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "aaa", "o")   # would sort first by name
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://z.test/", "zzz", "o")
+    set_bench_state(tmp_path, normalize_bench_url("http://a.test/"), "retired")
+    assert [b.name for b in read_benches(tmp_path)[0]] == ["zzz", "aaa"]
+
+
+def test_order_is_case_insensitive_on_name(tmp_path):
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://b.test/", "Bravo", "o")
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "alpha", "o")
+    assert [b.name for b in read_benches(tmp_path)[0]] == ["alpha", "Bravo"]
+
+
+def test_order_benches_is_pure(tmp_path):
+    """INV-4. Defeating change: `order_benches` doing I/O or sorting in place.
+    Called with records belonging to NO root, it must still answer."""
+    made = [Bench(id=f"http://{c}.test/", url=f"http://{c}.test/", name=c,
+                  owner="o", state="live", added="", updated="") for c in "ba"]
+    assert [b.name for b in order_benches(made)] == ["a", "b"]
+    assert [b.name for b in made] == ["b", "a"], "input was mutated"
+
+
+# ---- INV-5: the read cannot raise, and cannot cost the caller unboundedly ---
+
+
+def _write_raw(root: pathlib.Path, payload: str) -> None:
+    (root / BENCHES_FILE).write_text(payload)
+
+
+def test_absent_registry_is_not_an_error(tmp_path):
+    benches, err = read_benches(tmp_path)
+    assert benches == [] and err is None
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("payload,label", [
+    ("this is not json", "non-JSON bytes"),
+    ("[]", "valid JSON of the wrong top-level shape"),
+    ('{"benches": []}', "the list shape this unit deliberately does not use"),
+    ('{"http://a/": "a string, not a record"}', "a value of the wrong type"),
+    ('{"http://a/": {"name": [], "owner": "o", "state": "live"}}', "a FIELD of the wrong type"),
+    ('{"http://a/": {"name": "n", "owner": "o", "state": "invented"}}', "an unknown state"),
+])
+def test_damaged_registries_report_rather_than_raise(tmp_path, payload, label):
+    """INV-5. Defeating change: `json.load` with no guard, or `except: pass`
+    which would report absent. The error must be NON-EMPTY — 'damaged' and
+    'absent' must not render the same, because only one of them needs a human.
+    The wrong-typed-FIELD row is the shape currently 500ing the gallery
+    elsewhere in this service."""
+    _write_raw(tmp_path, payload)
+    benches, err = read_benches(tmp_path)
+    assert err, f"{label} reported no error"
+    assert benches == []
+
+
+def test_oversized_registry_is_refused_by_size_before_parsing(tmp_path):
+    """INV-5. Defeating change: parsing first and checking length after, which
+    costs the caller the whole file. A FIFO has st_size 0, so the guard must
+    bound the READ, not trust the stat — the 2026-09-22 hang lesson."""
+    from booth.benches import BENCHES_MAX_BYTES
+    _write_raw(tmp_path, '{"http://a/": {"name": "' + "x" * BENCHES_MAX_BYTES + '"}}')
+    benches, err = read_benches(tmp_path)
+    assert err and benches == []
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(os.geteuid() == 0, reason="root ignores the mode bit")
+def test_unreadable_registry_reports_rather_than_raises(tmp_path):
+    p = tmp_path / BENCHES_FILE
+    p.write_text("{}")
+    p.chmod(0o000)
+    try:
+        benches, err = read_benches(tmp_path)
+        assert err and benches == []
+    finally:
+        p.chmod(0o644)
+
+
+# ---- INV-1: one module knows the registry's filename ------------------------
+
+
+def test_only_benches_py_names_the_registry_file():
+    """INV-1. Defeating change: a route reading `.benches.json` directly to save
+    an import. Asserting that the panel renders would pass under exactly that."""
+    root = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.parent
+    offenders = []
+    for f in list((root / "booth").rglob("*.py")) + [root / "scripts" / "booth"]:
+        if f.name == "benches.py":
+            continue
+        if ".benches.json" in f.read_text():
+            offenders.append(str(f.relative_to(root)))
+    assert not offenders, f"the registry filename is hard-coded outside benches.py: {offenders}"
+
+
+# ---- INV-9: stdlib-only, AND sibling-free (seam review SR-1) ----------------
+
+
+def test_benches_is_stdlib_only_and_imports_no_sibling():
+    """INV-9. The PARAMETRIZED test in test_marks.py exempts `booth` on purpose,
+    so it cannot catch `from booth.links import booth_target` — which is exactly
+    the import this unit tempts an implementer into. This is the strict copy,
+    mirroring tests/test_manifest.py. Seam review SR-1."""
+    src = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.parent / "booth" / "benches.py"
+    tree = ast.parse(src.read_text())
+    roots = set()
+    for node in ast.walk(tree):
+        if isinstance(node, ast.Import):
+            roots.update(a.name.split(".")[0] for a in node.names)
+        elif isinstance(node, ast.ImportFrom):
+            roots.add("booth" if node.level else (node.module or "").split(".")[0])
+    outside = {r for r in roots if r and r not in sys.stdlib_module_names}
+    assert not outside, f"booth/benches.py imports outside the stdlib (booth.* included): {sorted(outside)}"
+
+
+# ---- INV-2: ONE predicate decides what a booth URL is -----------------------
+
+# Every row is (url, expected booth name or None). Run against BOTH callers.
+BOOTH_URL_TABLE = [
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-bakeoff/", "sindra-bakeoff"),
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/sindra-bakeoff", "sindra-bakeoff"),
+    ("http://localhost:8090/b/x/", "x"),
+    ("http://NH3-DEV.nh3.internal:8090/b/x/", "x"),      # host-agnostic, any case
+    ("https://10.100.10.50:8090/b/x/", "x"),             # scheme-agnostic
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/my%20booth/", "my booth"),   # SR-7: decoded
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/x/zoom/a.png", "x"),    # nested path
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/x/?q=1", "x"),          # query
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/x/#frag", "x"),
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/", None),                 # the Booth root IS a bench
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/", None),               # no name
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b//", None),
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/.hidden/", None),       # resolve_booth's rules
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/%2e%2e/", None),        # decoded `..`
+    ("http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/a%2Fb/", None),         # decoded separator
+    ("https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/peedlar", None),
+    ("not a url at all", None),
+]
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("url,expected", BOOTH_URL_TABLE)
+def test_booth_target_classifies(url, expected):
+    """INV-2. The table is shared with the CLI refusal test and the dead-marker
+    test, so a second implementation in either place goes red here or there."""
+    assert booth_target(url) == expected
+
+
+def test_booth_target_never_raises():
+    """A board row is arbitrary operator-editable text; a predicate that raises
+    on one row takes the whole page. Defeating change: `urlsplit` unguarded."""
+    for junk in ["", "   ", "http://[oops", "\x00", "://", "http://]"]:
+        assert booth_target(junk) is None
+
+
+# ---- upsert semantics -------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+def test_added_survives_reregistration_updated_does_not(tmp_path):
+    first, created = upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "one", "o1")
+    assert created
+    second, created = upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "two", "o2")
+    assert not created
+    assert second.added == first.added
+    assert second.name == "two" and second.owner == "o2"
+
+
+def test_state_survives_reregistration(tmp_path):
+    """A promoted bench that re-announces itself is still promoted — otherwise
+    every deploy silently demotes it."""
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "one", "o")
+    set_bench_state(tmp_path, normalize_bench_url("http://a.test/"), "promoted")
+    again, _ = upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "one again", "o")
+    assert again.state == "promoted"
+
+
+def test_a_new_bench_is_live(tmp_path):
+    bench, _ = upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "one", "o")
+    assert bench.state == "live" and bench.state in BENCH_STATES
+
+
+def test_set_state_refuses_an_unknown_state(tmp_path):
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "one", "o")
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError):
+        set_bench_state(tmp_path, normalize_bench_url("http://a.test/"), "invented")
+
+
+def test_set_state_and_remove_miss_cleanly(tmp_path):
+    assert set_bench_state(tmp_path, "http://nope/", "live") is None
+    assert remove_bench(tmp_path, "http://nope/") is None
+
+
+def test_remove_returns_the_record_and_drops_it(tmp_path):
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "one", "o")
+    gone = remove_bench(tmp_path, normalize_bench_url("http://a.test/"))
+    assert gone is not None and gone.name == "one"
+    assert read_benches(tmp_path)[0] == []
+
+
+def test_fields_are_capped_at_the_write(tmp_path):
+    from booth.benches import NAME_MAX, OWNER_MAX
+    bench, _ = upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "n" * 500, "o" * 500)
+    assert len(bench.name) == NAME_MAX and len(bench.owner) == OWNER_MAX
+
+
+def test_a_write_over_a_damaged_registry_does_not_destroy_it(tmp_path):
+    """The 2026-09-21 lesson, in this unit's storage: reads are lenient, writes
+    are STRICT. A damaged registry must not be silently replaced by a fresh one
+    carrying only the new row — that is the marks-wipe bug in a new file."""
+    _write_raw(tmp_path, '{"http://a/": {"name": "real", "owner": "o", "state": "live"}, BROKEN')
+    before = (tmp_path / BENCHES_FILE).read_text()
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError):
+        upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://b.test/", "new", "o")
+    assert (tmp_path / BENCHES_FILE).read_text() == before
+
+
+def test_the_on_disk_shape_is_an_object_keyed_by_id(tmp_path):
+    """Two rows with one identity are then impossible BY CONSTRUCTION rather
+    than by an upsert remembering to check."""
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "http://a.test/", "one", "o")
+    raw = json.loads((tmp_path / BENCHES_FILE).read_text())
+    # The key is the NORMALIZED url, so the bare "/" is already gone — which is
+    # the rule `test_these_pairs_are_one_bench` pins independently.
+    assert isinstance(raw, dict) and list(raw) == ["http://a.test"]
+    assert "id" not in raw["http://a.test"], "the key IS the id; storing it twice invites drift"
+
+
+# ---- the rendered surface ---------------------------------------------------
+#
+# The benches panel and the dead-row marker both live on the standing board's
+# page — the one booth carrying a links.md.
+
+from fastapi.testclient import TestClient  # noqa: E402
+
+from booth.app import create_app  # noqa: E402
+
+
+def _board(root: pathlib.Path, rows: str) -> pathlib.Path:
+    b = root / "links"
+    b.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+    (b / "links.md").write_text(rows)
+    return b
+
+
+def _client(root):
+    return TestClient(create_app(root, ttl_hours=24, start_sweeper=False))
+
+
+ROW_LIVE = "- [still here](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/alive/) <sub>· x · 2026-09-01 00:00</sub>\n"
+ROW_DEAD = "- [swept](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/gone/) <sub>· x · 2026-09-01 00:00</sub>\n"
+ROW_REF = "- [a repo](https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/peedlar) <sub>· x · 2026-09-01 00:00</sub>\n"
+
+
+def _dead_rows(body: str) -> list[str]:
+    """Board ROWS carrying the dead class.
+
+    Scoped to `<div class="board-row ...">` on purpose: the class name also
+    appears in base.html's stylesheet, so a whole-document substring test is
+    always true and can never go red — a vacuous falsifier of exactly the shape
+    persistent-memory.d/2026-09-22-vacuous-falsifiers.md describes.
+    """
+    return [ln for ln in body.splitlines()
+            if 'class="board-row' in ln and "board-dead" in ln]
+
+
+def test_a_dead_row_is_marked_and_a_live_one_is_not(tmp_path):
+    """The marker. Defeating change: marking every `/b/` row dead, or none.
+    Both a live target and a dead one are in ONE fixture, so a marker that is
+    constant in either direction goes red."""
+    (tmp_path / "alive").mkdir()
+    _board(tmp_path, ROW_LIVE + ROW_DEAD + ROW_REF)
+    r = _client(tmp_path).get("/b/links/")
+    assert r.status_code == 200
+    rows = _dead_rows(r.text)
+    assert len(rows) == 1, f"exactly one of the three rows is dead, got {rows}"
+    assert "/b/gone/" in r.text and "booth is gone" in r.text
+
+
+def test_the_marker_never_takes_the_page(tmp_path):
+    """Seam review SR-2. `resolve_booth` RAISES HTTPException(404); calling it
+    per row would turn one swept booth into a 404 for the whole board. This is
+    the test that goes red under that exact implementation."""
+    _board(tmp_path, ROW_DEAD * 5)
+    assert _client(tmp_path).get("/b/links/").status_code == 200
+
+
+def test_a_percent_encoded_booth_is_not_marked_dead(tmp_path):
+    """Seam review SR-7. `quote(name, safe="")` is how the service emits these,
+    so the marker must decode before it looks on disk. Defeating change:
+    comparing the raw path segment — which marks this row dead forever."""
+    (tmp_path / "my booth").mkdir()
+    _board(tmp_path, "- [x](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/my%20booth/) <sub>· x · 2026-09-01 00:00</sub>\n")
+    assert _dead_rows(_client(tmp_path).get("/b/links/").text) == []
+
+
+def test_a_reference_row_is_never_marked_dead(tmp_path):
+    _board(tmp_path, ROW_REF)
+    assert _dead_rows(_client(tmp_path).get("/b/links/").text) == []
+
+
+def test_the_panel_renders_registered_benches(tmp_path):
+    _board(tmp_path, ROW_REF)
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/", "talk", "tts-dev")
+    body = _client(tmp_path).get("/b/links/").text
+    assert "talk" in body and "tts-dev" in body
+
+
+def test_the_anchor_href_is_the_raw_url_not_the_id(tmp_path):
+    """INV-7. Defeating change: rendering `bench.id` in the href because it is
+    'the clean one'. The raw URL here normalizes differently in three ways."""
+    raw = "HTTP://Talk.NH3.test:80/Some%20Path/?b=2&a=1#frag"
+    _board(tmp_path, ROW_REF)
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, raw, "talk", "o")
+    body = _client(tmp_path).get("/b/links/").text
+    assert 'href="HTTP://Talk.NH3.test:80/Some%20Path/?b=2&amp;a=1#frag"' in body, \
+        "the href must be the URL as posted, byte for byte"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("payload,label", [
+    (None, "absent"),
+    ("not json", "non-JSON"),
+    ("[]", "wrong top-level shape"),
+    ('{"http://a/": {"name": [], "owner": "o", "state": "live"}}', "wrong-typed field"),
+    ('{"http://a/": {"name": "n", "owner": "o", "state": "invented"}}', "unknown state"),
+])
+def test_a_damaged_registry_costs_its_panel_and_never_the_page(tmp_path, payload, label):
+    """INV-5, at the render. The v0.2.2 lesson: a poisoned sidecar returned 500
+    for `/` and `/healthz` across all 25 booths. The wrong-typed-FIELD row is
+    the shape currently 500ing the gallery elsewhere in this service, so it is
+    the one that matters most."""
+    _board(tmp_path, ROW_REF)
+    if payload is not None:
+        (tmp_path / BENCHES_FILE).write_text(payload)
+    c = _client(tmp_path)
+    assert c.get("/b/links/").status_code == 200, label
+    assert c.get("/").status_code == 200, label
+    assert c.get("/healthz").status_code == 200, label
+
+
+def test_damaged_and_absent_render_different_text(tmp_path):
+    """INV-5. Only ONE of them needs a human. Defeating change: `except: pass`
+    returning ([], None), which renders damaged exactly like absent."""
+    _board(tmp_path, ROW_REF)
+    absent = _client(tmp_path).get("/b/links/").text
+    (tmp_path / BENCHES_FILE).write_text("not json")
+    damaged = _client(tmp_path).get("/b/links/").text
+    assert absent != damaged
+
+
+def test_the_panel_does_not_render_on_an_ordinary_booth(tmp_path):
+    """A bench registry on every gallery page would be noise, and would cost a
+    read per booth page view for a surface that belongs to exactly one."""
+    (tmp_path / "ordinary").mkdir()
+    (tmp_path / "ordinary" / "a.png").write_bytes(b"\x89PNG\r\n\x1a\n")
+    upsert_bench(tmp_path, "https://talk.test/", "talk", "o")
+    assert "talk" not in _client(tmp_path).get("/b/ordinary/").text
+
+
+def test_the_benches_routes_round_trip(tmp_path):
+    _board(tmp_path, ROW_REF)
+    c = _client(tmp_path)
+    assert c.post("/b/links/bench-add", data={"url": "https://x.test/", "name": "ex"},
+                  follow_redirects=False).status_code in (302, 303)
+    assert "ex" in c.get("/b/links/").text
+    bid = normalize_bench_url("https://x.test/")
+    c.post("/b/links/bench-state", data={"bench": bid, "state": "retired"},
+           follow_redirects=False)
+    assert read_benches(tmp_path)[0][0].state == "retired"
+    c.post("/b/links/bench-remove", data={"bench": bid}, follow_redirects=False)
+    assert read_benches(tmp_path)[0] == []
+
+
+def test_a_bad_url_posted_to_the_route_does_not_500(tmp_path):
+    _board(tmp_path, ROW_REF)
+    c = _client(tmp_path)
+    r = c.post("/b/links/bench-add", data={"url": "ftp://x.test/f", "name": "ex"},
+               follow_redirects=False)
+    assert r.status_code in (302, 303, 400)
+    assert c.get("/b/links/").status_code == 200

tests/test_cli.py

@@ -346,3 +346,163 @@ def test_answer_does_not_poll_forever_on_a_pick_that_cannot_be_answered(tmp_path
                             "BOOTH_URL": "http://booth.invalid"})
     assert r.returncode != 0
     assert "broken" in r.stderr.lower() or "cannot" in r.stderr.lower()
+
+
+# ---- U6: benches ------------------------------------------------------------
+#
+# The CLI half of the unit. `docs/contracts/u6_benches.contract.md`.
+
+REFUSED = 2
+
+# Shared with tests/test_benches.py::BOOTH_URL_TABLE — INV-2 says ONE predicate
+# decides what a booth URL is, and these are the rows the CLI must agree on.
+# A second `/b/` check inlined in the shell for speed goes red HERE.
+from test_benches import BOOTH_URL_TABLE  # noqa: E402
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("url,is_booth", [(u, e is not None) for u, e in BOOTH_URL_TABLE])
+def test_link_refuses_exactly_what_booth_target_matches(booth, url, is_booth):
+    """INV-2. Defeating change: a `case "$url" in *':8090/b/'*)` in the shell,
+    which would classify the host-agnostic and percent-encoded rows differently
+    from the Python predicate the board's dead marker uses."""
+    data, _ = booth
+    r = run(data, "link", url, "a description")
+    assert (r.returncode == REFUSED) is is_booth, (url, r.returncode, r.stderr)
+
+
+def test_a_refused_link_writes_nothing_at_all(booth):
+    """INV-3. Defeating change: putting the refusal AFTER the `mkdir -p` /
+    announce block, which is where it would naturally land if written without
+    thinking. Asserting only that links.md lacks the row would PASS under that
+    change — so this asserts the board directory does not exist."""
+    data, _ = booth
+    board = data / "links"
+    assert not board.exists()
+    r = run(data, "link", "http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/some-booth/", "nope")
+    assert r.returncode == REFUSED
+    assert not board.exists(), f"a refused link left {sorted(p.name for p in board.iterdir())}"
+
+
+def test_the_refusal_names_the_alternative(booth):
+    """The teaching moment belongs at the point of use: 17 handles have the
+    muscle memory, and a bare 'refused' sends them to a human."""
+    data, _ = booth
+    r = run(data, "link", "http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/some-booth/", "nope")
+    out = r.stderr + r.stdout
+    assert "--why" in out and "some-booth" in out
+
+
+def test_a_reference_bookmark_is_still_a_link(booth):
+    """The board keeps its residual job. Measured: ~14 of the 35 distinct
+    non-booth targets are repos, model cards and docs, for which the board is
+    the right and only home. A second refusal would break that."""
+    data, _ = booth
+    r = run(data, "link", "https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/peedlar", "the repo")
+    assert r.returncode == OK, r.stderr
+    assert "the repo" in (data / "links" / "links.md").read_text()
+
+
+def test_bench_add_is_an_upsert(booth):
+    data, _ = booth
+    for i in range(3):
+        r = run(data, "bench", "add", "https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/", f"talk v{i}")
+        assert r.returncode == OK, r.stderr
+    r = run(data, "bench", "ls")
+    assert r.returncode == OK, r.stderr
+    assert r.stdout.count("talk v") == 1 and "talk v2" in r.stdout
+
+
+def test_bench_verbs_round_trip(booth):
+    data, _ = booth
+    assert run(data, "bench", "add", "http://x.test/", "ex").returncode == OK
+    assert run(data, "bench", "state", "http://x.test/", "promoted").returncode == OK
+    assert "promoted" in run(data, "bench", "ls").stdout
+    assert run(data, "bench", "rm", "http://x.test/").returncode == OK
+    assert "ex" not in run(data, "bench", "ls").stdout
+
+
+def test_bench_state_and_rm_take_an_id_or_a_url(booth):
+    """`bench ls` prints ids; the operator has the URL. Both must address."""
+    data, _ = booth
+    run(data, "bench", "add", "http://x.test/p/", "ex")
+    assert run(data, "bench", "state", "http://x.test/p/", "retired").returncode == OK
+    assert run(data, "bench", "rm", "http://x.test/p/").returncode == OK
+
+
+def test_bench_add_refuses_a_bad_url_with_the_reason(booth):
+    data, _ = booth
+    r = run(data, "bench", "add", "ftp://x.test/f", "ex")
+    assert r.returncode != OK
+    assert "http" in (r.stderr + r.stdout).lower()
+
+
+def test_bare_bench_names_the_bench_verbs(booth):
+    """Seam review SR-6: `bench` is the first two-word verb in this script, and
+    falling through to the generic usage hides which word was wrong."""
+    data, _ = booth
+    r = run(data, "bench")
+    assert r.returncode != OK
+    assert "add" in r.stderr and "import" in r.stderr
+
+
+def _seed_board(data):
+    board = data / "links"
+    board.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+    (board / "links.md").write_text(
+        "- [a booth](http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/gone/) <sub>· x · 2026-09-01 00:00</sub>\n"
+        "- [talk](https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/) <sub>· x · 2026-09-01 00:00</sub>\n"
+        "- [talk again](https://talk.nh3.phasefinal.com:8092/) <sub>· x · 2026-09-02 00:00</sub>\n"
+        "- [a repo](https://gitea.phasefinal.com/vh/peedlar) <sub>· x · 2026-09-03 00:00</sub>\n"
+        "- [bad](ftp://x.test/f) <sub>· x · 2026-09-04 00:00</sub>\n"
+    )
+    return board
+
+
+def test_import_writes_nothing_without_apply(booth):
+    """INV-8. A proposal that writes is not a proposal."""
+    data, _ = booth
+    board = _seed_board(data)
+    before = (board / "links.md").read_text()
+    r = run(data, "bench", "import")
+    assert r.returncode == OK, r.stderr
+    assert not (data / ".benches.json").exists()
+    assert (board / "links.md").read_text() == before
+
+
+def test_import_classifies_into_three_groups(booth):
+    data, _ = booth
+    _seed_board(data)
+    out = run(data, "bench", "import").stdout
+    assert "gone" in out          # the booth row, skipped
+    assert "talk" in out          # a candidate
+    assert "ftp://x.test/f" in out  # refused, with its reason
+
+
+def test_import_apply_collapses_the_repost(booth):
+    data, _ = booth
+    _seed_board(data)
+    assert run(data, "bench", "import", "--apply").returncode == OK
+    ls = run(data, "bench", "ls").stdout
+    # ONE ROW, counted by line: "talk" appears in both the name and the
+    # hostname, so a substring count would read 2 for a correctly collapsed row.
+    assert len([l for l in ls.splitlines() if "talk" in l]) == 1, ls
+    assert "peedlar" in ls
+    assert "gone" not in ls, "a booth row was imported as a bench"
+
+
+def test_nothing_in_the_unit_touches_links_md(booth):
+    """INV-8. Defeating change: `import --apply` tidying up the rows it
+    consumed. The whole CLI surface runs against one board and the file must
+    come out byte-identical."""
+    import hashlib
+    data, _ = booth
+    board = _seed_board(data)
+    before = hashlib.sha256((board / "links.md").read_bytes()).hexdigest()
+    run(data, "link", "http://10.100.10.50:8090/b/x/", "refused")
+    run(data, "bench", "import")
+    run(data, "bench", "import", "--apply")
+    run(data, "bench", "add", "http://new.test/", "new")
+    run(data, "bench", "state", "http://new.test/", "retired")
+    run(data, "bench", "rm", "http://new.test/")
+    after = hashlib.sha256((board / "links.md").read_bytes()).hexdigest()
+    assert before == after

tests/test_marks.py

@@ -276,7 +276,7 @@ def test_as_dict_round_trips_through_json(tmp_path):
 # ---- the stdlib-only invariant (INV-5) --------------------------------------
 
 
-@pytest.mark.parametrize("module", ["marks", "asks", "links", "manifest"])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("module", ["marks", "asks", "links", "manifest", "benches"])
 def test_stdlib_only(module):
     """INV-5. scripts/booth imports these under the system python3 with NO venv,
     through a `python3 -c` heredoc that no AST extractor can see — so nothing