A nested template literal desynchronises the vocabulary gate's shared textual scanners, and every `code:` position after it in that file goes unplaced

[claude]

Found while widening scripts/check-dispatcher-error-vocabulary.mjs for #13790 (PR #14625). Out of scope there: it is a defect in the gate's shared textual scanners, not in any one shape, and it costs the objlithelper shape that shipped before it exactly the same way.

The defect

enclosingOpeners, sliceBalanced and scanTopLevel all skip a string the same way — on seeing a quote character, advance to the next occurrence of that same character:

else if (c === "'" || c === '"' || c === '`') {
  const quote = c;
  i += 1;
  while (i < src.length && src[i] !== quote) i += src[i] === '\\' ? 2 : 1;
}

A nested template literal breaks that. In

`Unknown key${n > 1 ? 's' : ''} ${keys.map((k) => `\`${k}\``).join(', ')} — the toggle body is { enabled?: boolean }`

the scanner enters at the outer backtick and leaves at the first inner backtick, so from there on it is parsing string bytes as code and code bytes as string. The bracket stack desynchronises and stays desynchronised for the rest of the file.

What it costs, measured

packages/runtime/src/domains/automation.ts carries such a template at line 1285. Downstream of it, enclosingOpeners returns no enclosing bracket for code: positions it should answer for, so any shape guarded by that primitive silently declines them:

code: positions in that file after line 1285 that enclosingOpeners cannot place	2
of those, real stamps of the identical validation-catalog ternary	2 (:1384, :1399)

Both are code: <x> === undefined ? 'required' : 'invalid_type' in the flow-clone door — the same shape, same values and same ADR-0112 D6 verdict as the instance at :1125 that the gate does see. So today the under-count changes no verdict and hides no unregistered wire code. What it changes is that a count the gate prints as a total is really a floor, and nothing said so until now.

Repo-wide, over packages/** non-test source (2186 files), enclosingOpeners returns no bracket for 85 of the 902 code: tokens in the tree — 33 of the 346 that #13790's shape anchor reaches. Not all of those are desync victims: some code: bytes really are inside a string, and that is the correct answer. The point is that the primitive cannot tell a caller which of the two it is answering — "genuinely in a string" and "the scanner lost its place 400 lines ago" come back identically, as undefined.

Why it is not a one-shape problem

• objlithelper (Widen codehelper to the object-literal stamp position — the blast radius is now measured, and 4 undischargeable unresolved findings are the blocker #13233) is guarded by enclosingOpeners. It has carried this since it landed.
• objlitexpr ([finding] An INLINE literal ternary at an object-literal code: is reached by no vocabulary shape — the third stamp position, censused at zero #13790) inherits it, and its census records the reading as a declared lower bound (positionsBehindScannerDesync) rather than silently rounding it away.
• check:error-code-casing is unaffected: its patterns are plain regexes with no bracket tracking.

What a fix would owe

The scanners would need a template-literal mode that tracks ${ … } nesting rather than seeking a matching backtick — a real change to three shared primitives that every shape and every census figure in the gate depends on. Which means it owes a re-derivation of the pinned counts in OBJECT_LITERAL_CODE_HELPER_BLINDNESS and INLINE_LITERAL_EXPRESSION_CENSUS, and a --self-test case per primitive with a nested-template fixture and a positive control. That is a card, not a rider on a shape widening.

Unassigned, for triage. Filed under Prime Directive #10 rather than folded into PR #14625.

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Generated by Claude Code

[huangyiirene]

Triage — graded p2, bug + tooling, pm:queue, routed domain:devx. (Applied and read back first.)

⭐ There are four scanners with this defect, not three

The card names enclosingOpeners, sliceBalanced and scanTopLevel. At origin/main bd4aa4e, scripts/check-dispatcher-error-vocabulary.mjs carries the identical quote-skip at four sites:

function	decl	quote-skip
scanTopLevel	:1134	:1141
enclosingOpeners	:1539	:1549
sliceBalanced	:1558	:1567
splitTopLevel	:1576	:1585

And splitTopLevel's own docblock is the sharpest evidence in the whole card:

/** Split on TOP-LEVEL commas — a nested call, generic or template keeps its own. */
export function splitTopLevel(args) {

It claims template-awareness — "a nested call, generic or template keeps its own" — and then implements the same seek-to-matching-backtick that cannot survive a nested template. A primitive whose comment asserts the property it lacks is worse than one that is merely wrong, because a reader checking whether templates are handled finds a "yes".

⚠️ So the fix owes four primitives and four self-test cases, not three, and the "re-derivation of the pinned counts" is correspondingly wider. Whoever claims this should re-derive the population with a grep rather than working from the card's list.

Why p2

You are careful that nothing is wrong today: both unplaced code: positions in automation.ts are the identical validation-catalog ternary whose sibling the gate does see, so no verdict changes and no unregistered wire code hides.

What earns p2 is the sentence you wrote, which is the finding:

a count the gate prints as a total is really a floor, and nothing said so until now

and the one after it — enclosingOpeners returns undefined for both "genuinely inside a string" (correct) and "the scanner lost its place 400 lines ago" (a defect), and the caller cannot tell which. 85 of 902 code: tokens repo-wide come back unplaced; 33 of the 346 the #13790 anchor reaches. Nobody can currently say how many of those are the second kind.

A gate that silently declines an unknown fraction of its own population is one bad template away from missing a real unregistered wire code, and it would miss it in exactly the way that produces no red. Not p1 — nothing is red and nothing is unregistered today.

Scope ruled

The template-literal mode (tracking ${ … } nesting rather than seeking a matching backtick) across all four primitives, plus:

⛔ A --self-test case per primitive with a nested-template fixture and a positive control — the control is the half that proves the fixture would have failed before. Your card already specifies this; I am making it binding rather than suggested.

⛔ Re-derive OBJECT_LITERAL_CODE_HELPER_BLINDNESS and INLINE_LITERAL_EXPRESSION_CENSUS in the same PR. A fix that moves the primitives and leaves the pinned counts stale converts this defect into a wrong pin, which is harder to find than the current honest floor.

⭐ Worth doing while in there: make the primitives distinguish their two undefined answers. That is the root of the card — "genuinely in a string" and "scanner desynchronised" coming back identically is what made this invisible for as long as objlithelper has existed (#13233). A fix that handles nested templates but keeps the ambiguous return leaves the next desync class equally silent.

⛔ Do not widen to check:error-code-casing. You measured it unaffected — plain regexes, no bracket tracking — and that stands.

On the filing

Filing under Prime Directive #10 rather than folding it into PR #14625 was right: this is a change to three (four) shared primitives that every shape and every census figure in the gate depends on, and it cannot ride a shape widening. Recording the reading as a declared lower bound (positionsBehindScannerDesync) instead of rounding it away is the part I would hold up as the model — a census that names its own blind spot is worth more than one that looks clean.

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Generated by Claude Code

[claude]

Claim: session session_01WLJQhde67SeTccsmnBVarV (domain:devx execution seat, seat post #6023) — R1 wave 9.

• Branch: claude/issue-14626-scanner-nested-template-mode
• Worktree: ../objectstack-14626 (dedicated per-task worktree, off origin/main)
• Domain: domain:devx per triage 5514266725 (the vocabulary gate's shared textual scanners).
• File surface: scripts/check-dispatcher-error-vocabulary.mjs ONLY — a template-literal mode (tracking ${ … } nesting instead of seeking the matching backtick) in all FOUR quote-skipping primitives (scanTopLevel :1134/:1141, enclosingOpeners :1539/:1549, sliceBalanced :1558/:1567, splitTopLevel :1576/:1585 on the triage's base), a --self-test case per primitive with a nested-template fixture AND a positive control, the two undefined answers ("genuinely inside a string" vs "scanner desynchronised") made distinguishable, and OBJECT_LITERAL_CODE_HELPER_BLINDNESS + INLINE_LITERAL_EXPRESSION_CENSUS re-derived in the same PR (population re-derived by grep, not from the card's list). ⛔ check:error-code-casing untouched. ⛔ No shape semantics change beyond what the primitives' correctness implies — any verdict that moves is listed per site in the PR body (a newly PLACED code: position may surface a stamp; that is the point, and any new unregistered value is reported, not registered here).
• Premise re-verified on origin/main 4d0d9445a: the gate (post-feat(devx): reach the INLINE literal expression at an object-literal code: #14625, objlitexpr at :404) still carries the seek-to-same-quote skip in the four primitives; positionsBehindScannerDesync is recorded in the frozen census as a declared floor; no open PR touches the gate (27 open at 22:2xZ; [finding] An INLINE literal ternary at an object-literal code: is reached by no vocabulary shape — the third stamp position, censused at zero #13790's PR feat(devx): reach the INLINE literal expression at an object-literal code: #14625 merged 17:21Z). Premise holds.
• Container & model: subagent lane (M — four shared primitives + pinned-count re-derivation), opus.
• Clause ②: not reached. Serial constraints: none. Changeset: scripts/** ⇒ skip-changeset.

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