From 4a8a6238de80d0fa1786b2014faf321eccec63b2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: iceteaSA <171169159+iceteaSA@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2026 20:16:27 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] gate: say what the floor ratchet actually defends

The refusal text asserted that a branch forked before a raise lowers the floor
silently and every gate still passes. Nothing verifies that sentence and it is
wrong. Constructed both paths on a scratch clone:

  squash stale(610) onto master(616)   -> floor 616, gate.sh not even staged
  fork-before-raise, edits floor line  -> UU, conflict marker

A squash applies the diff, not the branch's file contents, so master's raise
survives; a branch that does touch the line conflicts loudly and GitHub refuses
the merge. Neither is silent.

What is silent is a human resolving that conflict by keeping their own side --
which happened on this repo an hour before #46 landed, by hand, and taking
--ours on the floor line would have dropped the raise with nothing to catch it.
The check also covers a plain hand-edit downward, on a branch or on master.

A refusal message is read exactly when someone is confused and looking for an
explanation, which is the worst place to keep a plausible wrong one. This says
what the check defends and names both routes that reach it.

Rendered by tripping the arm rather than read off the diff:

  GATE FAILED: floor ratchet: this tree's workspace floor is 600 but
  origin/master (408fc40) carries 618 -- a squash does NOT carry a stale floor
  onto master (the diff wins, and a branch that edits this line conflicts
  loudly), so the way a raise actually gets dropped is a human resolving that
  conflict with --ours, or a hand-edit here; re-measure on the merged tree, or
  set CK_GATE_FLOOR_LOWER_REASON
---
 scripts/gate.sh | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/scripts/gate.sh b/scripts/gate.sh
index b32c799..7d83b08 100755
--- a/scripts/gate.sh
+++ b/scripts/gate.sh
@@ -293,7 +293,7 @@ assert_floor_not_lowered() {
       printf 'this tree %s < %s %s — reason: %s\n' "$ours" "$target" "$theirs" "$CK_GATE_FLOOR_LOWER_REASON"
       return
     fi
-    fail "floor ratchet: this tree's workspace floor is $ours but $target ($target_sha) carries $theirs — a branch forked before a raise lowers it silently and every gate still passes; rebase and re-measure on the merged tree, or set CK_GATE_FLOOR_LOWER_REASON"
+    fail "floor ratchet: this tree's workspace floor is $ours but $target ($target_sha) carries $theirs — a squash does NOT carry a stale floor onto master (the diff wins, and a branch that edits this line conflicts loudly), so the way a raise actually gets dropped is a human resolving that conflict with --ours, or a hand-edit here; re-measure on the merged tree, or set CK_GATE_FLOOR_LOWER_REASON"
     return
   fi