nx_dstate_gate.nx

nx_dstate_gate.nx -- THE GATE FOR nx_dstate'S ADMISSION CEILING: conf-sourced, announced, and bitten. SUBJECT: the nx_dstate ELF, forked for real. nx_dstate's contract is a FOUR-STATE EXIT -- 0 SAMPLED / 3 UNMEASURED / 4 ADMISSION-REFUSED -- and /api/gate_run derives verdicts from exit codes, so every tooth here asserts an EXIT CODE, and the content teeth additionally read what the subject printed. WHY THIS GATE EXISTS (2026-08-22): nx_dstate has read `admit_load_centi` from knowledge/dstate.conf since 2026-08-14 and PRINTED its source on every run -- and knowledge/dstate.conf never existed in either knowledge tree, so every run in the organ's history executed on its built-in default while the header promised a conf. A documented knob with no file behind it is a magic number with a nicer comment. The conf now exists; this gate is what keeps it load-bearing: a conf-sourced ceiling must be READ, ANNOUNCED as `src=conf path=<the file actually read>`, and must CHANGE BEHAVIOUR -- a ceiling below the measured load refuses the walk (exit 4), a ceiling above it admits (exit 0). An absent conf falls back to the built-in AND SAYS SO (`src=builtin-default`), because a refusal to look and a fallback must never be silent. THE ANTI-VACUITY TOOTH IS T2: it asserts the low fixture's ceiling is actually BELOW the measured load, read from the subject's own output. Without it, T3's "refuses" could pass on a box whose load happened to be zero -- for the wrong reason. A RIGHT EXIT CODE FOR THE WRONG REASON IS THE MOST EASILY ACCEPTED FALSE PROOF THERE IS. THE NEGATIVE CONTROLS are gv_bite pairs: (absent conf announces builtin) vs (present conf does not), and (user_hz from conf is echoed) vs (no user_hz row leaves the default). A guard that announces builtin on every run would pass the first half of each pair and fail the second. FIXTURES ARE ASSEMBLED AT RUNTIME under /tmp/nx_dstate_gate/ and nothing here shares a fixture with a production beat (the production conf is knowledge/dstate.conf; this gate never reads or writes it). Subject outputs are unlinked at SETUP -- a gate that is not idempotent reports on its first run and lies about every run after. license_tier: ORIGINAL No hw writes (Rule 26). expect_exit: 0