ci: retire the dead A2ML validation gate (13 repos — the renamed-action population)

[hyperpolymath]

Summary

A2ML does not exist. It was killed by the ML-community name clash and is standing estate
doctrine. Yet Validate A2ML manifests is still a live, enforcing CI gate — it is
currently red in metadatastician/first-post, gossamer and paint-type, where it is one
of the checks blocking the actions.lock desync fixes.

The owner ruling (2026-09-22, selection UI) is to retire it estate-wide in one pass,
rather than clearing it per-repo as it surfaces. Clearing it three times leaves it to redden
the next PR in every other repo that carries it.

Census (measured 2026-09-22T21:07Z)

gh api "search/code?q=%22Validate+A2ML+manifests%22+org:<org>&per_page=100" \
  --jq '.items[]|"\(.repository.full_name)\t\(.path)"'

142 file-instances across 112 repositories — 84 in workflows, 44 in
.pre-commit-config.yaml, the remainder in docs and action definitions.

⚠ Two things the raw count hides:

1. The gate is a step inside dogfood-gate.yml, not a standalone workflow. Retiring it
   means removing that step (and any job that exists only to host it) — not deleting the
   workflow, which carries unrelated live checks.
2. Several hits are already inert and must not be touched as if live:
   protocol-squisher/provenance/.github-retired/, squisher-corpus/.github-retired/,
   bowtie-workbench/ci/rsr-reference/dogfood-gate.yml.disabled.
   Documentation hits (Axiom.jl, typed-wasm, standards/docs/DEPENDABOT-POLICY.adoc,
   007-lang/Debtfile.adoc) are prose, not gates, and are out of scope for the CI change.

Full census, 142 rows

hyperpolymath/007-lang	Debtfile.adoc
hyperpolymath/accessibility-everywhere	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/alloyiser	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/anvomidaviser	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/Axiom.jl	docs/design-diary/PEPYS-DESIGN-DIARY.adoc
hyperpolymath/Axiom.jl	docs/flagship-rubric.adoc
hyperpolymath/boinc-boinc	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/boj-server	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/bunsenite	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/cloud-sync-tuner	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/deed-core	actions/validate/action.yml
hyperpolymath/deed-core	actions/validate/README.adoc
hyperpolymath/deed-ecosystem	validate-action/action.yml
hyperpolymath/developer-ecosystem	affinescript-ecosystem/affinescript-vite/.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/developer-ecosystem	affinescript-ecosystem/rattlescript/.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/developer-ecosystem	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/dotmatrix-fileprinter	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/echidna	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/echidna	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/excel-economic-numbers-tool	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/explicit-trust-plane	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/.git-private-farm	ci-deadlock-report.tsv
hyperpolymath/.git-private-farm	dispatch-templates/seed/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/grim-repo	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/gv-clade-index	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/hesiod-dns-map	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/heterogenous-mobile-computing	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/hybrid-automation-router	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/hypatia	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/hyperpolymath.github.io	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/hyperpolymath	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/ideas-to-alphas	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/ideas-to-alphas	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/idrisiser	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/im-docs	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/ipfs-overlay	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/iseriser	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/jaffascript	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/kaldor-iiot	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/kea	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/kitchenspeak	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/krl	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/laminar	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/laniakea	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/lithoglyph	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/live-files	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/llm-grace	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/lustreiser	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/maa-framework	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/metadata-grammar	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/methodologies	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/natsci-studio	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/natsci-studio	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/neurophone	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/neurophone	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/nexia-list	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/nextgen-databases	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/nextgen-typing	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/otpiser	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/panic-attack	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/panic-attack	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/panll	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/panoply	ci/.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/plasma-parser-writer	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/polyglot-formalisms-gleam	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/polyglot-i18n	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/polysafe-gitfixer	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/preference-injector	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/protocol-squisher	provenance/.github-retired/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/protocol-squisher	provenance/.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/proven-servers	.github/workflows/dogfood-checks.yml
hyperpolymath/proven-tests-and-benches	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/rattlescript	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/reasonably-good-token-vault	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/recon-silly-ation	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/robodog-defensive-systems-lab	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/robot-vacuum-cleaner	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/rpa-elysium	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/sanctify-php	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/sdp-hkdf-deployment	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/social-media-tools	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/somethings-fishy	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/squisher-corpus	.github-retired/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/standards	docs/DEPENDABOT-POLICY.adoc
hyperpolymath/statistikles	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/supernorma	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/the-nash-equilibrium	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/the-nash-equilibrium	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/tree-navigator	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/trope-checker	.machine_readable/root-allow.txt
hyperpolymath/twingate-helm-deploy	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/typed-wasm	docs/wiki/Phase-0-Status.md
hyperpolymath/unified-dataset-vocab	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/universal-chat-extractor	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/universal-extension-format	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/universal-language-server-plugin	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/verisimdb-data	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/verisimdb	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
hyperpolymath/vocarium	.pre-commit-config.yaml
hyperpolymath/voyage-enterprise-decision-system	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/boj-server-mk2	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/boj-server-mk2	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/bowtie-workbench	ci/.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/bowtie-workbench	ci/rsr-reference/dogfood-gate.yml.disabled
metadatastician/burble	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/burble	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/cadastra	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/cadastra	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/chronicles-of-slavia	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/chronicles-of-slavia	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/common-signal	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/common-signal	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/consent-aware-web	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/consent-aware-web	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/enaction-engine	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/enaction-engine	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/enterglide-ncc-137-k	ci/.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/first-post	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/first-post	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/gossamer	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/gossamer	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/harvard-dehallucinator	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/harvard-dehallucinator	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/paint-type	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/paint-type	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/_pathroot	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/_pathroot	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/planer-1	ci/.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/pong-ping	ci/.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/pong-ping	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/project-ovine	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/project-ovine	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/sim-public-relations	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/sim-public-relations	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/sr71-blackglider	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/sr71-blackglider	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/stapeln	.github/workflows/dogfood-gate.yml
metadatastician/stapeln	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/stealth-glider-ecosystem	ci/.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/svalinn	.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/tardis-rule-disruption	ci/.pre-commit-config.yaml
metadatastician/x15-rocket-glider	ci/.pre-commit-config.yaml

Acceptance criteria

1. No workflow in either org runs a step named Validate A2ML manifests, nor any step
   that validates .a2ml / REGISTRY.a2ml artefacts. Verified by re-running the census
   query above and finding zero hits under .github/workflows/.
2. Every removal is paired with its actions.lock consequence in the same commit. If
   removing the step orphans a uses: ref, the lock entry goes in the same commit; if a
   whole workflow is removed, its lock key goes too. A workflow present in the lock but
   absent from disk, and a workflow on disk absent from the lock, are both fatal —
   each yields jobs=0 / startup_failure for every workflow in the repo.
3. .pre-commit-config.yaml hooks are retired in the same pass, so a contributor's
   local hook does not enforce a format CI no longer knows about.
4. No check is turned green by weakening it. No continue-on-error: true, no downgrade
   of an error to a warning, no if: false. The step is removed, not silenced. Repair the
   defect, never mute the diagnostic.
5. first-post#14, gossamer#174 and paint-type#73 each lose the
   Validate A2ML manifests red and are re-measured afterwards; the remaining reds in
   first-post#16, gossamer#176 and paint-type#83 are updated to strike this line.
6. Inert paths in the note above are left untouched and listed as deliberately skipped.

Why this is not just tidying

A gate enforcing a format that does not exist can only ever do one of two things: pass
vacuously, or block correct work. It is currently doing the second, to three PRs, in a
campaign about CI correctness.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01X3hgXxWm6umMgZkjYyHnnm

[hyperpolymath]

Scope correction, measured: the actionable population is 13 repos, not 142/112

The census that opened this issue grepped for a2ml generally. That selector conflates three unrelated populations, and acting on it literally would have deleted live validation in 69 repos. Re-measured across all 84 live-workflow repos by what each a2ml-validate job actually executes, not by what it is named:

class	n	what the job executes	verdict
A — broken action	13	uses: hyperpolymath/a2ml-ecosystem/validate-action@main	dead. The repo was renamed to deed-ecosystem; the Actions runner refuses a renamed action repo outright. Could only ever fail. ← the ruling's real target; swept, see below.
B — self-contained	54	shell job, find … \( -name '*.a2ml' -o -name '*.deed' \), then bash .github/hooks/validate-a2ml.sh	LIVE DEED validator. Must NOT be removed.
C — DEED successor	15	uses: hyperpolymath/deed-ecosystem/validate-action@<sha>	already migrated. Must NOT be removed.
D — already cured	2	—	first-post, gossamer — landed in #14 / #174

The trap that produced the wrong number

Population B's job is already named Validate DEED manifests, but a step inside it is still named Validate A2ML manifests, and the hook is still called validate-a2ml.sh (whose own header reads "Scans for .a2ml and .deed files and validates"). A selector phrased "every repo carrying Validate A2ML manifests" therefore matches B. The .a2ml -o .deed predicate there is a deliberate mid-migration accommodation (standards #837).

Rule, for anyone repeating this: classify by what the job EXECUTES, never by what it is NAMED.

The discriminator that confirms A-only is right

The ruling's own wording is remove the workflow/job and its actions.lock entry. Only Population A has such an entry — B calls no external action at all, and C's entry points at the live successor. The ruling's language fits exactly these 13.

Swept — 13 PRs open

Each PR removes four coupled things in one commit (GitHub compares lock↔YAML by literal string, so a split would kill startup): the a2ml-validate job; its key in dogfood-summary's needs:; the scorecard's A2ML block, table row and MAX=6→5; and the lock reference plus its now-orphan dependencies: record.

repo	PR
hyperpolymath/proven-servers	hyperpolymath/proven-servers#90
metadatastician/boj-server-mk2	metadatastician/boj-server-mk2#47
metadatastician/cadastra	metadatastician/cadastra#53
metadatastician/common-signal	metadatastician/common-signal#7
metadatastician/consent-aware-web	metadatastician/consent-aware-web#10
metadatastician/harvard-dehallucinator	metadatastician/harvard-dehallucinator#18
metadatastician/paint-type	metadatastician/paint-type#89
metadatastician/_pathroot	metadatastician/_pathroot#29
metadatastician/pong-ping	metadatastician/pong-ping#7
metadatastician/project-ovine	metadatastician/project-ovine#26
metadatastician/sim-public-relations	metadatastician/sim-public-relations#24
metadatastician/sr71-blackglider	metadatastician/sr71-blackglider#20
metadatastician/stapeln	metadatastician/stapeln#75

Removal, not silencing — no continue-on-error, no if: false. Every commit is signed. A post-transform guard refuses any push that would leave the lock and the YAML disagreeing.

⚠ One policy question this surfaced — your call, not blocking

Retiring A leaves those 13 repos as the only ones in the estate with no manifest-validation job at all, while their 69 siblings run the DEED validator. The 15 Population-C repos and the dispatch seed both show the one-line alternative: re-point the same job at the successor —

- uses: hyperpolymath/deed-ecosystem/validate-action@f7a40a4d5cc82b2e73f861119baa6818d77a448d

You ruled retire without that fact in front of you, so you should see the choice rather than discover it. Retirement is reversible — a later PR adds the C-shape job back — so the sweep has not waited on this. Say the word and I will convert the 13 from removal to migration.

Retraction

I previously noted that the dispatch seed re-propagates the dead gate into every newly dispatched repo. That is wrong. hyperpolymath/.git-private-farm → dispatch-templates/seed/dogfood-gate.yml pins deed-ecosystem/validate-action@f7a40a4d, correctly, with the comment "Canonical repository identity after the A2ML -> DEED rename." It propagates the successor. Nothing re-seeds the defect.

Out of scope here

• The 42 .pre-commit-config.yaml a2ml references need the same classification before anyone treats them as retire-scope — they almost certainly call B's live validate-a2ml.sh hook.
• Residual A2ML naming in B and C (the step name, validate-a2ml.sh, *.a2ml in the find predicate) is cosmetic. It wants a rename, which is a separate change from a removal, and renaming a job orphans every open PR against it.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01X3hgXxWm6umMgZkjYyHnnm

[hyperpolymath]

Recurrence risk on this sweep: 11 of these 13 repos carry required_signatures, where an unsigned CodeRabbit push turns the whole PR into startup_failure with no check run to show for it. Booked with three arms in #1019.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01X3hgXxWm6umMgZkjYyHnnm