@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ import { createHash } from 'node:crypto';
 import { readFileSync, writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { resolve } from 'node:path';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
-import { inspectDistFreshness } from './lib/dist-freshness';
+import { EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET, inspectDistFreshness, prerequisiteNotMetText } from './lib/dist-freshness';
 import {
   API_SURFACE_DIR_NAME,
   aggregateApiSurfaceShards,
@@ -84,8 +84,11 @@ const freshness = inspectDistFreshness(
   `pnpm --filter @objectstack/spec ${CHECK ? 'check' : 'gen'}:api-surface`,
 );
 if (!freshness.fresh) {
-  console.error(freshness.message);
-  process.exit(1);
+  // PREREQUISITE NOT MET, not a finding (#19227): nothing below this line ran,
+  // so the code says so rather than borrowing the one a real breaking-change
+  // report uses.
+  console.error(prerequisiteNotMetText(`${CHECK ? 'check' : 'gen'}:api-surface`, freshness));
+  process.exit(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
 }
 
 /** Public entry points → their built CJS `.d.ts`, read from the exports map. */
 
@@ -154,7 +154,11 @@ import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
 
 import { buildStamp } from '../../../scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs';
 import { scanSource } from '../../../scripts/js-comment-mask.mjs';
-import { inspectBundleFreshness } from './lib/dist-freshness';
+import {
+  EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET,
+  inspectBundleFreshness,
+  prerequisiteNotMetText,
+} from './lib/dist-freshness';
 
 const PKG_DIR = resolve(dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..');
 const LEDGER_PATH = join(PKG_DIR, 'browser-reachable-entries.json');
@@ -518,8 +522,11 @@ function reconcile(exportsMap: ExportsMap, ledger: Ledger, problems: string[]):
 function audit(): never {
   const freshness = inspectBundleFreshness(PKG_DIR, 'check', RERUN);
   if (!freshness.fresh) {
-    console.error(`❌  check:browser-reachable-entries — NOT MEASURED.${freshness.message}`);
-    process.exit(1);
+    // This refusal already SAID "NOT MEASURED" in prose and then exited with a
+    // finding's code, so the sentence and the number disagreed and only the
+    // number is machine-read (#19227). Both now say the same thing.
+    console.error(prerequisiteNotMetText('check:browser-reachable-entries', freshness));
+    process.exit(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
   }
 
   const pkg = JSON.parse(readFileSync(join(PKG_DIR, 'package.json'), 'utf8')) as {
 
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ import { mkdtempSync, readFileSync, rmSync, writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { join, resolve } from 'node:path';
 import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
-import { inspectDistFreshness } from './lib/dist-freshness';
+import { EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET, inspectDistFreshness, prerequisiteNotMetText } from './lib/dist-freshness';
 
 const PKG_DIR = resolve(fileURLToPath(new URL('.', import.meta.url)), '..');
 const BASELINE_PATH = resolve(PKG_DIR, 'dual-source-exports.baseline.json');
@@ -396,8 +396,16 @@ const freshness = inspectDistFreshness(
     : 'pnpm --filter @objectstack/spec check:dual-source-exports',
 );
 if (!freshness.fresh) {
-  console.error(freshness.message);
-  process.exit(1);
+  // PREREQUISITE NOT MET, not a finding (#19227) — in BOTH modes. `--update` is
+  // the writing half, and a refusal there is still "nothing was measured": the
+  // baseline on disk is untouched, so no ratchet verdict exists to report.
+  console.error(
+    prerequisiteNotMetText(
+      UPDATE ? 'check-dual-source-exports.ts --update' : 'check:dual-source-exports',
+      freshness,
+    ),
+  );
+  process.exit(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
 }
 
 const entries = collectEntries();
 
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
 
 import ts from 'typescript';
 
-import { inspectDistFreshness } from './lib/dist-freshness';
+import { EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET, inspectDistFreshness, prerequisiteNotMetText } from './lib/dist-freshness';
 
 const HERE = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
 const PKG_DIR = path.resolve(HERE, '..');
@@ -583,8 +583,18 @@ function main(): number {
 
   const freshness = inspectDistFreshness(PKG_DIR, 'check', RERUN);
   if (!freshness.fresh) {
-    console.error(freshness.message);
-    return 1;
+    // PREREQUISITE NOT MET, not a finding (#19227). ⚠️ This gate returns its
+    // code up to `process.exit(main())` rather than exiting inline, which is
+    // why a `grep -c 'process.exit(1)'` over this file reads 0 while the
+    // refusal was there the whole time — the instrument, not the tree.
+    //
+    // The three refusals BELOW keep `return 1` deliberately: a dead canary, a
+    // probe that fails to compile for an unrelated reason and an enumeration
+    // that found zero callable exports are all findings about this gate or its
+    // subject, and each says so in its own text ("Both are findings; neither is
+    // a pass"). Only the unmet build prerequisite is "nothing was measured".
+    console.error(prerequisiteNotMetText('check:entry-nameability', freshness));
+    return EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET;
   }
 
   const manifest = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(path.join(PKG_DIR, 'package.json'), 'utf8')) as {
 
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ import { createRequire } from 'node:module';
 import { dirname, join, resolve } from 'node:path';
 import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
-import { inspectDistFreshness } from './lib/dist-freshness';
+import { EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET, inspectDistFreshness, prerequisiteNotMetText } from './lib/dist-freshness';
 
 const PKG_DIR = resolve(fileURLToPath(new URL('.', import.meta.url)), '..');
 const SELF_TEST = process.argv.includes('--self-test');
@@ -447,8 +447,11 @@ const freshness = inspectDistFreshness(
   'pnpm --filter @objectstack/spec check:exported-any',
 );
 if (!freshness.fresh) {
-  console.error(freshness.message);
-  process.exit(1);
+  // PREREQUISITE NOT MET, not a finding (#19227). The `process.exit(1)` above —
+  // the self-test's — stays exactly what it was: that one IS a finding about
+  // the detector. This path measured nothing at all.
+  console.error(prerequisiteNotMetText('check:exported-any', freshness));
+  process.exit(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
 }
 
 const entries = collectEntries();
 
@@ -297,7 +297,12 @@ import os from 'os';
 import path from 'path';
 import ts from 'typescript';
 
-import { inspectDistFreshness } from './lib/dist-freshness';
+import {
+  EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET,
+  inspectDistFreshness,
+  prerequisiteNotMetText,
+  type DistFreshness,
+} from './lib/dist-freshness';
 
 // ── Paths ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
@@ -1471,6 +1476,30 @@ function refuse(message: string): never {
   process.exit(1);
 }
 
+/**
+ * PREREQUISITE NOT MET — "this gate never got to look", as distinct from BOTH
+ * of the two above: `fail()` looked and found something, `refuse()` produced no
+ * result because the gate's own invariant broke. This one produced no result
+ * because the WORKSPACE is not built (#19227).
+ *
+ * A third token for the same reason the file already carries two — the states
+ * need spellings a reader can tell apart at a glance — but the half that
+ * matters here is the EXIT CODE, which is what a machine reads:
+ * `scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs --ran` derives its NOT-MEASURED class from the
+ * recorded code and counts every other non-kill code as a family that RAN. So
+ * an unmet build prerequisite spelled `exit 1` is reconciled as coverage the
+ * round does not have. ⛔ `fail()` and `refuse()` keep exit 1 on purpose: both
+ * are real verdicts, and this change must not move either.
+ *
+ * ⚠️ It exits rather than throwing, like its two siblings, so the `exit`
+ * listener installed by `withBuildDirCleanup` is what removes the build dirs —
+ * `finally` does not run through `process.exit()`.
+ */
+function prerequisiteNotMet(text: string): never {
+  console.error(`${text}\n`);
+  process.exit(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
+}
+
 // ── Self-test ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 /**
@@ -3241,18 +3270,16 @@ function main() {
       // dist-independent and worth reporting even when a build is stale. So the
       // guard sits at the boundary rather than at the top: no verdict below it is
       // computed for a stale surface, and no honest finding above it is suppressed.
-      let staleMessage: string | null = null;
+      let stale: Extract<DistFreshness, { fresh: false }> | null = null;
       for (const pkgDir of surface.selfPackages) {
         const freshness = inspectDistFreshness(pkgDir, 'check', 'pnpm --filter @objectstack/spec check:skill-examples');
         if (!freshness.fresh) {
-          staleMessage = freshness.message;
+          stale = freshness;
           break;
         }
       }
-      if (staleMessage) {
-        console.error(`\n[${surface.name}]`);
-        console.error(staleMessage);
-        process.exit(1);
+      if (stale) {
+        prerequisiteNotMet(prerequisiteNotMetText(`check:skill-examples [${surface.name}]`, stale));
       }
 
       const { paths, missing } = surfacePaths(surface.selfPackages);
@@ -3263,11 +3290,18 @@ function main() {
       // mtime rule alone would read as fresh.
       const unbuiltSelfPackages = surface.selfPackages.filter((dir) => !fs.existsSync(paths[pkgName(dir)]?.[0] ?? ''));
       if (unbuiltSelfPackages.length > 0) {
-        fail(
-          `[${surface.name}] not built — no declarations to check examples against:\n\n` +
-            missing.map((m) => `  - ${m} (missing)`).join('\n') +
-            `\n\n  Build first (CI does this in the "Build workspace packages" step):\n\n` +
-            unbuiltSelfPackages.map((d) => `    pnpm --filter ${pkgName(d)} build`).join('\n'),
+        // Same event as the staleness guard above, reached the other way, so it
+        // answers with the same code (#19227) — ⛔ not `fail()`, whose exit 1
+        // said "these examples are wrong" about examples nothing ever compiled.
+        prerequisiteNotMet(
+          prerequisiteNotMetText(`check:skill-examples [${surface.name}]`, {
+            headline: 'a self-package on this surface has no declarations to check examples against',
+            detail:
+              `\n` +
+              missing.map((m) => `  - ${m} (missing)`).join('\n') +
+              `\n\n  Build first (CI does this in the "Build workspace packages" step):\n\n` +
+              unbuiltSelfPackages.map((d) => `    pnpm --filter ${pkgName(d)} build`).join('\n'),
+          }),
         );
       }
 
 
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ import os from 'node:os';
 import path from 'node:path';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
 
+import { EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET } from './lib/dist-freshness';
+
 const HERE = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
 const PKG = path.resolve(HERE, '..');
 const REPO_ROOT = path.resolve(PKG, '../..');
@@ -181,9 +183,20 @@ function runGate(spec: string, script: string, args: string[] = []): SpawnSyncRe
   });
 }
 
-/** Both halves of the refusal: it fired, and it named the right gate. */
+/**
+ * All three halves of the refusal: it fired, it named the right gate, and it
+ * answered with the code that says NOTHING WAS MEASURED.
+ *
+ * The third half moved in #19227 and this helper is where its pin lives. It was
+ * `1` — a real finding's code — which is what let `dispatch-gates --ran`
+ * reconcile a gate that refused before its first `.d.ts` read as a family that
+ * ran. ⛔ Do not relax it back to "non-zero": that assertion passes for exactly
+ * the defect this card removed.
+ */
 function expectRefusal(run: SpawnSyncReturns<string>, rerun: string): void {
-  expect(run.status).toBe(1);
+  expect(run.status).toBe(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
+  expect(run.stderr).toContain('PREREQUISITE NOT MET');
+  expect(run.stderr).toContain('Nothing was measured');
   expect(run.stderr).toContain('OLDER than packages/spec/src');
   expect(run.stderr).toContain('pnpm --filter @objectstack/spec build');
   expect(run.stderr).toContain(rerun);
@@ -245,7 +258,9 @@ describe('check:dual-source-exports refuses a stale dist (#7181)', () => {
     seedDualBaseline(tree.spec);
 
     const run = runGate(tree.spec, DUAL, ['--update']);
-    expect(run.status).toBe(1);
+    // The WRITING half refuses with the same code (#19227): it wrote nothing,
+    // so it has no ratchet verdict to report and did not measure one.
+    expect(run.status).toBe(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
     expect(run.stderr).toContain('WRITE a baseline');
     expect(fs.readFileSync(path.join(tree.spec, DUAL_BASELINE), 'utf8')).toBe(SENTINEL);
   });
 
@@ -31,7 +31,13 @@ import os from 'node:os';
 import path from 'node:path';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
 
-import { inspectDistFreshness, packageDirLabel } from './lib/dist-freshness';
+import {
+  EXIT_FINDINGS,
+  EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET,
+  inspectDistFreshness,
+  packageDirLabel,
+  prerequisiteNotMetText,
+} from './lib/dist-freshness';
 import { declarationStamp } from '../../../scripts/check-regen-pending.mjs';
 
 const HERE = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
@@ -470,7 +476,7 @@ describe('build-api-surface.ts refuses a stale dist end to end (#7122)', () => {
     seed(tree.spec, { distMtime: OLD, srcMtime: NEW });
 
     const run = runGenerator(tree.spec, []);
-    expect(run.status).toBe(1);
+    expect(run.status).toBe(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
     expect(run.stderr).toContain('OLDER than packages/spec/src');
     expect(run.stderr).toContain('pnpm --filter @objectstack/spec build');
     expect(baseline(tree.spec)).toBe(SENTINEL);
@@ -484,7 +490,7 @@ describe('build-api-surface.ts refuses a stale dist end to end (#7122)', () => {
     seed(tree.spec, { distMtime: OLD, srcMtime: NEW });
 
     const run = runGenerator(tree.spec, ['--check']);
-    expect(run.status).toBe(1);
+    expect(run.status).toBe(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
     expect(run.stderr).toContain('FALSE GREEN');
     expect(run.stdout).not.toContain('unchanged');
   });
@@ -495,9 +501,92 @@ describe('build-api-surface.ts refuses a stale dist end to end (#7122)', () => {
 
     for (const args of [[], ['--check']]) {
       const run = runGenerator(tree.spec, args);
-      expect(run.status).toBe(1);
+      expect(run.status).toBe(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
       expect(run.stderr).toContain('no .d.ts declarations');
     }
     expect(baseline(tree.spec)).toBe(SENTINEL);
   });
 });
+
+// ── The exit code the refusal answers with (#19227) ──────────────────────────
+//
+// Until this card the five dist-reading gates refused with `process.exit(1)` —
+// a real finding's code — while `scripts/import-prerequisite.mjs:250` declared
+// `EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET = 3` for these exact two words. The consumer that
+// makes the difference concrete is `scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs --ran`: it
+// derives its NOT-MEASURED class from the recorded code and counts every other
+// non-kill code as a family that RAN.
+//
+// These pins are the spec-side half of keeping one vocabulary. The root-side
+// half is that module's own `--self-test`, which asserts the same 3 there; the
+// value is hand-carried between the two (the reason is in the constant's
+// docblock), so BOTH pins have to exist or the two declarations can fork in
+// silence.
+describe('the prerequisite exit code, and the refusal text that explains it (#19227)', () => {
+  it('is 3, the number this repo already means by PREREQUISITE NOT MET', () => {
+    expect(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET).toBe(3);
+  });
+
+  it("is distinct from a finding's — the whole point, and the half a machine reads", () => {
+    expect(EXIT_FINDINGS).toBe(1);
+    expect(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET).not.toBe(EXIT_FINDINGS);
+    expect(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET).not.toBe(0);
+  });
+
+  it('agrees with the root frame that declares it, read from that module', async () => {
+    // The drift check, against the authority rather than against a copy of it.
+    // `packages/spec` already declares `scripts/**` in CROSS_PACKAGE_TEST_INPUTS,
+    // so this read is inside a declared radius.
+    //
+    // ⚠️ The cast goes through `unknown` because `scripts/import-prerequisite.d.mts`
+    // is PARTIAL BY DESIGN — its own header says the exit-code constants are
+    // deliberately omitted from the mirror — so tsc sees a namespace without
+    // them. That is exactly why the two `typeof` assertions are here rather
+    // than implied: without them the cast would make a vanished export read as
+    // `undefined` on both sides of a comparison nobody would notice.
+    const frame = (await import('../../../scripts/import-prerequisite.mjs')) as unknown as {
+      EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET?: number;
+      EXIT_FINDINGS?: number;
+    };
+    expect(typeof frame.EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET).toBe('number');
+    expect(typeof frame.EXIT_FINDINGS).toBe('number');
+    expect(EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET).toBe(frame.EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET);
+    expect(EXIT_FINDINGS).toBe(frame.EXIT_FINDINGS);
+  });
+
+  it('carries the fleet phrase, so it greps beside its siblings', () => {
+    // `check-dts-closure`, `check-dual-build-cjs-loads`, `check-i18n-bundles`,
+    // `check-i18n-coverage` and `check-closing-target-claim` all print
+    // `<gate>: PREREQUISITE NOT MET — …`. A reader who learned the phrase from
+    // one of those must find this one with the same grep.
+    write('dist/contracts/index.d.ts', 'export {};', OLD);
+    write('src/contracts/job-service.ts', 'export interface JobRunOutcome { ok: boolean }', NEW);
+
+    const verdict = inspectDistFreshness(sandbox, 'check', 'pnpm run check:example');
+    expect(verdict.fresh).toBe(false);
+    if (verdict.fresh) throw new Error('unreachable: the sandbox dist is stale');
+
+    const text = prerequisiteNotMetText('check:example', verdict);
+    expect(text).toContain('check:example: PREREQUISITE NOT MET');
+    // The verdict's own words are passed through, not paraphrased.
+    expect(text).toContain(verdict.message);
+    // And the sentence a number alone cannot carry.
+    expect(text).toContain('Nothing was measured');
+    expect(text).toContain(`Exit code ${EXIT_PREREQUISITE_NOT_MET}`);
+    expect(text).toContain(`distinct from a finding's ${EXIT_FINDINGS}`);
+  });
+
+  it('wraps a caller-composed refusal the same way — the partial-dist arm', () => {
+    // `check:skill-examples` refuses a self-package whose `.d.ts` was never
+    // emitted, which the mtime rule reads as fresh, so that refusal is not an
+    // `inspectDistFreshness` verdict at all. Same trailer, one source.
+    const text = prerequisiteNotMetText('check:skill-examples [spec]', {
+      headline: 'a self-package on this surface has no declarations',
+      detail: '\n  - packages/client-react/dist/index.d.ts (missing)',
+    });
+    expect(text).toContain('check:skill-examples [spec]: PREREQUISITE NOT MET');
+    expect(text).toContain('a self-package on this surface has no declarations');
+    expect(text).toContain('packages/client-react/dist/index.d.ts (missing)');
+    expect(text).toContain('Nothing was measured');
+  });
+});