@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ one has its own section below.
 | `cross-repo-issue-closer.yml` | Cross-repo Issue Closer | PR `closed` (acts only when merged) | No — runs after merge |
 | `changeset-release.yml` | Changeset Release | Push to `main` (publish half); 6-hourly cron `0 */6 * * *`; manual (version-PR refresh half) | n/a |
 | `changelog.yml` | Auto Changelog | Manual dispatch only — nothing triggers it automatically | n/a |
-| `stale.yml` | Stale Issues & PRs | Daily cron `0 0 * * *`; manual | n/a |
 | `shadcn-check.yml` | Check Shadcn Components | Weekly cron `0 9 * * 1`; manual | n/a |
 | `check-links.yml` | Check Links | Weekly cron `17 4 * * 0`; manual | n/a — reports, never gates |
 | `published-dist-gate.yml` | Published Dist Tooling Scan | Nightly cron `41 3 * * *`; push to `main` touching the gate; manual | No — the blocking copy runs on the publish path, not here |
@@ -411,9 +410,17 @@ not a reason, and the gate does not read it as one.
 [objectui#8465](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/8465). There were 13 distinct
 action references in this directory. Exactly **one** was spelled differently from the other twelve —
 a commit SHA on `actions/stale` — and it was the only reference in the repository that had **never
-resolved**: 236 scheduled runs of `stale.yml` since 2026-01-16, **0 successes**, every one failing
-in `Set up job`, unnoticed for eight months because nothing downstream consumes that job. The broken
-reference itself is [objectui#8126](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/8126).
+resolved**: 236 scheduled runs of the stale-issues workflow since 2026-01-16, **0 successes**, every
+one failing in `Set up job`, unnoticed for eight months because nothing downstream consumes that
+job. The broken reference itself was
+[objectui#8126](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/8126).
+
+That workflow no longer exists. [objectui#8548](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/8548)
+retired it under enforce-or-remove — a declared automation with zero successes, zero consumers and no
+external authors on the open board is removed rather than repaired — and #8126 closed with it. The
+`DECLARED_EXCEPTIONS` entry that had covered its SHA pin was deleted in the same commit: an entry
+matching nothing is red under the second rule below, so a deletion that left it behind would have
+reddened this gate on `main` for every pull request.
 
 This is **not** an argument that SHA pinning is wrong — it is normally the *more* secure spelling and
 supply-chain guidance recommends it. The failure was the *shape*: one ref written in a form nothing
@@ -2189,21 +2196,6 @@ secrets from fork-originated runs. The usual hazard of `pull_request_target` doe
 the job never checks out the head ref and never executes anything from the PR — it reads the body
 and calls the issues API.
 
-### Stale Issues (`stale.yml`)
-
-**Trigger:** Daily at 00:00 UTC (cron), or manual dispatch.
-
-| Resource | Stale after | Close after | Exempt labels |
-|----------|-------------|-------------|---------------|
-| Issues | 60 days | 7 days | `pinned`, `security`, `critical`, `bug`, `enhancement` |
-| Pull Requests | 45 days | 14 days | `pinned`, `security`, `in-progress`, `blocked` |
-
-The two exemption lists are set separately (`exempt-issue-labels` and `exempt-pr-labels`) and
-neither is a subset of the other: `critical`, `bug` and `enhancement` exempt issues only,
-`in-progress` and `blocked` exempt pull requests only. This page used to state one merged list
-— `pinned`, `security`, `critical`, `in-progress` — which was wrong in both directions for
-both resources ([#3724](https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectui/issues/3724)).
-
 ### Half-State Patrol (`half-state-patrol.yml`)
 
 **Trigger:** Four times a day at `:37` past the hour (cron `37 1,7,13,19 * * *`), manual dispatch,
 
@@ -154,16 +154,47 @@ describe('the gate can fail (non-vacuity)', () => {
   });
 
   it('goes red on a stale exception — an entry that matches nothing', () => {
-    const result = scanMutated(
-      (files) => {
-        // The stale.yml SHA becomes a tag: exactly what objectui#8126 landing
-        // one way would do. The entry must then be deleted, loudly.
-        const name = 'stale.yml';
-        files.set(name, files.get(name)!.replace(/actions\/stale@[0-9a-f]{40}/, 'actions/stale@v9'));
+    // This case used to mutate the real `stale.yml`, whose SHA pin was the only
+    // entry DECLARED_EXCEPTIONS ever held. objectui#8548 deleted that workflow
+    // and the entry with it, so the table is empty and the shape has to be
+    // reproduced over a synthetic one — which is stricter, not weaker: the
+    // assertion no longer depends on one particular workflow surviving.
+    //
+    // Both halves are pinned, because only the pair says the entry is doing
+    // work. An entry that never silences anything would satisfy the second half
+    // on its own.
+    const declared = [
+      {
+        workflow: 'control-bytes.yml',
+        action: 'actions/checkout',
+        issue: 'objectui#8465',
+        reason: 'synthetic entry for the non-vacuity proof below — not a real exception',
       },
-    );
-    expect(result.offenders).toEqual([]);
-    expect(result.stale.map((e: { workflow: string }) => e.workflow)).toEqual(['stale.yml']);
+    ];
+    const shaPin = (files: Map<string, string>) => {
+      const name = 'control-bytes.yml';
+      files.set(
+        name,
+        files.get(name)!.replace('uses: actions/checkout@v7', 'uses: actions/checkout@' + 'a'.repeat(40)),
+      );
+    };
+
+    // Matching: the ref is off-convention and the entry names it, so nothing is
+    // reported from either direction.
+    const matching = scanMutated(shaPin, declared);
+    expect(matching.offenders).toEqual([]);
+    expect(matching.stale).toEqual([]);
+
+    // Orphaned: the workflow the entry names is deleted — literally what
+    // objectui#8548 did to the real table. The entry now matches nothing and
+    // must be reported, loudly, so that deleting a workflow cannot leave a
+    // permanently red `main` behind it.
+    const orphaned = scanMutated((files) => {
+      shaPin(files);
+      files.delete('control-bytes.yml');
+    }, declared);
+    expect(orphaned.offenders).toEqual([]);
+    expect(orphaned.stale.map((e: { workflow: string }) => e.workflow)).toEqual(['control-bytes.yml']);
   });
 
   it('goes red when the census collapses, instead of reporting a clean tree', () => {
@@ -180,18 +211,31 @@ describe('the gate can fail (non-vacuity)', () => {
     const fake = [
       { workflow: 'control-bytes.yml', action: 'actions/checkout', issue: 'objectui#1', reason: 'x'.repeat(50) },
     ];
+    // Two off-convention refs, in two different workflows, and `fake` names only
+    // the first. The second is the whole point of the case: until objectui#8548
+    // it was `stale.yml`'s real SHA pin, which the tree no longer carries, so it
+    // is injected here instead. ⛔ Do not drop it and keep only the silenced
+    // half — a gate that reported nothing at all would pass that alone.
     const result = scanMutated((files) => {
-      const name = 'control-bytes.yml';
-      files.set(name, files.get(name)!.replace('uses: actions/checkout@v7', 'uses: actions/checkout@main'));
+      files.set(
+        'control-bytes.yml',
+        files.get('control-bytes.yml')!.replace('uses: actions/checkout@v7', 'uses: actions/checkout@main'),
+      );
+      files.set(
+        'shadcn-check.yml',
+        files
+          .get('shadcn-check.yml')!
+          .replace('uses: actions/checkout@v7', 'uses: actions/checkout@' + 'd'.repeat(40)),
+      );
     }, fake);
     // The ref `fake` covers is silenced...
     expect(result.offenders.map((o: { ref: string }) => o.ref)).not.toContain('actions/checkout@main');
     expect(result.stale).toEqual([]);
-    // ...and ONLY that one: `fake` replaced the real table, so stale.yml's SHA
-    // is now undeclared and reported. Proof that what silences a reference is an
-    // entry naming it, not the gate being lax about off-convention spellings.
+    // ...and ONLY that one: the second workflow's SHA is undeclared and is
+    // reported. Proof that what silences a reference is an entry naming it, not
+    // the gate being lax about off-convention spellings.
     expect(result.offenders.map((o: { file: string; kind: string }) => `${o.file} ${o.kind}`)).toEqual([
-      'stale.yml sha',
+      'shadcn-check.yml sha',
     ]);
   });
 });
 
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ describe('ci-cd-pipeline.md — workflow inventory', () => {
         `content/docs/guide/ci-cd-pipeline.md names them:\n` +
         undocumented.map((f) => `  - ${f}`).join('\n') +
         `\n\nAdd a section to that page — a heading that contains the file name ` +
-        `(e.g. "### Stale Issues (\`stale.yml\`)"), what triggers it, and whether it can ` +
+        `(e.g. "### Hook Self-Tests (\`hook-selftests.yml\`)"), what triggers it, and whether it can ` +
         `block a merge — and a row in the "Workflow Inventory" table. A workflow nobody ` +
         `documented is a check contributors get blocked by without knowing it exists ` +
         `(objectui#3212: \`lint.yml\` gated PRs for months while this page never mentioned it).` +
 
@@ -62,13 +62,21 @@ import { parse as parseYaml } from 'yaml';
  *   - Four had a distribution to derive from, and carry a ceiling with the
  *     derivation written beside the key.
  *   - Two did not, and carry NO ceiling ON PURPOSE, with the reason written
- *     beside the job. `changelog.yml::changelog` has never run at all;
- *     `stale.yml::stale` has never succeeded, and every run it has fails in
- *     `Set up job` before the marketplace action starts, so its seconds measure
- *     a setup failure rather than the job's work. Pinning an ABSENCE reads
- *     oddly until you notice the failure mode it catches: someone tidying up
- *     the inconsistency by copying `20` onto them, which is precisely the
- *     inherited number objectui#7048 fences and objectui#7956's triage forbade.
+ *     beside the job. Pinning an ABSENCE reads oddly until you notice the
+ *     failure mode it catches: someone tidying up the inconsistency by copying
+ *     `20` onto them, which is precisely the inherited number objectui#7048
+ *     fences and objectui#7956's triage forbade.
+ *
+ * ⚠️ That second half is now ONE job, not two. `stale.yml::stale` was the other
+ * one, and objectui#8548 deleted the whole workflow under enforce-or-remove:
+ * eight months, 236 runs, zero successes, zero consumers. Its entry left the
+ * `accepted` table in that same commit, because a pin naming a job that no
+ * longer exists fails on the lookup and says nothing about ceilings.
+ * ⛔ Do not read the shrink as the rule weakening — `changelog.yml::changelog`
+ * still holds it, and the case it catches (copying `20` onto an unmeasured job)
+ * is unchanged. ⭐ A job leaving this table by being DELETED and a job leaving
+ * it by acquiring a derived ceiling are opposite events; only the second one
+ * moves an entry into the `derived` table above.
  *
  * ## Deliberately NOT asserted
  *
@@ -438,22 +446,26 @@ describe('every workflow cache save is bounded and non-fatal (objectui#7048)', (
     ).toEqual([]);
   });
 
-  it('keeps the two jobs objectui#7956 could not measure UNBOUNDED, with their reason recorded', () => {
+  it('keeps the job objectui#7956 could not measure UNBOUNDED, with its reason recorded', () => {
     // The other half of objectui#7956, and the half that is easy to undo by
-    // being helpful. Four of its six jobs got a ceiling; these two did not,
-    // because neither has a distribution that measures the job doing its work:
+    // being helpful. Four of its six jobs got a ceiling; this one did not,
+    // because it has no distribution that measures the job doing its work:
     //
     //   - `changelog.yml::changelog` — `total_count: 0` runs, ever. It is
     //     dispatch-only and has never been dispatched. (Control on the same
     //     endpoint: `changeset-release.yml` answers with thousands, so the zero
     //     is a reading and not a broken query.)
-    //   - `stale.yml::stale` — 234 completed runs, 0 successful, over eight
-    //     months. Ten sampled evenly across that window all fail in `Set up
-    //     job`, before `actions/stale` starts, so their 1-4 seconds measure how
-    //     fast the job fails to begin. Its real cost has never been observed,
-    //     and it is the kind that grows with the repository.
     //
-    // A number invented for either one would look derived and be a guess, and a
+    // objectui#7956 left TWO jobs here. The second was `stale.yml::stale` — 234
+    // completed runs, 0 successful, over eight months, every sampled one failing
+    // in `Set up job` before the marketplace action started, so its 1-4 seconds
+    // measured how fast the job failed to begin rather than any work it did.
+    // objectui#8548 deleted that workflow outright (enforce-or-remove: zero
+    // consumers, zero successes), which is why this table lists one key and not
+    // two. ⛔ Re-adding `stale.yml::stale` here does not restore a pin — the
+    // lookup below would fail on a workflow that is gone.
+    //
+    // A number invented for it would look derived and be a guess, and a
     // ceiling under a job's honest slowest run converts a working job into a
     // permanently red one — objectui#7048's fence, and objectstack#16173 is the
     // live counter-example (a distribution mis-estimated by ~2.6x killed a test
@@ -464,7 +476,7 @@ describe('every workflow cache save is bounded and non-fatal (objectui#7048)', (
     // jobs above onto these two. Adding a real ceiling here is welcome — derive
     // it from runs that did the work, write the derivation beside the key, and
     // move the entry up into the `derived` table above in the same commit.
-    const accepted = ['changelog.yml::changelog', 'stale.yml::stale'];
+    const accepted = ['changelog.yml::changelog'];
 
     const bounded: string[] = [];
     const undocumented: string[] = [];