Fail closed when live-path guard safety state is unavailable

[palios-taey]

Summary

• Resolve explicit registry configuration first, then the committed conductor registry at $HOME/the-conductor/config/live_path_registry.json without duplicating registry contents.
• Preserve read-only calls while failing closed for the guard-owned mutating shell vocabulary when registry/configuration, parse state, internal state, or wrapper state is unavailable.
• Route one high-priority defect per node and failure class to the existing Redis supervisor route, with self fallback only for top-level sessions and a 15-minute TTL. Read-only passenger calls emit no repeated warning context.
• Remove the worktree-cwd early return so explicit absolute live-checkout targets remain blocked; worktree-relative mutations remain allowed.
• Add a mechanical live-path guard acceptance gate to make these branches non-regressible.

Documents-first provenance

• Original guard and fail-open branches: 0374493.
• Env-only change that exposed the process-inheritance hole: eeace5c.
• Canonical committed registry: the-conductor e7dede433f8cd058c8498450d559b5813f46f1af.
• Frozen contract target rule: parent_live_guard_CONTRACT.md lines 33-36 requires absolute live paths to be caught from elsewhere. The former live_guard_decision worktree early return contradicted that rule.
• The new fail-closed policy supersedes the original availability-biased fail-open residual while retaining read-only availability.

Verification

• GitNexus pre-edit impacts: LOW for live_guard_decision, _live_guard_registry_path, _live_guard_load_registry, _live_guard_split, and the pre-tool hook main entrypoint.
• make syntax: PASS, including the new live_path_guard_acceptance gate.
• python3 -m py_compile on changed Python: PASS.
• Ruff: PASS for changed/new code; pre-existing _shared import-order exception excluded only for E402.
• git diff --check: PASS.
• gitleaks no-git scan: PASS.
• Public pointer scan: PASS; no operator home/IP/credential value added.
• Read-only source probe against the committed registry: 1,000 read decisions allowed, mean 0.0213 ms; synthetic git commit decision denied. No command executed.

Prepare-only boundary

No deployment, hook installation, environment change, live notification, service/API restart, tmux/session respawn, or production mutation was performed. Owner routing was exercised only with fake Redis. Merge and activation remain separately gated.

[palios-taey]

GitNexus aggregate scope warning

After indexing this isolated clone, detect_changes against origin/main reports HIGH aggregate scope: 58 changed symbols and eight affected cross-community flows. Individual pre-edit symbol impacts were LOW, but the pre-tool entrypoint now reaches identity/Redis/supervisor routing for a deduped defect and the classifier/parser flow for authorization.

Reviewed affected chains:

• main -> _route_defect_once -> get_redis_and_node / resolve_supervisor / send
• main -> live_guard_decision -> mutation classifier / parser / existing target matcher

This is not a merge endorsement. It is an explicit reason the existing R5 audit gate must remain blocking until both auditors inspect the exact head. No deployment or activation has occurred.