Development record

2026-08-16 — CI inert-path skip gate (iss-234): the inert allowlist is `docs/**`, `.abcd/development/**`, `.abcd/work/**`, plus exactly README.md, CHANGELOG.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, SECURITY.md, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.md, LICENSE, LICENSE.md; everything else — notably the harness routers (AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md/GEMINI.md), commands/, agents/, hooks/, .abcd/*.json, .github/**, evals/, scripts/, Makefile, Go source — is non-inert, and every unknown or degraded outcome (non-PR event, empty diff, unreadable base, aborted or failed classifier) runs the full matrix, fail closed and loudly. Deviation from the capture's skippable list, maintainer-confirmed 2026-08-16: the ubuntu unit lane ALWAYS runs — lifeboat brief-coverage, glossary-index and README-grounding tests assert against the live tree inside the allowlist (reproduced: a prose-only brief edit turns TestEveryBriefSectionHasARow red while record-lint and docs-lint stay green), so skipping `go test ./...` on an inert change is fail-open; what stands down is the macOS leg's heavy steps, the race lane, smoke, and zizmor. The skipped-conclusion-satisfies-ruleset behaviour is unverified until the rehearsal PR passes; nothing arms auto-merge on it before that. Rejected: a fromJSON dynamic matrix (a never-reporting `check (macos-latest)` wedges every PR) and a marketplace paths-filter action (plain git suffices, no new pinned dependency).