`.abcd/development/brief/04-surfaces/04-launch.md:48` says the gate's inputs are the ledger, the anchor tag and the version location, kind-independent, so the cut runs unchanged for every kind, and lines 25-30 name a release path for a repository that ships no plugin. The cut also needs `.abcd/development/release/surface.json` in the anchor tag and at HEAD (`internal/core/changelog/guard.go:103`, `:184`), equal to abcd's own compiled command tree plus the repository's manifests (`internal/surface/cli/surface.go:38`). Only `cmd/abcd-gen-surface` in abcd's own tree creates that file: `abcd ahoy install` does not lay it, and the cut only refreshes one already there (`refreshSurfaceSnapshot`, `internal/surface/cli/ship.go:187`), after the guard has passed. A repository declaring `binary`, with a tag and a shipped intent, is refused under `surface-guard` by `abcd launch --dry-run`, and the stale-snapshot remedy names `go generate ./internal/surface/cli`, a package that repository does not have.

.abcd/development/brief/04-surfaces/04-launch.md:48 says the gate's inputs are the ledger, the anchor tag and the version location, kind-independent, so the cut runs unchanged for every kind, and lines 25-30 name a release path for a repository that ships no plugin. The cut also needs .abcd/development/release/surface.json in the anchor tag and at HEAD (internal/core/changelog/guard.go:103, :184), equal to abcd's own compiled command tree plus the repository's manifests (internal/surface/cli/surface.go:38). Only cmd/abcd-gen-surface in abcd's own tree creates that file: abcd ahoy install does not lay it, and the cut only refreshes one already there (refreshSurfaceSnapshot, internal/surface/cli/ship.go:187), after the guard has passed. A repository declaring binary, with a tag and a shipped intent, is refused under surface-guard by abcd launch --dry-run, and the stale-snapshot remedy names go generate ./internal/surface/cli, a package that repository does not have.

Deferral 2026-11-06

Deferred past v0.16.1: The fix needs a design for who lays the release snapshot in a managed repository and what its remedy names, and abcd's own cut does not take this path; it is in the follow-up release.