A4S-1 — the A4 days-to-cover vacuity gate has been built, merged, pre-registered and returns-free since 2026-08-01, and nobody has run it: the memo assigns it to "the operator", which is not an actor this system has

status: dismissed as a queue row · raised panel run 42 (2026-10-21; surfaced by the frontier lens as a WATCH fact, verified and argued by the chair) · killed at the chair's own adversarial pass on CAP + NO-DEADLINE grounds, not on merit · class: registration hygiene (G5) — a pinned test with no assigned actor · effort would have been ~0 pd to run, ~0.1 pd to record the verdict

What is true (verified at 9e28a45, by execution where possible)

research/2026-08-01_a4_dtc_battery_memo.md §5 pins a two-step ordering it calls non-negotiable. Step 1 is a vacuity count that must run before any return is seen, and the memo says of it, verbatim (RESEARCH.md:852-855):

"(3) The tool: thales dtc-vacuity-count (backtest/dtc_vacuity.py) computes the count WITHOUT touching returns (selections ∩ lagged-DTC sets only), lockstep-tested against the engine's actual screen; the operator runs it post-merge — its author did not run it."

81 days. The gate is returns-free by construction (selections and set intersections only), its thresholds are pinned in the merged memo, and its expected modal outcome is recorded at freeze as "vacuous-or-inconclusive — a legitimate cheap closure." < 1.0 name-change per covered quarter ⇒ VACUOUS, the stream stays capture-only, the battery never runs, and the registration closes. >= 1.0 authorizes Step 2 and nothing more.

It is the blocker for two deferred directions. A4's battery cannot start without it, and B3 (the FTD probe) attaches to that battery as a reported-only second trial — so B3's host does not exist until this is pulled.

Why nobody pulled it: the memo names "the operator". Under the 2026-10-07 delegation the weekday loop is panel / triage / implementer / daily audit / steward, and none of them is that. The steward may not run it (ops/STEWARD.md §0), no routine container has data/raw (the momentum composite needs it, so NOT-RUN here, and not guessable), and the implementer builds only from approved/. This is CLK-1's defect — a criterion that fires into a passive verb — applied to a test rather than a clock.

Why it is dismissed as a ROW

1. It has no deadline at all. The memo's own horizon is "earliest ship post-December." Triage's ranking rule is "something cheap that expires beats something valuable that will wait" (ops/QUEUE_TRIAGE.md:150-152), and this waits. It has waited 81 days with no cost beyond the waiting.
2. open/ was at 12 of 12 and this run already spends the one slot it could justify on DLV-1, which bites this Friday. Opening a second no-deadline row would have forced an eviction, and the pre-declared eviction's rationale is itself falsified (run 41 on DGX-1).
3. A row would not produce the run. The row's entire content is "someone with data/raw types one command." The queue's builder has not run since 2026-10-07, and two owner-approved rows (FRZ-1, OSR-1) are already waiting on it. Adding a third item that needs an actor the queue cannot supply makes the queue longer, not the question closer.
4. The honest cadence disclosure. This was surfaced by the frontier lens, so filing it as an open row would nominally have reset QUEUE_TRIAGE counter (c) — the criterion that FIRED on 2026-10-19 and drops this panel from daily to weekly. It does not reset it and this run does not claim that it does. A threshold that has fired is not un-fired by a later item; relitigating it is nobody's (ops/QUEUE_TRIAGE.md:132-133). Recorded explicitly so no future reader can mistake this dismissal for a cadence defence, and so the panel is not seen scoring its own exam.

What this dismissal does instead, at zero cost: it is the dated, greppable, in-repo record that the gate is unrun and why — which is most of what a row would have delivered. dismissed/ is swept by triage on a 14-day cadence and read by every panel, so this reaches a reader; a line in a session report does not.

Reopen conditions (any one)

1. An interactive or owner-side session with data/raw is running anyway. Then this is not a queue item at all — it is one command and a recorded verdict, and it should simply be done: thales dtc-vacuity-count, append the statistic and the VACUOUS/AUTHORIZED verdict to RESEARCH.md and the trial registry. Do not re-open a row to schedule a one-command gate.
2. December passes and A4 is still named as a live direction anywhere (NORTHSTAR.md §6 carries "A4 DTC battery earliest ship — post-December"). At that point the gate is on the critical path of a dated clock and earns a slot on its own.
3. B3 is proposed, revived, or asked after. Its host cannot exist until Step 1 runs, so any serious interest in B3 reopens this first, and B3 must not be worked before it.
4. The memo's ordering is at risk of being violated — i.e. anyone proposes computing any return, equity curve or performance statistic for a DTC-screened variant. Step 1 is the gate that makes Step 2 legitimate; a Step 2 before it is a C0 breach, and this file is the standing tripwire.

Explicitly NOT a reopen condition: the passage of time alone. 81 days cost nothing and 181 will cost nothing. Only conditions 1–4 make it matter.