fix(conformance): placeholder-guard-coupling actually RUNS — it was skipping forever

`conformance/tests/l0-static/placeholder-guard-coupling` (R-ENV-02, R-STATE-03) exited 3
SKIPPED on every gate run since it landed, because its check keyed its whole existence on
`bootstrap/standup.sh`. Measured, not assumed: that file has NEVER been on `main` — there is
no deletion commit for it anywhere; it landed only on unmerged prod-standup branches
(`work/prod-standup-campaign`, `prod/*`, `feat/prod-hardening`). It was planned and never
merged, not removed. SKIPPED is not green, and a permanently-skipped incident-derived test is
the quiet version of the failure it was written to prevent.

The skip was also hiding a RED. Run against the real `standup.sh` from
`work/prod-standup-campaign`, the old check FAILED 2 of 34 assertions — false positives from
treating the empty string as placeholder-shaped for knobs cluster-vars authors empty on
purpose (`BACKUP_CREDENTIALS_SUFFIX`, `VELERO_BACKUP_PREFIX`, both `""` on dev and both
documented there as load-bearing). It would have false-blocked the merge landing its own input.

NOT deleted — the hazard is not gone. Split into two halves, one of which needs no guard:

  HALF A (always runs): no environment overlay ships a placeholder-shaped EFFECTIVE
  cluster-vars value; an empty effective value is STATED by the overlay rather than inherited
  in silence; a LOUD base sentinel is explicitly overridden by every overlay. This is the
  2026-09-05 outcome asserted at the source instead of at the guard — if prod's
  S3_BACKUP_ENDPOINT is never a placeholder, velero cannot be pointed at a hostname that does
  not exist. Input surface is `clusters/`, all of it on `main`.

  HALF B (self-activating): the real predicate extracted and executed against those same
  values, the consumer trace, and the mid-string anchoring property.

The check NEVER exits 3 again, and the guard is DISCOVERED by content rather than hardcoded:
any tracked `*.sh` defining `<name>_is_placeholder()` is found, so a guard landing at
`bootstrap/standup.sh` — or moved into a sourceable library, the remedy the check already
recommends — activates HALF B with no edit to the test. Two files defining it is a FAIL. When
no guard exists the gap is printed loudly every run instead of swallowed as a skip.

LOUD vs EMPTY is the correction that makes it honest in both modes: a loud placeholder is
always a defect in an overlay, while `""` is held to the explicitness rule instead — and still
counts as a placeholder for a knob a guard covers, because a `""` case-arm is the guard
author's declaration that empty is not a usable target.

Proof, all reverted: 84 assertions and exit 0 on `main`; prod S3_BACKUP_ENDPOINT set to the
literal `https://TBD-R2-ACCOUNT-ID.r2.cloudflarestorage.com` FAILS (A1); deleting dev's
explicit VELERO_BACKUP_PREFIX op so it inherits `""` FAILS (A2); a LOUD base BULK_NFS_SERVER
with prod's override deleted FAILS 2/86 (A1+A3); and with the real `standup.sh` present,
reverting `s3_is_placeholder` to the `TBD-*` PREFIX glob FAILS 12/110 (B3 anchoring). With the
pristine `standup.sh` the check PASSES at 110 assertions where the old one failed 2 of 34.

L0 layer: 14 checks, 14 PASS, 0 SKIP, 0 FAIL (was 13 PASS / 1 SKIP). Coverage unchanged —
R-ENV-02 and R-STATE-03 both still list this test, 49/51 with the same 2 gaps.

Also:
  * `ci/touched-requirements.sh` — `bootstrap/*` -> R-STATE-03 R-GITOPS-01 is KEPT, its stale
    comment corrected. It claimed standup.sh "carries the placeholder guards", describing a
    file that is not here; R-STATE-03 there is ANTICIPATORY. Deleting the entry would leave the
    change that lands a placeholder guard selected by nothing.
  * `ci/tests/touched-requirements.test.sh` — new path-map section (12 assertions, was 8)
    locking `bootstrap/*` and `clusters/*`, so removing either entry is a test failure rather
    than a silent loss of selection. All three ci/tests pass (12 + 31 + 15).
  * `docs/BULK-NFS-STORAGE.md` §7 — its "nothing in the gate currently refuses a
    placeholder-shaped overlay value" is no longer true; corrected.
  * Scope re-audited: still deliberately requirement-scoped, not whole-repo. Every path that
    can break it attributes a requirement it declares.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>

ci/tests/touched-requirements.test.sh

@@ -93,6 +93,49 @@ printf 'touched set (removal):\n%s\n---\n' "$OUT2"
 assert_absent  "R-DELDOC-01"  "$OUT2" "REMOVED whole-line comment R-ID is NOT attributed"
 assert_present "R-DELREAL-01"  "$OUT2" "REMOVED real-line R-ID IS attributed"
 
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# PATH MAP — bootstrap/* (added 2026-09-13)
+#
+# WHY THIS IS LOCKED DOWN. path_requirements() keys `bootstrap/*` to R-STATE-03 +
+# R-GITOPS-01, and until 2026-09-13 the comment justifying it described
+# `bootstrap/standup.sh` as a file that carries the placeholder guards. That file has never
+# been on `main` (it landed only on unmerged prod-standup branches), so the comment was
+# stale and the entry looked like dead weight someone would tidy away. It is not dead: it
+# is what SELECTS conformance/tests/l0-static/placeholder-guard-coupling for the change
+# that eventually lands a placeholder guard under bootstrap/ — and that test discovers its
+# guard by content rather than by path, so it activates on exactly that change. Removing
+# the entry would let the change introducing a guard be gated by nothing, which is the
+# 2026-09-05 class. These assertions make the entry's deletion a test failure rather than a
+# silent loss of selection.
+#
+# NOTE the R-ID content scan must not be what produces these: `notes/` is outside the path
+# map precisely so the other cases isolate the scan, and here the file content cites no
+# R-ID at all, so any R-ID in the output came from the PATH.
+git -C "$TMP" checkout -q -b feature3 main
+mkdir -p "$TMP/bootstrap/flux"
+cat > "$TMP/bootstrap/flux/bootstrap.sh" <<'SH'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# a bootstrap-path change that cites no requirement id of its own
+echo "flux bootstrap"
+SH
+git -C "$TMP" add -A && git -C "$TMP" commit -qm "touch bootstrap/"
+OUT3="$(REPO_ROOT="$TMP" BASE_REF=main "$SCRIPT" 2>/dev/null)"
+printf 'touched set (bootstrap/ path map):\n%s\n---\n' "$OUT3"
+assert_present "R-STATE-03"   "$OUT3" "bootstrap/* attributes R-STATE-03 (selects placeholder-guard-coupling)"
+assert_present "R-GITOPS-01"  "$OUT3" "bootstrap/* attributes R-GITOPS-01 (it IS the GitOps bootstrap path)"
+
+# And the neighbouring entry the same test leans on for its other half: clusters/* must
+# attribute R-ENV-02, which is what selects placeholder-guard-coupling's HALF A (the
+# authored-values sweep over clusters/<env> effective cluster-vars).
+git -C "$TMP" checkout -q -b feature4 main
+mkdir -p "$TMP/clusters/base"
+printf 'kind: ConfigMap\nmetadata:\n  name: cluster-vars\n' > "$TMP/clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml"
+git -C "$TMP" add -A && git -C "$TMP" commit -qm "touch clusters/"
+OUT4="$(REPO_ROOT="$TMP" BASE_REF=main "$SCRIPT" 2>/dev/null)"
+printf 'touched set (clusters/ path map):\n%s\n---\n' "$OUT4"
+assert_present "R-ENV-02"     "$OUT4" "clusters/* attributes R-ENV-02 (selects placeholder-guard-coupling HALF A)"
+assert_present "R-GITOPS-01"  "$OUT4" "clusters/* attributes R-GITOPS-01"
+
 echo
 if [ "$FAIL" -eq 0 ]; then echo "touched-requirements tests: PASS ($PASS assertions)"; exit 0;
 else echo "touched-requirements tests: FAIL ($FAIL failed, $PASS passed)"; exit 1; fi

ci/touched-requirements.sh

@@ -217,14 +217,23 @@ path_requirements() {
     # chainsaw-test.yaml), and the correct fix for a path-scoped invariant is a path-map entry.
     infra/*)                   echo "R-ENV-01" ;;
     clusters/*)                echo "R-GITOPS-01 R-ENV-02" ;;
-    # bootstrap/ was UNMAPPED until 2026-09-06, and the omission was load-bearing:
-    # bootstrap/standup.sh carries the placeholder guards that decide whether `velero` may be
-    # enabled against a real backup endpoint. A change touching standup.sh ALONGSIDE any
-    # already-mapped path scoped the L0 run to that other path's requirements and silently
-    # excluded conformance/tests/l0-static/placeholder-guard-coupling — the check that exists
-    # precisely to catch a guard/value mismatch. The 2026-09-05 guard bug (a prefix glob that
-    # stopped matching when the value it guards changed, in a different file) is exactly the
-    # class that omission would hide.
+    # bootstrap/ was UNMAPPED until 2026-09-06. The entry STAYS, but its original rationale
+    # was written against a file that is not here, and that is corrected on 2026-09-13:
+    # it claimed "bootstrap/standup.sh carries the placeholder guards that decide whether
+    # `velero` may be enabled against a real backup endpoint". bootstrap/standup.sh HAS NEVER
+    # BEEN ON `main` — it was not deleted (no deletion commit exists anywhere), it landed only
+    # on unmerged prod-standup branches. `git ls-tree main bootstrap/` lists README.md, flux/,
+    # gitea/, sops/. So R-STATE-03 here is ANTICIPATORY, not descriptive.
+    #
+    # WHY IT IS STILL RIGHT. conformance/tests/l0-static/placeholder-guard-coupling DISCOVERS
+    # its guard (any tracked *.sh defining `<name>_is_placeholder()`) instead of hardcoding a
+    # path, so the moment a standup guard lands under bootstrap/ that test's coupling half
+    # activates — and this entry is what selects the test for the change that lands it.
+    # Deleting the entry would mean the change introducing a placeholder guard is gated by
+    # nothing, which is the 2026-09-05 class (a prefix glob that stopped matching when the
+    # value it guards changed, in a different file) left to reintroduce itself. R-GITOPS-01 is
+    # descriptive today: bootstrap/flux/, gitea/ and sops/ ARE the GitOps bootstrap path.
+    # Locked down by ci/tests/touched-requirements.test.sh's path-map section.
     bootstrap/*)               echo "R-STATE-03 R-GITOPS-01" ;;
     # R-TEST-06 added 2026-09-12. The comment in changed_diff()'s rule 3 above records why it
     # was ABSENT: R-TEST-06 used to be enforced by the spec-immutability STAGE and carried by no