fix(quality): anchor quantified registry populations

docs/DEVELOPER-GUIDE/quality-gate-registry.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pnpm gate:verify
 
 The registry covers root typecheck, lint, and format checks; RM-01 checkout preflight; the Mosaic CI queue guard; and root Husky pre-commit/pre-push hooks. It does not imply repository-wide coverage. Framework scripts, package-local build/test scripts, templates, and deployment/release scripts remain assigned to RM-54.
 
-Every gate declares exact invocations, observed and required outcomes, criterion bindings, and a single exact inerting mutation. Every must-fail case requires a non-empty reason diagnostic. The verifier rejects a stale, ambiguous, crashing, or ineffective mutation. Fixture and mutation writes reject path traversal and final-component symlinks. Every nested manifest object used by outcomes, mutations, fixtures, deployments, defects, compatibility, provenance, coverage, and merge assertions has closed keys and strict field types; a misspelling cannot silently turn a required comparison into an absent optional field. Independent validation phases collect labeled failures instead of letting one thrown fixture, claim, discovery, deployment, mutation, or compatibility error mask already-known stable-ID diagnostics. This proves detection of the **declared** inerting mutation, not every possible semantic weakening.
+Every gate declares exact invocations, an evidence subject equal to its stable gate ID, observed and required outcomes, criterion bindings, and a single exact inerting mutation. Every must-fail case requires a non-empty reason diagnostic. The verifier rejects a stale, ambiguous, crashing, or ineffective mutation. Fixture and mutation writes reject path traversal and final-component symlinks. Every nested manifest object used by outcomes, mutations, fixtures, deployments, defects, compatibility, provenance, coverage, and merge assertions has closed keys and strict field types; a misspelling cannot silently turn a required comparison into an absent optional field. Independent validation phases collect labeled failures instead of letting one thrown fixture, claim, discovery, deployment, mutation, or compatibility error mask already-known stable-ID diagnostics. This proves detection of the **declared** inerting mutation, not every possible semantic weakening.
 
 ## Required versus actual
 
@@ -42,6 +42,10 @@ The replay implementation and abuse-case tests remain fail-closed: when invoked
 
 Retained provider evidence can assert terminal-success **current-tree** records for prior commits when supplied through `GATE_PROVIDER_EVIDENCE_FILE`. Each normalized record contains `commit`, globally unique integer pipeline `number`, pipeline `status`, and exactly one `gate-verify` step; the highest-numbered rerun for a commit is authoritative. The full collection is validated before commit filtering, so one pipeline identity cannot certify two commit subjects. Ambiguous duplicates fail. Absent, expired, or currently-running evidence is reported explicitly and never inferred as success.
 
-The history seam is not a manifest field. `gate-history.mjs` derives it from Git as the parent of the first first-parent commit adding `gates/gates.manifest.json`, which necessarily includes the introduction commit and all later first-parent registry commits. Registered controls reject HEAD, HEAD's parent, and the introduction commit as candidate seams.
+The history seam is not a manifest field and is not derived from an author-positioned registry path. `gate-history.mjs` derives the feature range from Git's merge-base with the provider target `refs/remotes/origin/main`; a gate change committed before delayed registry introduction therefore remains in range and fails because its own tree has no registry. Registered controls reject HEAD, HEAD's parent, the introduction commit, and delayed introduction after a gate change.
+
+**DOES:** This bootstrap is sound against a branch author who cannot rewrite main: reordering or splitting commits cannot move the target merge-base. **DOES NOT:** It does not establish integrity if main itself is compromised or rewritten. Builds 1-2 own that residual main-integrity dependency.
+
+Universal checks first prove populations non-empty. The production profile anchors the required seven gate IDs to their canonical sources, while `gateRefs` on the D-38/D-40 criteria must exactly span every registered gate. Population controls mutate evidence-subject and type-strict comparison inputs one gate at a time and require rejection across the complete inventory.
 
 Once RM-60 supplies the external pre-execution anchor, protected post-merge/main replay is detection, not pre-merge prevention. A failed replay requires quarantine of the affected result and revert of the offending merge. It must never be represented as proof that CI blocked that merge. RM-25 tracks provider enforcement.