@sanning/proof 0.19.1 → 0.20.0

package/dist/chain.d.ts

@@ -1,25 +1,15 @@
 /**
- * The one sentence a surface should print beside these findings, so the reader
- * is never left to infer that "no findings" means "nothing is missing".
- *
- * Lifted from the profile (§5) rather than reworded, because a paraphrase of a
- * scope limit is how a scope limit turns into a claim.
+ * The sentence a surface prints beside these findings, so "no findings" is
+ * never read as "nothing is missing". Quoted from the profile (§5), because a
+ * paraphrased scope limit turns into a claim.
  */
 export declare const CHAIN_READING_SCOPE = "Chain links are deletion/reorder-evidence for the events present; they are not a completeness proof.";
 /** Where the linkage was read from. */
 export type ChainSource = "record" | "adapter";
 /**
  * The adapter metadata namespaces that carry a chain when the record does not.
- *
- * VERIFIED AGAINST `sanning-io/anchor` @ main, 2026-09-07. `run` is NOT a typo
- * for `langchain`: anchor#68 promoted the LangChain linkage out of a
- * framework-named namespace into a shared one, so the same fact has one path in
- * every SDK. A table pinned on the old name would find no chains, report
- * nothing, and look exactly like a clean bundle — the rename trap, in the
- * direction that fails silently.
- *
- * Exported so a test can assert the table itself, and so a consumer can see
- * what this reader knows about rather than guessing.
+ * The names must match the `@sanning/anchor` SDKs exactly: a stale name finds no
+ * chains and reads like a clean bundle.
  */
 export declare const ADAPTER_CHAIN_NAMESPACES: readonly {
     namespace: string;
@@ -33,11 +23,8 @@ export type ChainFindingKind =
 /** More than one record claims to begin the chain. */
  | "chain-second-root";
 /**
- * One link that does not resolve, as data.
- *
- * Structured for the same reason `PackGradeCause` is: prose is the part that
- * drifts hardest between surfaces and matters least. `renderChainFinding`
- * produces the house wording; a surface with its own voice reads the fields.
+ * One link that does not resolve, as data. `renderChainFinding` gives the house
+ * wording.
  */
 export interface ChainFinding {
     kind: ChainFindingKind;
@@ -61,12 +48,8 @@ export interface ChainFinding {
     firstMissingSeq?: number;
 }
 /**
- * One chain this bundle presents records for.
- *
- * `events` is HOW MANY RECORDS ARE HERE — never how many the chain has. The
- * summary exists so a surface can say "read 3 chains, nothing to report"
- * instead of "nothing to report", which is also what a reader that silently
- * matched no records would say.
+ * One chain this bundle presents records for. `events` counts the records
+ * here, never the chain's length.
  */
 export interface ChainSummary {
     chainKey: string;
@@ -80,10 +63,8 @@ export interface ChainReading {
     findings: ChainFinding[];
 }
 /**
- * One record's place in a chain, as the reader grouped it, for a check that
- * needs the links themselves rather than the findings: rule 11 of
- * evidence-bundle.md 5.4.2, which holds a claimed chain to every link. The
- * twin of Python's `ChainLink`.
+ * One record's place in a chain, for rule 11 of evidence-bundle.md §5.4.2.
+ * Python's twin is `ChainLink`.
  */
 export interface ChainLink {
     eventId: string;
@@ -100,28 +81,19 @@ export interface ChainLink {
     order: number;
 }
 /**
- * Every record the chain reader places in a chain, in bundle order, with the
- * identity and pointer it read: the grouping `readChains` reads, over every
- * record an envelope binds, `event_bytes` or the inline `payload` where no
- * `event_bytes` travel, with the identity the SHA-256 of those bytes, exactly
- * as the envelope verifier binds `payload_hash`.
+ * Every record placed in a chain, in bundle order, with its identity and
+ * pointer. Reads `event_bytes`, or the inline `payload` where none travel.
  */
 export declare function readChainLinks(bundle: unknown): Promise<ChainLink[]>;
 /**
- * Follow every chain the bundle's records describe, and report the links that
- * do not resolve within it.
- *
- * Reports NOTHING for an intact chain, and nothing for a chain whose records
- * are withheld — a link we could not read is unknown, never an accusation.
- * `chains` is what makes that distinguishable from having read nothing at all.
+ * Report the links that do not resolve within the bundle. An intact chain, and
+ * one whose records are withheld, report nothing: an unreadable link is
+ * unknown, never an accusation.
  */
 export declare function readChains(bundle: unknown): Promise<ChainReading>;
 /**
- * The house wording for one finding.
- *
- * Deliberately free of verdict vocabulary. Every sentence says what does not
- * resolve IN THIS BUNDLE, because that is the whole of what was checked; none
- * of them says failed, invalid, tampered or complete. A surface with its own
- * voice should read the fields instead — but it must not upgrade the claim.
+ * The house wording for one finding. Says only what does not resolve in this
+ * bundle, never failed, tampered or complete; a surface rewording it must not
+ * upgrade the claim.
  */
 export declare function renderChainFinding(finding: ChainFinding, subject?: string): string;

package/dist/chain.js

@@ -1,134 +1,64 @@
-// Chain reading — following the pointer every anchored event carries to the
-// event before it, and reporting what does not line up.
+// Chain reading: follow the pointer each anchored event carries to the one
+// before it, and report what does not resolve. A pure rule over the records a
+// bundle presents, separate from envelope verification and pack grading.
 //
-// WHY THIS LIVES IN THE KERNEL, BESIDE PACK GRADING.
-// `sanning.events/v2` records carry `previous_hash`, and until now nothing we
-// shipped read it. The envelope verifier hashes each event's `event_bytes`
-// and stops — `evidence.ts` says following the link is "consumer-layer logic
-// above it", and it was right that a SINGLE-envelope verifier should not do
-// it. But the consumer layer never did it either, so a bundle with an event
-// removed, and a chain that restarted after a crash and now asserts two
-// beginnings, both passed every shipped check (proof#43).
+// This is not a completeness statement. Drop the last N events of a chain and
+// nothing here dangles (`anchor/docs/profile-sanning.events-v2.md` §5);
+// completeness is the checkpoint `leaf_count` in `grading.ts`. So nothing here
+// returns a verdict: only findings, and a count of the chains read so a surface
+// can tell "nothing to report" from "read nothing".
 //
-// Reading the link is not envelope verification and it is not pack grading: it
-// is a third, pure rule over the records a bundle presents. Same seam as
-// grading — data in, data out, no `fs`, no `fetch` — so the kernel's scope
-// boundary (`specs/architecture.md` §3) is unchanged.
+// A chain is one head per `(public_key, chain_key)` (profile §3.2): two
+// producers that share a chain name are two chains. The linkage is read two
+// ways:
 //
-// ---- WHAT THIS IS NOT ------------------------------------------------------
-//
-// It is not a completeness statement and it must never be read as one. The
-// profile says so in its own words (`anchor/docs/profile-sanning.events-v2.md`
-// §5): chain semantics are "deletion/reorder-evidence for the events present
-// ... not a completeness proof." Drop the last N events of a chain and nothing
-// here dangles; the record that would have pointed at them was never written.
-// Completeness is the checkpoint `leaf_count` mechanism, which lives in
-// `grading.ts` and answers a different question.
-//
-// So nothing in this module returns a verdict, a status, an `ok`, or the word
-// "complete". It returns FINDINGS — each one a specific link that does not
-// resolve within the bundle in front of us — and a count of the chains it read,
-// so a surface can tell "nothing to report" apart from "read nothing".
-//
-// ---- HOW A CHAIN IS IDENTIFIED ---------------------------------------------
-//
-// A chain is one head per `(public_key, chain_key)` — profile §3.2, and the
-// reason `public_key` is part of every group key below. Two producers using the
-// chain name "session-1" are two chains; merging them would manufacture a
-// second root out of a naming coincidence.
-//
-// The linkage is written two ways today, and this reads both:
-//
-//   1. THE RECORD'S OWN CHAIN (`previous_hash` + `context.chain_key`). The
-//      profile's mechanism, and the one a third party can walk from the spec
-//      alone. Links resolve in PAYLOAD-HASH space.
-//   2. THE ADAPTER'S METADATA (`metadata.<namespace>.prev_event_id` + `seq`).
-//      The batched paths write the linkage only here; their records say
-//      GENESIS. Links resolve in EVENT-ID space. Read as a FALLBACK, only when
-//      the record carries no chain of its own.
-//
-// (2) is a transitional accommodation, not the design. `metadata` is
-// caller-owned and the profile says a verifier MUST NOT read it for
-// verification — which is exactly why nothing read through it feeds a
-// verdict, a claimed chain included (rule 11 reads linkage (1) only). The fix is
-// for every adapter to set the record's own `previous_hash` (filed separately
-// against `anchor`); when it lands, the namespace table below stops mattering
-// and can go.
+//   1. The record's own chain (`previous_hash` + `context.chain_key`), resolved
+//      in payload-hash space. The profile's mechanism.
+//   2. Adapter metadata (`metadata.<namespace>.prev_event_id` + `seq`),
+//      resolved in event-id space, read only when the record carries no chain
+//      of its own. `metadata` is caller-owned and the profile forbids
+//      verifying from it, so nothing read through it feeds a verdict, a claimed
+//      chain included (rule 11 reads linkage 1 only).
 import { hexToBytes, sha256Hex } from "./crypto.js";
 import { inlinePayloadBytes, jcsParse } from "./verifier.js";
 import { resolveTraceEvents } from "./evidence.js";
 /**
- * The one sentence a surface should print beside these findings, so the reader
- * is never left to infer that "no findings" means "nothing is missing".
- *
- * Lifted from the profile (§5) rather than reworded, because a paraphrase of a
- * scope limit is how a scope limit turns into a claim.
+ * The sentence a surface prints beside these findings, so "no findings" is
+ * never read as "nothing is missing". Quoted from the profile (§5), because a
+ * paraphrased scope limit turns into a claim.
  */
 export const CHAIN_READING_SCOPE = "Chain links are deletion/reorder-evidence for the events present; they are not a completeness proof.";
 /**
  * The adapter metadata namespaces that carry a chain when the record does not.
- *
- * VERIFIED AGAINST `sanning-io/anchor` @ main, 2026-09-07. `run` is NOT a typo
- * for `langchain`: anchor#68 promoted the LangChain linkage out of a
- * framework-named namespace into a shared one, so the same fact has one path in
- * every SDK. A table pinned on the old name would find no chains, report
- * nothing, and look exactly like a clean bundle — the rename trap, in the
- * direction that fails silently.
- *
- * Exported so a test can assert the table itself, and so a consumer can see
- * what this reader knows about rather than guessing.
+ * The names must match the `@sanning/anchor` SDKs exactly: a stale name finds no
+ * chains and reads like a clean bundle.
  */
 export const ADAPTER_CHAIN_NAMESPACES = [
-    // @sanning/anchor LangChain callbacks, TS + Python (anchor#68). One chain per
-    // root run, so the root run id is the chain.
+    // LangChain callbacks: one chain per root run.
     { namespace: "run", keyField: "root_run_id" },
-    // @sanning/anchor Vercel AI SDK middleware. A flat sequence per correlation key.
+    // Vercel AI SDK middleware: a flat sequence per correlation key.
     { namespace: "vercel_ai", keyField: "chain_key" },
-    // @sanning/anchor Interchange adapter. One chain per session; `seq` is
-    // Interchange's own reactor-owned sequence, passed through.
+    // Interchange: one chain per session; `seq` is Interchange's own.
     { namespace: "interchange", keyField: "session_id" },
 ];
 /**
- * The events this bundle is about, unwrapping any evidence-export wrapper to
- * the inline source bundle. DEFERRED to `evidence.ts`, which is the same
- * descent `verifyEvidenceBundle` and `disclosedContent` already use — a second
- * answer to "which events" inside one kernel is a second implementation of one
- * rule, and it is how a reader ends up walking a different set of events than
- * the verifier reported on.
+ * The events this bundle is about, through the same descent
+ * `verifyEvidenceBundle` uses, so the reader walks the events the verifier
+ * reported on.
  */
 const eventsOf = (bundle) => resolveTraceEvents(bundle) ?? [];
 /**
- * Decode one event record from its committed bytes.
- *
- * Same discipline as `signedLeafCount`: hex, UTF-8, JSON, and an undecodable
- * record is `null` rather than a throw or a guess. A withheld or unreadable
- * record simply takes no part in a chain — `verifyEvidenceBundle` already
- * reports its binding as undetermined, and inventing a second accusation here
- * would say the same thing twice in a harsher voice.
+ * Decode one event record from its committed bytes, or `null`. A withheld or
+ * unreadable record takes no part in a chain: the bundle verifier already
+ * reports its binding as undetermined.
  */
 function decodeRecord(hex) {
     if (typeof hex !== "string" || hex.length === 0)
         return null;
     try {
         const bytes = hexToBytes(hex);
-        // PINNED STRICT via `jcsParse`, and the twin at
-        // `src/sanning_proof/chain.py` is `jcs_loads` (proof#149). This was the
-        // LAST lenient decode pair in either kernel, and it was lenient on BOTH
-        // sides in different directions, so it agreed nowhere while looking like
-        // it agreed everywhere:
-        //
-        //   * A bare `new TextDecoder()` here eats a leading byte-order mark and
-        //     substitutes U+FFFD for every invalid sequence, so `BOM + JCS(r)`, a
-        //     raw `0x80`, a CESU-8 surrogate pair and a truncated UTF-8 sequence
-        //     each joined a chain HERE and joined none there.
-        //   * Python's `json.loads` accepted `NaN`, `Infinity` and `-Infinity`,
-        //     which RFC 8785 cannot emit and this kernel's `JSON.parse` rejects,
-        //     so a record carrying one joined a chain THERE and none here.
-        //
-        // Five split readings on one pair, in two directions, and no test in
-        // either kernel could see them: each kernel agreed with itself. That is
-        // why agreement between two lenient readers is not evidence of anything,
-        // and why the comparison has to run on the same bytes.
+        // Strict, matching Python's `jcs_loads`: a lenient decoder on either side
+        // (BOM, invalid UTF-8, non-finite literals) splits the two kernels.
         const record = jcsParse(bytes);
         if (record === null || typeof record !== "object")
             return null;
@@ -140,10 +70,8 @@ function decodeRecord(hex) {
 }
 const str = (v) => (typeof v === "string" && v.length > 0 ? v : null);
 /**
- * The adapter linkage, if this record carries one this reader knows about.
- *
- * Order is the table's order and the first match wins; a record carrying two
- * adapter namespaces is not a shape any SDK emits.
+ * The adapter linkage, if the record carries a known one. The first namespace
+ * in table order wins.
  */
 function adapterLinkage(record) {
     const metadata = record.metadata;
@@ -157,41 +85,20 @@ function adapterLinkage(record) {
         const chainKey = str(fields[keyField]);
         if (chainKey === null)
             continue;
-        // `prev_event_id` is explicitly null at the head of an adapter chain — the
-        // adapters write the null rather than omitting the key, because absent and
-        // null mean different things to a reader. Absent is treated the same way
-        // here: nothing to resolve is a beginning.
+        // Adapters write `null` at the head; absent reads the same: a beginning.
         const prev = str(fields.prev_event_id);
         const seqRaw = fields.seq;
-        // SAFE integer, not merely integral. Beyond 2^53 a JSON number does not
-        // survive `JSON.parse` intact — `9007199254740993` arrives as
-        // `...992` — while Python's parser keeps it exactly, so the two kernels
-        // read DIFFERENT sequence numbers off identical bytes and report gaps of
-        // different widths. Measured at 2^53+1: a `chain-gap` count of
-        // 9007199254740990 here against 9007199254740992 there (proof#49). A value
-        // this kernel cannot represent is one it cannot read, which is the same
-        // answer it gives every other unreadable field: no sequence, take no part.
+        // Safe integers only: beyond 2^53 `JSON.parse` loses precision where Python
+        // does not, and the kernels would report different gaps on the same bytes.
         const seq = Number.isSafeInteger(seqRaw) ? seqRaw : null;
         return { namespace, chainKey, prev, seq };
     }
     return null;
 }
 /**
- * Group the bundle's records into chains.
- *
- * Self-ids are DERIVED, never read off the envelope. A record chain's pointer
- * is the previous record's `payload_hash`, and `payload_hash` is an asserted
- * label sitting next to the bytes it claims to be about; matching one asserted
- * label against another is how a relabelled checkpoint once verified cleanly
- * (`evidence.ts`, `checkpoint_ref`). Hashing the bytes we already hold costs
- * nothing and means a relabelled record DANGLES instead of quietly resolving.
- * That is why this function is async.
- */
-/**
- * The record an envelope binds, for rule 11's links: `event_bytes` where the
- * entry carries them, else the inline `payload` read through
- * `inlinePayloadBytes`, the bytes `payload_hash` binds. Its identity is the
- * SHA-256 of whichever bytes it is read from. Python's `_bound_record`.
+ * The record an envelope binds, for rule 11: `event_bytes` where present, else
+ * the inline `payload`. Its identity is the SHA-256 of those bytes. Python's
+ * twin is `_bound_record`.
  */
 function boundRecord(entry) {
     const eventBytes = entry?.event_bytes;
@@ -213,6 +120,11 @@ function boundRecord(entry) {
         return null;
     }
 }
+/**
+ * Group the bundle's records into chains. Self-ids are derived by hashing the
+ * bytes, never read off the envelope, so a relabelled record dangles instead of
+ * resolving.
+ */
 async function groupChains(bundle, inline = false) {
     const groups = new Map();
     const events = eventsOf(bundle);
@@ -220,22 +132,17 @@ async function groupChains(bundle, inline = false) {
         const entry = events[order];
         const eventId = str(entry?.envelope?.event_id);
         const publicKey = str(entry?.envelope?.public_key);
-        // Without a producing key there is no chain identity (§3.2), and without an
-        // event id an adapter pointer has nothing to resolve against.
+        // No producing key, no chain identity; no event id, nothing to resolve to.
         if (eventId === null || publicKey === null)
             continue;
-        // `inline` (rule 11's links only): a record carried as the envelope's
-        // inline `payload` with no `event_bytes` is read too. The chain reading
-        // itself keeps reading `event_bytes` alone, so its findings and its rule
-        // table do not move.
+        // `inline` is for rule 11 only; the chain reading itself reads
+        // `event_bytes` alone.
         const decoded = inline ? boundRecord(entry) : decodeRecord(entry?.event_bytes);
         if (decoded === null)
             continue;
         const { record, bytes } = decoded;
-        // 1. The record's own chain. `context.chain_key` is present IFF the record
-        //    is chained (profile §5) — which is what keeps every unchained
-        //    singleton, all of them carrying `previous_hash: "GENESIS"`, out of one
-        //    enormous fictional chain that would report a second root per pair.
+        // 1. `context.chain_key` is present only on chained records, which keeps
+        //    unchained `GENESIS` singletons out of one fictional chain.
         const recordChainKey = str(record.context?.chain_key);
         let member;
         let key;
@@ -253,10 +160,7 @@ async function groupChains(bundle, inline = false) {
             key = `record ${publicKey} ${recordChainKey}`;
         }
         else {
-            // 2. Fallback only. A record that carries its own chain is never read
-            //    through its adapter metadata: one record must not land in two
-            //    chains, and the profile's own field is the one a third party can
-            //    walk without knowing which SDK wrote it.
+            // 2. Fallback only: one record must not land in two chains.
             const linkage = adapterLinkage(record);
             if (linkage === null)
                 continue;
@@ -277,7 +181,6 @@ async function groupChains(bundle, inline = false) {
     }
     return [...groups.values()];
 }
-// ---- The rule ----------------------------------------------------------------
 /** By `seq` where both have one, else by position in the bundle. */
 function byChainOrder(a, b) {
     if (a.seq !== null && b.seq !== null && a.seq !== b.seq)
@@ -285,10 +188,8 @@ function byChainOrder(a, b) {
     return a.order - b.order;
 }
 /**
- * The smallest slot between the lowest and highest occupied ones that no record
- * occupies, found by walking the SORTED occupants rather than the range they
- * span. See the call site: the range's width is chosen by whoever wrote the
- * bundle.
+ * The smallest unoccupied slot between the lowest and highest occupied ones,
+ * found by walking the sorted occupants: the range width is attacker-chosen.
  */
 function firstMissingSlot(present) {
     const ordered = [...present].sort((a, b) => a - b);
@@ -314,11 +215,8 @@ function findingsFor(group) {
     const dangling = members
         .filter((m) => m.prev !== null && !selfIds.has(m.prev))
         .sort(byChainOrder);
-    // A SECOND BEGINNING. One chain has one head per (public_key, chain_key), so
-    // two records claiming GENESIS under one key is a fork — the case a link-walk
-    // alone reports as CLEAN, because both halves walk back to a legitimate
-    // beginning and neither dangles. It is what a crash looks like when the SDK
-    // lost its chain head and started over under the same name.
+    // Two GENESIS records under one key: a fork, which a link-walk alone reports
+    // as clean. Typically a crash that lost the chain head.
     if (roots.length > 1) {
         findings.push({
             kind: "chain-second-root",
@@ -327,12 +225,8 @@ function findingsFor(group) {
             eventIds: roots.map((m) => m.eventId),
         });
     }
-    // A POINTER THAT LEAVES THIS BUNDLE. Exactly one such pointer is expected and
-    // is NOT a finding: a bundle is a window onto a chain that may have begun
-    // before this export, so the window's earliest record necessarily points at a
-    // predecessor nobody handed us. The allowance is spent only when the chain
-    // shows no GENESIS root — a chain that already has its beginning here has no
-    // window edge left to explain the next one.
+    // One pointer out of the bundle is the window's edge, not a finding, unless
+    // the chain already has its GENESIS root here.
     const unexplained = roots.length === 0 ? dangling.slice(1) : dangling;
     if (unexplained.length > 0) {
         const first = unexplained[0];
@@ -344,24 +238,15 @@ function findingsFor(group) {
             unresolvedPointer: first.prev,
         });
     }
-    // A HOLE IN THE SEQUENCE, where an adapter numbers its events. Only INTERIOR
-    // holes count: a window that starts at seq 7 is a window, not a deletion, and
-    // reporting its first six absent slots would bury the one that matters. A
-    // repeated seq is a real defect but a different one, and the present-set below
-    // is deliberately duplicate-safe rather than count-based so it cannot be
-    // mistaken for a gap.
+    // Interior holes only: a window starting at seq 7 is not a deletion. The
+    // present-set is duplicate-safe so a repeated seq is not mistaken for a gap.
     const sequenced = members.filter((m) => m.seq !== null);
     if (sequenced.length === of && of > 0) {
         const present = new Set(sequenced.map((m) => m.seq));
         const low = Math.min(...present);
         const high = Math.max(...present);
-        // Counted, never walked. `seq` is attacker-chosen, so a bundle presenting
-        // two records at seq 0 and seq 1e15 made the old `for (let s = low; s <=
-        // high; s++)` spin for days — a verifier that HANGS on adversarial input is
-        // worse than one that raises, and this reader promises neither (proof#49).
-        // The present set is a subset of [low, high], so the absent slots are the
-        // width minus the occupants, and the first of them is found by walking the
-        // occupants in order.
+        // Counted, never walked: `seq` is attacker-chosen, and a loop over
+        // [low, high] hangs on 0 and 1e15.
         const missingCount = high - low + 1 - present.size;
         const firstMissing = missingCount > 0 ? firstMissingSlot(present) : null;
         if (firstMissing !== null) {
@@ -378,11 +263,8 @@ function findingsFor(group) {
     return findings;
 }
 /**
- * Every record the chain reader places in a chain, in bundle order, with the
- * identity and pointer it read: the grouping `readChains` reads, over every
- * record an envelope binds, `event_bytes` or the inline `payload` where no
- * `event_bytes` travel, with the identity the SHA-256 of those bytes, exactly
- * as the envelope verifier binds `payload_hash`.
+ * Every record placed in a chain, in bundle order, with its identity and
+ * pointer. Reads `event_bytes`, or the inline `payload` where none travel.
  */
 export async function readChainLinks(bundle) {
     const links = [];
@@ -404,23 +286,15 @@ export async function readChainLinks(bundle) {
     return links.sort((a, b) => a.order - b.order);
 }
 /**
- * Follow every chain the bundle's records describe, and report the links that
- * do not resolve within it.
- *
- * Reports NOTHING for an intact chain, and nothing for a chain whose records
- * are withheld — a link we could not read is unknown, never an accusation.
- * `chains` is what makes that distinguishable from having read nothing at all.
+ * Report the links that do not resolve within the bundle. An intact chain, and
+ * one whose records are withheld, report nothing: an unreadable link is
+ * unknown, never an accusation.
  */
 export async function readChains(bundle) {
     const groups = await groupChains(bundle);
     const order = (g) => `${g.source} ${g.namespace ?? ""} ${g.chainKey}`;
-    // Ordered by UTF-16 code unit, NOT `localeCompare`. A chain key is caller
-    // text, and `localeCompare` with no locale argument answers from the host's
-    // ICU collation: measured here, it puts "chain-2" AFTER "chain_1" where every
-    // code-wise comparison puts it before, and it can differ between two
-    // TypeScript installs, let alone between kernels. The Python reader sorts the
-    // same key encoded as `utf-16-be`, which is exactly this comparison — so the
-    // two kernels emit findings in one order (proof#49).
+    // By UTF-16 code unit, not `localeCompare` (host-dependent ICU collation).
+    // Python sorts the key as `utf-16-be`, so both kernels emit one order.
     groups.sort((a, b) => {
         const x = order(a);
         const y = order(b);
@@ -438,12 +312,9 @@ export async function readChains(bundle) {
     };
 }
 /**
- * The house wording for one finding.
- *
- * Deliberately free of verdict vocabulary. Every sentence says what does not
- * resolve IN THIS BUNDLE, because that is the whole of what was checked; none
- * of them says failed, invalid, tampered or complete. A surface with its own
- * voice should read the fields instead — but it must not upgrade the claim.
+ * The house wording for one finding. Says only what does not resolve in this
+ * bundle, never failed, tampered or complete; a surface rewording it must not
+ * upgrade the claim.
  */
 export function renderChainFinding(finding, subject = "this bundle") {
     const where = finding.source === "adapter"
@@ -451,12 +322,14 @@ export function renderChainFinding(finding, subject = "this bundle") {
         : `chain ${finding.chainKey}`;
     switch (finding.kind) {
         case "chain-link-dangling":
-            return (`${where}: ${finding.count} of ${finding.of} record(s) point at a predecessor ` +
+            return (`${where}: ${finding.count} of ${finding.of} ` +
+                `${finding.of === 1 ? "record points" : "records point"} at a predecessor ` +
                 `${subject} does not present (first: ${finding.eventIds[0]}, pointer ` +
                 `${finding.unresolvedPointer})`);
         case "chain-gap":
-            return (`${where}: ${finding.count} sequence slot(s) between the records ${subject} presents ` +
-                `carry no record (first missing seq ${finding.firstMissingSeq}` +
+            return (`${where}: ${finding.count} sequence ` +
+                `${finding.count === 1 ? "slot" : "slots"} between the records ${subject} presents ` +
+                `${finding.count === 1 ? "carries" : "carry"} no record (first missing seq ${finding.firstMissingSeq}` +
                 `${finding.eventIds[0] === undefined ? "" : `, next present: ${finding.eventIds[0]}`})`);
         case "chain-second-root":
             return (`${where}: ${finding.count} records begin the chain where one chain has one beginning ` +