---
name: defect-can-be-asserted-by-a-passing-test
description: "A defect you are fixing may be PINNED by a green test tagged as its REQ's own evidence — your fix reds it, and that red is the finding, not a regression."
metadata: 
  node_type: memory
  type: feedback
  originSessionId: deb19761-0f50-4b60-882b-0f49ad9c8666
  modified: 2026-08-19T09:40:20.603Z
---

Fixing releases#197 (ER bring-up counted an ABSENT code as a wrong guess) turned a green
broker cell red: `a_refused_bring_up_starts_nothing_mints_nothing_and_answers_typed` arm (c)
asserted `failures == 1` after a codeless bring-up, commenting *"'no code' is a guess with the
digits left out, so it costs the same"* — and it was tagged `[unit->REQ-ER-BRINGUP-ATTEMPT-BOUND]`,
i.e. it was that requirement's OWN unit evidence. The same doctrine also sat in the
`BringUpReq.code` WIRE DOC and an rc.rs cell comment. Three encodings, one wrong rule.

**Why:** a defect that survived review usually survived because someone WROTE IT DOWN as
intended. The requirement text, the wire contract, and a passing test can all state it, so
"the tests pass" and "a reader can derive the rule" both certify the bug. Read the red as
evidence about the RULE's reach, not as breakage to route around: it told me the requirement
MOVES rather than sharpens, which is what the gater prices at intake.

**How to apply:** when a fix reddens a pre-existing green cell, READ THE CELL'S COMMENT AND ITS
REQ TAG before touching it. If it asserts the old rule deliberately, (a) MOVE the cell with its
requirement — rewrite the arm, keep it, say in the commit that an authored assertion was
retired; never delete it, and never weaken your fix to keep it green; (b) sweep the same
doctrine out of every other encoding — grep the defect's own phrasing across product docs,
wire-struct docs and test comments, not just code (see [[retraction-sweeps-diagnostic-strings]]);
(c) report it to the gater as a finding in its own right. Corollary: a cell reddened this way is
also proof your fix is REACHED — a free positive control ([[make-a-new-rig-red-on-purpose]]).
Related: [[amendment-falsifies-more-than-named]], [[correct-by-replacement-not-annotation]].