---
name: intermittent-green-is-zero-information
description: "BINDING: a pass from a test that ALSO passed while the defect was live cannot corroborate the repair — it is zero information, not weak evidence"
metadata: 
  node_type: memory
  type: feedback
  originSessionId: b92eeee4-bbf1-4d22-b02f-a83d4e68fe0a
  modified: 2026-07-29T23:37:42.191Z
---

**A green from an intermittent test is ZERO information about a repair, not weak evidence.** Before
citing any pass as corroboration, ask: *did this same test also pass at the pre-repair sha?* If yes,
the pass cannot distinguish REPAIRED from LUCKY, and quoting it smuggles a null measurement into a
ruling.

Caught 2026-07-29 (todlando corrected doyle, ruling accepted and the claim withdrawn). doyle cited
`unit (self-hosted, Linux, kitsubito)` SUCCESS at `6bf2bd9` as corroboration that hertz's repair
closed main's Linux bystander red at `af65ac0`. But that same test passed at `af65ac0` in golden's
full-suite Linux job and in todlando's local battery **while the defect was live** — the failure is
order/ordering-dependent ([[bystander-test-reads-process-global]]). So a green there is precisely
the green the broken code already produced.

**Why:** this is [[verdict-from-probe-competence]] applied to a *repair* instead of a hunt — an
instrument that returns the same reading in both worlds is not measuring the thing you are ruling
on. It is more dangerous than a missing measurement, because a cited green reads like confirmation
in a handoff and survives into someone else's ruling.

**How to apply:** (1) for an intermittent defect, the ruling is STRUCTURAL — name the construction
that makes the failure impossible (here: the assertion reads an explicit `*_at(home)` seam with no
live `spt_home()` call in it), plus evidence at the tree that ships; (2) do not cite the flaky
test's pass in the handoff at all — dropping it is the fix, not caveating it; (3) the sibling probe
is "what reading would this instrument give if the defect were STILL live?" — if the answer is "the
same one", stop. Kin: [[absence-needs-sibling-probe]], [[verdict-from-exit-not-from-silence]],
[[seam-touched-red-needs-repeat-proof]], [[milestone-a-golden-landed]].