diff --git a/scripts/check-changeset-no-major.mjs b/scripts/check-changeset-no-major.mjs
index baa38917fe8..684f869f0cb 100644
--- a/scripts/check-changeset-no-major.mjs
+++ b/scripts/check-changeset-no-major.mjs
@@ -919,7 +919,8 @@ export function render(result) {
 //   * PR #16347 (head `23443ce169af`) — `@objectstack/lint` graded `minor`, and
 //     that is where the widening is (a new field-typed refusal arm on
 //     `filter-preset-comparand`); `@objectstack/spec` graded `patch`, and what
-//     it received is ONE re-worded TSDoc comment at `date-range-presets.ts:101`.
+//     it received is ONE re-worded TSDoc comment in
+//     `packages/spec/src/data/date-range-presets.ts` (line 101 as measured).
 //     The gate refused, and it refused the SPEC line — the package that did not
 //     grow — while never naming the package that did.
 //
diff --git a/scripts/check-scripts-symbol-anchors.mjs b/scripts/check-scripts-symbol-anchors.mjs
index 68940d132cb..ed49c51adff 100644
--- a/scripts/check-scripts-symbol-anchors.mjs
+++ b/scripts/check-scripts-symbol-anchors.mjs
@@ -76,14 +76,26 @@
  * second round (#15809, still) migrated the 7 of those 15 whose holders had
  * by then merged -- `check-docs-section-name.mjs` and
  * `docs-audit/affected-docs.mjs` (3 each) and `check-type-check-coverage.mjs`
- * (1) -- leaving 8, again every one held OPEN and none an ambiguity: 4 in
- * `check-system-context-census.mjs` and 3 in `cross-package-test-inputs.mjs`
- * (PR #16215), 1 in `pm/check-half-states.mjs` (PR #16202). Both counts are
- * DATED readings; `--list-unresolvable` is the live one. ⚠️ It is why the
- * flag is still `false`: the fence #15809 was dispatched under is that it flips
- * only when the residual is ZERO and a self-test pins the flip, and a residual
- * of 8 would make this gate permanently red for the length of somebody else's
- * pull request. `--list-unresolvable` prints the residual so the next author
+ * (1) -- leaving 8, again every one held OPEN and none an ambiguity.
+ *
+ * ⚠️ THE RESIDUAL IS NOT A BURN-DOWN -- IT REGROWS. When a third round
+ * (#15809, still) was dispatched the same command printed 18, not 8: gate
+ * header prose written in between had added citations faster than round two
+ * removed them. That round migrated 6 of the 18 -- one in
+ * `check-changeset-no-major.mjs`, three in `cross-package-test-inputs.mjs`,
+ * two in `ts-parse.mjs` -- leaving 12, and ⛛ every one of those 12 sits on
+ * another seat's surface (the `pm` patrol instruments, the governed-surface
+ * audit, and `check-spec-docblock-symbol-anchors.mjs`, whose SUBJECT is
+ * `packages/spec` docblocks), so that round ⛔ judged none of them. Every
+ * count here is a DATED reading; `--list-unresolvable` is the live one. ⚠️ It
+ * is why the flag is still `false`: the fence #15809 was dispatched under is
+ * that it flips only when the residual is ZERO and a self-test pins the flip,
+ * and a residual of 12 would make this gate permanently red for the length of
+ * somebody else's pull request. ⭐ A residual that regrows is itself the
+ * question the card leaves to triage: flipping at zero flips into a gate that
+ * reds on the next author's first bare citation, so what the flag needs is a
+ * remedy for an unbindable abbreviation, not a smaller number.
+ * `--list-unresolvable` prints the residual so the next author
  * inherits a worklist rather than a count; the day it prints nothing, the flag
  * is a one-line change with a case to pin it.
  *
diff --git a/scripts/cross-package-test-inputs.mjs b/scripts/cross-package-test-inputs.mjs
index c0e8de4622c..b2b9cb54b56 100644
--- a/scripts/cross-package-test-inputs.mjs
+++ b/scripts/cross-package-test-inputs.mjs
@@ -160,11 +160,12 @@ export const CROSS_PACKAGE_TEST_INPUTS = {
       // instead would re-assert the rule and see nothing about what is
       // checked in.
       //
-      // src/shared/retired-key-migrate-sentence.test.ts also reads this
-      // root (`PUBLISHED_SKILLS_ROOT`, `:102`) as the second corpus for its
-      // widened population (#10848, see the `.claude` entry above) — "plus
-      // every `.md` file under `skills/`" (`:92`), emitted as
-      // `skills:`-prefixed entries (`:484-485`).
+      // `packages/spec/src/shared/retired-key-migrate-sentence.test.ts` also
+      // reads this root (`PUBLISHED_SKILLS_ROOT`, line 102 as measured) as the
+      // second corpus for its widened population (#10848, see the `.claude`
+      // entry above) — "plus every `.md` file under `skills/`" (line 92 as
+      // measured), emitted as `skills:`-prefixed entries (lines 484-485 as
+      // measured).
       //
       // The whole subtree rather than `skills/*/references/_index.md`: the test
       // reads the DIRECTORY too (a new skill dir changes its verdict), and a
diff --git a/scripts/ts-parse.mjs b/scripts/ts-parse.mjs
index be83f4e875d..10fa9126099 100644
--- a/scripts/ts-parse.mjs
+++ b/scripts/ts-parse.mjs
@@ -1137,9 +1137,10 @@ export function selfTest() {
 
     // ⭐⭐ THE FOURTH DOOR. The fixtures are the census's own round trip, spelled
     // the way the census spells it: a receiver type authored across lines, put
-    // through `.replace(/\s+/g, ' ')` -- the collapse at
-    // `tenant-audit-census.mjs:459` -- and wrapped in the synthetic alias its
-    // `:723` builds. Measured 2026-09-18 on TypeScript 6.0.3: the AUTHORED
+    // through `.replace(/\s+/g, ' ')` -- the collapse in
+    // `scripts/tenant-audit-census.mjs` (line 459 as measured) -- and wrapped
+    // in the synthetic alias its line 723 (as measured) builds. Measured
+    // 2026-09-18 on TypeScript 6.0.3: the AUTHORED
     // spelling is legal TypeScript (0 diagnostics), the COLLAPSED one is not
     // (1: "';' expected"), and the SEMICOLON spelling is the card's lit control.
     // All three are held here, because only the set of them says the defect is