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+# Fleet arbiter checkpoint — 2026-10-03, 05:58 UTC
+
+## Outcome
+
+The owner-approved blocker-clearing directive produced concrete component
+commits and exact QA contributor consent. No new verified fleet landing has
+been established in this checkpoint. Automatic usage reached the approved
+48-turn cap; no additional provider turns were started or budget increased.
+
+## Decisions and evidence
+
+- Work committed its read-only convergence component at
+  `7e0734ae90314b6182046b1d813efd40b453743f`.
+- Release committed read-only CLI routing at
+  `dd77b7015e5d34851725237d6f424babccf7f7d4`.
+- QA message `c3f7ac15-5d40-4f85-a27b-6d5837b141a9` approved the exact
+  compact-card source/test contribution. Actual browser capability remains
+  unavailable in those native sessions; this is not visual acceptance.
+- Arbiter directive `8865db38-a077-4935-a154-7b566d65aa44` authorized
+  source-only isolated composition without managed-branch convergence or
+  integration. Corresponding directives were persisted for all implementers.
+
+## Concrete compatibility failure
+
+A detached checkout at canonical
+`7e3d333c5467c15d72be950f1fac9c3cd5439aee` was created at
+`/tmp/torch-readonly-composition-EirOji/candidate`. Applying exactly Kernel
+`18ccb0890d93c8a01e2c2d96db775b1ec14fe973` with `cherry-pick -x` produced
+content conflicts in `src/control-plane/service.mjs`. Composition stopped;
+Work and Release components were not applied, and no composed test PASS is
+claimed. The conflicted detached checkout is retained as diagnostic evidence.
+Canonical and managed agent checkouts were not altered by this operation.
+
+The conflicts expose future schema-v3/reservation prerequisites absent from
+canonical, which initializes schema version 2. The reader requires
+`runtime_launch_reservations`, and its branch-local refusal scenario treats
+version 2 as incompatible. Pulling the entire future branch would therefore
+broaden this narrow current-branch unblock into an architecture upgrade.
+
+The existing Kernel reader tests passed 2/2 on the Kernel branch under hermetic
+fixtures (`/tmp/torch-reader-component-review-20261003.log`). This is source
+review evidence only: it does not establish canonical compatibility, composed
+CLI behavior, operational receipts, independent QA, or installed qualification.
+
+## Next bounded action
+
+Kernel should supply a current-canonical-compatible reader slice without
+future reservation APIs, schema migration or live writer initialization. QA
+must approve strict version-relative refusal scenarios, not weaken assertions.
+Immutable SQLite observation also needs a demonstrated consistent snapshot or
+fail-closed behavior under concurrent writers, not only a sidecar precheck.
+Correction request `34a90b11-a64d-4ed7-a7ae-cf2ba8ef46f2` and corresponding
+manager/peer requests preserve the exact evidence and composition boundary.
+
+## Controller handoff
+
+The old three-slot controller drained without termination. At 05:57:52 UTC,
+the replacement seven-slot worker ran, obtained the released controller lock,
+and returned `daily-turn-cap` with `launched: []`. This verifies a cap-preserving
+handoff, not seven concurrent native workers or reboot persistence. The
+replacement timer remains configured; the ledger was not reset.
+
+## Remaining gates
+
+Current-base compatible composition, strict composed CLI scenarios, exact
+source gates, independent QA, guarded serialized integration and next-work
+continuation remain open. Native execution cannot continue today without an
+explicit new budget decision; the existing policy resets its daily allowance
+at UTC midnight. No deployment, installed-runtime upgrade, live DDL, authority
+expansion or completion assertion follows from this checkpoint.