0.9.4 — The gate judges the sources on disk

In one line: the gate now reads the code that is actually in your repository — projects it used to misjudge pass honestly, and checks it cannot run tell you exactly how to turn them on.

Why this release exists

If your product's language differed from its build files — a C++ SDK built through Gradle, a Rust core shipped via npm — cladding insisted your spec was wrong, and the only way to a green gate was to write the wrong language into it. We measured the damage before fixing it: across 32 realistic project shapes, 12 of the 25 normal ones were wrongly blocked, and on the motivating shape an honest green could not be reached at all. This release fixes the judgment itself, not the symptom.

What changed for you

• The language check reads your sources, not your build manifest. A language cladding does not know, or too little evidence to judge, now means silence instead of a false alarm. A spec that genuinely contradicts the code still blocks — with the evidence in the message. After the fix: 0 of those 25 shapes blocked, no real drift missed, and the honest green that was impossible now completes 3 out of 3 times at about 20% lower cost (blinded A/B, n=3, with a control showing no change where nothing was broken).

• The unclaimed-file scan now works for any language. On C++, Java, or C# projects it used to scan nothing and pass — quietly. It now learns what "source" means from your tree and your spec: claim one file of any language and its unclaimed siblings become visible. An empty scan says so instead of looking like a pass.

• Your gate settings finally travel with the repo. The file that tunes the gate could never be committed — an ignore rule made it structurally impossible — so CI silently ran a different gate than you did. New projects get it committable out of the box; existing projects get a doctor notice, never a silent rewrite of your files.

• Skipped checks name their exit. When checks skip because cladding cannot run your language's tools, the result ends with the one declaration that turns them on. A quiet skip no longer reads like a verification.

• Cladding now watches itself. clad doctor proves the editor hooks actually fired instead of trusting the config text, every blocked stop and completed feature leaves evidence, generated CI is pinned to your release line, and each verified tree records which engine and which checks verified it.

Also

• Security: the MCP transport dependency chain was refreshed; both npm audits report zero known vulnerabilities.
• Every number above has a receipt: the full record lives in CHANGELOG.md, and the blinded experiment that decides what this page may claim lives in docs/ab-evaluation/case-version-ab-093-vs-next.md.