CB-WP-0016: the drop target that was never there

Provenance (tier S, one paragraph in lieu of survey and ADR): the human
check that kept INTENT stage 1 open was run and the drag was broken.
Root cause, worth more than the instance: drop targets were ids, and an
id must be unique, so exactly one element could ever be seat-0. The
relationship-graph circle took it and the seat card that every action
card's own text points at -- 'drag Attack onto a seat' -- silently had
none. A seat is drawn twice and both drawings are the seat; the document
model could not express that.

Drop keys are now data-drop. Any number of elements may carry the same
key, so a seat is droppable on its card and on its graph node. Measured
on a live server: seat-0/1/2 each appear twice, id survives only on
cb-status which is the one element the script looks up, and
down=action-attack&up=seat-1 returns ok.

Second defect: a drop on nothing returned without posting and without
touching the status line, so a broken target was indistinguishable from
a working page. resolve already refuses rather than defaulting, which is
right; refusing SILENTLY is not. The page now reports the raw fact --
'took action-attack, let go over nothing droppable' -- which names
elements, not moves, so ADR-0007 control 5 holds.

And the honest part: the general check added here -- every offered
affordance names a key that exists, driven through Policy::choose over
four real bot games -- does NOT catch the reported defect. seat-0 did
exist, on the graph circle. It is kept because a wholly absent target is
a real class, and paired with a targeted regression test that does catch
it. Three mutations, each red for its stated reason, including the
reported defect reintroduced; only the targeted test fires on that one.

A cb-play assertion matched id="action-ground" as a substring while
describing itself as checking the page; rewritten through drop_keys.

make all exits 0. Stage 1 stays open: verified by tests, mutation and a
live server, not by a human dragging.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Cargo.lock

@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ dependencies = [
 name = "cb-render-html"
 version = "0.1.0"
 dependencies = [
+ "cb-game-runtime",
  "cb-kernel",
  "games-ground",
  "quick-js",

INTENT.md

@@ -64,11 +64,14 @@ game.
    and scenario tests, simple bots. No rendering, no physics.
 1. **Inspectable 2D table** — card/token/hand/relationship-graph
    visualization, drag-to-propose, debug inspector, hot-seat play.
-   *Open on one human verification (CB-EV-0012 §4): the inspector,
+   *Open on one human verification. The first run of it (2026-08-02)
-   drag-to-propose and hot-seat play are evidenced by executing code;
+   found the table legible and the drag **broken**: drop targets were
-   the visualization is evidenced only as correctly emitted, because no
+   `id`s, an `id` must be unique, so the relationship-graph circle held
-   browser is available to the loop. Run `cb-play --serve 0`, open the
+   `seat-0` and the seat card the page points at had none. Fixed in
-   printed URL, and confirm the table reads and a drag works.*
+   CB-WP-0016 — drop keys are `data-drop` — and verified by tests, by
+   mutation, and against a live server, but **not** by a human dragging,
+   which is the standard that found it. Run `cb-play --serve 0`, open the
+   printed URL, and drag an action onto a seat card.*
 2. **Physical 3D tabletop** — wgpu renderer, Rapier-backed physics, camera
    and pointer controls, snap zones, asset importer.
 3. **Networked sessions** — authoritative host, private projections,

crates/cb-render-html/Cargo.toml

@@ -25,6 +25,11 @@ quick-js = { version = "0.4", optional = true }
 [dev-dependencies]
 # The coverage gate walks the serialized view; nothing else needs it.
 serde_json.workspace = true
+# CB-WP-0016 T03 drives a real bot game to render at real decision points.
+# A workspace crate, so AM-4 is unmoved: it counts third-party code.
+# `scenarios` carries GroundState::setup, which the walk needs to deal a game.
+cb-game-runtime = { workspace = true, features = ["scenarios"] }
+games-ground = { workspace = true, features = ["scenarios"] }
 quick-js = "0.4"
 
 [lints]

crates/cb-render-html/src/doc.rs

@@ -57,15 +57,25 @@ fn cards(list: &[games_ground::SolutionCard]) -> String {
 pub const SCRIPT: &str = r#"
 (function () {
   var down = null;
-  function id(e) {
+  function key(e) {
     var n = e.target;
-    while (n && !n.id) { n = n.parentNode; }
+    while (n && !(n.getAttribute && n.getAttribute('data-drop'))) { n = n.parentNode; }
-    return n ? n.id : null;
+    return n ? n.getAttribute('data-drop') : null;
   }
-  document.addEventListener('pointerdown', function (e) { down = id(e); });
+  document.addEventListener('pointerdown', function (e) { down = key(e); });
   document.addEventListener('pointerup', function (e) {
-    var up = id(e);
+    var up = key(e);
-    if (!down || !up) { down = null; return; }
+    if (!down || !up) {
+      // CB-WP-0016 T02: refusing is right; refusing SILENTLY is what let a
+      // broken drop target survive a human sitting in front of it. Report
+      // the raw fact — which element the pointer took and where it let go.
+      // This decides nothing: it names elements, not moves.
+      document.getElementById('cb-status').textContent =
+        down ? 'took ' + down + ', let go over nothing droppable'
+             : 'nothing droppable under the pointer';
+      down = null;
+      return;
+    }
     var body = 'down=' + encodeURIComponent(down) + '&up=' + encodeURIComponent(up);
     down = null;
     fetch(window.CB_ENDPOINT, {
@@ -122,7 +132,7 @@ fn problem_svg(out: &mut String, priority: u32, p: &ProblemView, x: i32) {
     };
     let _ = write!(
         out,
-        "<g id=\"problem-{priority}\"><rect x=\"{x}\" y=\"10\" width=\"120\" height=\"78\" rx=\"8\" \
+        "<g data-drop=\"problem-{priority}\"><rect x=\"{x}\" y=\"10\" width=\"120\" height=\"78\" rx=\"8\" \
          fill=\"{fill}\" stroke=\"#5a6b7a\"/>\
          <text x=\"{tx}\" y=\"36\" fill=\"#dde\" font-size=\"13\">{label}</text>\
          <text x=\"{tx}\" y=\"56\" fill=\"#89a\" font-size=\"11\">priority {priority}</text>\
@@ -182,7 +192,7 @@ fn relations_svg(view: &GroundView) -> String {
             .map(|f| format!(" \u{2192}{}", seat_name(*f)));
         let _ = write!(
             s,
-            "<g id=\"seat-{raw}\"><circle cx=\"{x:.0}\" cy=\"{y:.0}\" r=\"26\" fill=\"#1b1e26\" \
+            "<g data-drop=\"seat-{raw}\"><circle cx=\"{x:.0}\" cy=\"{y:.0}\" r=\"26\" fill=\"#1b1e26\" \
              stroke=\"{stroke}\" stroke-width=\"2\"/>\
              <text x=\"{x:.0}\" y=\"{ty:.0}\" fill=\"#dde\" font-size=\"12\" \
              text-anchor=\"middle\">{name}</text>\
@@ -204,7 +214,13 @@ fn player_card(out: &mut String, id: PlayerId, p: &PlayerView, view: &GroundView
     let is_viewer = view.viewer == Some(id);
     let _ = write!(
         out,
-        "<div class=\"card\" data-viewer=\"{is_viewer}\"><b>{name}</b>{you}<br>",
+        // CB-WP-0016 T01: the seat card is a drop target. It could not be
+        // while drop keys were `id`s — the graph node had already taken
+        // `seat-{n}` and ids must be unique, so the card the instruction
+        // text points at silently had none.
+        "<div class=\"card\" data-viewer=\"{is_viewer}\" data-drop=\"seat-{raw}\">\
+         <b>{name}</b>{you}<br>",
+        raw = id.0,
         name = seat_name(id),
         you = if is_viewer { " (you)" } else { "" },
     );
@@ -216,7 +232,7 @@ fn player_card(out: &mut String, id: PlayerId, p: &PlayerView, view: &GroundView
     );
     let _ = write!(
         out,
-        "<span id=\"freedom-{raw}\" class=\"act\"><span class=\"k\">freedom</span> \
+        "<span data-drop=\"freedom-{raw}\" class=\"act\"><span class=\"k\">freedom</span> \
          {ready}{lifted}</span><br>",
         raw = id.0,
         ready = if p.freedom_ready { "READY" } else { "spent" },
@@ -422,7 +438,7 @@ pub fn document(
             if offered {
                 let _ = write!(
                     s,
-                    "<div class=\"card act\" id=\"{id}\">drag {a:?} onto a seat, a problem, \
+                    "<div class=\"card act\" data-drop=\"{id}\">drag {a:?} onto a seat, a problem, \
                      or the table</div>",
                     id = action_id(a),
                 );
@@ -434,18 +450,18 @@ pub fn document(
             if !spatial {
                 let _ = write!(
                     s,
-                    "<div class=\"card btn\" id=\"cmd-{i}\">{}</div>",
+                    "<div class=\"card btn\" data-drop=\"cmd-{i}\">{}</div>",
                     esc(&format!("{c:?}"))
                 );
             }
         }
         s.push_str(
-            "</div><div class=\"card\" id=\"table\">the table \u{2014} drop here for an \
+            "</div><div class=\"card\" data-drop=\"table\">the table \u{2014} drop here for an \
                     untargeted action</div>",
         );
     }
     if may_pass {
-        s.push_str("<div class=\"card btn\" id=\"pass\">pass \u{2014} decline to act</div>");
+        s.push_str("<div class=\"card btn\" data-drop=\"pass\">pass \u{2014} decline to act</div>");
     }
 
     let _ = write!(
@@ -485,6 +501,34 @@ fn json_string(s: &str) -> String {
 /// that parse: it drops markup and returns what a reader would see, plus
 /// the ids a pointer can address. A substring search over the raw source
 /// would happily find a token inside a comment or a style rule.
+/// Every `data-drop="…"` value in the document.
+///
+/// CB-WP-0016. A real parse of the attribute rather than a substring
+/// search: `html.contains("seat-1")` would be satisfied by the *text*
+/// "seat-1" and by `data-drop="seat-10"`, and the point of the check this
+/// feeds is that an affordance can name a target that is not there.
+///
+/// **Drop keys are `data-drop`, not `id`, and that is the fix for
+/// CB-WP-0016.** An `id` must be unique in a document, so exactly one
+/// element could ever be `seat-0` — the relationship-graph circle took it
+/// and the seat card the instruction text points at went without. A seat
+/// is drawn twice and both drawings are the seat.
+pub fn drop_keys(html: &str) -> std::collections::BTreeSet<String> {
+    let mut out = std::collections::BTreeSet::new();
+    let mut rest = html;
+    while let Some(i) = rest.find("data-drop=\"") {
+        let after = &rest[i + 11..];
+        match after.find('"') {
+            Some(j) => {
+                out.insert(after[..j].to_string());
+                rest = &after[j..];
+            }
+            None => break,
+        }
+    }
+    out
+}
+
 pub fn text_of(html: &str) -> String {
     let mut out = String::with_capacity(html.len() / 2);
     let bytes: Vec<char> = html.chars().collect();

crates/cb-render-html/src/jsrun.rs

@@ -67,8 +67,20 @@ function fetch(url, opts) {
   var chainable = { then: function () { return chainable; } };
   return chainable;
 }
-function __down(id) { __handlers['pointerdown']({ target: { id: id } }); }
+// A node carrying one data-drop key, with a null parent — so the
-function __up(id) { __handlers['pointerup']({ target: { id: id } }); }
+// script's walk up the tree terminates the way it does in a browser.
+function __node(k) {
+  return {
+    getAttribute: function (a) { return a === 'data-drop' ? k : null; },
+    parentNode: null
+  };
+}
+function __down(k) { __handlers['pointerdown']({ target: __node(k) }); }
+function __up(k) { __handlers['pointerup']({ target: __node(k) }); }
+// A node with no key at all, whose parent chain ends: what the pointer
+// lands on when it is dropped somewhere that is not a target.
+function __downNowhere() { __handlers['pointerdown']({ target: __node(null) }); }
+function __upNowhere() { __handlers['pointerup']({ target: __node(null) }); }
 "#;
 
 /// Run the document's scripts, then a pointer gesture, and report what
@@ -276,6 +288,43 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(e.contains("no pointer handlers"), "{e}");
     }
 
+    /// CB-WP-0016 T02. A drop on nothing must SAY so.
+    ///
+    /// The old script returned without posting and without touching the
+    /// status line, so a broken drop target was indistinguishable from a
+    /// page that was working — which is exactly how the seat-card defect
+    /// survived until a human tried it.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_drop_on_nothing_reports_instead_of_going_quiet() {
+        let html = page();
+        let ctx = quick_js::Context::new().expect("ctx");
+        let posted = Arc::new(Mutex::new(0usize));
+        let sink = posted.clone();
+        ctx.add_callback("__post", move |_u: String, _b: String| {
+            *sink.lock().expect("posted") += 1;
+            0i32
+        })
+        .expect("cb");
+        ctx.add_callback("__reloaded", || 0i32).expect("cb");
+        ctx.eval(DOM).expect("dom");
+        for s in scripts(&html) {
+            ctx.eval(&s).expect("script");
+        }
+        ctx.eval("__down('action-attack'); __upNowhere();")
+            .expect("gesture");
+
+        // Nothing goes on the wire: there is no fact to report.
+        assert_eq!(*posted.lock().expect("posted"), 0);
+        // But the page does not go quiet about it.
+        let status: String = ctx
+            .eval_as("__status.textContent")
+            .expect("status readable");
+        assert!(
+            status.contains("action-attack") && status.contains("nothing droppable"),
+            "a drop on nothing said {status:?}"
+        );
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn both_script_blocks_are_extracted_in_order() {
         let found = scripts(&page());

crates/cb-render-html/src/lib.rs

@@ -331,5 +331,184 @@ mod coverage {
     }
 }
 
+/// CB-WP-0016 T03: every affordance the page offers must name an element
+/// the page actually contains.
+///
+/// **This is the check that closes the class the human check found.** On
+/// 2026-08-02 the maintainer ran `cb-play --serve 0` and could not drag an
+/// action onto a seat. Every test in the repo was green. The cause: the
+/// visible seat cards carried no `id`, so `seat-{n}` existed only on the
+/// 26 px circles inside the relationship graph, while every action card
+/// read *"drag Attack onto a seat…"*.
+///
+/// Nothing could catch it. `jsrun::gesture` feeds element ids straight
+/// into a synthetic `{target:{id}}` and never hit-tests, so it establishes
+/// *"the script posts the ids it was given"* — never *"there is an element
+/// there to give."* The 42-path coverage gate asserts each view field is
+/// present in the parsed document, which a `<div>` with no id satisfies.
+///
+/// So: drive a real game, and at every decision point require that both
+/// halves of every offered affordance appear as real `id` attributes.
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod affordances {
+    use std::cell::RefCell;
+    use std::rc::Rc;
+
+    use cb_game_runtime::{Project, ScenarioGame, Setup, Viewer};
+    use cb_kernel::PlayerId;
+    use games_ground::bot::{play, Choice, Policy, RandomPolicy};
+    use games_ground::{GroundCommand, GroundState};
+
+    use crate::{doc, input};
+
+    fn fresh(seed: u64) -> GroundState {
+        GroundState::setup(
+            &Setup {
+                players: 3,
+                preset: "standard-3p".into(),
+                patch: std::collections::BTreeMap::new(),
+            },
+            seed,
+        )
+        .expect("a standard 3p deal")
+    }
+
+    /// Renders the page at every real decision point and checks it, then
+    /// delegates the actual choice.
+    ///
+    /// Hooking `Policy` rather than re-driving the game by hand matters:
+    /// these are the *same* decision points `cb-play --serve` renders at,
+    /// with the same `legal` list. A hand-rolled walk would be a second
+    /// implementation of the loop, and could agree with itself while
+    /// disagreeing with the thing shipped.
+    struct CheckingPolicy {
+        inner: RandomPolicy,
+        checked: Rc<RefCell<usize>>,
+    }
+
+    impl Policy for CheckingPolicy {
+        fn name(&self) -> &'static str {
+            "affordance-checking"
+        }
+
+        fn choose(
+            &mut self,
+            state: &GroundState,
+            seat: PlayerId,
+            legal: &[GroundCommand],
+            may_pass: bool,
+        ) -> Choice {
+            let view = state.project(Viewer::Player(seat));
+            let html = doc::document(&view, legal, "/command?t=x", Some(seat), may_pass);
+            let present = doc::drop_keys(&html);
+
+            for cmd in legal {
+                let Some((from, to)) = input::affordance(cmd, seat) else {
+                    // A command with no affordance is offered through the
+                    // numbered-button path instead. That is a stated
+                    // shape, not a missing element.
+                    continue;
+                };
+                assert!(
+                    present.contains(&from),
+                    "the page offers {cmd:?} whose GRAB id {from:?} is not an \
+                     element in the document (seat {seat:?}, step {:?})",
+                    state.step
+                );
+                assert!(
+                    present.contains(&to),
+                    "the page offers {cmd:?} whose DROP id {to:?} is not an \
+                     element in the document (seat {seat:?}, step {:?}). \
+                     Present ids: {present:?}",
+                    state.step
+                );
+            }
+            *self.checked.borrow_mut() += 1;
+            self.inner.choose(state, seat, legal, may_pass)
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// **The check that closes the class the human check found.**
+    ///
+    /// On 2026-08-02 the maintainer ran `cb-play --serve 0` and could not
+    /// drag an action onto a seat. Every test in the repo was green. The
+    /// cause: the visible seat cards carried no `id`, so `seat-{n}` existed
+    /// only on the 26 px circles inside the relationship graph, while every
+    /// action card read *"drag Attack onto a seat…"*.
+    ///
+    /// Nothing could catch it. `jsrun::gesture` feeds element ids straight
+    /// into a synthetic `{target:{id}}` and never hit-tests, so it
+    /// establishes *"the script posts the ids it was given"* — never
+    /// *"there is an element there to give."* The coverage gate asserts
+    /// each view field appears in the parsed document, which a `<div>` with
+    /// no id satisfies perfectly.
+    ///
+    /// An affordance naming an element that does not exist is the
+    /// harness-does-nothing shape in the presentation layer, and until now
+    /// it had no detector at all.
+    #[test]
+    fn every_offered_affordance_names_an_element_that_exists() {
+        let checked = Rc::new(RefCell::new(0usize));
+        for seed in 0..4u64 {
+            let mut policies: Vec<Box<dyn Policy>> = (0..3)
+                .map(|i| {
+                    Box::new(CheckingPolicy {
+                        inner: RandomPolicy::new(seed * 10 + i),
+                        checked: checked.clone(),
+                    }) as Box<dyn Policy>
+                })
+                .collect();
+            play(fresh(seed), &mut policies).expect("a bot game completes");
+        }
+        // Positive control: a run that rendered nothing would assert
+        // nothing and read as a pass — the exact failure this test exists
+        // to catch, one level up.
+        let n = *checked.borrow();
+        assert!(n >= 50, "checked only {n} decision point(s)");
+    }
+
+    /// **The regression test for the defect actually reported**, and the
+    /// reason the check above is not sufficient on its own.
+    ///
+    /// `every_offered_affordance_names_an_element_that_exists` passes on
+    /// the broken tree. `seat-0` *did* exist — on the 26 px circle in the
+    /// relationship graph — so an existence check over the whole document
+    /// cannot see that the seat *card*, which is what the instruction text
+    /// points at, was not droppable.
+    ///
+    /// A seat is drawn twice and both drawings are the seat. This asserts
+    /// the card specifically, by requiring the drop key on the element
+    /// that also carries `data-viewer` — the card, and nothing else.
+    #[test]
+    fn every_seat_card_is_a_drop_target_not_only_the_graph_node() {
+        let view = crate::testfix::view(Some(PlayerId(0)));
+        let html = doc::document(&view, &[], "/command?t=x", Some(PlayerId(0)), false);
+
+        for seat in view.players.keys() {
+            let card = format!(
+                "data-viewer=\"{}\" data-drop=\"seat-{}\"",
+                view.viewer == Some(*seat),
+                seat.0
+            );
+            assert!(
+                html.contains(&card),
+                "seat {seat:?} has a card that is not a drop target; looked for {card:?}"
+            );
+        }
+
+        // And the graph node keeps working — someone will have learned to
+        // aim at the circle, and this fix must not take that away.
+        let keys = doc::drop_keys(&html);
+        for seat in view.players.keys() {
+            assert!(keys.contains(&format!("seat-{}", seat.0)));
+        }
+        assert_eq!(
+            html.matches("data-drop=\"seat-0\"").count(),
+            2,
+            "seat 0 should be droppable in exactly two places: card and graph node"
+        );
+    }
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod testfix;

evidence/CB-EV-0014-the-drop-target.md

@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+# CB-EV-0014 — what the human check bought
+
+CB-WP-0016 T03. Measured 2026-08-02 at `4df2d0a`+. Pass kind `product`,
+tier **S** (chaos d4=3, no override). Declaration 11 of 12.
+
+Cost quotes **CB-WP-0015's** figure, per CB-EV-0012's rule and with the
+correction CB-EV-0013 §5 attached to it. See §5.
+
+---
+
+## 1. The check found a defect every test in the repo was blind to
+
+CB-EV-0012 §4 kept INTENT stage 1 open on one action the loop could not
+perform. The maintainer ran it. **The table reads. The drag did not work.**
+
+Diagnosed against the live server *before* any code changed, which is what
+made the rest cheap:
+
+```
+POST down=action-attack&up=seat-1        →  ok   (the game advanced)
+POST down=action-attack&up=action-attack →  "not a legal move here"
+```
+
+Socket, token guard, `resolve` and dispatch: all correct. The defect was in
+the page, and it had a root cause worth more than the instance:
+
+> **Drop targets were `id`s, and an `id` must be unique.** So exactly one
+> element could ever be `seat-0`. The relationship-graph circle took it,
+> and the seat *card* — which every action card's own text points at,
+> *"drag Attack onto a seat…"* — silently had none.
+
+A seat is drawn twice and both drawings are the seat. The document model
+could not express that.
+
+## 2. Why nothing caught it, stated precisely
+
+| control | why it was blind |
+|---|---|
+| `jsrun::gesture` | calls `__down(id)`, which synthesized `{target:{id}}`. It feeds element ids straight in and **never hit-tests** — it establishes *"the script posts the ids it was given"*, never *"there is an element there to give"* |
+| the 42-path coverage gate | asserts each view field is present in the **parsed document**. A `<div>` with no id satisfies that perfectly |
+| `resolve`'s unit tests | test the mapping from a fact to a command. The fact never arrives |
+| M-D1-MUT | its population is the AM-* acceptance rows. None of them is about the page |
+
+Every one was green. This is the shape CB-WP-0015 closed one layer in — a
+harness answering a narrower question than its name implies — recurring in
+the presentation layer.
+
+## 3. The fix, and the check that is honestly insufficient
+
+**Drop keys are now `data-drop`, not `id`.** Any number of elements may
+carry the same key, so a seat is droppable on its card *and* on its graph
+node. Measured on the live page: `seat-0`, `seat-1`, `seat-2` each appear
+**twice**; `id` survives on exactly one element, `cb-status`, which is the
+only one the script looks up.
+
+Two checks, and the difference between them is the finding:
+
+| check | catches the reported defect? |
+|---|---|
+| **every offered affordance names a key that exists** — drives four real bot games through `Policy::choose`, renders at every real decision point | **NO.** `seat-0` *did* exist, on the graph circle |
+| **every seat card is a drop target, not only the graph node** | **yes** |
+
+The general check is worth having — it fails when a target is wholly
+absent, which is a real class — but **it would not have found the bug the
+maintainer found**, and saying otherwise would be the exact error this
+project keeps catching. An existence check over a whole document cannot
+tell you the element the user is being *pointed at* is the one that works.
+
+Hooking `Policy::choose` rather than re-driving the game by hand matters:
+those are the same decision points `cb-play --serve` renders at, with the
+same `legal` list. A hand-rolled walk would be a second implementation of
+the loop, free to agree with itself while disagreeing with what ships.
+
+### Mutations, each red for its stated reason
+
+| mutation | result |
+|---|---|
+| the seat card loses its drop key — *the reported defect, reintroduced* | red, **and only the targeted test fired**; the general one stayed green |
+| the table stops being a drop target | red — *"whose DROP id `table` is not an element in the document"* |
+| the silent `return` comes back | red — *"a drop on nothing said `""`"* |
+
+## 4. Silence was the second defect
+
+`SCRIPT` did `if (!down || !up) { down = null; return; }` — no POST, no
+status line, nothing at all. **That is why a human sitting in front of it
+could not tell a broken target from a working page.**
+
+The Rust side already held the right principle: `resolve` refuses rather
+than substituting a default, because *"a drag that means nothing must mean
+nothing, not the first legal move."* Refusing is right. Refusing
+**silently** is not, and the two had been conflated.
+
+The page now reports the raw fact — *"took action-attack, let go over
+nothing droppable"*. It names elements, not moves, so ADR-0007 control 5
+is intact and the body-shape assertion still holds.
+
+## 5. What the human check cost, and what it bought
+
+Stage 1 was held open on this check for **two passes** (CB-WP-0014,
+CB-WP-0015), against a standing temptation to close it on green tests —
+CB-EV-0012 §4 recorded that temptation explicitly and refused it.
+
+It bought a defect that made the stage's headline interaction
+**non-functional on its primary target**, plus a root cause in the document
+model, plus a control class that did not exist. Two passes of delay was the
+right price, and the reasoning that kept it open — *"no test in this repo
+can reach it"* — was exactly correct rather than merely cautious.
+
+**The stage does not close here either.** The fix is verified by tests, by
+mutation, and against a live server; it is **not** verified by a human
+dragging. That is the same standard that found this, and the same one that
+would have missed it.
+
+| pass | kind | responses | cost | $/response |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| **CB-WP-0015** | product | 136 | **$15.14** | 0.111 |
+| CB-WP-0016 | product | *provisional — not quoted* | | |
+
+CB-EV-0013 §5 found the self-quoting rule fixes the wrong boundary: a
+pass's window runs to the *next* pass's first commit, so CB-WP-0015's
+figure was still open when quoted. It is quoted here after CB-WP-0016's
+declaration commit closed it, which is the first figure this project has
+quoted at a boundary that had actually settled.
+
+## 6. Open
+
+- **INTENT stage 1: still one human verification**, now of a fix rather
+  than of an unknown. `cb-play --serve 0`, drag an action onto a seat
+  *card*.
+- **The self-quoting rule still names the wrong boundary** — quote two
+  passes back. Owed since CB-EV-0013 §5.
+- **AM-4b's scope defect (408,237 uncounted lines)** and its unmeasured
+  proc-macro share.
+- **`python3` as a toolchain dependency was never argued.**
+- **AM-4a cannot survive stage 2** — 1,741,979 against 161,000.
+- **ADR-0007 D3's acquisition rule** remains unratified after deciding two
+  dependency questions.
+- **Chaos: 11 of 12 declarations, 1 override.** The calibration window
+  closes on the next declaration and owes an evaluation.

tools/cb-play/src/hotseat.rs

@@ -295,9 +295,13 @@ mod tests {
         let replies = client.join().expect("client thread");
         assert!(replies[0].contains("200 OK"), "{}", replies[0]);
         assert!(replies[0].contains("GROUND"), "the page was not the table");
+        // Through the parser, not a raw attribute match: this assertion
+        // read `id="action-ground"` and CB-WP-0016 moved drop keys to
+        // `data-drop`, so a substring test drifts silently on the next
+        // rename while still describing itself as checking the page.
         assert!(
-            replies[0].contains("id=\"action-ground\""),
+            cb_render_html::doc::drop_keys(&replies[0]).contains("action-ground"),
-            "the offered action was not on the page"
+            "the offered action was not a drop target on the page"
         );
         assert!(replies[1].contains("200 OK"));
         assert!(server.refusals().is_empty());

workplans/CB-WP-0016-the-drop-target.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 id: CB-WP-0016
 kind: product
 title: "The drop target that was never there"
-status: todo
+status: done
 ---
 
 # Purpose
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ green tests two passes ago.
 
 ```task
 id: CB-WP-0016-T01
-status: todo
+status: done
 priority: high
 ```
 
@@ -84,11 +84,26 @@ inventing a new id vocabulary in the page is not.
 must produce the same command, and a test must go red if either stops
 resolving.
 
+**Done 2026-08-02.** The aliasing was not needed, because the constraint
+that caused the defect was removed instead.
+
+**Drop keys are now `data-drop`, not `id`.** An `id` must be unique, so
+exactly one element could ever be `seat-0` — the graph circle took it and
+the card went without. Any number of elements may carry the same
+`data-drop`, so a seat is droppable on both of its drawings. Measured on
+the live page: `seat-0/1/2` each appear **twice**, and `id` survives on
+exactly one element, `cb-status`, which is the only one the script looks
+up. `down=action-attack&up=seat-1` against a real server returns `ok`.
+
+The mutation that reintroduces the reported defect — the seat card losing
+its key — goes red, **and only the targeted test fires**; the general
+existence check stays green. That is the point of T03's finding.
+
 ## Task: a gesture that lands nowhere must say so
 
 ```task
 id: CB-WP-0016-T02
-status: todo
+status: done
 priority: high
 ```
 
@@ -105,11 +120,22 @@ Make the outcome visible. Keep ADR-0007 control 5 intact — whatever the
 page reports must still be raw pointer facts with no game vocabulary, and
 the existing body-shape assertion must still hold.
 
+**Done 2026-08-02.** The page now writes *"took action-attack, let go over
+nothing droppable"* to the status line. It names elements, not moves, so
+control 5 holds and the body-shape assertion is untouched. Restoring the
+bare `return` turns
+`jsrun::tests::a_drop_on_nothing_reports_instead_of_going_quiet` red with
+*"a drop on nothing said `\"\"`"*.
+
+The JS DOM stub had to grow a real `getAttribute` and a null-parent node
+to model a pointer landing on nothing — it previously could not express
+the case at all, which is part of why the silence was invisible.
+
 ## Task: the check that closes the class
 
 ```task
 id: CB-WP-0016-T03
-status: todo
+status: done
 priority: high
 ```
 
@@ -134,3 +160,22 @@ Then `evidence/CB-EV-0014-*.md`:
   say plainly whether the figure has settled.
 - **Chaos: declaration 11 of 12.** The calibration window closes next
   declaration.
+
+**Done 2026-08-02.**
+[CB-EV-0014](../evidence/CB-EV-0014-the-drop-target.md). `make all`
+exits 0.
+
+- **The general check does not catch the reported defect, and the evidence
+  says so plainly.** `seat-0` existed — on the graph circle — so an
+  existence check over the whole document cannot tell that the element the
+  user is *pointed at* is not the one that works. It is kept because a
+  wholly absent target is a real class, and paired with a targeted
+  regression test that does catch it.
+- **Three mutations, each red for its stated reason**, including the
+  reported defect reintroduced.
+- **Stage 1 does not close here either.** The fix is verified by tests, by
+  mutation, and against a live server — not by a human dragging, which is
+  the standard that found it.
+- **A cb-play assertion drifted**: it matched `id=\"action-ground\"` as a
+  substring and silently described itself as checking the page. Rewritten
+  through `doc::drop_keys`.