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+# LEARN-0013 — Completion ownership under competing navigation
+
+Status: preregistered before implementation/execution. 2026-09-27 Europe/Berlin.
+Codex author-model review; stream F, new comparison group F-navigation-ownership-v1.
+The multi-request question differs from the single-response focus protocol; do not
+pool rates. CAND-0009 URL-addressable State, CAND-0010 Progressive Enhancement,
+CAND-0016 Focus Return. No new candidate presumed.
+
+## Question and prior
+
+Can the previous managed focus policy let old history/navigation completions replace
+newer selection, steal focus or report obsolete results? Prior single-request evidence
+supports continuation but leaves competing completions untested. Proposed guard:
+assign an owner/generation to navigation, reject stale completions before effects,
+and track focus ownership independently so an otherwise valid response need not
+move focus. Test outcome, not a blanket recommendation to cancel HTTP requests.
+
+Compare the unchanged prior focus-policy.js with an authored guarded policy on one
+new controlled fixture. Use stable content target and persistent navigation controls
+so requests from different elements can compete. Hold responses at server barriers,
+then release in declared order. Browser history uses real Back with htmx snapshot
+eviction. Keep default transport alive to distinguish ignored completion from abort.
+If htmx prevents a race itself, record that rather than force a failure. A guarded
+miss/error or URL/content mismatch is failure, not permission to revise expectations.
+
+## Registered matrix
+
+Two policies × two browsers (Chromium/Firefox), six cases = 24 rows. Baseline rows
+record the same obligation booleans as guarded rows; distinguish successful recording
+from meeting the obligations. Guarded rows assert all registered obligations. One
+trial each; preserve failures and any correction. No arbitrary sleeps. Tab/Enter
+activate links; browser Back uses history API through Playwright.
+
+| ID | Ordered scenario | Obligation after completion |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| O01 | Back misses history cache; user moves to surviving search; release history | Restore selected article/URL/title but preserve search focus and typed text |
+| O02 | Back miss held; newer article navigation completes; release old history | Keep newer article/URL/title/status/focus; old history completion has no UI effect |
+| O03 | Older article request held; newer article completes; release older success | Keep newer article/URL/title/status; no late focus theft |
+| O04 | Older request held and will fail; newer article completes; release old 503 | Preserve newer result and feedback; no obsolete error replaces completion |
+| O05 | Older request held; newer request fails; then release older success | Do not resurrect older intent; retain last committed view with newest failure feedback |
+| O06 | Older article held; Back restores cached view; release old success | History is newer intent too: keep restored view/URL/title/status/focus |
+
+O05 starts from an already committed alpha view; O06 first visits beta to establish
+history. Distinguish committed route from pending browser-history URL. Capture
+intermediate and final state, actual requests and completion traces. Prefer public
+hooks; any history-XHR callback wrapping is explicitly pinned/experimental, not a
+portable production fix. No writes, server rollback, AT speech, production recurrence,
+nonzero swap delays, view transitions, redirect/error taxonomy or universal race proof.
+
+## Learning and stopping
+
+45 active research minutes and 10 execution minutes before scope review. Monotonic
+single-agent elapsed session minus experiment/check subprocess durations; checkpoint
+inspection belongs to execution, no double count. Orientation and final administration
+outside window; tokens/cost unknown. Commit this plan before implementation/execution.
+Append one ledger outcome; retain all results and source hashes. If scope/criteria
+must change, preserve and disclose the original plan rather than rewriting it.
+
+After this comparison, pause the navigation-fixture thread. Write a short synthesis:
+what changed versus prior claims, what remains unverified, and the next independent
+or broader evidence question. Hand residuals to WP-0003 T01/T02 and measurement work
+to WP-0006 T03. Do not automatically start another fixture hardening cycle. One cycle
+per distinct group cannot demonstrate diminishing returns. Live inference, if needed,
+uses llm-connect; none is planned here.