fix(legacy-meter): capture evidence over 7 days, not an 8-hour band

capture_legacy_meter_evidence.py fell back to hours=8 whenever --days was
omitted, and --hours itself defaulted to 8. Every unattended capture sampled
06:00Z-14:00Z while writing a file named weekly-review with cadence: weekly.
39 of 40 captures ran this way; only 2026-07-08 used a true 7-day window.

Calls outside the band were never sampled, so interfaces with live callers
reported as retirement candidates -- GET /tasks/?workstream_id was flagged on
2026-08-19 despite traffic on 2026-08-18.

Default the script to days=7; keep --hours for spot checks, documented as not
retirement evidence. Adds corrected capture for 2026-08-20 and records the
residual gap (candidate rule ignores last_seen_at) against STATE-WP-0079-T05.

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

docs/retirement-cutover-slice-plan.md

@@ -179,27 +179,55 @@ D3 is two MCP tools with no dependants; take it opportunistically.
 | Slice | Capability | Items | Gate |
 | --- | --- | --- | --- |
 | E1 | `suggestion-backlog` → archive | 17 | caller check; no successor runtime |
-| E2 | `work-records-workplan-legacy` → archive | 13 | legacy-meter — see caveat below |
+| E2 | `work-records-workplan-legacy` → archive | 13 | legacy-meter — candidate rule, see below |
 | E3 | `dashboard-meta` | 1 | none |
 | E4 | `legacy-meter` itself | 9 | **last** — it is the instrument for E2 |
 
 E4 retires only after every other legacy surface is closed; retiring the meter
 first destroys the evidence for the retirements it gates.
 
-### Caveat on E2's evidence
+### E2 evidence — defect found and partly fixed (2026-08-20)
 
-The 2026-08-19 review (`docs/evidence/legacy-meter-weekly-review-20260819.json`)
-reports 19 retirement candidates, all `replacement_verified: true` with zero
-calls in window. But the window is `06:00Z → 14:00Z` — **8 hours, not the 7 days
-`cadence: weekly` implies**. Several candidates have very large all-time counts
-(`GET /workstreams/{id}` 511 406, `GET /workstreams/` 144 086,
-`POST /workstreams/{id}/dependencies/` 255 865).
+The window discrepancy flagged on 2026-08-19 was a real defect in
+`scripts/capture_legacy_meter_evidence.py`, not a labelling nit.
 
-An 8-hour quiet window is not sufficient evidence to retire an interface at that
-call volume. Either the window computation is a defect or the cadence label is
-wrong; either way **E2 should not proceed on the current evidence**. Resolving
-this is a prerequisite, and it is worth checking before Wave A rather than after,
-since the same meter gates T05.
+`_review_query` fell back to `hours=8` whenever `--days` was omitted, and
+`--hours` defaulted to `8`. Every unattended capture therefore sampled an
+8-hour band (06:00Z–14:00Z) while writing a file named `weekly-review` with
+`cadence: weekly` in the payload. **39 of 40 captures ran this way** — only the
+first, 2026-07-08, used a true 7-day window.
+
+Calls in the other 16 hours of each day were never sampled, so quiet-in-band
+interfaces were reported as retirement candidates while still having live
+callers. On the 2026-08-19 capture three candidates had recent traffic:
+
+| Interface | All-time calls | Last seen |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `GET /tasks/?workstream_id` | 594 | 2026-08-18 |
+| `GET /progress/?workstream_id` | 2 | 2026-08-12 |
+| `GET /workstreams/` | 144 086 | 2026-08-10 |
+
+**Fixed:** the script now defaults to `days=7`, matching the endpoint name and
+the cadence label. `--hours` is retained for spot checks and documented as not
+retirement evidence. Corrected capture:
+`docs/evidence/legacy-meter-weekly-review-20260820.json` — 18 candidates of 20
+interfaces, `GET /tasks/?workstream_id` correctly excluded.
+
+**Still open — E2 remains gated.** A 7-day window is not sufficient for
+high-volume interfaces, and two false positives survive it:
+
+- `GET /progress/?workstream_id` — last seen 2026-08-12T08:55Z, roughly 14 hours
+  before the window opened
+- `GET /workstreams/` — last seen 2026-08-10, 9 days quiet, 144 086 all-time calls
+
+`last_seen_at` is unbounded by the window and is the stronger signal; the
+candidate rule currently ignores it. Before E2 proceeds, the rule should require
+a minimum quiet period scaled to call volume — an interface with six figures of
+traffic needs materially more than seven silent days. That is a service-side
+change in `api/services/legacy_meter.py` and belongs to T05, not here.
+
+Everything else on the list was last seen 2026-07-31 or earlier, most in early
+July, so the bulk of E2 is well-evidenced once the rule is tightened.
 
 ## Keep — 43 items
 

scripts/capture_legacy_meter_evidence.py

@@ -71,10 +71,20 @@ def _retire_interfaces(base: str, keys: list[str]) -> list[dict]:
     return retired
 
 
+DEFAULT_REVIEW_DAYS = 7
+
+
 def _review_query(*, days: int | None, hours: int | None) -> str:
-    if days is not None:
-        return f"days={days}"
-    return f"hours={hours or 8}"
+    """Build the review-window query.
+
+    Defaults to a 7-day window to match the ``weekly-review`` endpoint and the
+    ``cadence: weekly`` label in the payload. An hours-scoped window only
+    samples part of each day, so an interface called outside that band reads as
+    unused and is falsely reported as a retirement candidate.
+    """
+    if hours is not None:
+        return f"hours={hours}"
+    return f"days={days or DEFAULT_REVIEW_DAYS}"
 
 
 def capture(
@@ -101,10 +111,10 @@ def capture(
         "retired_interfaces": retired,
         "weekly_review": review,
     }
-    if days is not None:
-        payload["days"] = days
+    if hours is not None:
+        payload["hours"] = hours
     else:
-        payload["hours"] = hours or 8
+        payload["days"] = days or DEFAULT_REVIEW_DAYS
 
     if dry_run:
         print(json.dumps(payload, indent=2))
@@ -124,14 +134,15 @@ def main() -> None:
     parser.add_argument(
         "--hours",
         type=int,
-        default=8,
-        help="Review window in hours (default: 8; used when --days is omitted)",
+        default=None,
+        help="Review window in hours; only samples part of each day — use for "
+        "spot checks, never as retirement evidence",
     )
     parser.add_argument(
         "--days",
         type=int,
         default=None,
-        help="Review window in days (weekly cadence; overrides --hours)",
+        help=f"Review window in days (default: {DEFAULT_REVIEW_DAYS}, weekly cadence)",
     )
     parser.add_argument(
         "--api-base",

workplans/STATE-WP-0079-retirement-strangler.md

@@ -131,6 +131,22 @@ state_hub_task_id: "02e508ed-3cde-4487-907e-d324a8a877d6"
 Complete retirement of suggestions, workstream aliases, and other `retire`
 inventory items once meters/callers allow. Keep historical rows archive-readable.
 
+**Blocker identified (2026-08-20):** the legacy-meter evidence this task gates
+on was being captured over an 8-hour band, not a week —
+`capture_legacy_meter_evidence.py` fell back to `hours=8` whenever `--days` was
+omitted, so 39 of 40 captures sampled only 06:00Z–14:00Z. Interfaces called
+outside that band read as unused. Three candidates on the 2026-08-19 capture had
+live callers, including `GET /tasks/?workstream_id` (seen 2026-08-18).
+
+Script default corrected to `days=7`; corrected capture
+`docs/evidence/legacy-meter-weekly-review-20260820.json`.
+
+**Remaining work for this task:** the candidate rule in
+`api/services/legacy_meter.py` keys only on in-window calls and ignores
+`last_seen_at`, so `GET /workstreams/` (144 086 all-time calls, quiet 9 days)
+still reports as a candidate. Require a minimum quiet period scaled to call
+volume before retiring. See `docs/retirement-cutover-slice-plan.md` § E2.
+
 ## Stabilization window and archive prep
 
 ```task