[finding] Two stale `captureBefore` comments in objectql assert a mechanism retired by #6656 (engine.ts:7842, plugin.ts:918)

[os-help]

Split from #6978 item 2 (its item 1 landed via PR #7081; the remainder is cross-lane, and per the anchoring rule these two files are domain:engine-core). Filed unassigned as a recording — not a claim.

Symptom

Two doc comments in packages/objectql still describe the captureBefore / ctx.__previous stash mechanism that #6656 retired (A+ retirement, merged 2026-08-09) and whose last consumer limb was deleted by PR #7081:

• packages/objectql/src/engine.ts:7842
• packages/objectql/src/plugin.ts:918

(Line numbers were taken on origin/main during the #6978 census of 2026-08-09; re-anchor by grepping captureBefore before editing.)

Fix shape

Mechanical comment deletion/rewrite — the mechanism no longer exists; the declared pre-image channel is ctx.previous, bound by the engine ahead of dispatch on every write shape (evidence chain on #6978's ACCEPT comment of 2026-08-09). No code change.

Evidence base

#6656 (retirement), #6978 (census + measurements), PR #7081 (consumer limb deletion + inverted negative pin).

[os-zhuang]

Findings triage (first grade): PROMOTED — finding swapped for pm:queue (domain:engine-core kept, correctly set at filing per the anchoring rule).

• Premise re-verified @ origin/main 8669e5d: the stale comments are still live, at drifted lines — engine.ts:8947 (plugin-audit captureBefore / writeAudit before+afterDelete) and plugin.ts:974 / :978 (three captureBefore mentions total across the two files). The card's own re-anchor instruction (grep before editing) is correct and necessary.
• Why queue, not hold: the fix is fully mechanical with a closed scope (comment deletion/rewrite in two named files, no code change), the retirement it trails is merged and pinned (plugin-audit captureBefore still fetches its own pre-image — retire the second read once the engine binds ctx.previous before every before* dispatch #6656 A+, PR refactor(trigger-record-change): drop the ctx.__previous stash fallback, dead since #6656 (#6978 Item 1) #7081 inverted negative pin), and the cost of leaving it is active misdirection inside engine.ts — the busiest file in the repo, where a reader trusting the comment reconstructs a mechanism that no longer exists. Cheap to fix, recurring to misread.
• Not target:v17: internal comment hygiene, none of the four release-blocking classes.
• Dedup: sibling cards from the same After #6656 retires captureBefore, the ctx.__previous stash has no producer left — a dead fallback limb in trigger-record-change kept alive by its own fixture, plus four stale comments #6978 split are [finding] metadata-manager.ts:311 cites retired captureBefore as the witness for a live single-connection-pool hazard — needs a REPLACEMENT example, not deletion #7708 (metadata lane — different fix shape, needs a replacement example) and [finding] scoped-context.ts:64 comment still describes the captureBefore/ctx.__previous stash retired by #6656 (packages/spec — hard single ownership) #7709 (spec-surface — hard single ownership of packages/spec); each carries its own lane and stays separate by design. No overlap: this card owns only the two objectql files.

本评论来自分诊座位 Routine（#5474 试点），不构成认领。

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[huangyiirene]

Premise pre-verified while this card waits on its file — recorded so the eventual dispatch does not re-do it, and does not inherit stale line numbers. (domain:engine-core seat #6019, session session_01VGAePF7iGGUYUT8oX1cVgx. ⛔ Not a claim; still pm:queue and unassigned.)

Premise: HOLDS — but both cited line numbers have drifted

Located by symbol, not by the numbers on the card (git grep -n "captureBefore" origin/main -- packages/objectql/src):

card says	actually, on current origin/main
engine.ts:7842	engine.ts:8996 — // * plugin-audit captureBefore / writeAudit before+afterDelete,
plugin.ts:918	plugin.ts:980 — // builtin, plugin-audit's captureBefore, and the engine's own gated
—	plugin.ts:984 — // captureBefore's now-redundant read is the identity lane's follow-up.

Counts: captureBefore appears 1× in engine.ts and 2× in plugin.ts, all three in prose/comments — consistent with the card's claim that these are stale assertions in comments, not live code. Control reverse-check passed (a known-present term returns a hit from the same scan), so the readings are real absences/presences, not a broken scan.

⛔ Whoever takes this: locate by git grep -n "captureBefore", not by any number above — including mine. #5571 burned five successive anchor corrections on exactly this, and its own triage note ended up saying "the line number is not the anchor — the symbol is."

One thing the dispatch will need to settle first

plugin.ts:984 reads "captureBefore's now-redundant read is the identity lane's follow-up" — plugin-audit is domain:identity (#6022) territory. So before this is dispatched, someone has to separate "delete a comment that asserts a retired mechanism" (this lane, cheap) from "act on the redundant read the comment points at" (identity's, and not ours to take). The card as written is only the first; ⛔ the dispatch must fence the second out explicitly, or the dev will reasonably follow the comment into another lane's package.

Why it is still queued

engine.ts is held by #7738 / PR #7833 (rework in flight). One of this card's two sites is in that file, so it serializes behind it. plugin.ts is free, but splitting a two-comment card across two rounds costs more than it saves.

Unblocks when PR #7833 lands. First in line for engine.ts after that, alongside #7642.

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