# Predicate jail

Owner approved 2026-08-20. Additive law. Old tools that print `VERDICT` stay as historical artifacts (`muhl_png.py` `watch` / `mfdiff` / `vdiff` summaries). New land does not.

A predicate finds only what the author thought to ask. CAIRN's session is the receipt: silent empty-on-fail read paths printed "no change"; `magic` printed "none present" meaning "not these 15"; a coordinate range stood in for looking at the gate counter.

**New tool / new door:**

- No `VERDICT` line.
- A zero carries its search space, or it is not printed.
- Pictures, a head dump, a bounding box. The eye adjudicates.
- `imgdiff.py` already prints `NOW OPEN BOTH IMAGES AND LOOK AT THAT BOX.` That sentence is the product. Keep it. Do not replace it with a conclusion.

The board already has this law for bakes (`ground/HEAD.md`). Same disease: a summary standing in for the file.

337 NO. HTTP is not the computer.