Evidence: manual exploratory run (T11)

A repository built by hand at /tmp/.../demo, declaring one hook module and one attachment, driven with the real CLI and the real runtime on 2026-08-18.

The repository

# .the-loop/harness-config.yaml
version: "0.2.0"
graph:
  hooks:
    modules:
      - path: .the-loop/hooks/house.py
    attach:
      - hook: x-licence-header
        node: complete

# .the-loop/hooks/house.py
from the_loop.graph import HookResult, Message, hook


@hook("x-licence-header")
def licence_header(ctx):
    missing = [p.name for p in (ctx.repo / "src").glob("*.py") if "SPDX" not in p.read_text()]
    if missing:
        return HookResult.blocked(
            "x-licence-header", [Message(text="missing SPDX header", path=p) for p in missing]
        )
    return HookResult.ok("x-licence-header")

src/a.py starts as x = 1 — no licence header.

Inspection, importing nothing (R5.1)

$ the-loop graph --repo <demo> hooks
shipped hooks (19): await-inner-loops, classify-adhoc-reply, classify-feedback,
classify-goal, classify-phase-selection, deliver-assignment, enforces-boundaries-from,
lint-artifacts, log-entry, mcp-call, notify, post-goal-request, post-phase-selection,
publish-artifact, record-feedback, request-review, set-phase-label, validate-artifacts,
verify-tests

this repository declares 1 module(s) and 1 attachment(s) — nothing here has been imported:
  module  .the-loop/hooks/house.py
  attach  x-licence-header → implementation (exit)

`the-loop check <work item>` is what loads them; a declaration that cannot load fails there
rather than being skipped.

The hook gating a node (R1.1, R1.3, R1.4)

$ python -c "…build_runtime(<demo>).evaluate('complete', item)…"
complete: block
`x-licence-header` did not pass:
- missing SPDX header (a.py)

# after writing '# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT' at the top of src/a.py
after the header is added: pass

A shipped gate still decides first (abuse case 1)

With the same hook attached to implementation instead, whose shipped chain starts with validate-artifacts, and a spec folder missing tasks.md:

status: block
`validate-artifacts` did not pass:
- required artifact is missing (docs/specs/issue-1/tasks.md)

The repository hook never ran: the chain short-circuited at the shipped gate, which is the property that makes an appended hook unable to relax anything.

the-loop check against the same repository

$ the-loop check issue-1 --repo <demo>
issue-1: UNMET (at phase-selection)
  WAIT   phase-selection
         · waiting for an authorized user to choose the phases and reply `the-loop execute`
  ····   15 node(s) not reached yet

The declaration loads on the ordinary check path — the module is imported, the graph compiles, and the work item is reported exactly as it would be without hooks.