agent-issue-index.py --check is red on a clean checkout of d15b1cc09 (base of 12 open PRs)

[phantomic12]

Found while probing the base tree for #3347 (all 12 of my open PRs rebase onto d15b1cc09).

Reproduce

git worktree add /tmp/vt d15b1cc09
cd /tmp/vt
python3 scripts/agent-issue-index.py --check   # rc=2

ERROR: canonical issue files are invalid: _intake Frozen archive evidence must equal the declared line in the frozen archive source

Root cause: two gates are mutually unsatisfiable for this record

.agents/issues/GATE-ISSUE-INDEX-TABLE-SHAPE/ISSUE-GH-1033.md is an _intake record. Its ## Problem must quote the frozen archive row byte-for-byte — _archive_evidence_matches_source (scripts/issue_records.py:306-320) demands exact UTF-8 equality against .agents/completed/issue-index.md line 350.

Commit e3539d994 ("re-point 640+ dangling record links") rewrote the quote's spec link from ../specs/gate-issue-index-table-shape.md to ../../specs/gate-issue-index-table-shape.md:

• the archive row sits in .agents/completed/, where ../specs/... resolves correctly;
• the record sits in .agents/issues/GATE-ISSUE-INDEX-TABLE-SHAPE/, where the quote only resolves with ../../specs/....

check-links (scripts/check-agent-record.py:620) requires every link in a record to resolve; the frozen-evidence check requires the quote to be byte-identical to the archive line. One string cannot satisfy both. Measured: first divergence at column 2191; the archive line is 2237 chars, the evidence 2240.

At e3539d994^ (6c6e4a9cc) the archive file did not exist in the tree at all, so there is no last-green commit to revert to: the defect landed together with the file it compares against.

The design question a one-line fix must answer

Restoring ../specs/ makes --check green but re-breaks check-links for this record (dangling link). Keeping ../../specs/ keeps links green and --check permanently red. The real fix is a decision:

1. Compare the frozen evidence with the same link-normalization check-links applies, so both gates read one truth — the check's purpose is "the quote is faithful to the archive", and faithfulness survives a link rebase; byte-equality is stronger than the purpose needs and is exactly what made the two gates collide.
2. Exempt the quoted frozen-evidence block from check-links in _intake records (it is a quotation, not a navigation link).
3. Change the archive to the record-relative spelling — an append-only file, so it needs the same argued exception fix(records): the #995 row landed twice, and neither copy was well-formed (#1022) #1025 and record(ORACLE-LLAMACPP-REPIN-STOCK): the pin named a tree that exists nowhere (#857) #1051 used.

Option 1 seems right to me; happy to file the row and send the PR once a maintainer picks a direction.