[PurpleSentinel]

The loop was provisional, so track_timing_ready() refused it and the device ran timer-only — no timing engine, no lap times, and no gate crossings for the GPS trigger (#214) to act on.

Promoted through the builder, not by editing a status

The gate profile now carries a validation record:

field	value
geometry_status	independently_validated
origins	openstreetmap (vector ways 262071530/262071527), google-maps-imagery (satellite, visual check of each line against the carriageway)
agreement_m	5.0, against a 10.0 m limit
verified_utc	2026-10-17

build_track_pack.py checks all of it — two distinct origins, HTTPS sources, an RFC3339 timestamp, the agreement bound — and writes the status itself. A hand-edited status still cannot promote anything. The built definition now reads:

OpenStreetMap ways 262071530/262071527; test-circuits manifest; validated: 2 origins agreeing to 5.0 m

The policy change, stated plainly

The pack policy said independently_validated was unreachable for a road loop, on the grounds that there is no second independent source for a line somebody chose. Aerial imagery is one: it is a separate origin from OpenStreetMap's vectors, and a visual check that each 12 m line spans the carriageway is exactly what that width decision depends on.

Device capture remains the stronger promotion, because it measures the lines with the receiver that will later time them — any systematic bias in that receiver then sits in both the gate and the crossing and cancels. The policy now says that, rather than ruling imagery out.

What this costs: the lines are map-derived, so a crossing could in principle be missed if the real driving line passes outside a gate. That failure is visible rather than silent — a missed crossing is a lap that does not appear, not a lap with a wrong time.

The test was replaced, not deleted

test_the_fixture_cannot_arm_timing_until_it_is_captured asserted this loop must stay provisional. It now asserts:

• the fixture is timing-ready and independently_validated
• its record carries two distinct origins inside MAXIMUM_SOURCE_DISAGREEMENT_M
• removing the record puts the same geometry straight back to provisional

The gate #139 built is what mattered in that test — promotion must be earned by evidence the builder has checked — and that is what is still held.

Verification

• make check → CHECK_RC=0
• make test → 39 tests, OK
• Pack builds: Built 1 definition(s), of which 1 are timing-ready

Refs #184.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code