diff --git a/.github/workflows/lint.yml b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
index e2ef6e1d63b..e25555975e3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/lint.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
@@ -5106,6 +5106,16 @@ jobs:
         continue-on-error: true
         run: pnpm check:type-check-coverage
 
+      # The workspace ROOT's own program (`tsconfig.json`: `scripts/` and the
+      # top-level configs) is outside every package's `typecheck`, so the turbo
+      # typecheck never reads it. This step does (#26236), and the coverage gate
+      # above requires it once `typecheck:root` exists. The program imports no
+      # built `dist/`, so it needs no build. Sub-second to a few seconds.
+      - name: Type-check the workspace root program
+        id: type-check-the-workspace-root-program
+        continue-on-error: true
+        run: pnpm typecheck:root
+
       # Conformance meta-gate (#4363): `spec/src/data/*-conformance.ts` holds the
       # shared case-sets that exist so the independent drivers answer ONE
       # standard, and three separate changesets claimed a future driver "is held
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ef4aaf89785..208b2b2614d 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
     "test": "VITEST_MAX_WORKERS=$(node scripts/vitest-worker-cap.mjs) turbo run test test:repo --concurrency=50%",
     "test:smoke": "turbo run test:smoke",
     "typecheck": "turbo run typecheck",
+    "typecheck:root": "tsc --noEmit -p tsconfig.json",
     "clean": "turbo run clean && rm -rf dist",
     "setup": "pnpm install && pnpm --filter @objectstack/spec build",
     "prepare": "node scripts/setup-git-hooks.mjs",
diff --git a/scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs b/scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs
index 5771361b471..b6d3bd06dad 100644
--- a/scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs
+++ b/scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs
@@ -663,12 +663,12 @@ const SPEC_SCRIPTS_PRECEDENT = 'packages/spec/tsconfig.scripts.json';
 const TEST_ROOTDIR_PRECEDENT = '`packages/client/tsconfig.test.json` and `packages/cli/tsconfig.test.json`';
 const GENERATED_INCLUDE_ISSUE = 'https://github.com/objectstack-ai/objectstack/issues/10880';
 
-// A path in the root program whose edits move the `@objectstack/spec-monorepo`
-// count below, declared as a bare, whole-literal path so the dispatch
-// derivation can read it. It accounted for 29 of that entry's 80, and is 1 of
-// the 26 standing now -- still the root script an ordinary card edits. The note on
-// that entry carries the accounting and references this constant instead of
-// spelling the path inside its sentence.
+// A path in the root program, declared as a bare, whole-literal path so the
+// dispatch derivation can read it. It accounted for 29 of the
+// `@objectstack/spec-monorepo` DEBT entry's 80 errors, and for 1 of the 26 left
+// when that entry graduated (#26236). The root program is now type-checked by the
+// root's `typecheck:root` script, which lint.yml runs, and this is still the
+// root script an ordinary card edits.
 //
 // Why the SHAPE and not just the mention: scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs scans
 // each gate's own module body for path literals and accepts one only when the
@@ -832,22 +832,17 @@ const ROOT_PROGRAM_COUPLED_SCRIPT = 'scripts/check-test-typecheck.mts';
 // fixed the test config showed 4 more (TS2883 on the `vi.fn()` fields of
 // `src/__mocks__/runtime.ts`, annotated `Mock`) that the build config never shows.
 // No cast, no `@ts-expect-error`, no `src` signature widened.
-const DEBT = {
-  '@objectstack/spec-monorepo': {
-    errors: 26,
-    note: 'the workspace root itself: config-tier 18 (TS2307 x17, TS2550 x1); noise 8 (TS7006 x7, '
-      + 'TS6133 x1). The root `tsconfig.json` is the program for `scripts/` and the top-level configs and '
-      + 'declares `types:["node"]`; packages extend `tsconfig.base.json` instead. Declaring the Node types '
-      + 'moved this count by zero -- the TS2591 / TS2584 pile an older note blamed on their absence was '
-      + 'already gone. What stands: the analytics-reconcile tree imports `@objectstack/*` and example '
-      + 'sources the root program cannot resolve (the root package declares no workspace dependency), '
-      + 'which is all 17 TS2307 and the 7 TS7006 they cascade into; ' + ROOT_PROGRAM_COUPLED_SCRIPT
-      + ' calls `Object.hasOwn` under lib ES2020 (TS2550); and `exclude` only drops files from the '
-      + 'initial walk, so an example source a script imports is still compiled here -- the TS6133 is in '
-      + 'examples/app-showcase/src, and this entry moves with the showcase as well as with scripts/. '
-      + 'Graduating also needs a `typecheck:root` script and its step in .github/workflows/lint.yml.',
-  },
-};
+//
+// `@objectstack/spec-monorepo` -- the workspace ROOT itself -- GRADUATED from this
+// ledger (#26236; entry: 26 raw, repaired to 0). Its program is the root
+// `tsconfig.json`: `scripts/` and the top-level configs. 24 of the 26 were the
+// obsolete ADR-0021 analytics-reconcile harness, which was deleted (its imports hid
+// 31 more errors on keys the spec had removed). The other two were `Object.hasOwn`
+// under lib ES2020, fixed by giving the root program lib ES2022, and an unused
+// const in an example source a script imported. Graduated the root's way: a
+// `typecheck:root` script plus its step in .github/workflows/lint.yml, both of
+// which the root branch of `evaluate` requires.
+const DEBT = {};
 
 // Package name -> why running tsc over it is not applicable at all. An EXEMPT
 // entry is a statement about the package's nature, not about its debt; if the
diff --git a/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.data.mjs b/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.data.mjs
index 5b9868fe1e5..9dac7991da6 100644
--- a/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.data.mjs
+++ b/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.data.mjs
@@ -759,9 +759,9 @@ export const ESCAPABLE_LITERAL_LEDGER_ROWS = Object.freeze([
  *
  * ⚠ Its known limit, stated here rather than discovered later: `exclude` drops
  * files only from tsc's INITIAL WALK, so sources under an excluded directory
- * that a root script IMPORTS are pulled into the program anyway — the ledger
- * note for this entry records 4 of its 80 errors arriving exactly that way,
- * from the showcase example. A path-shaped trigger cannot see an import graph,
+ * that a root script IMPORTS are pulled into the program anyway — the root's
+ * DEBT note recorded 4 of its 80 errors arriving exactly that way, from the
+ * showcase example, before the root graduated. A path-shaped trigger cannot see an import graph,
  * so a card editing only such a file is still not sent here. That is
  * deliberately NOT closed on this card: the direction is the safe one (this
  * entry under-covers rather than over-covers), and closing it means resolving
@@ -978,8 +978,8 @@ export const CHANGE_KIND_ROWS = [
     matches: 'root-ts-program',
     gates: [
       {
-        name: 'check:type-check-debt',
-        why: 'the ROOT ledger entry (@objectstack/spec-monorepo) IS this program, so a file here moves its raw tsc count even though your diff touches no package — measured, one added bench file put it 19 over and cost a CI round. It is a shrink-only ratchet: the repair is to make the file typecheck, and raising the entry is maintainer-only — ⛔ MAINTAINER-ONLY under the #8435 convention — never the co-equal option. Most of this class is one missing setting rather than real breakage — the root config carries lib ES2020 and no types, so process and console are absent unless the file declares them ambiently. Needs the workspace closure BUILT — on an unbuilt worktree it refuses outright, and that throw means NOT MEASURED, never `not applicable to me`. Build first, exactly as lint.yml does: pnpm exec turbo run build --filter=./packages/* --filter=./packages/*/* (quote the filter values for your shell)',
+        name: 'typecheck:root',
+        why: 'nothing else type-checks this program: it belongs to no package, so the turbo typecheck never reads a file here, and the root has no ledger entry left to absorb an error. lint.yml runs this script in the Type Check source-gates lane, and one new error reds that lane. The repair is to make the file typecheck, never to add an exclude or bring back a DEBT entry. It needs no build: the program reads no package dist. The program carries lib ES2022 and types node, so `process`, `console` and the `node:*` builtins resolve without a reference line',
       },
     ],
   },
diff --git a/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs b/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs
index 500401e48a1..3f3229dfbb7 100644
--- a/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs
+++ b/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs
@@ -2223,7 +2223,10 @@ export function extractCheckInvocations(workflowText, workflowFile, { via = null
     // this card is about: a value that reaches the program only through
     // `process.env`, which no reader of the command line can see.
     const carriedEnv = envNamesNotSpelledInCommand(cmd, stepEnv);
-    for (const m of cmd.matchAll(/pnpm\s+(?:--filter\s+(\S+)\s+)?(?:run\s+)?(check:[\w:-]+)/g)) {
+    // `typecheck:root` is the one non-`check:` script read here: it is the ROOT
+    // program's only type check, and the root-program change kind names it, so it
+    // has to resolve to a family or that row renders STALE.
+    for (const m of cmd.matchAll(/pnpm\s+(?:--filter\s+(\S+)\s+)?(?:run\s+)?(check:[\w:-]+|typecheck:root(?![\w:-]))/g)) {
       out.push(withVia({ check: m[2], filter: m[1] ?? null, workflow: workflowFile, envVariables: carriedEnv }));
     }
     for (const m of cmd.matchAll(DIRECT_CHECK_INVOCATION)) {
@@ -10779,8 +10782,9 @@ export function guardsADurabilityCriticalCall(path, readSource = readTrackedSour
 }
 
 /**
- * Is this path inside the ROOT package's tsc program — the population behind
- * the `@objectstack/spec-monorepo` entry of `check:type-check-debt`?
+ * Is this path inside the ROOT package's tsc program — the population the
+ * root's `typecheck:root` script checks (until the root graduated, the
+ * `@objectstack/spec-monorepo` entry of `check:type-check-debt`)?
  *
  * This is the one gate population in the tree that no path literal can ever
  * describe, in principle rather than by omission. The root program is declared
diff --git a/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.self-test.mjs b/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.self-test.mjs
index 30a0e7db053..bc933db9027 100644
--- a/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.self-test.mjs
+++ b/scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.self-test.mjs
@@ -464,6 +464,14 @@ export function selfTest({ tier = 'full' } = {}) {
         + 'right names a file this ROOT does not hold, and every audit downstream then passes for the wrong reason',
       !pkgInvs.some((i) => String(i.script ?? i.check).startsWith('scripts/')),
     );
+    t(
+      'the root program\'s `typecheck:root` is read as a family, so the root change kind can name it',
+      extractCheckInvocations('    - run: pnpm typecheck:root\n', 'lint.yml').some((i) => i.check === 'typecheck:root' && !i.direct),
+    );
+    t(
+      'control — that exception is the one script name, not every `typecheck` spelling',
+      extractCheckInvocations('    - run: pnpm typecheck\n    - run: pnpm typecheck:rooted\n    - run: pnpm --filter ./examples/x run typecheck\n', 'x.yml').length === 0,
+    );
     t(
       'control — a CLIMBING spelling is refused rather than resolved: `..` is not a prefix segment, because '
         + 'a path this ROOT cannot resolve is exactly how a phantom identity key gets minted',
@@ -1488,7 +1496,12 @@ export function selfTest({ tier = 'full' } = {}) {
   //    resolve.
   const rootScriptsMap = JSON.parse(readFileSync(nodePath.join(ROOT, 'package.json'), 'utf8')).scripts ?? {};
   const zeroFile = tsLiveFamilies.filter(([, e]) => (e.files ?? []).length === 0);
+  // `typecheck:root` is the one other zero-file family, by construction: it is a
+  // tsc program over the root config, not a script file, and the cards it owes
+  // are named by the root-program change kind (`root-ts-program`), never by a
+  // path read out of a script.
   const unexplained = zeroFile
+    .filter(([check]) => check !== 'typecheck:root')
     .map(([check]) => [check, rootScriptsMap[check] ?? ''])
     .filter(([, cmd]) => !/\bpnpm\b[^&|]*?(?:--filter|--recursive|-r)\b[^&|]*?\brun\b/.test(cmd))
     .map(([check, cmd]) => `${check} (${cmd || 'no root script'})`);
@@ -4423,10 +4436,12 @@ export function selfTest({ tier = 'full' } = {}) {
   // rename, which is the one rot class the STALE branch exists to report.
   const rootKind = changeKindLines(['scripts/bench/runtime-publish-gate.bench.mts'], resolved);
   t('a root-program path emits the convention section', rootKind.length === 2 && rootKind[0].includes('ROOT tsc program'));
-  t('and it names the RATCHET half — the invocation that re-measures', rootKind.some((l) => l.includes('- pnpm check:type-check-debt   —')));
-  const rootLine = rootKind.find((l) => l.includes('- pnpm check:type-check-debt   —')) ?? '';
-  t('the root-program line refuses the baseline raise and states the real repair', /shrink-only/.test(rootLine) && /maintainer-only/.test(rootLine));
-  t('and carries the built-closure prerequisite, like the other ratchet line', /closure BUILT/.test(rootLine) && rootLine.includes('turbo run build'));
+  // The root graduated from the DEBT ledger (#26236), so the gate that reads
+  // this program is its own `typecheck:root` script, which lint.yml runs.
+  t('and it names the root program\'s own type check', rootKind.some((l) => l.includes('- pnpm typecheck:root   —')));
+  const rootLine = rootKind.find((l) => l.includes('- pnpm typecheck:root   —')) ?? '';
+  t('the root-program line refuses an exclude or a returning ledger entry and states the real repair', /never to add an exclude/.test(rootLine) && /make the file typecheck/.test(rootLine));
+  t('and says it needs no build, unlike the ratchet lines', /needs no build/.test(rootLine) && !/closure BUILT/.test(rootLine));
   // Re-pointed rather than deleted (#12074). This case pinned one property —
   // a `.mjs` checker script is NOT in the ROOT tsc program, unlike the `.mts`
   // bench file above — and the gate-script kind below now makes the same path
@@ -4436,7 +4451,7 @@ export function selfTest({ tier = 'full' } = {}) {
   // hiding inside a `length` this case no longer checks.
   const checkerKind = changeKindLines(['scripts/check-type-check-coverage.mjs'], resolved);
   t('a checker script is still outside the ROOT tsc program', !checkerKind.some((l) => l.includes('ROOT tsc program')));
-  t('…and the root ratchet is not named for it', !checkerKind.some((l) => l.includes('- pnpm check:type-check-debt   —')));
+  t('…and the root type check is not named for it', !checkerKind.some((l) => l.includes('- pnpm typecheck:root   —')));
   t('…and the ONE section it does emit is the gate-script kind', checkerKind.length === 3 && checkerKind[0].includes('GATE SCRIPT'));
 
   // -- The GATE SCRIPT entry (#12074) --------------------------------------
@@ -5813,11 +5828,12 @@ export function selfTest({ tier = 'full' } = {}) {
   // Seven, not six, since #10542 added check:cross-package-test-inputs to the
   // test-file kind. `a.test.ts` is a root-level TypeScript file, so it is BOTH
   // a test file and inside the root tsc program and legitimately hits two
-  // kinds. The ratchet therefore renders twice, under a different `why` each
-  // time — pinned just below, because a bare count cannot tell that apart from
-  // one kind rotting away.
+  // kinds. Each kind renders its own gate as STALE (the ratchet under the test
+  // kind, `typecheck:root` under the root kind since the root graduated) —
+  // pinned just below, because a bare count cannot tell that apart from one
+  // kind rotting away.
   t('an undiscoverable gate renders as STALE', stale.filter((l) => l.includes('STALE')).length === 7);
-  t('a root-level test file hits both kinds, so the ratchet renders STALE under each', stale.filter((l) => l.includes('\u26a0 check:type-check-debt: STALE')).length === 2);
+  t('a root-level test file hits both kinds: the ratchet renders STALE under the test kind, the root type check under the root kind', stale.filter((l) => l.includes('\u26a0 check:type-check-debt: STALE')).length === 1 && stale.filter((l) => l.includes('\u26a0 typecheck:root: STALE')).length === 1);
   // Per NAME, anchored on both sides of the rendered name (`⚠ x: STALE`), so the
   // pair that shares one script is reported apart: a count alone stays green if
   // one of the two is dropped from the table and something else is added, and a