{
 "measurement": "Re-verification of the working-directory path effect on the startup floor, on 2.1.251",
 "claude_code_version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)",
 "supersedes": "/path-floor-2-1-241.json (does not replace its ladder, which was not re-run)",
 "why": "The startup floor fell 24.5% between 2.1.246 and 2.1.251, the largest move this site has recorded. The path effect is a term measured ON TOP of that floor, and it was ten releases stale. The question is whether a term measured against a base survives the base moving.",
 "method": {
  "population": "an empty project directory, trivial prompt, cells differing ONLY in the working-directory path string",
  "estimator": "guarded mode over 12 pooled rounds (shared estimator.py)",
  "prompt": "Reply with only: OK",
  "rounds": 12,
  "controls": [
   "empty directory asserted before every call, so only the path string differs",
   "--setting-sources project asserted onto argv",
   "arrival control: the reply must be exactly OK",
   "path length recorded per run so the relationship is checkable rather than asserted"
  ]
 },
 "results": {
  "headline": {
   "the_reciprocal_finding_HOLDS": true,
   "short_dense": {
    "path_chars": 38,
    "floor": 17102,
    "mode_seen": 10,
    "rounds": 12
   },
   "long_sparse": {
    "path_chars": 47,
    "floor": 17082,
    "mode_seen": 12,
    "rounds": 12
   },
   "gap_tokens": 20,
   "gap_on_2_1_241": 20,
   "gap_unchanged": true,
   "plain_statement": "A 38-character path costs 20 tokens MORE than a 47-character one, on 2.1.251 exactly as on 2.1.241. The shorter path is made of many one-character segments and is token DENSE; the longer one is a single repeated character and is token SPARSE. Length is ruled out directly rather than by inference."
  },
  "the_base_moved_and_the_term_did_not": {
   "floor_2_1_241": {
    "short": 22829,
    "long": 22809
   },
   "floor_2_1_251": {
    "short": 17102,
    "long": 17082
   },
   "drop_short": 5727,
   "drop_long": 5727,
   "drops_identical": true,
   "reading": "Both paths fell by exactly the same amount, so the release change is a CONSTANT shift under this term rather than a rescaling of it. The path effect measured on 2.1.241 transfers to 2.1.251 unchanged, even though the floor it sits on fell 24.5%."
  },
  "every_excursion_is_the_known_component": {
   "distinct": [
    897
   ],
   "note": "Two of 24 readings sat exactly 897 below their mode and nothing else appeared."
  }
 },
 "known_limits": {
  "CARRY FORWARD no_rate_is_published": "The 2.1.241 ladder used a single repeated character, which tokenises unlike any real path, so no tokens-per-character rate was published there and none is published here. THIS MATTERS MORE NOW: incidental observations during other measurements this week showed a ONE-character difference costing TWO tokens, while that ladder showed ten characters costing ten. Both are consistent with an effect that tracks TOKENS, and neither licenses a per-character rate.",
  "CARRY FORWARD no_mechanism": "Nothing here shows where in the system prompt the path appears, how many times, or whether the same holds for other prompts or a non-empty project.",
  "CARRY FORWARD trivial_prompt_only": "One trivial prompt in an empty directory. A real project adds its own context and this measures none of it.",
  "CARRY FORWARD intermittent_component": "Two of 24 readings sat exactly 897 below their settled value, matching the component this site has measured repeatedly. The guarded mode carries both cells and every reading is published.",
  "one_machine_one_release": "All runs on one machine, Claude Code 2.1.251.",
  "THE LADDER WAS NOT RE-RUN": "Only the reciprocal pair was re-measured. The 2.1.241 corpus also published a four-rung repeated-character ladder and a ten-path range of 22,765 to 22,847; neither was re-run, so those figures still rest on 2.1.241 and the absolute range in particular is now known to be wrong by about 5,700 because the floor moved beneath it.",
  "A CONSTANT SHIFT IS NOT A GUARANTEE OF LINEARITY": "Both paths fell by the same 5,727, which shows the term survived THIS base change. It does not establish that the path term is independent of the base in general, and only two paths were tested.",
  "THIS CORPUS DOES NOT LICENSE A STAMP BUMP": "The /cost/ path stamp stays at 2.1.241 and that is correct. It asserts which release the ten-path range and the 67-character matched pair were measured on, and this corpus re-ran only the reciprocal pair. Bumping it would claim the ladder was re-measured when it was not. Same rule that kept the pluginParts stamp at 2.1.232. To move it, re-run the full ladder."
 },
 "runs": [
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 0,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17102,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 1,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17102,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 2,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17102,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 3,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17102,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 4,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17102,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 5,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 16205,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 0,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 1,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 2,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 3,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 4,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 5,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 0,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17102,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 1,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17102,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 2,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17102,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 3,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17102,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 4,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17102,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/x",
   "path_len": 38,
   "round": 5,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 16205,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 0,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 1,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 2,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 3,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 4,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  },
  {
   "path": "/tmp/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd/x",
   "path_len": 47,
   "round": 5,
   "status": "ok",
   "context": 17082,
   "reply": "OK",
   "version": "2.1.251 (Claude Code)"
  }
 ]
}