Golden Path computed route contradicts PRIO-zero focus

Context

Fresh #13750 V-B-A on 2026-06-22 showed that the original handoff freeze is no longer the only failure shape:

• resources/content/sandman_handoff.md was fresh (Jun 22 04:08:22 2026 local).
• ## Current Release / Incident Focus was fresh (2026-06-22T02:08:08.187Z) and correctly ranked #13750 first.
• The same handoff's ## Computed Golden Path (Strategic Recommendation) still recommended exactly one immediate item: issue-10074, the v13 blog post, with the interpretation telling agents to pivot from core engineering to narrative articulation.
• Live GitHub state and the handoff's Active PR Cycle section also disagreed, so this is not just a stale-file problem; rendered steering surfaces can diverge from the operational release/incident focus.

Evidence: https://github.com/neomjs/neo/issues/13750#issuecomment-4764273204

Freshness sweep at 2026-06-22T02:55:31Z:

• GitHub exact search for Golden Path current focus computed blog #13750 #10074 returned #13750 and #10074 only; no narrow duplicate leaf.
• A2A latest-50 sweep showed no lane-claim or lane-intent for this scope.
• Local exact sweep found prior related work (#13758, #13800, #13828, #13844), but none owns the current contradiction contract: Current Focus is right while Computed Golden Path silently routes to unrelated blog work.

Release classification: PRIO-zero release/orchestrator steering defect under #13750. Project attachment is intentionally left to the operator/current release board owner because the local ticket-create guide still names the prior v13 project number, while this leaf is a post-v13.0 Agent OS drain follow-up.

Problem

The Computed Golden Path is the execution steering surface consumed by the orchestrator. If Current Release / Incident Focus says the PRIO-zero lane is #13750 but Computed Golden Path tells agents to work #10074, the swarm can still derail into valid-but-wrong meta/content work while the system-drain lane remains unresolved.

This is the same category of failure the operator called out: not another fallback or scoring monkeypatch, but a steering-policy contradiction that keeps draining the system.

Architectural Reality

GoldenPathSynthesizer currently renders these as separate surfaces:

• Current Release / Incident Focus: visibility/freshness ranking for release and incident work.
• Computed Golden Path: execution steering section consumed by AgentOrchestrator.

Existing diagnostics cover an empty computed path, but not the worse case where the computed path is non-empty and contradicts the fresh PRIO-zero focus.

Older related tickets are not duplicates:

• #13758 added the current-focus visibility section and computed recommendation filtering.
• #13800 repaired the frontier baseline recency source.
• #13828 covers stale frontier guide-edge cleanup when no computed section renders.
• #13844 covers candidate-pool population, not policy when a candidate is computed but operationally wrong.
• #10120 is opposite-direction context: it asks for external-facing/blog visibility, not incident-work protection from blog over-routing.

Required Shape

Add a policy/diagnostic contract for Current Focus vs Computed Golden Path contradiction.

When unresolved PRIO-zero / incident / release-focus work is present, Computed Golden Path must not silently route agents to unrelated Blog Post/docs/narrative work. The implementation should choose one of these explicit outcomes:

1. The computed recommendation is constrained or filtered to an aligned actionable incident/release candidate.
2. The handoff renders an explicit contradiction diagnostic explaining why computed routing diverged from Current Focus and marks that divergence as not an immediate execution recommendation.

Do not add a blind score boost. The fix must show which signal is authoritative, why, and how the orchestrator-facing section avoids silently steering the swarm away from the named incident lane.

Contract Ledger Matrix

Acceptance Criteria

• A focused unit fixture reproduces: Current Focus ranks #13750 / PRIO-zero work first while the computed candidate is unrelated Blog Post / #10074-style narrative work.
• The handoff no longer presents that unrelated blog/docs/narrative item as the sole immediate Computed Golden Path recommendation while unresolved PRIO-zero incident work exists.
• The chosen policy is explicit: either reroute/filter to aligned incident/release work, or render a contradiction diagnostic that AgentOrchestrator will not treat as a normal immediate recommendation.
• The implementation does not use a raw current-focus boost, recency multiplier, or blanket Blog Post exclusion; #10074 remains valid work under #13383 when the release/incident steering context permits it.
• Stale frontier GUIDES edges are cleared, stamped stale, or explicitly diagnosed when they disagree with the rendered computed-route decision.
• The PR body cites the #13750 evidence comment and explains why #13758/#13800/#13828/#13844 did not already close this contract.

Out of Scope

• Writing or closing #10074.
• Reworking the whole Golden Path scoring model.
• Closing #13750.
• Reopening the #10120 external-facing visibility objective.

Avoided Traps

• Do not treat this as graph-ingestion lag if the handoff is fresh and Current Focus is already correct.
• Do not fix it by making every PRIO-zero issue win forever; the policy must be bounded to unresolved release/incident focus contradiction.
• Do not hide blog work globally; the failure is silent execution steering during PRIO-zero incident focus, not the existence of content tickets.