The noun/verb pagination walks (getNounsWithPagination,
getNounIdsWithPagination, getVerbsWithPagination) listed shard contents by
filtering for vectors.json, while the canonical count ledger has always
counted a row by its metadata.json presence alone. A row with metadata and
no vector file was therefore counted by the ledger but never yielded by the
walk — a permanent "counted but invisible" phantom for any downstream
consumer that iterates the walk to account for the ledger's total.
Nouns now enumerate by metadata.json and hydrate the vector leg optionally,
yielding the sanctioned unvectored shape (vector: []) when it's absent.
Verbs enumerate the same way, but a metadata-only verb row can only be fully
reconstructed when sourceId/targetId happen to be recoverable from metadata
(never true for a current production write — those fields live only in the
vector leg); otherwise the row is counted but loudly skipped rather than
fabricated, since a phantom edge with fake endpoints would be worse than the
original defect.
Separately, GenerationStore's recovery-fold replay (replayFact) now applies
preserve-if-absent: a metadata-only after-image replayed over an already-
vectored row carries the existing vector forward instead of deleting it via
writeNounRaw/writeVerbRaw's exact-restore null-means-delete contract (which
must stay exact for transaction-abort rollback). A genuine tombstone still
removes both legs.
David Snelling
f8d8ce16b9