# Registry policy (set 2026-08-26)
`theories/_registry.json` is a PARTIAL record of word-sets ACTUALLY SWEPT against the wallet
(plant-validated negatives). It is NOT complete — the completeness audit
(registry_completeness_audit.md) shows ~10k generated-but-maybe-unswept sets in *_sets.json,
and some genuinely-swept sets (e.g. the feeling-names eleven) were never logged to it.

RULE — err toward UNDER-complete, never over-complete:
- A set wrongly marked "tested" -> we SKIP it -> could skip the answer. CATASTROPHIC.
- A set wrongly marked "untested" -> we RE-SWEEP it -> cheap, plant-validated. HARMLESS.
Therefore: ONLY add a set to the registry after it has been swept in a plant-validated run.
NEVER backfill from candidate-generation files (*_sets.json) as if generation == sweeping.

USAGE: treat a registry hit as a DE-PRIORITIZATION hint ("probably already done, check the run
logs"), never as a hard skip. Every candidate eleven still gets swept before being called dead —
the plant makes re-sweeps safe and cheap. Novelty claims from workers are advisory, not final.