Seen 2026-09-21 10:1x am Eastern on ticket d2d58e6a8d: the branch's own commit regenerated docs/write-topology.md and passed locally; the automatic gate (which now merges trunk first, ticket 752e76f61b) failed only write_topology_spec with 'docs/write-topology.md is stale after a src/*.cr line shift'. Any branch cut before a trunk change to src/ will now fail this way, and the daemon's run-end regeneration (ticket 56dcc5b7d8) cannot help because it runs before the gate's merge. Do: make the inventory line-number-free, identifying each write call site by file plus enclosing def and the config key or table written, in source order, so it is stable across unrelated line shifts; keep the staleness spec, which then fails only when a call site is added, removed or moved between defs; regenerate the doc once on trunk; and adjust tools/generate_write_topology.cr and the daemon's regeneration to the new shape. Spec: shifting a line above a call site does not change the render; adding a call site does.