diff --git a/THREADS.md b/THREADS.md
index 9cbb359..904ec34 100644
--- a/THREADS.md
+++ b/THREADS.md
@@ -2876,3 +2876,60 @@ sail.js gains two small APIs other lanes may want: `resetPeaks()` (peakLoad is p
 was folding settle transients into storm peaks) and `nodeSpeed()`.
 
 Selftest: **277 passed, 0 failed, 0 skipped**, LANE BAL now visible.
+[D] 2026-07-18 — 🔧 **GUARD REDESIGNED (§Lane D, with B) — it measures SHAPE now, and I proved it fires.**
+    Integrator: thank you for demoting it rather than deleting it, but **your stated cause doesn't
+    hold, and neither did my design.** Both worth recording:
+      · **The ponding diagnosis is wrong.** Every storm's rain curve starts at `[0, 0]`, so
+        `storm_02.rainMmPerHour(0)` is **0.0 mm/h** — a held clock rains *nothing*. (Also: your 2 s
+        windows are shorter than the cloth's breath. A settled rig reads a 32% trend at 2 s and **6%
+        at 3 s**. The window was the flake, not the water.)
+      · **The real confound was mine.** The guard measured in the STORM's wind while the rig settled
+        in CALM — and that calm→storm step is one **the real game also has** (`wind.use(to ===
+        'storm' ? winds[stormKey] : calmWind)` fires on the phase change). It was never a harness
+        artifact; the suite was being faithful and my guard was calling it a bug.
+      · **And fixing the clock isn't enough, because LOAD cannot answer this question at all.** In
+        calm there is no transient to see — the unsettled rig is *lighter* (0.30 kN vs 0.47 settled)
+        and the trend test **passes at every settle length from 0 s to 20 s**. A guard that cannot
+        fail is decoration, which is exactly what StumbleBack and the fake skips were.
+    So it asks the physical question instead — **has the cloth stopped moving** — and mean node drift
+    separates ~6× either side, immune to wind and water alike:
+    ```
+      unsettled (0 s)  → 212 mm/s   (cover quad) · 208 (miss quad)
+      settled (8–20 s) →  35 mm/s worst breath, typically 4–6
+    ```
+    Limit **100 mm/s**. **Proved it fails before trusting it to pass** (the habit this repo keeps
+    earning): sabotaged the settle to 0 s and it fired — *"line entered the storm with the cloth
+    still drifting 212 mm/s (limit 100)"*. Restored, all five balance asserts green, **275/0/0**.
+    **Your 600 N floor: blessed as reasoning, not carried as code.** It was the right amendment to a
+    LOAD design — "the trend only matters at a scale that can move a verdict" is correct and I'd have
+    kept it. Drift has no units of force to need a floor, and 212-vs-35 isn't a judgement call.
+
+[D] 2026-07-18 — 🪜 **SITE_02 PREP — I audited the ladder against it rather than wait, and there IS a
+    seam. A/E: one field in the site JSON and I'm done.** site_02 isn't landed so I can't play it cold
+    yet; this is the half I could do now.
+    The prompt's hunch was right but the mechanism isn't height. `needsLadder` was spelled
+    **`type === 'house'`**, and contracts.js types anchors as a **closed enum `'house'|'tree'|'post'`
+    that a carport doesn't fit.** The failure mode is why it couldn't wait: if `needsLadder` says
+    false, **`canReach` in interact.js returns `true` UNCONDITIONALLY** — so on site_02 the player
+    re-rigs a 2.6 m carport bracket standing on the grass, and the ladder mechanic *silently stops
+    existing*. No error, no red. That's the same disease as StumbleBack's dead threshold, the fake
+    skips, and the camera-less shadow grid: **a rule keyed on the wrong thing, failing open.**
+    **A pure height test is NOT the fix** — posts (3.95 m) and tree limbs (5.05 m) are *higher* than
+    the 2.48 m fascia and need no ladder, because there you work the **cloth** (which has fallen to
+    where you stand) and here you work the **bracket** (which is on a wall). Height is a coincidence
+    of that distinction, not the distinction.
+    So it reads **data first**: `anchor.worksAtBracket` — precisely the pattern `anchor.ratingHint`
+    already uses from the GLB's `userData.rating_hint` — falling back to `type === 'house'`.
+    **Nothing on site_01 carries the flag, so it's a no-op there** (asserted both ways).
+    **Lane A:** when you extract the yard to `data/sites/*.json`, give anchors an optional
+    `worksAtBracket`. **Lane E:** type the carport however you like — set that flag on its anchors and
+    the ladder follows the site with zero code change. If you'd rather it were named or shaped
+    differently, say so now; it's one line and I have no attachment to the spelling.
+    Also: `ladder.js` is now headless-importable (lazy GLTFLoader, same as broom.js), because
+    `d.test.js` had been testing **fakeLadder's hand-copied duplicate** of `needsLadder` instead of
+    the rule itself. A rule the suite re-implements is a rule the suite cannot catch drifting — which
+    is the whole reason this repo has a balance suite that reads the yard from world.js.
+
+[D] 2026-07-18 — ⏳ **Still owed by me: play site_02 cold** (blocked — A's site-as-data + E's corner
+    block haven't landed), and the full-week feel pass. Both are queued and neither blocks anyone. My
+    douse guard is still green, so pond masses haven't moved.
diff --git a/web/world/js/ladder.js b/web/world/js/ladder.js
index ea9a0a0..d86cdd1 100644
--- a/web/world/js/ladder.js
+++ b/web/world/js/ladder.js
@@ -17,20 +17,44 @@
  * no change to get this — it already hands createPlayer the scene, world and interact.
  */
 import * as THREE from '../vendor/three.module.js';
-import { GLTFLoader } from '../vendor/addons/loaders/GLTFLoader.js';
 
+// GLTFLoader is imported lazily, not at module scope, and the reason is the suite: the vendored
+// addons import the bare specifier 'three', which only resolves under index.html's importmap, so a
+// top-level import here would drag the whole GL chain in and make this file unloadable from
+// d.test.js (node resolves relative paths only — three.module.js is fine, its addons are not).
+// That mattered: needsLadder below is a RULE, and the suite was testing a hand-copied duplicate of
+// it rather than the rule itself. Same reasoning as broom.js.
 export const LADDER_URL = './models/ladder_01_v1.glb';
 
 /**
  * Which anchors you cannot rig from the ground.
  *
- * Deliberately keyed on the anchor TYPE, not on a height test. A pure "is it above reach?" rule
- * would rope in the posts (3.95 m) and tree limbs (up to 5.05 m) and turn every single repair into
- * a two-trip ladder job — which is both untrue to how sails are actually rigged and would have
- * silently invalidated the recorded §7 run and Lane B's gate asserts. Decision 12 scopes this to
- * the fascia; this is that scope, in one line, where it can be found and argued with.
+ * NOT a height test, deliberately. A pure "is it above reach?" rule would rope in the posts (3.95 m)
+ * and tree limbs (up to 5.05 m) and turn every repair into a two-trip ladder job — untrue to how
+ * sails are rigged, and it would silently invalidate the recorded §7 run and Lane B's gate asserts.
+ * The real distinction isn't height, it's WHERE THE WORK HAPPENS: a blown fascia corner is re-made
+ * at the bracket on the wall, while a blown post or tree corner is re-made on the cloth, which has
+ * fallen to somewhere you can stand. Height is a coincidence of that; the bracket is the reason.
+ *
+ * SPRINT9, site_02 (SPRINT9 §Lane D — "the ladder assumes fascia height; the carport may not have
+ * one"): `type === 'house'` is site_01's spelling of that idea, not the idea itself. The corner
+ * block has a CARPORT — a roofline you'd also work at the bracket — and contracts.js types anchors
+ * as a closed enum `'house'|'tree'|'post'` that a carport doesn't fit. Whatever E types it, this
+ * must not fail OPEN: if `needsLadder` says false, `canReach` in interact.js returns true
+ * unconditionally and the player re-rigs a 2.6 m bracket standing on the grass — the mechanic just
+ * quietly stops existing, with no error. That is the same disease as StumbleBack's dead threshold
+ * and the camera-less shadow grid: a rule keyed on the wrong thing, failing silently open.
+ *
+ * So it reads DATA first, exactly like `anchor.ratingHint` already does (world.js pulls that from
+ * the GLB's `userData.rating_hint`), and falls back to site_01's shape. Lane A/E: set
+ * `anchor.worksAtBracket = true` on the carport's anchors in the site JSON and the ladder follows
+ * the site with no code change. Nothing on site_01 carries the flag, so this is a no-op there.
  */
-export const needsLadder = (anchor) => !!anchor && anchor.type === 'house';
+export const needsLadder = (anchor) => {
+  if (!anchor) return false;
+  if (typeof anchor.worksAtBracket === 'boolean') return anchor.worksAtBracket;   // site data wins
+  return anchor.type === 'house';                                                 // site_01's shape
+};
 
 /** Where the player stands to work a fascia anchor: out from the wall, at the anchor's x. */
 const STAND_OFF = 0.9;      // m clear of the wall face
@@ -72,15 +96,20 @@ export function createLadder(scene, world, interact, player) {
   state.base.copy(home);
 
   // --- view -----------------------------------------------------------------
-  new GLTFLoader().load(LADDER_URL, (g) => {
-    const obj = g.scene;
-    const top = obj.getObjectByName('ladder_top');
-    if (top) state.topY = top.position.y;
-    obj.traverse((o) => { if (o.isMesh) { o.castShadow = true; o.frustumCulled = false; } });
-    state.view = obj;
-    scene.add(obj);
-    syncView();
-  }, undefined, () => { /* missing asset: the mechanic still works, you just can't see it */ });
+  // Dynamic import: only ever runs in a browser (see the note at the top of the file).
+  if (scene) {
+    import('../vendor/addons/loaders/GLTFLoader.js').then(({ GLTFLoader }) => {
+      new GLTFLoader().load(LADDER_URL, (g) => {
+        const obj = g.scene;
+        const top = obj.getObjectByName('ladder_top');
+        if (top) state.topY = top.position.y;
+        obj.traverse((o) => { if (o.isMesh) { o.castShadow = true; o.frustumCulled = false; } });
+        state.view = obj;
+        scene.add(obj);
+        syncView();
+      }, undefined, () => { /* missing asset: the mechanic still works, you just can't see it */ });
+    }).catch(() => { /* headless (selftest/node): the rules run, there is just nothing to draw */ });
+  }
 
   const LEAN = 0.26;   // rad (~15°) — a ladder stood bolt upright reads as a post, not a ladder
   function syncView() {
diff --git a/web/world/js/tests/balance.test.js b/web/world/js/tests/balance.test.js
index e26e233..82533c7 100644
--- a/web/world/js/tests/balance.test.js
+++ b/web/world/js/tests/balance.test.js
@@ -323,8 +323,8 @@ async function fly(yard, session, stormName, { repair = false, broom = false, se
     lost: rig.corners.filter((c) => c.broken).length,
     spent: START_BUDGET - session.budget,
     pond: Math.round(pond),
-    /** kN on the worst corner at storm entry — the settled-at-entry guard's number. */
-    entryPeak: entryPeak / 1000,
+    /** mm/s the cloth was still drifting when the storm started — the settled-at-entry guard. */
+    settleDrift: settleDriftMmPerSec,
   };
 }
 
@@ -499,22 +499,26 @@ export default async function run(t) {
   });
 
   /**
-   * D's settled-at-entry guard (SPRINT8 §Lane D). The suite must enter the storm with the yard in
-   * the state a player hands it: rigged, breathing on the calm day, corners loaded by nothing worse
-   * than their own tension. It does not decide storm_02's verdict — measured, it doesn't — but a
-   * harness silently measuring the attach transient is how three of them disagreed for two sprints,
-   * and the transient IS worth 2.7× on tree corners in the moment it exists.
+   * D's settled-at-entry guard, redesigned to measure SHAPE (SPRINT9, B+D). Full reasoning at the
+   * measurement site in fly(); the short version is that load could not answer this question and
+   * node drift can, ~6x clear either side of the line.
+   *
+   * It does NOT decide storm_02's verdict — measured twice now, the settle never moves the corner
+   * count. It exists because a harness silently flying a cloth that is still falling is how three
+   * of them disagreed for two sprints, and the next one should trip a wire instead of an argument.
    */
-  t.test('harness: the yard is SETTLED when the storm starts', () => {
+  t.test('harness: the cloth has STOPPED MOVING when the storm starts', () => {
+    const LIMIT = 100;   // mm/s. Measured: 212 unsettled, 35 worst settled breath.
     const runs = [['line', line], ['cheap', cheap], ['gentle', gentle]].filter(([, r]) => r);
     for (const [name, r] of runs) {
-      if (!(r.entryPeak < 1.0)) {
+      if (!(r.settleDrift < LIMIT)) {
         throw new Error(
-          `${name} entered the storm carrying ${r.entryPeak.toFixed(2)} kN — that is an attach ` +
-          'transient, not a rig. Settle on the calm day with a running clock, as main.js does.');
+          `${name} entered the storm with the cloth still drifting ${r.settleDrift.toFixed(0)} mm/s ` +
+          `(limit ${LIMIT}). That is a sail falling into shape, not a rig — every number below is ` +
+          'measuring the attach transient. Lengthen the settle in fly().');
       }
     }
-    return `entry loads: ${runs.map(([n, r]) => `${n} ${r.entryPeak.toFixed(2)} kN`).join(' · ')}`;
+    return `settle drift: ${runs.map(([n, r]) => `${n} ${r.settleDrift.toFixed(1)} mm/s`).join(' · ')}`;
   });
 
   t.test('balance: storm_02 punishes a cheap rig on the same quad', () => {
diff --git a/web/world/js/tests/d.test.js b/web/world/js/tests/d.test.js
index bff8913..a9d3a9c 100644
--- a/web/world/js/tests/d.test.js
+++ b/web/world/js/tests/d.test.js
@@ -14,6 +14,9 @@
 import { PlayerSim, STATES, TUNE, clipFor } from '../player.sim.js';
 import { Interact, wireYardActions } from '../interact.js';
 import { createBroom, BROOM_TUNE } from '../broom.js';
+// The REAL rule, not the fakeLadder's hand-copied duplicate of it — a rule the suite re-implements
+// is a rule the suite cannot catch drifting. (ladder.js is headless-importable for this reason.)
+import { needsLadder as realNeedsLadder } from '../ladder.js';
 import { assert, assertEq, assertClose, assertLess, fixedLoop } from '../testkit.js';
 import { FIXED_DT } from '../contracts.js';
 import { loadStorm, createWind } from '../weather.js';
@@ -438,14 +441,29 @@ export default async function run(t) {
   });
 
   t.test('ladder: needsLadder is scoped to the fascia, not to everything above head height', () => {
-    const L = fakeLadder();
-    assert(L.needsLadder({ type: 'house', pos: { y: 2.48 } }), 'the fascia bracket needs it');
-    assert(!L.needsLadder({ type: 'post', pos: { y: 3.95 } }),
+    assert(realNeedsLadder({ type: 'house', pos: { y: 2.48 } }), 'the fascia bracket needs it');
+    assert(!realNeedsLadder({ type: 'post', pos: { y: 3.95 } }),
       'a 4 m post does NOT — you tension it from a cleat at the base');
-    assert(!L.needsLadder({ type: 'tree', pos: { y: 5.05 } }),
+    assert(!realNeedsLadder({ type: 'tree', pos: { y: 5.05 } }),
       'nor a tree limb — that is a strop you throw');
   });
 
+  t.test('ladder: a site can DECLARE which anchors are worked at the bracket', () => {
+    // SPRINT9 §Lane D, ahead of site_02. The corner block has a CARPORT, and contracts.js types
+    // anchors as a closed enum ('house'|'tree'|'post') that a carport doesn't fit. The failure mode
+    // matters more than the feature: if needsLadder says false, interact's canReach returns true
+    // UNCONDITIONALLY, so the player re-rigs a 2.6 m bracket from the grass and the mechanic
+    // silently stops existing. Data first, site_01's type as the fallback.
+    assert(realNeedsLadder({ type: 'carport', pos: { y: 2.6 }, worksAtBracket: true }),
+      'a carport roofline is bracket work even though its type is not "house"');
+    assert(!realNeedsLadder({ type: 'house', pos: { y: 2.48 }, worksAtBracket: false }),
+      'and a site can say otherwise — a low pergola you can reach off the deck');
+    // and site_01 must be untouched: nothing there carries the flag
+    assert(realNeedsLadder({ type: 'house', pos: { y: 2.48 } }), 'no flag → site_01 behaviour');
+    assert(!realNeedsLadder({ type: 'post', pos: { y: 3.95 } }), 'no flag → post is still ground work');
+    assert(!realNeedsLadder(null) && !realNeedsLadder(undefined), 'and it never throws on a gap');
+  });
+
   t.test('ladder: fascia re-rig is gated on being up it; post re-rig is not', () => {
     const p = new PlayerSim({ start: { x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 } });
     const L = fakeLadder({ player: p });