G40/41 contrast probe scores textless decorative elements (status LEDs, dots) — Lc pairs with no reader

[rz1989s]

What happened

Build mode (check-gates.mjs --render), engine v1.1.0 on omp. An 8×8px status LED — a pure decoration with no text — got flagged as a contrast failure:

{"selector":"span","color":"oklch(92% 0.008 250)","backgroundColor":"oklch(78% 0.16 152)","width":8,"height":8}
→ 40 · Contrast — span: APCA Lc 18 < 60

The element: <span class="dot" aria-hidden="true"></span> — a live-status LED in a mission-control-style dashboard (rextorsec/rextor PR #75). The (color, bg) pair is inherited-text-vs-own-fill; no reader ever reads it.

What doesn't exempt the element

• font-size: 0 — no effect; PAIRS_EXPR (render-core.mjs) pushes every body * with a color or bg
• aria-hidden="true" — no effect (the repro element carries it)

Workaround in use

Give every LED an explicit self-contrasting color so the pair clears Lc 60 by construction:

.dot    { background: var(--color-ok);   color: var(--color-accent-ink); }  /* Lc 64 */
.seg    { background: var(--color-slot); color: var(--color-ink); }        /* Lc 68 */
.seg-on { background: var(--color-ok);   color: var(--color-accent-ink); }

These are semantic no-ops that exist purely to satisfy the probe — a smell that the probe is over-collecting on instrument-style UIs.

Proposal

In PAIRS_EXPR, skip elements that have no renderable text AND no text-bearing pseudo-content:

const ownText = [...el.childNodes].some(n => n.nodeType === 3 && n.textContent.trim());
const pseudo = getComputedStyle(el, "::before").content !== "none" || getComputedStyle(el, "::after").content !== "none";
if (!ownText && !pseudo) continue;   // pure decoration — no reader

Optionally also skip aria-hidden="true" elements (belt for cases where decoration carries stray whitespace text nodes).

Siblings

• G40 contrast probe fails on display:none elements (hidden inputs measure as black-on-surface) #28 — G40 probes display:none elements (hidden inputs measure as black-on-surface)
• audit: G40 contrast rows carry no selector / color pair — untriageable punch list #12 — audit-mode G40 rows carry no selector/color pair (untriageable)
• This one completes the set: visible, textless, decorative elements scored as if read.

Environment

• keystone engine 1.1.0 (~/.omp/plugins/node_modules/@getpipher/keystone)
• omp host, Chromium driver, build flow Step 7.1
• Target: rextorsec/rextor apps/dashboard/ (localhost operator dashboard — the instrument-UI case this bites hardest)

[rz1989s]

Sibling over-collection instance from the same build (adding here rather than filing a near-dup):

G39 helper-text heuristic flags every rule whose selector contains the substring hint — including pseudo-elements and state variants where min-height is meaningless:

39 · Helper-text collapses when empty — .hint has no min-height
39 · Helper-text collapses when empty — .hint summary::after has no min-height
39 · Helper-text collapses when empty — .hint[open] summary::after has no min-height
39 · Helper-text collapses when empty — .hint summary:hover, .hint summary:active has no min-height
... (10 rows from one component)

Source: g39-input-states.mjs — if (!/helper|field-note|hint|error-text/i.test(r.selector)) continue; then requires min-height on every matching rule, not just the slot's base rule.

Component was a <details> disclosure ("how this works" notes), not a form helper-text slot — it can never be empty (the summary line is permanent). Workaround: renamed the class .hint → .note and the gate went quiet — which is the tell that the heuristic is matching names, not structure.

Fix suggestion: (a) require min-height only on base rules (no pseudo-element/state selectors), and (b) skip components that always render content — e.g. only apply to selectors matched alongside an input/.field sibling rule in the same sheet, or respect the intent by checking the element has an empty-text case at all.