Open with supported no-follow and nonblocking flags before relying on file metadata. Validate descriptor, pathname and rule-directory consistency before and after reading at most64KiB plus one overflow byte. Reject observed replacement, mutation, premature EOF and non-regular files, and close descriptors on every outcome.
Add12 race and I/O regressions. Keep the Hermes uppercase protected-file fixture real on case-sensitive filesystems and verify that the installed guard still permits first-time creation.
Validation: full6688 reported tests across347 files,12 race tests, full80% coverage gates, scoped Hookify coverage, installed Hookify and Hermes workflows, packed artifact lifecycle, lint, signatures and IOC.
Carry forward PR #3055 at 92f53c4c onto ef648e01, preserving contributor attribution and current main. Focused maintainer fixes reuse shared input ceilings, preserve late root context through outer bootstrap, bound frontmatter before immutable parsing, and assert real oversized input in the limits workflow.
haelyra