Is the comparison base a plausible predecessor of the head?
A base that carries NO lessons yields no previous ids, so nothing can be
violated and the gate reports green precisely when it matters most: while
ids are being minted. That shape means a wrong, empty or unrelated ref (or
a genuinely first publication, which has to be stated explicitly), never a
clean run.
A base WITH lessons but zero stable_ids is the normal mint-wave shape and
stays credible: that is exactly the state a minting PR starts from.
Is the comparison base a plausible predecessor of the head?
A base that carries NO lessons yields no previous ids, so nothing can be violated and the gate reports green precisely when it matters most: while ids are being minted. That shape means a wrong, empty or unrelated ref (or a genuinely first publication, which has to be stated explicitly), never a clean run.
A base WITH lessons but zero stable_ids is the normal mint-wave shape and stays credible: that is exactly the state a minting PR starts from.