diff --git a/emrg/server/scheduler.py b/emrg/server/scheduler.py
index b6a2eaa9..3b862485 100644
--- a/emrg/server/scheduler.py
+++ b/emrg/server/scheduler.py
@@ -690,7 +690,7 @@ def read_task_run_records(path: Path) -> list[dict]:
     **One derivation of the durable task-run store**, shared by its readers: a handler
     restores its own file at init (:meth:`TaskHandler._load_task_runs`) and the daemon
     reports the instance's record from every file in the store
-    (:meth:`Daemon._evolution_count` and the ``evolution_summary`` frame).
+    (:meth:`EmrgServer._evolution_count` and the ``evolution_summary`` frame).
 
     Those two daemon readings used to walk ``<logs>/evolution-*.json`` instead — a
     directory whose writer was removed with the store it belonged to. Measured on this
diff --git a/tests/test_docstring_cross_references_resolve.py b/tests/test_docstring_cross_references_resolve.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..14a04403
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_docstring_cross_references_resolve.py
@@ -0,0 +1,292 @@
+"""A cross-reference role must name something the tree has, or send the reader nowhere.
+
+The defect this holds
+---------------------
+A docstring wrote that a legacy row "is moved by `migrate_rant_agent_field` before any reader
+sees it", and no such function existed anywhere -- `git grep` found exactly one hit for the name,
+the sentence that claimed it. The reader who wants to know how the migration works goes looking
+for it, finds nothing, and cannot tell a rename from a rewrite from a promise. The path opens and
+the module parses, so nothing complains.
+
+Sibling guards, and why this is a third
+--------------------------------------
+Two guards already read a pointer in prose: `tests/test_check_citation_resolves.py` (through
+`scripts/check-citation-resolves.py`) for a `tests/test_x.py::node` citation that must collect,
+and `tests/test_docstring_title_citations_resolve.py` for "see `Title` in the module docstring"
+that must land on a heading the module carries. This one holds a third subject with a third
+resolution rule: a **Sphinx cross-reference role** names a code symbol, and what decides it is
+whether that symbol exists.
+
+What is measured, and what a role claims
+----------------------------------------
+A role is a *declaration*: `func` says "callable", `class` says "type", `meth` says "method",
+`data` says "a value". Each is a claim the tree can answer, because the claim is that the cited
+name exists. Two spellings resolve differently:
+
+* a **bare** name is the claim that the tree defines it -- any def, class, assignment or import
+  anywhere under the scanned directories, or a builtin;
+* a **dotted** name is a claim made *through* something, and static resolution cannot follow the
+  tail of `os.path.expandvars`. So the bound is the head: the first segment must be a name the
+  citing file can see -- imported by it, bound somewhere in the tree, or a builtin. That is the
+  decidable half of the claim ("do not cite through a module you never opened") and it is where
+  the guard stops.
+
+The `attr` role is deliberately outside the scan. It names a member of an object, not a binding
+a module holds, so the tree's `attr` references are `ctypes` structure fields -- three sites a
+rule reading them as module bindings would report and be wrong about every time.
+
+What this does not measure
+--------------------------
+Whether the cited name is the *right* one. A reference to a real function that has since stopped
+doing what the sentence says is invisible here; this guard answers only whether the pointer lands
+on a name the tree has. It also does not read a **bare backticked name in prose** -- the shape
+the defect actually took. A backtick in prose is not a declaration, and the tree holds hundreds
+that name files, config keys and protocol frames rather than code; a rule over them would report
+prose and be deleted.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import ast
+import builtins
+import re
+from pathlib import Path
+
+REPO_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
+
+#: The directories whose Python sources carry this convention.
+SCANNED = ("emrg", "scripts", "tests")
+
+#: Vendored trees inside a scanned directory, whose sources are not this project's.
+SKIPPED = ("node_modules", "site-packages")
+
+#: A cross-reference role whose subject is a symbol the tree can be asked about. `attr` is out
+#: for the reason the module docstring gives: it names a member, not a binding.
+ROLE = re.compile(r":(?P<role>func|class|meth|data):`~?(?P<name>[^`\n]+)`")
+
+
+def tree_roots(root: Path = REPO_ROOT) -> list[Path]:
+    """The directories this convention covers, under one root."""
+    return [Path(root) / name for name in SCANNED]
+
+
+def sources(roots) -> list[Path]:
+    """Every Python file under the given roots, in a stable order."""
+    found = []
+    for root in roots:
+        root = Path(root)
+        for path in root.rglob("*.py"):
+            # Judged on the path relative to the root it was walked from: an absolute path's
+            # parts let any ancestor named `node_modules` or `.venv` silence the walk, and the
+            # reading then reports a clean nothing.
+            relative = path.relative_to(root)
+            if any(part in SKIPPED for part in relative.parts):
+                continue
+            if path.is_file():
+                found.append(path)
+    return sorted(set(found))
+
+
+def bound(path: Path) -> set[str]:
+    """Every name one module binds: a def, a class, an assignment target, an import."""
+    try:
+        tree = ast.parse(Path(path).read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+    except (OSError, UnicodeDecodeError, SyntaxError):
+        return set()
+    names: set[str] = set()
+    for node in ast.walk(tree):
+        if isinstance(node, (ast.FunctionDef, ast.AsyncFunctionDef, ast.ClassDef)):
+            names.add(node.name)
+        elif isinstance(node, (ast.Assign, ast.AnnAssign)):
+            targets = node.targets if isinstance(node, ast.Assign) else [node.target]
+            for target in targets:
+                for inner in ast.walk(target):
+                    if isinstance(inner, ast.Name):
+                        names.add(inner.id)
+        elif isinstance(node, ast.Import):
+            for alias in node.names:
+                names.add((alias.asname or alias.name).split(".")[0])
+        elif isinstance(node, ast.ImportFrom):
+            for alias in node.names:
+                names.add(alias.asname or alias.name)
+    return names
+
+
+def scan(roots) -> list[str]:
+    """One finding per cross-reference that lands on no name the scanned tree has."""
+    paths = sources(roots)
+    per_file = {path: bound(path) for path in paths}
+    tree_names: set[str] = set()
+    for names in per_file.values():
+        tree_names |= names
+
+    findings = []
+    for path in paths:
+        try:
+            text = Path(path).read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+        except (OSError, UnicodeDecodeError) as exc:
+            findings.append(f"{path}: could not be read ({exc}); unmeasured, never a pass")
+            continue
+        visible = per_file[path]
+        for match in ROLE.finditer(text):
+            role = match.group("role")
+            name = match.group("name").strip()
+            if not name:
+                continue
+            line = text.count("\n", 0, match.start()) + 1
+            if "." in name:
+                head = name.split(".")[0]
+                if head in visible or head in tree_names or head in vars(builtins):
+                    continue
+                findings.append(
+                    f"{path}:{line}: cites {name!r} as a {role}, and {head!r} is neither "
+                    f"imported in this file nor bound anywhere in the tree — the reader is "
+                    f"sent through a module nothing here has opened"
+                )
+                continue
+            if name in tree_names or name in vars(builtins):
+                continue
+            findings.append(
+                f"{path}:{line}: cites {name!r} as a {role}, and no def, class, assignment or "
+                f"import under {', '.join(str(r) for r in roots)} binds that name — the "
+                f"reader follows the pointer to something that is not there"
+            )
+    return findings
+
+
+# ── the tree ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+#
+# Fixtures below assemble the role from parts on purpose. Written inline, each would be a
+# cross-reference site in *this* file, and the tree reading above would report this guard's own
+# fixtures back at it — a guard that cannot be run on the tree that holds it is no guard.
+
+
+def _ref(role: str, name: str) -> str:
+    """A cross-reference role around a name, built rather than typed."""
+    return f":{role}:`{name}`"
+
+
+def test_every_cross_reference_in_the_tree_resolves():
+    """The subject is this tree, and the reading names every site that does not land."""
+    findings = scan(tree_roots())
+    assert not findings, (
+        "a cross-reference names something the tree does not have; the reader who follows it "
+        "finds nothing, and nothing else in the suite asks:\n  " + "\n  ".join(findings)
+    )
+
+
+def test_a_name_the_tree_does_not_define_is_reported(tmp_path):
+    """The defect's shape: a role pointing at a callable no module here defines."""
+    site = tmp_path / "citing.py"
+    site.write_text(
+        f'"""{_ref("func", "migrate_rant_agent_field")} moves the old key first."""\n\n\n'
+        "def migrate_something_else():\n    pass\n",
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+    findings = scan([tmp_path])
+    assert findings, (
+        "a cross-reference to a name no module defines was read as resolved; this is the "
+        "defect the guard exists for"
+    )
+    assert "migrate_rant_agent_field" in findings[0], findings[0]
+
+
+def test_a_name_the_tree_does_define_resolves(tmp_path):
+    """The convention's ordinary case, so the guard is not green only on the defect."""
+    site = tmp_path / "defined.py"
+    site.write_text(
+        f'"""Uses {_ref("func", "real_helper")} below."""\n\n\n'
+        "def real_helper():\n    pass\n",
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+    assert scan([tmp_path]) == [], "a cross-reference to a def in the same file was reported"
+
+
+def test_a_name_bound_in_another_module_resolves(tmp_path):
+    """A pointer to a sibling module's symbol is a fair pointer — the tree has it."""
+    (tmp_path / "owner.py").write_text("class ExtraRootVerdict:\n    pass\n", encoding="utf-8")
+    site = tmp_path / "citing.py"
+    site.write_text(
+        f'"""{_ref("class", "ExtraRootVerdict")} documents what the store holds."""\n',
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+    assert scan([tmp_path]) == [], (
+        "a cross-reference to a class another module in the tree defines was reported; the "
+        "tree answers that claim"
+    )
+
+
+def test_a_dotted_reference_through_an_import_resolves(tmp_path):
+    """`os.path.expandvars` is undecidable past the head, and the head is the claim."""
+    site = tmp_path / "dotted.py"
+    site.write_text(
+        f'"""Resolved by {_ref("func", "os.path.expandvars")}."""\n\nimport os\n',
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+    assert scan([tmp_path]) == [], (
+        "a dotted reference whose head the file imports was reported; static resolution "
+        "cannot follow the tail and must not pretend to"
+    )
+
+
+def test_a_dotted_reference_through_a_module_never_opened_is_reported(tmp_path):
+    """The decidable half: a head the file cannot see is a claim nothing supports."""
+    site = tmp_path / "unopened.py"
+    site.write_text(
+        f'"""Resolved by {_ref("func", "elsewhere.helper")}."""\n',
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+    findings = scan([tmp_path])
+    assert findings, (
+        "a dotted reference whose head is neither imported nor bound anywhere was read as "
+        "resolved"
+    )
+    assert "elsewhere" in findings[0], findings[0]
+
+
+def test_a_builtin_resolves(tmp_path):
+    """A role naming a builtin is a real symbol, so the guard must not report it."""
+    site = tmp_path / "builtin.py"
+    site.write_text(f'"""Wraps {_ref("func", "len")}."""\n', encoding="utf-8")
+    assert scan([tmp_path]) == [], "a cross-reference to a builtin was reported"
+
+
+def test_a_bare_backticked_name_in_prose_is_not_a_reference(tmp_path):
+    """The lookalikes are the load-bearing half: a guard that reports prose gets deleted."""
+    site = tmp_path / "prose.py"
+    site.write_text(
+        '"""Rows are stored in `rants.jsonl` and `tasks.yml`, keyed by `agent`."""\n',
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+    assert scan([tmp_path]) == [], (
+        "a bare backticked word in prose was read as a cross-reference; a backtick is not a "
+        "declaration"
+    )
+
+
+def test_a_member_role_is_not_a_module_binding(tmp_path):
+    """`attr` names a field of a structure, not a name the module binds."""
+    site = tmp_path / "fields.py"
+    site.write_text(
+        f'"""{_ref("attr", "SubAuthority")} is a field of the struct below."""\n\n\n'
+        "class Struct:\n    _fields_ = [(\"SubAuthority\", 1)]\n",
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+    assert scan([tmp_path]) == [], (
+        "an `attr` reference to a structure field was reported as a missing module binding; "
+        "that role makes no such claim"
+    )
+
+
+def test_a_reference_in_a_comment_is_still_a_reference(tmp_path):
+    """A reader follows the pointer wherever it is written, the code block included."""
+    site = tmp_path / "comment.py"
+    site.write_text(
+        f"# The move is done by {_ref('func', 'absent_mover')} before any read.\nVALUE = 1\n",
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+    findings = scan([tmp_path])
+    assert findings, (
+        "a cross-reference written in a comment was not read at all; the docstring-only reader "
+        "misses the half of this class that lives outside docstrings"
+    )