See through versioned stylesheets and catch standard-tracked kickers

Paul's codex build carried an element literally named class="kicker"
and the detector returned one finding. Two independent blind spots:

- The linked stylesheet was styles.css?v=3, and the href resolved as a
  literal path with the query string in it, so the whole sheet was
  invisible to every element-level check: 1 finding with the link, 18
  with the CSS inlined. Hrefs now strip query and hash before resolving.
- The kicker gate demanded letter-spacing >= max(1px, 0.08 * size). The
  wild's most common recipe, 0.08em at 12px, computes to 0.973px and
  lost to the absolute floor by a fraction. The floor is now purely
  proportional (0.06 * size), with a fixture case pinning the exact
  shape that slipped through.

With both fixed, the failed codex build scans at 18 findings including
its numbered section kickers (numbered-section-labels), side-tab
stripe, and grid background.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

cli/engine/detect-antipatterns-browser.js

@@ -3324,7 +3324,11 @@ function isKickerCandidate(opts) {
     || isSmallCaps;
   if (!isUppercased) return false;
   if (!(kickerFontSize > 0 && kickerFontSize <= 14)) return false;
-  const minTrackedSpacing = Math.max(1, kickerFontSize * 0.08);
+  // Proportional only, no absolute floor: the wild's most common recipe is
+  // 0.08em at a sub-13px size, which computes to under 1px and sailed past
+  // the old Math.max(1, ...) floor (observed live: a page whose kickers were
+  // literally class="kicker" produced zero findings).
+  const minTrackedSpacing = kickerFontSize * 0.06;
   if (!(kickerLetterSpacing >= minTrackedSpacing)) return false;
   return true;
 }

cli/engine/engines/static-html/css-cascade.mjs

@@ -952,7 +952,10 @@ function collectStaticCssText(root, fileDir, profile, filePath, modules) {
     const rel = link.attribs?.rel || '';
     const href = link.attribs?.href || '';
     if (!/\bstylesheet\b/i.test(rel) || !href || /^(https?:)?\/\//i.test(href)) continue;
-    const cssPath = path.resolve(fileDir, href);
+    // Cache-busting hrefs (styles.css?v=3) resolve to the file, not to a
+    // literal path with the query in it; a versioned link otherwise made the
+    // whole stylesheet invisible to every element-level check.
+    const cssPath = path.resolve(fileDir, href.split(/[?#]/)[0]);
     try {
       const css = profileStep(profile, {
         engine: 'static-html',

cli/engine/rules/checks.mjs

@@ -2523,7 +2523,11 @@ function isKickerCandidate(opts) {
     || isSmallCaps;
   if (!isUppercased) return false;
   if (!(kickerFontSize > 0 && kickerFontSize <= 14)) return false;
-  const minTrackedSpacing = Math.max(1, kickerFontSize * 0.08);
+  // Proportional only, no absolute floor: the wild's most common recipe is
+  // 0.08em at a sub-13px size, which computes to under 1px and sailed past
+  // the old Math.max(1, ...) floor (observed live: a page whose kickers were
+  // literally class="kicker" produced zero findings).
+  const minTrackedSpacing = kickerFontSize * 0.06;
   if (!(kickerLetterSpacing >= minTrackedSpacing)) return false;
   return true;
 }

tests/detect-antipatterns-fixtures.test.mjs

@@ -915,6 +915,7 @@ describe('detectHtml — hero-eyebrow-chip', () => {
 describe('detectHtml — kicker-above-heading', () => {
   const SHOULD_FLAG = [
     'A Single Kicker Still Flags',
+    'Standard Tracking Kicker',
     'Kicker Above An H3',
     'Kicker Above An H4',
     'Sub Hero Heading',

tests/fixtures/antipatterns/kicker-above-heading.html

@@ -43,6 +43,19 @@
     .pass-kicker-caps {
       text-transform: uppercase;
     }
+    /* The wild's most common kicker recipe: 0.08em tracking at a sub-13px
+       size computes to under 1px, which the old absolute floor excluded. */
+    .tight-tracked-kicker {
+      display: block;
+      width: 240px;
+      min-height: 16px;
+      margin: 0 0 8px;
+      font-size: 12px;
+      line-height: 16px;
+      letter-spacing: 0.08em;
+      text-transform: uppercase;
+      color: #5b5046;
+    }
     .smallcaps-kicker {
       display: block;
       width: 240px;
@@ -187,6 +200,12 @@
         <p>One tracked uppercase label above one heading is enough. No repetition required.</p>
       </section>
 
+      <section class="case">
+        <span class="tight-tracked-kicker">Output model</span>
+        <h2>"Standard Tracking Kicker"</h2>
+        <p>Uppercase at 12px with 0.08em tracking is the most common authored kicker and must flag.</p>
+      </section>
+
       <section class="case">
         <p class="kicker">Preview sequence</p>
         <h3>"Kicker Above An H3"</h3>