1. What cost the most. The one nikaia test --project tests/compiler run (about 10 minutes) and the build cycle. Waiting on the test run, I broke a rule: I wrote a wait.sh that looped on sleep until the output file showed an exit line. The background task would have woken me anyway, so that call was pointless. Three turns were lost to small slips:
   • nikaia run refused a file inside tests/compiler because it is not the project’s entry, so I had to copy it to the scratchpad.
   • The test’s println(h.iter().sum()) failed at rustc. That is an old defect that also hits Vec; the probe that confirmed it cost one more turn.
   • My rustc check of the K3a form failed twice. I sent nikaia lower output into k.rs, which put its status line into the file. Then plain rustc could not build the file, because lowered code needs nikaia_std.
2. What I looked up that the brief could have given me.
   • That std.contracts is built into the binary, so a contract change needs a rebuild.
   • That the emitter already passes a method name like iter straight through to Rust, so only the contract was missing. I checked with a grep for BTreeMap::iter; the brief could have said “expect contract-only”.
   • How to “compile by rustc” in practice. It means nikaia run on a scratch file, not plain rustc.
3. Checks.
   • Useful: the build cycle, the program probe, the Vec probe, tests/compiler once, the gate guard set, clippy, fmt and pre-push-check.
   • Wasted: the plain-rustc attempt and the sleep loop.
   • Probably extra: the throwaway probe in a tools file. It lowers through the same emitter as a program, and the lower-std fixpoint already showed the same thing. Clippy was also low value, since no Rust source changed, but it is required.
4. The change that would save the most. In builder.md, under the K3a-style probe step, say: “To check that lowered code compiles, run nikaia run scratch.nika. Plain rustc cannot link nikaia_std, and nikaia lower writes F.rs itself (do not redirect its stdout).” Also add a line saying a test file under tests/compiler is probed from a scratch copy.

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