fix: follow-up review corrections, BIS rejection, and a gitignore miss

Second-pass review of this session's work by another agent. It corrected several
real mistakes of mine and finished F06 gaps I had left open. Reviewed, verified
and committed as-is.

THE MISS THAT MATTERS
`job_scout/state/applications.json` — the authoritative application registry
introduced by F02 — was never actually tracked. `job_scout/state/*` in
.gitignore silently excluded it, so my checkpoint commit afdef7e claimed to add
it and did not. Only `application_cohort.json`, the GENERATED projection, was
version-controlled; the source of truth and the migration history backup were
not. .gitignore now carries explicit negations for both.

MY ERRORS, CORRECTED
- "kastellaun" was in CH_LOCATION_KEYWORDS. Kastellaun is in Rhineland-Palatinate.
  I took it from a Bundeswehr reserve listing and filed it under Switzerland -
  precisely the class of bug F12 existed to fix.
- The F12 fix only widened the keyword list; SmartRecruiters still discarded the
  structured country, which was the concrete case the review named
  (city=Baar, country=CH). The adapter now preserves it, and a COUNTRY_NAMES
  mapping gives country precedence over a bare town name.
- F15 was applied to Taleo and Prospective only. Greenhouse still wrote
  `updated_at` into `posted`; it now uses `published_at` and carries provenance.
- My negation guard `\b(no|not|...)\b[^.;]{0,60}$` was too loose - an unrelated
  "not" within 60 characters could mask a real claim. Tightened to require the
  negation to govern the term.
- F18's retirement of the macro-count rule missed "Four to six compact skills
  lines" in the workflow; removed now.

F06 GAPS I LEFT OPEN, NOW CLOSED
Date-format validation on education/employment periods (the 2035-99 case named
in the review), evidence-structure validation, referential integrity on evidence
source files, and the missing-identity KeyError.

F10 TAKEN FURTHER, AND RIGHTLY
I demoted the US-GPA fields to *_orientation_only. They are now removed
entirely, with grade_output_rule saying what to do instead: use the German grade
and scale, and if a recipient requires a US GPA, use THEIR method and record it.
Keeping a number derived by a non-recognised method invites its use.

Also: the Capgemini omit-preference now sits in experience_capgemini.md itself,
alongside the instruction not to fill or explain the intentional gap.

BIS BASEL - REJECTED 2026-09-11
jr100429, applied 2026-07-10, no interview, no reason given. Recorded in the
registry with a dated event and in the decision log; the "prep interview brief
when screening lands" next action is cleared. This also settles the 2026-09-04
observation that the req had vanished from the BIS board - it was a real
rejection, not just a closed posting.

VERIFICATION I RAN MYSELF BEFORE COMMITTING
49/49 tests. Validator PASS with 0 advisory warnings. Package manifest and
registry views current. All 12 F12 location cases still correct, including
Kastellaun now rejecting. The F05 counter-proof still catches all 9 violations.
SBB, NVIDIA, RUAG and Kdo Cy resumes still scan clean. Diffs are net-additive
across every reference file - the deletions are replacements, not losses.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Qej5SBvhcbGXHwLqNWiskM

resume_builder/reference/cl_reference.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Cover Letter Reference
 
-> A cover letter is optional by default. The resume must earn a screen on its own.
+> The resume must stand alone. Decide on a letter using the employer and market context below.
 
 ## Decision Gate
 
@@ -20,6 +20,14 @@ Normally skip it when:
 
 Record `Cover Letter Decision: YES/NO` and the reason in the session file before writing.
 
+For Denmark and Norway, normally prepare a short, specific letter when the process permits it;
+do not automatically skip it merely because the field is optional. Explain the actual connection
+to the employer, relevant evidence and any confirmed country/location motivation. One page is
+the normal limit. Employer instructions against letters or motivation questions in the portal
+take precedence. If no specific additional value exists, record why the letter is omitted.
+Sources reviewed 2026-09-11: [Workindenmark](https://www.workindenmark.dk/job-search-in-denmark/your-cover-letter),
+[NAV](https://arbeidsplassen.nav.no/tips-til-jobbsoknaden).
+
 ## Evidence Rules
 
 1. Read `resume_builder/canonical/claims.json` first.