test(perf): no tightening hint for an autoTighten:false baseline

Codex: the per-PR checker still printed "Lower the baseline … with this run
as evidence" for the J3 entry when a run read the low end of its band (731),
the change the flag exists to prevent. Such an entry now passes with the
reason instead, and is not counted as tightenable.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

tools/performance/check-journey-ratchet.mjs

@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
  *   never silently disable the ratchet.
  * - A measurement below its baseline prints a "can tighten" hint. Baselines
  *   are lowered by hand, with the measured output as evidence, never raised.
+ *   An entry with `"autoTighten": false` gets no hint: its slack covers a band
+ *   of normal values, so one low run is no evidence for a lower `value`.
  * - Checking nothing is a failure: an empty baselines file, or `--only`
  *   naming an entry that does not exist, must not exit 0.
  * - An optional `note` (a string) says why an entry is enforced, such as a
@@ -208,6 +210,10 @@ export function compareToBaselines({ baselines, summary, only = [] }) {
                 result.passed.push(
                     `${label}: ${formatNumber(measured)}${unit} within ${limitText}; uses ${formatNumber(measured - entry.value)} of ${formatNumber(limit - entry.value)}${unit} slack.`
                 );
+            } else if (measured < entry.value && entry.autoTighten === false) {
+                result.passed.push(
+                    `${label}: ${formatNumber(measured)}${unit} within ${limitText}; below the baseline, but autoTighten is false: lower it by hand only when the top of its band fell too (docs/architecture/performance-journeys.md).`
+                );
             } else if (measured < entry.value) {
                 result.tightenable.push(
                     `${label}: ${formatNumber(measured)}${unit} is below baseline ${formatNumber(entry.value)} by ${formatNumber(entry.value - measured)}${unit}. Lower the baseline in ${DEFAULT_BASELINES_PATH} with this run as evidence.`

tools/performance/check-journey-ratchet.test.mjs

@@ -151,6 +151,42 @@ test('a counter with slack passes up to value + slack and reports the slack used
     assert.match(below.tightenable[0], /below baseline 1,000 by 10 bytes/);
 });
 
+test('an entry with autoTighten false gets no tightening hint below its value', () => {
+    const baselines = {
+        version: 1,
+        journeys: {
+            playback: {
+                'renderer.domMutationsToPlaying': {
+                    value: 733,
+                    unit: 'mutations',
+                    slack: 20,
+                    autoTighten: false,
+                },
+            },
+        },
+    };
+    const result = compareToBaselines({
+        baselines,
+        summary: {
+            journeys: {
+                playback: {
+                    counters: { 'renderer.domMutationsToPlaying': 731 },
+                },
+            },
+        },
+    });
+    assert.deepEqual(result.failures, []);
+    assert.deepEqual(result.tightenable, []);
+    assert.match(
+        result.passed[0],
+        /731 mutations within 753 .*autoTighten is false: lower it by hand/
+    );
+    assert.match(
+        formatResult(result),
+        /1 baselines checked, 0 can be tightened/
+    );
+});
+
 test('wall-clock entries fail only above value × toleranceRatio', () => {
     const within = compareToBaselines({
         baselines,