/**
 * coverage/items — normalizing and refusing coverage lists.
 *
 * Pattern: one validator, two doors (`absent()` and `coverage()`), so the two
 *          primitives cannot disagree about what a well-formed piece of
 *          ground looks like.
 * Role:    core/ layer, pure. Throws at the CALL SITE (the
 *          `resolveEvidenceGate` precedent): a malformed declaration is a
 *          mistake in the line the author just wrote, and the stack should
 *          say so — not fail on the first absence of the first incident.
 * Emits:   N/A.
 */
import type { CoverageInput, CoverageItem } from './types.js';
/** Section names, as the author spells them — used verbatim in refusals. */
export type CoverageSection = 'checked' | 'notChecked' | 'cannotCover';
/**
 * Normalize one author list into {@link CoverageItem}s, refusing anything a
 * reader could not act on.
 *
 * `requireWhy` is true only for `cannotCover`. The asymmetry is deliberate:
 * "we checked the fcns database" and "we did not check the archive" are
 * complete statements on their own, but "this tool can never see host-side
 * multipathing" is a claim about capability — and a permanent blind spot with
 * no reason attached cannot be acted on, escalated, or disproved. It is also
 * the one an operator is most likely to want to fix, so the reason is the
 * useful half.
 */
export declare function normalizeCoverageList(fn: string, section: CoverageSection, list: readonly CoverageInput[] | undefined, requireWhy: boolean): readonly CoverageItem[];
/** Two entries are the same ground when they say the same two things. Used to
 *  fold the run's declarations into ONE answer-level block: five tools that
 *  all name the same missing collector should say it once. */
export declare function sameItem(a: CoverageItem, b: CoverageItem): boolean;
/** Merge lists in declaration order, dropping repeats. Order is the run's own
 *  order on purpose — it is the only ordering that means anything here. */
export declare function mergeItems(lists: ReadonlyArray<readonly CoverageItem[]>): readonly CoverageItem[];