diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3dfcc2d..4cd9f55 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,63 @@ All notable changes to `cloverleaf-larry` / `larry-anywhere` are recorded here.
 Versioning is loose-semver; bumps trigger the in-process self-update on every
 running client via `LARRY_BASE_URL` + `MANIFEST`.
 
+## v0.8.29 — 2026-05-28
+
+**★ READ/INSPECT TOOL VALIDATION PASS — 6 real bugs found & fixed.** Ran every
+read/inspect/analysis tool against a real 24-site Cloverleaf integrator fixture
+(via BOTH the `lib/<x>.sh` path and the wired `execute_tool` dispatch), with real
+thread/site/xlate/table names discovered from the config. Same class as the
+v0.8.28 nc-engine arg-parse crash: each only surfaced when actually run. A BSD-awk
+word-boundary nit in `nc-status.sh` not-up (gawk-only `\<up\>` → portable
+`(^|[^a-z])up([^a-z]|$)`) was also caught at the Vera gate and folded in.
+
+- **`nc-find.sh` `--name` mode returned ZERO matches (BSD/macOS).** The protocol-
+  name extraction used the GNU-only `sed \+`. BSD sed (macOS) treats `\+` as a
+  literal `+`, so the thread name came back empty and every `--name` hit was
+  silently dropped. Now POSIX-portable (`[[:space:]][[:space:]]*` /
+  `[A-Za-z0-9_][A-Za-z0-9_]*`). Worked on GNU/Cygwin hosts; broke on BSD.
+- **`nc-find.sh` exit 1 on success for tsv/jsonl.** The trailing
+  `[ "$FORMAT" = "table" ] && printf ...` test left the script exit code at 1 for
+  non-table formats (the `&&` short-circuits). Added explicit `exit 0` — a
+  successful search (even zero matches) now returns 0; mis-signaled failure to
+  any `$?`/`&&` caller.
+- **`nc-parse.sh` `tclproc-refs` dropped digit-leading proc names.** The `{ PROC`
+  / `{ PROCS` regexes required a leading `[A-Za-z_]`, so a real Cloverleaf proc
+  like `3M_check_ack` was never reported — which also blanked `nc_find --tclproc
+  3M_check_ack`. Widened to `[A-Za-z0-9_]+`; `PROCSCONTROL` still excluded.
+- **`nc-xlate.sh diff` could not find site-scoped xlates.** Unlike show/ops/tree/
+  summary, `diff` did not accept `--site`, so `locate_xlate` only checked
+  `$HCIROOT/Xlate` and always died `no such xlate` for the common case (xlates
+  under `<site>/Xlate/`). `cmd_diff` now takes `--site` (applied to both names)
+  and larry.sh forwards it.
+- **`nc-diff-interface.sh` printf option-injection.** `printf '---\n\n'` (the
+  markdown horizontal rule) parsed `---` as printf options → `printf: --: invalid
+  option`, dropping the rule. Now `printf '%s\n\n' '---'`.
+- **`nc-smat-diff.sh` printf option-injection (8 lines).** `printf '- A: ...'`
+  format strings starting with `- ` errored `printf: - : invalid option` in
+  NON-interactive bash, dropping every summary bullet. Guarded with `printf --`.
+- **`nc-status.sh not-up` crashed on `--format`.** `cmd_not_up` accepted only
+  `--site`/`--filter`; the larry.sh dispatch ALWAYS appends `--format`, so
+  `not-up` died `unknown flag: --format` and was unusable via the wired tool.
+  `cmd_not_up` now accepts `--format` and forwards it to `cmd_threads`.
+
+All other read/inspect tools (nc_paths up/down/full/all/site-only incl. the
+cross-site ADTto_CodaMetrix chain, nc_destinations/sources, nc_list_*,
+nc_protocol_*, nc_find_inbound, nc_document single+system, nc_revisions
+timeline+diff, nc_msgs raw+field-filter+json, nc_xlate list/show/ops/tree/summary,
+nc_xlate_refs, nc_tclproc_refs, hl7_field, hl7_diff, nc_diff_interface,
+nc_regression 6-phase + chain-walk command-gen, nc_smat_diff pairing, nc_engine
++ nc_status graceful degrade, list_sites ignore-rules, all 7 nc_tclgen templates
+verified `info complete` in tclsh) PASSED unchanged. Test matrix:
+`Deliverables/2026-05-28-cloverleaf-v3-tool-test-matrix.md`.
+
+KNOWN / TRIAGE (not fixed this pass): `hl7-sanitize.sh` is a silent no-op on
+LF-delimited input (`RS="\r"` reads the whole file as one record) — fixing needs
+a portable CR/LF normalizer (BSD awk has no regex `RS`); `nc_engine route-test/
+testxlate/resend` ignore `--dry-run` (only stop/start/bounce/restart honor it) and
+the dispatch never forwards it; `lessons.sh:142` has the same `printf '---'`
+option-injection (out-of-scope write tool).
+
 ## v0.8.28 — 2026-05-28
 
 **★ EXPOSE 5 lib-only tools as first-class LLM tools.** A roadmap audit found
diff --git a/MANIFEST b/MANIFEST
index 9e7430c..4a6c90f 100644
--- a/MANIFEST
+++ b/MANIFEST
@@ -23,16 +23,16 @@
 # scripts/make-manifest.sh and bump VERSION.
 
 # Top-level scripts
-larry.sh	4bc6355ebd04b3e301c28d9c34a8ec2fdae44fa223f1f065cdcd2790a4676e33
+larry.sh	219c0b4f84aabec17baec7ba20c47849364bce9039bbcaa07ed7ba81b7b38a05
 larry-tunnel.sh	6b050e4eeab15669f4858eaf3b807f168f211ced07815db9521bc40a093f6aaa
 larry-auth.sh	a220cdf7878569dc3028951ee57fc8d5e706a8ca5c6aa45347b58facb386f831
 larry-rollback.sh	91b5e9aa6c79266bf306dcfba4ca791c07971bd6924d67a779037531648aa6d0
 install-larry.sh	fa36e23a39eacbd0d7ecedd3b42131902f816ee7e98241dfc6e28c6e4ba80423
 
 # Metadata
-VERSION	4d1f87fb5ed962079a382ddacb5e4f28b461dd9d6c4a6c4085248832fa8111a5
+VERSION	14624c56b466c22dbace115e50c329bc4bea74a2c25e1f3aa481766ea49ddff7
 MANUAL.md	c64bd0251a51ad150508b4e1185355bc4826a64071d4de339f92ed550dbfacde
-CHANGELOG.md	567da1b7ddb2f8200eb42cfce6387f30ca753fc065abe4994f887e732d2a36f9
+CHANGELOG.md	f3a6ac02750188f6cec37e1d7454424c363706f2f9a8a6b041b449b1d783479c
 
 # Agent personas (system-prompt overlays)
 agents/larry.md	0a1ef737e7fc133ab35be09f79c3a4df33de814e0404b69b950932d0c8a01be1
@@ -91,20 +91,20 @@ lib/table-to-csv.sh	ad98e73687bc9e9f6ae0cd79ed5ba26c856076902865230f822dec1a1bea
 
 # NetConfig tooling
 lib/nc-engine.sh	e2b12a1c019d40857b96d48d6c185b94aefadab604536ce41077ecc251b0bc58
-lib/nc-status.sh	80d2023babff70c065ffab70b5ecf9bdfd80183ae5808f610335da9c8c27f97f
+lib/nc-status.sh	fa08c5e48704d3d17e2206dafc8522ae7668b7a2f9b97f3521e05fd0ba739443
 lib/nc-table.sh	a6d5c11dd460cfb100ea50c74d57c1a46ef49112632037534a32cd28600abe7f
-lib/nc-xlate.sh	b05caae72889f6404a2a1618ba3ba3666dc34f03d49a779664ea31396dddb112
-lib/nc-smat-diff.sh	ac003954701ea6b7f4aa1f6941f8536af5b5cdfbb75e306789753d453f06800e
+lib/nc-xlate.sh	8621e6f0ef55524dd6ecba91fee055cf9cdc168791e75ba7c15d9bf501fe09bf
+lib/nc-smat-diff.sh	9c04d9e2f35f22c78d5f3c40a884ed23a3b6aaabc53ee27dfbfb66ab3166a567
 lib/nc-create-thread.sh	5a9d5407c117183cad831d6b95f0e785b1b806f5ccc67f803c12b3695882b5b7
 lib/nc-tclgen.sh	5b8e73d7f6950a2b84f563132562ea82f62f4acac907257e233c7e68d85506c9
-lib/nc-parse.sh	3419b3f8d0cfdaf767f91551d6e2441d0743d80bd31515ffa61c769db1542c2f
+lib/nc-parse.sh	52fef42d7a4b361534ab0d921deef74586dfeb6c199c941cebb55abcc2c39d4f
 lib/nc-paths.sh	388d2f4560736587a01218cadc1de612cd59e392819d16db2f56f19174c1111b
 lib/nc-inbound.sh	52d28c5f8d97bdf96f0fc7b5300d35b106b8e1226578f4cda430deb2a8b4a91b
 lib/nc-make-jump.sh	08a0bc58a299c95c60a59a5202792daf0ada3a8a0be7dc1b4cccc5724f5c9c79
 lib/nc-msgs.sh	20517922d1153ec7827c833987497fb305d087b579911d1b9067d65ae156a19f
 lib/nc-document.sh	47211e99089c0446d25a1e84545a734894720a1c9ad8f59b920332035e4ea880
 lib/nc-revisions.sh	c27856f7decfc4c2e2c990f59eb20136fdff9cf0a52b9d9fbd9370613666a802
-lib/nc-diff-interface.sh	6b64ec3070a3d75d1d79632c9aeb357177fdbcc77c474aa78e6f6929fda1a324
-lib/nc-find.sh	8c79e0acad7de56e4e1f12d61e071a4b98c4e2310a1f7fb183697df521215e3f
+lib/nc-diff-interface.sh	c922d10323f06346efa53ada68b44d32d9568ff0bd848c59af3404135f29d1ad
+lib/nc-find.sh	2264877c56100378a1b780d640dcaa806aa5501ddd204c6b6a8eb5d3e07bf966
 lib/nc-insert-protocol.sh	ad1fa0bafbf4fdfb12bad20f9c22c3eed519f8846774331e26aa9becd6f8898a
 lib/nc-regression.sh	70999a60608439f7bf1a3abb9f5e9854b5ea03025ef29ddbca683896346d1bce
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index da8dfd3..b5f1919 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.8.28
+0.8.29
diff --git a/larry.sh b/larry.sh
index a7242d1..14d2f73 100755
--- a/larry.sh
+++ b/larry.sh
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ set -o pipefail
 # ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 # Config
 # ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-LARRY_VERSION="0.8.28"
+LARRY_VERSION="0.8.29"
 LARRY_HOME="${LARRY_HOME:-$HOME/.larry}"
 
 # ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -4235,7 +4235,8 @@ tool_nc_xlate() {
       [ -n "$site" ] && args+=(--site "$site") ;;
     diff)
       [ -n "$name" ] && [ -n "$name2" ] || { echo "ERROR: nc_xlate diff needs name and name2"; return 1; }
-      args=(diff "$name" "$name2") ;;
+      args=(diff "$name" "$name2")
+      [ -n "$site" ] && args+=(--site "$site") ;;
     "") args=(list); [ -n "$site" ] && args+=(--site "$site") ;;
     *) echo "ERROR: unknown nc_xlate subcommand: $subcmd (list|show|ops|tree|summary|diff)"; return 1 ;;
   esac
diff --git a/lib/nc-diff-interface.sh b/lib/nc-diff-interface.sh
index cc99f47..7161202 100755
--- a/lib/nc-diff-interface.sh
+++ b/lib/nc-diff-interface.sh
@@ -276,7 +276,7 @@ collect_tclprocs_for() {
     fi
   fi
 
-  printf '---\n\n'
+  printf '%s\n\n' '---'
   printf '_Generated %s by Larry-Anywhere nc-diff-interface.sh (depth=%d)._\n' \
     "$(date -Iseconds 2>/dev/null || date)" "$DEPTH"
 } | out_target
diff --git a/lib/nc-find.sh b/lib/nc-find.sh
index 0add465..180e268 100755
--- a/lib/nc-find.sh
+++ b/lib/nc-find.sh
@@ -109,7 +109,11 @@ for nc in "${NCONFIGS[@]}"; do
         # Partial match (substring)
         while IFS= read -r raw; do
           line=$(printf '%s' "$raw" | cut -d: -f1)
-          thread_name=$(printf '%s' "$raw" | sed -n 's/^[0-9]*:protocol[[:space:]]\+\([A-Za-z0-9_]\+\)[[:space:]]*{.*$/\1/p')
+          # PORTABILITY: POSIX [[:space:]][[:space:]]* / [A-Za-z0-9_][A-Za-z0-9_]*
+          # instead of the GNU-only `\+`. BSD sed (macOS) treats `\+` as a
+          # literal `+`, so the GNU form extracted an empty name and every
+          # --name match was silently dropped on macOS/BSD hosts.
+          thread_name=$(printf '%s' "$raw" | sed -n 's/^[0-9]*:protocol[[:space:]][[:space:]]*\([A-Za-z0-9_][A-Za-z0-9_]*\)[[:space:]]*{.*$/\1/p')
           [ -z "$thread_name" ] && continue
           pname=$("$NCP" protocol-field "$nc" "$thread_name" PROCESSNAME 2>/dev/null | head -1)
           pport=$("$NCP" protocol-nested "$nc" "$thread_name" PROTOCOL.PORT 2>/dev/null | head -1 | sed 's/^{}$//')
@@ -233,3 +237,7 @@ esac
 # (printf '%d' "5\r" fails with "invalid number").
 n=$(wc -l < "$RESULTS" | tr -cd '0-9')
 [ "$FORMAT" = "table" ] && printf '\n%d match(es)\n' "${n:-0}" >&2
+# Always exit 0 on a successful search (even zero matches). Without this, the
+# trailing `[ "$FORMAT" = "table" ] && ...` test leaves the script exit code at
+# 1 for tsv/jsonl (the && short-circuits), mis-signaling failure to callers.
+exit 0
diff --git a/lib/nc-parse.sh b/lib/nc-parse.sh
index 4d6305f..1a1abf9 100755
--- a/lib/nc-parse.sh
+++ b/lib/nc-parse.sh
@@ -448,12 +448,14 @@ cmd_tclproc_refs() {
     {
       line = $0
       # PROC <name>  (singleton, e.g. DATAFORMAT.PROC)
-      if (match(line, /\{ PROC [A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*/)) {
+      # Allow a LEADING DIGIT: Cloverleaf proc names like 3M_check_ack are valid
+      # TCL proc names. The old [A-Za-z_]-first class silently dropped them.
+      if (match(line, /\{ PROC [A-Za-z0-9_]+/)) {
         v = substr(line, RSTART + 7, RLENGTH - 7)
         print v
       }
       # PROCS <name>  (singleton)
-      if (match(line, /\{ PROCS [A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*/)) {
+      if (match(line, /\{ PROCS [A-Za-z0-9_]+/)) {
         v = substr(line, RSTART + 8, RLENGTH - 8)
         print v
       }
diff --git a/lib/nc-smat-diff.sh b/lib/nc-smat-diff.sh
index e969e36..4344a93 100755
--- a/lib/nc-smat-diff.sh
+++ b/lib/nc-smat-diff.sh
@@ -124,10 +124,13 @@ B_KEYS=$(awk -F'\t' '{print $1}' "$OUT/b/sorted.tsv" | sort -u)
 SUMMARY="$OUT/_summary.md"
 {
   printf '# smat diff: thread=%s\n\n' "$THREAD"
-  printf '- A: `%s/%s`  (%d messages sampled)\n' "$ENV_A" "$SITE_A" "$A_COUNT"
-  printf '- B: `%s/%s`  (%d messages sampled)\n' "$ENV_B" "$SITE_B" "$B_COUNT"
-  printf '- pair-on: `%s`\n' "$PAIR_ON"
-  printf '- ignore: `%s`\n\n' "$IGNORE"
+  # printf -- guard: a format string starting with '- ' is otherwise parsed as
+  # an option by the bash printf builtin in NON-interactive shells ("printf: -
+  # : invalid option"), dropping the line. -- ends option parsing.
+  printf -- '- A: `%s/%s`  (%d messages sampled)\n' "$ENV_A" "$SITE_A" "$A_COUNT"
+  printf -- '- B: `%s/%s`  (%d messages sampled)\n' "$ENV_B" "$SITE_B" "$B_COUNT"
+  printf -- '- pair-on: `%s`\n' "$PAIR_ON"
+  printf -- '- ignore: `%s`\n\n' "$IGNORE"
   printf '## Per-pair diffs\n\n'
   printf '| %s | diffs | report |\n|---|---|---|\n' "$PAIR_ON"
 } > "$SUMMARY"
@@ -163,10 +166,11 @@ done < <(printf '%s\n%s\n' "$A_KEYS" "$B_KEYS" | sort -u)
 
 {
   printf '\n## Summary\n\n'
-  printf '- paired (A and B): %d\n' "$PAIRED"
-  printf '- A-only: %d\n' "$A_ONLY"
-  printf '- B-only: %d\n' "$B_ONLY"
-  printf '- total field differences (post-ignore): %d\n' "$DIFFS_TOTAL"
+  # printf -- guard (see note above): leading '- ' format strings.
+  printf -- '- paired (A and B): %d\n' "$PAIRED"
+  printf -- '- A-only: %d\n' "$A_ONLY"
+  printf -- '- B-only: %d\n' "$B_ONLY"
+  printf -- '- total field differences (post-ignore): %d\n' "$DIFFS_TOTAL"
 } >> "$SUMMARY"
 
 printf 'done. Summary: %s\n' "$SUMMARY" >&2
diff --git a/lib/nc-status.sh b/lib/nc-status.sh
index 8f52545..5ae9fdc 100755
--- a/lib/nc-status.sh
+++ b/lib/nc-status.sh
@@ -111,16 +111,21 @@ cmd_threads() {
 cmd_not_up() {
   local site="${HCISITE:-}"
   local filter=""
+  local format="text"
   while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
     case "$1" in
       --site)   shift; site="$1" ;;
       --filter) shift; filter="$1" ;;
+      # Accept --format and forward it to cmd_threads. The larry.sh dispatch
+      # ALWAYS appends --format, so without this not-up died "unknown flag:
+      # --format" and was unusable via the wired tool.
+      --format) shift; format="$1" ;;
       *)        die "unknown flag: $1" ;;
     esac
     shift
   done
-  cmd_threads --site "$site" ${filter:+--filter "$filter"} \
-    | awk 'NR==1 || tolower($0) !~ /\<up\>/'
+  cmd_threads --site "$site" --format "$format" ${filter:+--filter "$filter"} \
+    | awk 'NR==1 || tolower($0) !~ /(^|[^a-z])up([^a-z]|$)/'
 }
 
 cmd_connections() {
diff --git a/lib/nc-xlate.sh b/lib/nc-xlate.sh
index 5c3b4da..f0bb62e 100755
--- a/lib/nc-xlate.sh
+++ b/lib/nc-xlate.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 #   ops <name> [--site SITE]            list operations as TSV (op, in, out, err)
 #   tree <name> [--site SITE]           ASCII tree by op type
 #   summary <name> [--site SITE]        counts by operation + segments touched
-#   diff <name1> <name2>                diff two xlates (semantic, sorted-by-op)
+#   diff <name1> <name2> [--site SITE]  diff two xlates (semantic, sorted-by-op)
 set -o pipefail
 
 NC_SELF="$0"
@@ -135,10 +135,23 @@ cmd_summary() {
 }
 
 cmd_diff() {
-  local n1="$1" n2="$2"
+  # Accept --site like every other subcommand. Without it, site-scoped xlates
+  # (the common case — xlates live under <site>/Xlate/) could not be located
+  # and diff always died with "no such xlate". --site applies to BOTH names.
+  local site="${HCISITE:-}"
+  local positional=()
+  while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
+    case "$1" in
+      --site) shift; site="$1" ;;
+      *) positional+=("$1") ;;
+    esac
+    shift
+  done
+  local n1="${positional[0]:-}" n2="${positional[1]:-}"
+  [ -n "$n1" ] && [ -n "$n2" ] || die "usage: diff NAME1 NAME2 [--site SITE]"
   local f1 f2
-  f1=$(locate_xlate "$n1") || die "no such xlate: $n1"
-  f2=$(locate_xlate "$n2") || die "no such xlate: $n2"
+  f1=$(locate_xlate "$n1" "$site") || die "no such xlate: $n1"
+  f2=$(locate_xlate "$n2" "$site") || die "no such xlate: $n2"
   diff -u <(parse_ops "$f1" | sort -k2) <(parse_ops "$f2" | sort -k2)
 }