Name what each of the three request paths skips

docs/decisions.md

@@ -577,18 +577,14 @@ rule and an index of the titles below.
 
 - **A deliberate shutdown drains; an unusable link and an abort do not.** `close()` and `unbind()`
   wait on the send window rather than the pending map — the map misses a segment still queued behind
-  a full window, and finishing a half-sent multipart message is the point. The window counts slots,
-  never outcomes, and empties on a drop too, where `teardown()` settles everything the link was
-  carrying, which is why `drain()` reads `closed` before it reads the count. A stream the framer or
-  the codec cannot read takes `teardown()` instead, and `close({ signal })` on an aborted signal and
-  a peer's own `unbind` take `end()`: nothing on a dead link can answer, an abort means stop now, and
-  a peer that has declared itself finished will not answer what it still owes, so draining any of the
-  three would only hold a socket open for the timeout. `unbind()` sends its own PDU through
-  `request()` past both the window and the drain gate, because it must go out either way.
-  `shutdownTimeout` stays a session option rather than a `close()` argument: `server()` builds
-  sessions on the caller's behalf, so the option is the only composition point. `SmppServer.close()`
-  reports each session's unfinished drain through `serverError`, because its own result says nothing
-  but that the listener stopped.
+  a full window, and finishing a half-sent multipart message is the point. A stream the framer or
+  the codec cannot read, an aborted `close({ signal })` and a peer's own `unbind` do not drain:
+  nothing on a dead link can answer, an abort means stop now, and a peer that has declared itself
+  finished will not answer what it still owes, so draining any of the three would only hold a socket
+  open for the timeout. `shutdownTimeout` stays a session option rather than a `close()` argument:
+  `server()` builds sessions on the caller's behalf, so the option is the only composition point.
+  `SmppServer.close()` reports each session's unfinished drain through `serverError`, because its
+  own result says nothing but that the listener stopped.
 
 - **`sendSms()` puts every segment of a message on the wire together.** Goal 6: a long message costs
   one round trip rather than one per segment. Rejected: sending each segment once the last is
@@ -765,16 +761,14 @@ rule and an index of the titles below.
   `window.idle()`, and `unbind()` taking none is the shape README states.
 
 - **The gate decides whether a link can carry a request, and a bind is what makes it one.**
-  Maintainer's call, 2026-09-01: `attach()` clears `closed` the moment a socket is handed over, one
-  round trip before the bind is answered, so gating on `closed` let a send arriving in that window go
-  out unbound and come back `ESME_RINVBNDSTS`. `LinkGate` owns the answer instead — `shut(returning)`
-  on every teardown, `open()` only once `comeBackUp()` has a bound link — and
-  `OutgoingRequests.canCarry()` reads it rather than `closed`. The gate is told what happened and
+  Maintainer's call, 2026-09-01: `attach()` marks the session attached the moment a socket is
+  handed over, one round trip before the bind is answered, so gating on that let a send arriving in
+  that window go out unbound and come back `ESME_RINVBNDSTS`. The gate is told what happened and
   never reads back into the session: a collaborator that has to ask does not own its decision, which
   is how the first cut ended up answering the same question two different ways at admit and at
-  release. The retry in `carry()` asks `gate.awaitsNextLink()` rather than `canCarry()`, which also
-  reads the socket: a loop condition the gate does not gate on spins against a gate that admits it
-  straight back.
+  release. The retry in `requestPastDrain()` asks `gate.awaitsNextLink()` rather than `canCarry()`,
+  which also reads the socket: a loop condition the gate does not gate on spins against a gate that
+  admits it straight back.
 
 
 ## Internals and tests

src/outgoing-requests.ts

@@ -93,11 +93,11 @@ export class OutgoingRequests {
 			return Promise.resolve({ err: new Error('Session is shutting down') });
 		}
 
-		return this.carry(input, options);
+		return this.requestPastDrain(input, options);
 	}
 
-	/** The same path without the drain's refusal, which a receipt for a held message has to take. */
-	async carry(
+	/** request() without the drain's refusal, which a receipt for a held message has to take. */
+	async requestPastDrain(
 		input: PduObjectInput,
 		options: SendOptions,
 	): Promise<Result<{ pduObj: PduObject }>> {
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ export class OutgoingRequests {
 		if (bindCommands.includes(input.cmdName)) {
 			const shut = this.gate.refusal();
 
-			return shut ? { err: shut } : this.now(input, options);
+			return shut ? { err: shut } : this.requestPastDrainGateAndWindow(input, options);
 		}
 
 		const waitForLink = this.gate.hold(options.signal);
@@ -129,8 +129,11 @@ export class OutgoingRequests {
 		}
 	}
 
-	/** Past the gate, the window and a drain, for what has to go out either way. */
-	async now(input: PduObjectInput, options: SendOptions = {}): Promise<Result<{ pduObj: PduObject }>> {
+	/** Straight onto the current link, for what has to go out either way. */
+	async requestPastDrainGateAndWindow(
+		input: PduObjectInput,
+		options: SendOptions = {},
+	): Promise<Result<{ pduObj: PduObject }>> {
 		return (await this.attempt(input, options)).result;
 	}
 

src/session.ts

@@ -235,9 +235,8 @@ export class Session extends EventEmitter<SessionEvents> {
 	async unbind(): Promise<VoidResult> {
 		const drained = await this.drain(undefined);
 		const wasOpen = this.lifecycle === 'attached';
-		// now(), not send(): a drain refuses a send, and the unbind goes out either way.
 		const sent = wasOpen
-			? await this.outgoing.now({ cmdName: 'unbind' })
+			? await this.outgoing.requestPastDrainGateAndWindow({ cmdName: 'unbind' })
 			: { err: new Error('Session is closed') };
 		const closedOnUnbind = wasOpen && this.lifecycle !== 'attached';
 
@@ -274,7 +273,7 @@ export class Session extends EventEmitter<SessionEvents> {
 			reportError: err => { this.emit('sessionError', err); },
 			reportMessageDlr: merged => { this.emit('messageDlr', merged); },
 			send: input => this.send(input),
-			sendPastDrain: input => this.outgoing.carry(input, {}),
+			sendPastDrain: input => this.outgoing.requestPastDrain(input, {}),
 			smsListeners: () => this.listenerCount('sms'),
 		};
 	}

todo.md

@@ -204,9 +204,6 @@ and 5. Every seat ranked the session's lifecycle hardest and least wanted to mod
 
 - [ ] **Lift Locality to 7, and confirm it with a scoring run.** A run reading 7.0 or above also
       retires the #30 decision. The sub-items are what the 2026-09-28 run named, most seats first.
-- [ ] **Name what `request()`, `carry()` and `now()` each skip.** Three ways onto the wire differ
-      only in which of the drain, the gate and the window they bypass, and none of the names says
-      which. Three seats.
 - [ ] **Give the held-message flow one place a reader can follow it.** Whether a drain still waits
       on a message is spread over `emitSms()`, `MessageHold`, the session's rejection route and
       `Sms.isHeld()`. Four seats.
@@ -340,6 +337,10 @@ and 5. Every seat ranked the session's lifecycle hardest and least wanted to mod
       option"). A sender with more than 1000 concurrent multipart `dlr: true` messages silently
       evicts the oldest at `warn`. The inherited architect hit this on the 3am walk.
 
+- [ ] **State in README that `SmppServer.close()` reports each session's unfinished drain as
+      `serverError`.** Only `docs/decisions.md` says so; README's Shutdown section covers the
+      session's own result alone.
+
 - [ ] **Add a ten-line SMPP glossary to the README.** Both juniors and the no-domain mid reported
       the same largest cost: nothing in the repo says what a PDU, `esm_class`, `data_coding`, TON/NPI
       or `submit_sm`-versus-`deliver_sm` are, and the inline spec citations mark a rule without