Item 2 — founder counter is REAL or hidden (kills the hardcoded 47/100)

ClaimMeter rendered a fabricated "47 / 100 CLAIMED" (a hardcoded default; the
comment even said "Cosmetic conversion driver… Static here"). Now:

- GET /api/founders/count counts ONLY real paying founders — user_profiles
  where founder_pricing = true AND subscription_status = 'active' (the
  Stripe-webhook-synced mirror, so we never hammer the Stripe API). Cached 5
  min in Redis on top of that.
- If the source is unavailable (Supabase unconfigured, query error, column not
  migrated, client throws) the endpoint returns { available: false } and the
  ClaimMeter renders NOTHING — counter and progress bar both hidden. We never
  fall back to a number.
- A low real count is shown honestly (0 → "0 / 100"); the truth is the feature.

Next proxy at app/api/founders/count. 6 route tests cover real count, low
count, error/unconfigured/throw → hidden, and cache-hit. Suite 271/3260 green,
web build exit 0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

web/src/app/api/founders/count/route.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+import { NextResponse } from 'next/server';
+
+export const dynamic = 'force-dynamic';
+
+const BACKEND_URL = process.env.BACKEND_URL || 'http://localhost:3000';
+
+/**
+ * Founder-seat count proxy (Truth-Everywhere Part 2, item 2) — forwards
+ * GET /api/founders/count to Express (real active paying founders). On any
+ * upstream failure we return { available: false } so the ClaimMeter HIDES —
+ * never a fabricated number.
+ */
+export async function GET() {
+  try {
+    const upstream = await fetch(`${BACKEND_URL}/api/founders/count`, {
+      method: 'GET',
+      headers: { Accept: 'application/json' },
+      cache: 'no-store',
+    });
+    const data = await upstream.json().catch(() => ({ available: false }));
+    return NextResponse.json(data, { status: upstream.ok ? 200 : 200 });
+  } catch {
+    return NextResponse.json({ available: false }, { status: 200 });
+  }
+}

web/src/components/vyndr/ClaimMeter.tsx

@@ -1,17 +1,43 @@
+'use client';
+
+import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
 import SectionHead from '@/components/vyndr/SectionHead';
 
-interface ClaimMeterProps {
+interface FounderCount {
+  available: boolean;
   claimed?: number;
   total?: number;
 }
 
 /**
- * Founder-seat scarcity meter (§12 ClaimMeter) — "47 / 100 seats claimed",
- * amber bar. Cosmetic conversion driver; the live tick-up wires into the
- * living layer in Session 38. Static here.
+ * Founder-seat scarcity meter (§12 ClaimMeter).
+ *
+ * TRUTH LAW (Truth-Everywhere Part 2, item 2): this used to render a hardcoded
+ * "47 / 100 CLAIMED". It now fetches the REAL count of active paying founders
+ * from /api/founders/count (Stripe-synced, cached). If the source is
+ * unavailable — or the fetch fails — the counter and progress bar HIDE
+ * entirely. We never fall back to a number. A low real count is fine; the
+ * truth is the feature.
  */
-export default function ClaimMeter({ claimed = 47, total = 100 }: ClaimMeterProps) {
+export default function ClaimMeter() {
+  const [data, setData] = useState<FounderCount | null>(null);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    let active = true;
+    fetch('/api/founders/count', { cache: 'no-store' })
+      .then((r) => r.json())
+      .then((d) => { if (active) setData(d); })
+      .catch(() => { if (active) setData({ available: false }); });
+    return () => { active = false; };
+  }, []);
+
+  // Hide until we have a REAL number. Unavailable source → render nothing.
+  if (!data || !data.available || typeof data.claimed !== 'number') return null;
+
+  const total = data.total || 100;
+  const claimed = Math.max(0, Math.min(total, data.claimed));
   const pct = Math.min(100, Math.round((claimed / total) * 100));
+
   return (
     <div style={{ maxWidth: 420, margin: '0 auto', width: '100%' }}>
       <div style={{ display: 'flex', justifyContent: 'space-between', alignItems: 'baseline', marginBottom: 8 }}>