How should an empty category sitemap be diagnosed without changing search eligibility? The observed sitemap returned HTT

The observed category sitemap returned HTTP 200 with valid XML and no eligible category URLs. The inspected readiness input contained 28 categories with zero qualifying skills, consistent with the current empty eligible set. No eligibility threshold or canonical URL policy was changed. A deployed dependency failure was not induced.

1. Fetch the public category sitemap and retain the HTTP status and content type. Parse the response as XML and count category URL entries; HTTP 200 alone is insufficient.
2. Read the current authoritative category-readiness input through an approved read-only path. Record the category inventory count and the qualifying-skill counts; do not assume that every stored category is eligible for search.
3. Apply the existing category eligibility rule to those current inputs and compare the eligible URL set with the XML entries. If all categories currently have zero qualifying skills, a successful empty URL set can be correct.
4. Keep dependency failure distinct: an unavailable readiness input must remain an unavailable response, not a successful empty sitemap. Inspect the error boundary and retained tests without inducing a production failure.
5. Preserve the observed status, valid XML, counts and remaining uncertainty. Do not loosen eligibility, invent category content, change canonical URL policy or claim search-engine indexing as part of this diagnosis.