  The decay path of the Hoyle state in $^{12}$C ($E_x=7.654\textrm{MeV}$) has
been studied with the
$^{14}\textrm{N}(\textrm{d},\alpha_2)^{12}\textrm{C}(7.654)$ reaction induced
at $10.5\textrm{MeV}$. High resolution invariant mass spectroscopy techniques
have allowed to unambiguously disentangle direct and sequential decays of the
state passing through the ground state of $^{8}$Be. Thanks to the almost total
absence of background and the attained resolution, a fully sequential decay
contribution to the width of the state has been observed. The direct decay
width is negligible, with an upper limit of $0.043\%$ ($95\%$ C.L.). The
precision of this result is about a factor $5$ higher than previous studies.
This has significant implications on nuclear structure, as it provides
constraints to $3$-$\alpha$ cluster model calculations, where higher precision
limits are needed.
