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docs(audit): freeze the simplification audit and strike what was never true

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The document has been re-measured four times and each pass moved figures
the next pass had to chase -- three of the last five commits on this branch
were figure corrections to it, and correcting it changes the line counts it
reports about itself. It is now a dated record frozen at 1ec3e8a. Figures
stand as measured at the commit each one names and are not maintained.

Freezing covers staleness. It does not cover a figure that never
reproduced or a claim that says verified for a check that fails, so those
are struck:

- Finding 11's provenance-validator counts, 320/1,145/572/134 = 2,171, were
  true at no commit. The files are 324/1,152/576/134 = 2,186 and have been
  since 620f20b created them. The derived 5,380 and 7,136 follow.
- Finding 11's line citations into lib-provenance-skill.sh, stated as
  re-derived at HEAD, were uniformly seven low and none landed on the code
  named.
- The tests/ line total pinned to 1614bce is that commit's suite count with
  384756b's line count.
- Finding 33's "all five instruction-level citations still resolve at HEAD,
  verified with sed -n", dated 2026-09-19, is false. Four resolve.
  improve.md:82 stopped carrying the content at baa2f5d, three days before
  the verification was claimed.

Also reconciled: finding 11's 242-file effort total against its own struck
46, finding 16's two different deltas for ef27c97, a clause pinned to
baa2f5d carrying c07ca07's figures, and the preload-tax row's 39 skills
against the census row's 38.

Notes that date themselves "at HEAD" name no fixed commit, and this commit
moves HEAD under them, so the banner now says so rather than re-deriving
twenty of them.

This review round is recorded on the pull request, not here. A frozen
document that grows another section is not frozen.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01NwD8Egs5r4ndqeFLmhusX2
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@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
# Simplification audit
> **Status: complete (2026-09-16).** Every finding is closed at its own note except **22**, deferred with `bin`. See §7's status notes for the closing summary. This document is now a record; do not reopen it for new work — file an issue instead.
> **Frozen (2026-09-20) — a dated record, not a live document.** Status: complete; every finding is closed at its own note except **22**, deferred with `bin` (§7's status notes carry the closing summary). Every figure below is as measured at the commit it names, and none of them are maintained against HEAD; the document is frozen at `1ec3e8a`. Where a note dates itself "at HEAD", that means the branch tip on **that note's own date**, not the current tip — those figures were not re-derived for the freeze, and several are stale by construction because later commits moved what they measure. Do not re-measure it and do not reopen it for new work — file a Gitea issue instead.
Date: 2026-09-10. Read-only analysis; nothing has been changed. Purpose: a hand-off for deciding what to remove, merge, and shrink. Findings are ranked by payoff within each area; effort is S/M/L. Claims were independently re-verified against the repo by a clean reviewer; corrections have been applied.
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Counting convention: line counts are hand-edited `.apm/` source unless marked "i
>
> > **Re-measured (2026-09-14, at `a6434e0`):** the right-hand column originally read 31,473 / 6,050 / 3,471 / 2,360 / 923 / 2,083 = 46,360 and was labelled "Today" against "the current working tree". It did not reconcile to its own commit's tree — at `061bb3d`, where it was written, the six plugins measured 31,435 / 6,048 / 3,474 / 2,358 / 926 / 2,087 = 46,328 — and "the current working tree" is a basis that goes stale silently. Re-counted at `a6434e0` and the column now names its SHA. The baseline column is confirmed exact against `9eb8bc7`. Commits after `061bb3d` (`c96ca9c`, which deleted the six plugin-root `.mcp.json` files) account for most of the remaining drift.
> **Re-derived (2026-09-16, at HEAD on `docs/simplification-audit`):** the 2026-09-15 notes recording finding 14's merge (~~`467bbd7`~~ → `620f20b`, ADR-0025) and the pipefail fix (~~`4059cb4`~~ → `ffcbed6`) were written without correcting the headlines they annotate, so this pass re-counted every figure those two commits could have moved and corrected each in place above and below. Everything re-measured here came from a command run at HEAD — `git ls-files`, `wc -l`, `grep -c`, and `bash tests/run-tests.sh --strict` — never from an earlier note. What moved: finding 2 (two surviving sync gates → one), the `.pre-commit-config.yaml` hook counts (27/9 → 26/8 → 27/9 → 26/8, the chain spelled out in §3's table note below; **26** `- id:` entries and **8** `stages: [pre-push]` at HEAD, `grep -c -- "- id:"` and `grep -c "stages: \[pre-push\]"`), the skill census (39 → 38 and everything derived from it), finding 11's validator and `sources.md` figures, finding 16's whole numeric basis, and the stale `skill-audit/`, `agent-audit/` and `formatting-and-scripts.md` paths in findings 18, 19 and 33. §1's three rows re-measured: ~~**469**~~ → **471** tracked files (~~465~~ → 467 regular plus the 4 submodule gitlinks) / ~~**74,594**~~ → **75,441** lines (pinned to `c07ca07`; see the note below); `plugins/` ~~**46,106** (62%)~~ → **46,127** (61%); the 38 `SKILL.md` bodies **2,409** (5.2% of plugin lines); enforcement ~~**20 `tests/test-*.sh` totalling 10,189 lines**~~ → ~~**21 `tests/test-*.sh` totalling 10,608 lines**~~ → **19 totalling 10,088** at `baa2f5d`, the two runners **502** (`run-tests.sh` 283 + `run-bats.sh` 219), and `scripts/` ~~**2,901**~~ → **3,139**; kyberforge's validator scripts and their bats tests ~~**5,861**~~ → **5,876** + **6,015** (the merge deduplicated scripts and left the test corpus larger, not smaller — `git ls-files 'plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/*/scripts/*.sh'` and `.../tests/*.bats`). `run-tests.sh --strict` reports ~~**20 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed**~~ → ~~**21 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed**~~ → **19 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed** at `baa2f5d` (`4de5b6b` deleted two suites).
> **Re-derived (2026-09-16, at HEAD on `docs/simplification-audit`):** the 2026-09-15 notes recording finding 14's merge (~~`467bbd7`~~ → `620f20b`, ADR-0025) and the pipefail fix (~~`4059cb4`~~ → `ffcbed6`) were written without correcting the headlines they annotate, so this pass re-counted every figure those two commits could have moved and corrected each in place above and below. Everything re-measured here came from a command run at HEAD — `git ls-files`, `wc -l`, `grep -c`, and `bash tests/run-tests.sh --strict` — never from an earlier note. What moved: finding 2 (two surviving sync gates → one), the `.pre-commit-config.yaml` hook counts (27/9 → 26/8 → 27/9 → 26/8, the chain spelled out in §3's table note below; **26** `- id:` entries and **8** `stages: [pre-push]` at HEAD, `grep -c -- "- id:"` and `grep -c "stages: \[pre-push\]"`), the skill census (39 → 38 and everything derived from it), finding 11's validator and `sources.md` figures, finding 16's whole numeric basis, and the stale `skill-audit/`, `agent-audit/` and `formatting-and-scripts.md` paths in findings 18, 19 and 33. §1's three rows re-measured: ~~**469**~~ → **471** tracked files (~~465~~ → 467 regular plus the 4 submodule gitlinks) / ~~**74,594**~~ → **75,441** lines (pinned to `c07ca07`; see the note below); `plugins/` ~~**46,106** (62%)~~ → **46,127** (61%); the 38 `SKILL.md` bodies **2,409** (5.2% of plugin lines); enforcement ~~**20 `tests/test-*.sh` totalling 10,189 lines**~~ → ~~**21 `tests/test-*.sh` totalling 10,608 lines**~~ → **19 totalling 10,088** at `baa2f5d`, the two runners ~~**502** (`run-tests.sh` 283 + `run-bats.sh` 219)~~ → **514** (`run-tests.sh` 289 + `run-bats.sh` 225), and `scripts/` ~~**2,901**~~ → ~~**3,139**~~ → **1,926** (**corrected 2026-09-20**: the struck runner and `scripts/` figures are `c07ca07`'s, not `baa2f5d`'s, so this one clause carried two bases and contradicted §1's own row for the same commit; the replacements are `baa2f5d`'s and agree with that row); kyberforge's validator scripts and their bats tests ~~**5,861**~~ → **5,876** + **6,015** (the merge deduplicated scripts and left the test corpus larger, not smaller — `git ls-files 'plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/*/scripts/*.sh'` and `.../tests/*.bats`). `run-tests.sh --strict` reports ~~**20 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed**~~ → ~~**21 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed**~~ → **19 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed** at `baa2f5d` (`4de5b6b` deleted two suites).
>
> > **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at `c07ca07`):** commit `8451169` added `check-skill-version-bump` — a pre-push hook, `scripts/check-skill-version-bump.sh` (238 lines) and `tests/test-skill-version-bump.sh` (410) — after the figures above were taken, so each was one short. `.pre-commit-config.yaml` now has **27** `- id:` entries and **9** `stages: [pre-push]` (`grep -c -- "- id:"`; `grep -c "stages: \[pre-push\]"`), all nine repo-authored. The struck figures are replaced from these commands. They were run against the working tree, and every figure reproduces exactly from the committed tree at `c07ca07`: `git ls-files | wc -l`; `cat` over every non-gitlink tracked path `| wc -l`; `git ls-files plugins | xargs cat | wc -l`; `git ls-files scripts | xargs wc -l` (no untracked files under `scripts/`); `ls tests/test-*.sh | wc -l` and `cat tests/test-*.sh | wc -l`; `bash tests/run-tests.sh --strict`. The earlier 469 / 74,594 / 46,106 did not reproduce exactly at `8451169^` either (469 / 74,638 / 46,121), so they were taken at an earlier commit than this note's "at HEAD" says. Re-checked and unchanged, so left alone: `docs/research/` inside plugins (19,030) and repo-level `docs/research/` + `docs/notes/` (4,488). Not re-measured, and still carrying their last stated basis: the preload-tax and commit-share rows, §2's timings, and the per-plugin table in the note above.
>
@@ -42,11 +42,11 @@ Counting convention: line counts are hand-edited `.apm/` source unless marked "i
| Of which the ~~39~~ → 38 `SKILL.md` files a model actually loads | ~~about 2,600 lines (under 4% of plugin lines)~~ → ~~2,509 lines (5.4% of plugin lines)~~ → 2,409 lines (5.2% of plugin lines; unchanged at `baa2f5d`) |
| Generated flat mirror files (byte copies of `.apm/`) | ~~263 files, ~22,000 lines~~ → 0 (deleted 2026-09-14, see below) |
| `docs/research/` vendored inside plugins | ~19,000 lines, nothing executable reads it |
| Repo-level `docs/research/` + `docs/notes/` | 4,500 lines, 47% of all prose words, 6 of 11 research files linked only from each other |
| Repo-level `docs/research/` + `docs/notes/` | 4,500 lines, 47% of all prose words, 6 of 11 research files linked only from each other (invalidated by this document's own move into `docs/notes/`, which adds 665 lines to the row it measures) |
| Enforcement: hook entries in `.pre-commit-config.yaml` / pre-push hooks | ~~33 / 14~~ → 26 / 8 (at `baa2f5d`; see the note below) |
| Enforcement: `tests/*.sh` + runners + `scripts/` | ~~12,400 + 475 + 4,500 lines~~ → ~~9,123 + 490 + 3,308 lines~~ → ~~10,189 + 502 + 2,901~~ → ~~10,608 + 502 + 3,139~~ → ~~10,000 + 502 + 1,924 (at `4b17703`)~~ → 10,088 + 514 + 1,926 (at `baa2f5d`) |
| Validator scripts inside kyberforge (+ their bats tests) | ~~6,800 + 5,300 lines~~ → ~~5,861 + 6,015~~ → ~~5,876 + 6,015~~ → 5,885 + 6,071 (at `baa2f5d`) |
| Preload tax (39 skill names + descriptions) | 10,987 chars, ~2,750 tokens per session |
| Preload tax (~~39~~ → 38 skill names + descriptions) | 10,987 chars, ~2,750 tokens per session (measured at 39 skills on 2026-09-10; never re-measured after ADR-0025's merge took the count to 38) |
| Commits since 2026-05-10 / share touching hook, test, gate, vale, or sync | 447 / ~25% |
> **Corrected then done (2026-09-14):** the mirror row's figure was wrong. The true mirror was **213 files / 20,061 lines**, not 263 / ~22,000 — the original count swept in files that were never mirror output. All 213 were deleted in commit `718c79a` on `docs/simplification-audit` (245 files changed, 298 insertions, 22,602 deletions across the whole change), so the row is now zero. The enforcement row is stale on **both** halves — it was correct at the 2026-09-10 baseline (`9eb8bc7`: 33 `- id:` entries, 14 repo-authored pre-push hooks), but `.pre-commit-config.yaml` today has ~~**27 entries and 9 `stages: [pre-push]`**~~ → ~~**26 entries and 8 `stages: [pre-push]`**~~ → ~~**27 entries and 9 `stages: [pre-push]`**~~ → **26 entries and 8 `stages: [pre-push]`** (~~`467bbd7`~~ → `620f20b` removed `check-vale-style-sync` with finding 14's merge; `8451169` then added `check-skill-version-bump`; `4de5b6b` then removed `check-release-needed`; re-measured 2026-09-16 at `4b17703` with `grep -c -- "- id:"` and `grep -c "stages: \[pre-push\]"` on `.pre-commit-config.yaml`). Like for like that is 14 → ~~9~~ → ~~8~~ → ~~9~~ → 8 repo-authored pre-push hooks. The stage *reports* ~~11~~ → ~~10~~ → ~~11~~ → 10, because the 2 pre-commit `meta` hooks also run there — a different counting basis; see the corrected §3 target, which states it the same way.
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ This is the area you named as hardest to understand and slowest. Root cause: mos
Pre-commit stays roughly as is minus `skill-frontmatter`, and minus `check-ast` once finding 9 removes the only `.py` files. ~~Tests 26 files to about 10 (12,400 to about 5,000 lines).~~ Keep bats and its three submodules; the 351 bats tests ship inside plugins and are the right tool there. ~~Do not port the bash suites to bats; delete them instead.~~ **Struck (2026-09-16, grill):** see finding 8's closing note — the suites are regression coverage (findings 3 and 5; finding 16 found the same of the validators they test).
> **Re-measured (2026-09-14, at `a6434e0`):** the tests target was stated against the 2026-09-10 baseline and both its numbers are stale. `tests/` now holds **20 `test-*.sh` suites totalling 9,123 lines** (plus the two runners, 490). Six suites have gone since the baseline: `test-check-manifests.sh` (`e647f14`), `test-skill-frontmatter.sh` (`c8a7c9e`), `test-governance-layer.sh` and `test-instructions-and-docs.sh` (`5f9f2b3`), `test-sync-marketplace-mirror.sh` (`0dffff3`), `test-sync-plugin-content.sh` (`718c79a`). ~~Restated on the same basis the target is **20 files to about 10, 9,123 to about 5,000 lines**~~ — **struck (2026-09-16):** the target itself is withdrawn (see the struck sentence above); for the record, `tests/` holds **19** suites totalling **10,000** lines at `4b17703`, after `4de5b6b` deleted `test-check-release-needed.sh` and `test-vale-hooks-consumer.sh`. Finding 9's `check-ast` clause is moot anyway, since finding 9 is not proceeding.
> > **Corrected (2026-09-20, at `1614bce`) — the deletion tally is nine, not ~~six~~ → ~~eight~~.** The six named above plus the two the 2026-09-16 strike adds come to eight, and a ninth was never folded into the running tally: **`test-check-vale-style-sync.sh`**, removed by `620f20b` with the `factory-audit` merge (finding 14) — the same commit finding 2's bullet already credits for deleting that gate's hook and script. The full `main...HEAD` set is nine: `test-check-manifests.sh` (`e647f14`), `test-check-release-needed.sh` (`4de5b6b`), `test-check-vale-style-sync.sh` (`620f20b`), `test-governance-layer.sh` and `test-instructions-and-docs.sh` (`5f9f2b3`), `test-skill-frontmatter.sh` (`c8a7c9e`), `test-sync-marketplace-mirror.sh` (`0dffff3`), `test-sync-plugin-content.sh` (`718c79a`), `test-vale-hooks-consumer.sh` (`4de5b6b`). Method: `git diff --name-status main...HEAD -- tests/ | grep '^D'`. The pinned "19 suites at `4b17703`" is unaffected — `620f20b` precedes that commit, so the file count already reflected the deletion even though the tally did not. At `1614bce` `tests/` holds **19** `test-*.sh` suites totalling **10,897** lines.
> > **Corrected (2026-09-20, at `1614bce`) — the deletion tally is nine, not ~~six~~ → ~~eight~~.** The six named above plus the two the 2026-09-16 strike adds come to eight, and a ninth was never folded into the running tally: **`test-check-vale-style-sync.sh`**, removed by `620f20b` with the `factory-audit` merge (finding 14) — the same commit finding 2's bullet already credits for deleting that gate's hook and script. The full `main...HEAD` set is nine: `test-check-manifests.sh` (`e647f14`), `test-check-release-needed.sh` (`4de5b6b`), `test-check-vale-style-sync.sh` (`620f20b`), `test-governance-layer.sh` and `test-instructions-and-docs.sh` (`5f9f2b3`), `test-skill-frontmatter.sh` (`c8a7c9e`), `test-sync-marketplace-mirror.sh` (`0dffff3`), `test-sync-plugin-content.sh` (`718c79a`), `test-vale-hooks-consumer.sh` (`4de5b6b`). Method: `git diff --name-status main...HEAD -- tests/ | grep '^D'`. The pinned "19 suites at `4b17703`" is unaffected — `620f20b` precedes that commit, so the file count already reflected the deletion even though the tally did not. At `1614bce` `tests/` holds **19** `test-*.sh` suites totalling ~~**10,897**~~ → **10,588** lines. (**Corrected 2026-09-20:** the suite count was right and the line total was not — 10,897 is the value at `384756b`, the commit that added the hook-wiring tests, and at `1ec3e8a`; at `1614bce` the nineteen suites total 10,588.)
## 4. Plugins
@@ -179,19 +179,19 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research
10. [x] ~~**Delete per-skill `README.md` and `references/README.md` (48 files, 1,574 lines).** They restate the SKILL.md in narrative form. The pre-commit config itself notes a skill README "is consumer-facing prose that no agent ever loads". Keep one plugin-level README with one line per skill. Requires dropping the README criterion in `skill-audit/references/file-structure.md` and the README step in `new-skill.sh`. Effort S.~~
> **Done (2026-09-12):** see commit `edcc57c` on `docs/simplification-audit`. Deleted the 48 per-skill/reference READMEs plus 2 scaffold templates; dropped the README criterion from `skill-audit`'s `file-structure.md` and `finding-criteria.md` and the README-generation step from `new-skill.sh`; updated `new-skill.bats` to match. Plugin-root READMEs were kept, not part of this finding.
11. [x] **Drop the provenance chain: `sources.md`, `source_keys` frontmatter, `validate-provenance.sh`.** 32 plugin and skill `sources.md` files (about 1,300 lines) plus 9 research indexes, 216 source files with `source_keys`, ~~two copies of the validator (1,198 and 632 lines)~~ → **one validator, 2,171 lines across four files**, with ten checks, and ~~125 bats tests~~ → **138 bats tests** exist to track which upstream informed which file. Git blame and a URL in the README do the same job. This is more code than the content it tracks. Effort M (touches ~~skill-audit, both validator copies~~ → **`factory-audit`, its one provenance validator**, two repo tests, and every skill's frontmatter).
> **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at HEAD):** ADR-0025 merged the two copies, so the "two copies" arithmetic throughout this finding and its note below no longer resolves. The provenance validator is now `factory-audit/scripts/` `validate-provenance.sh` (320) + `lib-provenance-skill.sh` (1,145) + `lib-provenance-agent.sh` (572) + `lib-contributing-files.sh` (134) = **2,171** lines (`wc -l` on the four), against **3,209** bats lines (`validate-provenance-skill.bats` 2,062 + `validate-provenance-agent.bats` 1,147) carrying **138** cases (`grep -c '^@test'`). Note this is *more* than the 1,198 + 632 = 1,830 the finding counted, not less: the merge deduplicated the resolver and the Contributing-files parser, not the per-mode provenance checks, and the shared entry script added the exit-tier and library guards described in `docs/spec/gates.md`. The `sources.md` census also moved: **45 files / 1,756 lines** — 27 skill `references/sources.md` (1,207), 13 research indexes (435), 4 plugin-root (100), 1 scaffold template (14). The note below's 46 / 1,752 swept in `docs/adr/0013-vale-harness-scope-and-rule-sources.md`, which matches `sources\.md$` and is not one. Imbalance at HEAD: **5,380 validator+bats lines against 1,756 of metadata, 3.1:1** — worse than the 2.6:1 below, on the same direction of argument.
11. [x] **Drop the provenance chain: `sources.md`, `source_keys` frontmatter, `validate-provenance.sh`.** 32 plugin and skill `sources.md` files (about 1,300 lines) plus 9 research indexes, 216 source files with `source_keys`, ~~two copies of the validator (1,198 and 632 lines)~~ → **one validator, ~~2,171~~ → 2,186 lines across four files**, with ten checks, and ~~125 bats tests~~ → **138 bats tests** exist to track which upstream informed which file. Git blame and a URL in the README do the same job. This is more code than the content it tracks. Effort M (touches ~~skill-audit, both validator copies~~ → **`factory-audit`, its one provenance validator**, two repo tests, and every skill's frontmatter).
> **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at HEAD):** ADR-0025 merged the two copies, so the "two copies" arithmetic throughout this finding and its note below no longer resolves. The provenance validator is now `factory-audit/scripts/` `validate-provenance.sh` (~~320~~ → **324**) + `lib-provenance-skill.sh` (~~1,145~~ → **1,152**) + `lib-provenance-agent.sh` (~~572~~ → **576**) + `lib-contributing-files.sh` (134) = ~~**2,171**~~ → **2,186** lines (`wc -l` on the four; **corrected 2026-09-20** — the four struck figures never reproduced at any commit, and `wc -l` gives 324 / 1,152 / 576 / 134 at `620f20b`, the commit that created the files, and at every commit since, `1ec3e8a` included), against **3,209** bats lines (`validate-provenance-skill.bats` 2,062 + `validate-provenance-agent.bats` 1,147) carrying **138** cases (`grep -c '^@test'`). Note this is *more* than the 1,198 + 632 = 1,830 the finding counted, not less: the merge deduplicated the resolver and the Contributing-files parser, not the per-mode provenance checks, and the shared entry script added the exit-tier and library guards described in `docs/spec/gates.md`. The `sources.md` census also moved: **45 files / 1,756 lines** — 27 skill `references/sources.md` (1,207), 13 research indexes (435), 4 plugin-root (100), 1 scaffold template (14). The note below's 46 / 1,752 swept in `docs/adr/0013-vale-harness-scope-and-rule-sources.md`, which matches `sources\.md$` and is not one. Imbalance at HEAD: ~~**5,380**~~ → **5,395 validator+bats lines against 1,756 of metadata, 3.1:1** (2,186 + 3,209; the ratio is unchanged at 3.07) — worse than the 2.6:1 below, on the same direction of argument.
> **Verified (2026-09-14, at HEAD `062ca47`):** direction defensible, two scope figures wrong, and **blocked on a decision the finding never poses**. The `sources.md` census below is exact, and so are the finding's own validator and bats figures (1,198 / 632 lines, 125 bats tests); the scope errors are narrower than an earlier revision of this note claimed.
>
> Corrected figures: **46 `sources.md` files / 1,752 lines** in three distinct classes — 29 skill `references/sources.md` (1,217 lines), 13 research indexes (435), 4 plugin-root files (100, ADR-0010). The finding does **not** double-count: it states two disjoint classes additively ("32 plugin and skill `sources.md` files (about 1,300 lines) **plus** 9 research indexes"), and that plugin-and-skill subtotal is really **33 files / 1,317 lines**, matching its "about 1,300" exactly — had the 32 swept in the research indexes the figure would have been ~1,750. Its real errors there are an off-by-one (32 should be 33) and an omission: it missed the 4 vendored example indexes under `kyberforge/docs/research/examples/skill-write/`, so 9 should be 13. Carriers of `source_keys` in YAML frontmatter: **196** — 168 at column 0 and 28 nested two spaces under `metadata:` — so the finding's 216 is closer to the truth than it looks. (219 files merely *mention* the string. A naive `^[[:space:]]*source_keys:` grep returns 200, but 4 of those are heredoc or fixture text rather than frontmatter: both `validate-provenance.bats` copies, `scripts/check-scope-walkup-sync.sh`, and a fenced example in `plugins/bin/.apm/skills/research/references/file-format.md`.) Checks: **16 across the two copies** (skill-audit 0–9, agent-audit 0–5), not ten. Validator line counts (1,198 / 632) and 125 bats tests are exact.
>
> **"Touches every skill's frontmatter" is roughly right.** ~~**28 of the 39 real skills carry `source_keys` in frontmatter**~~ → **27 of the 38** (re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD; the audit-pair merge took one carrier skill with it), nested under `metadata:` — see `plugins/git/.apm/skills/git-commits/SKILL.md:10-17`, where `metadata:` → `source_keys:` carries four slugs. (~~44~~ → **43** tracked files match `*SKILL.md`; subtract `skill-author/assets/templates/SKILL.md` and the 4 vendored under `kyberforge/docs/research/examples/skill-write/`, leaving ~~39~~ → **38** real skills.) The 11 without it are exactly the `plugins/bin/` skills. Check 2 in the skill-side validator (SKILL.md `source_keys` → slug in `sources.md`) is correspondingly **live**, not dead code: `parse_source_keys()` at `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/factory-audit/scripts/lib-provenance-skill.sh:277-305` handles both spellings explicitly — the metadata-nested branch at `:292`, the top-level branch at `:295`, and a docstring that says "handles metadata.source_keys and top-level" — check 2 at `:712` runs against all ~~28~~ → **27** carrier skills, every one of which has a `references/sources.md`, and bats pins it at `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/factory-audit/tests/validate-provenance-skill.bats:222` ("FAIL: source_keys slug in SKILL.md not present as H2 in sources.md") and ~~`:1337`~~ → `:1338` (a BOM must not silently disable check 2). (Paths and line numbers re-derived at HEAD: ADR-0025's merge moved this code out of `skill-audit/scripts/validate-provenance.sh` into the shared skill-side library, so the figures this note carried at `062ca47` — `:242-270`, `:257`, `:260`, `:766`, `:1313` — no longer resolve.) The imbalance the finding names is real and **worse** than claimed: ~~4,641 validator+bats lines against 1,752 of metadata, a 2.6:1 ratio~~ → **5,380 against 1,756, a 3.1:1 ratio** (re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD; see the note under the headline).
> **"Touches every skill's frontmatter" is roughly right.** ~~**28 of the 39 real skills carry `source_keys` in frontmatter**~~ → **27 of the 38** (re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD; the audit-pair merge took one carrier skill with it), nested under `metadata:` — see `plugins/git/.apm/skills/git-commits/SKILL.md:10-17`, where `metadata:` → `source_keys:` carries four slugs. (~~44~~ → **43** tracked files match `*SKILL.md`; subtract `skill-author/assets/templates/SKILL.md` and the 4 vendored under `kyberforge/docs/research/examples/skill-write/`, leaving ~~39~~ → **38** real skills.) The 11 without it are exactly the `plugins/bin/` skills. Check 2 in the skill-side validator (SKILL.md `source_keys` → slug in `sources.md`) is correspondingly **live**, not dead code: `parse_source_keys()` at `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/factory-audit/scripts/lib-provenance-skill.sh:`~~`277-305`~~ → `:284-312` handles both spellings explicitly — the metadata-nested branch at ~~`:292`~~ → `:299`, the top-level branch at ~~`:295`~~ → `:302`, and a docstring that says "handles metadata.source_keys and top-level" — check 2 at ~~`:712`~~ → `:719` runs against all ~~28~~ → **27** carrier skills, every one of which has a `references/sources.md`, and bats pins it at `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/factory-audit/tests/validate-provenance-skill.bats:222` ("FAIL: source_keys slug in SKILL.md not present as H2 in sources.md") and ~~`:1337`~~ → `:1338` (a BOM must not silently disable check 2). (Paths and line numbers re-derived at HEAD: ADR-0025's merge moved this code out of `skill-audit/scripts/validate-provenance.sh` into the shared skill-side library, so the figures this note carried at `062ca47` — `:242-270`, `:257`, `:260`, `:766`, `:1313` — no longer resolve.) **Corrected (2026-09-20):** the four "re-derived at HEAD" citations into `lib-provenance-skill.sh` were themselves uniformly 7 lines low and never resolved at any commit; they are repointed above. The two `validate-provenance-skill.bats` citations (`:222`, `:1338`) do resolve and are left alone. The imbalance the finding names is real and **worse** than claimed: ~~4,641 validator+bats lines against 1,752 of metadata, a 2.6:1 ratio~~ → ~~**5,380**~~ → **5,395 against 1,756, a 3.1:1 ratio** (re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD; see the note under the headline).
>
> **Omitted entirely: the chain has a producer.** `plugins/bin/.apm/skills/research/` *specifies* the `sources.md` + `source_keys:` output format, and `plugins/bin/evals/research/research/eval.yaml` carries three criteria asserting it. **This is the blocking decision: does `research` keep emitting `sources.md`?** If yes, the chain is not dropped — only unenforced, and the finding collapses to "delete the validators." If no, the research skill's output contract and its evals need redesigning.
>
> Also breaks: `check-scope-walkup-sync` loses one of four walk-up ports (the hook exists because three scripts drifted); `tests/test-adr0020-contract.sh` loses its parser byte-identity assertion; `tests/test-check-scope-walkup-sync.sh` must re-base its fixture; ADR-0010 is superseded outright and ADR-0009/0016 need amending (`field-inventory.md`'s allowlist data line carries `source_keys`). `LESSONS.md:73` records this validator as the **only** thing that catches a skill authored outside `skill-author` — a failure that "recurred twice in one session" — so "git blame + a README URL do the same job" is false for the one thing the chain demonstrably catches. Side effect: 55 reference files have frontmatter containing *only* `source_keys:`, leaving empty `---\n---` blocks to delete.
>
> **Effort L, not M** (about ~~6,393~~ → **7,136** lines deleted across 242 files: the ~~4,641~~ → **5,380** validator and bats lines plus the ~~1,752~~ → **1,756** of `sources.md` measured above, across 196 `source_keys` carriers and ~~46~~ → **45** `sources.md` files. An earlier revision of this note said ~4,600 lines across ~230 files, which was internally inconsistent — 4,600 is validator-plus-bats only and silently drops the `sources.md` this same note measures, and ~230 inherited a carrier count of 172 that missed every `metadata:`-nested file.) Smaller alternative worth considering: scope the drop to the skill half only (~~1,217 lines, 1,198-line validator, 82 tests~~ → **1,207 lines of skill `sources.md`, the 1,145-line `lib-provenance-skill.sh`, 87 tests**, re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD) and leave the ADR-0010 plugin-root half alone — no ADR supersession needed.
> **Effort L, not M** (about ~~6,393~~ → ~~**7,136**~~ → **7,151** lines deleted across ~~242~~ → **241** files: the ~~4,641~~ → ~~**5,380**~~ → **5,395** validator and bats lines plus the ~~1,752~~ → **1,756** of `sources.md` measured above, across 196 `source_keys` carriers and ~~46~~ → **45** `sources.md` files — 196 + 45 = 241, and the struck 242 was consistent only with the struck 46. An earlier revision of this note said ~4,600 lines across ~230 files, which was internally inconsistent — 4,600 is validator-plus-bats only and silently drops the `sources.md` this same note measures, and ~230 inherited a carrier count of 172 that missed every `metadata:`-nested file.) Smaller alternative worth considering: scope the drop to the skill half only (~~1,217 lines, 1,198-line validator, 82 tests~~ → **1,207 lines of skill `sources.md`, the ~~1,145~~ → 1,152-line `lib-provenance-skill.sh`, 87 tests**, re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD) and leave the ADR-0010 plugin-root half alone — no ADR supersession needed.
>
> **Decision (2026-09-16):** Not proceeding — the human declined this finding. The provenance chain (`sources.md`, `source_keys:`, `validate-provenance.sh`) stays, and `research` keeps producing it. This also answers §8's provenance question.
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research
>
> **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at HEAD) — the basis of every figure below changed when ADR-0025 landed; the refutation is unaffected.** There are no longer three validators or two `vale-wrap.sh` copies. The headline's "ported twice" is void, and its `1,677` and `526` no longer name anything. At HEAD: `scripts/skill-size-check.sh` is **1,522** (the note below's 1,517 was correct at `a6434e0`); `factory-audit`'s validator is **2,663** lines across four files (`validate.sh` 255 + `lib-checks-skill.sh` 621 + `lib-checks-agent.sh` 683 + `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` 1,104); `vale-wrap.sh` is **535**, one copy. Validator total **4,185**, of which the resolver is **2,165** (the 1,061-line block still embedded in `skill-size-check.sh`, plus `lib-boundary-resolver.sh`'s 1,104 — the same 1,061 block wrapped in 43 lines of library preamble, which is why the byte-identity test compares the block and not the files). So the resolver is now **52%** of validator lines, not 65%, and **2,020** lines remain once it is excised, not 1,749. Tests: the six repo suites over `skill-size-check.sh` are **3,907** (was 3,619) and the two in-skill validator bats files **2,248** (`validate-skill.bats` 1,029 + `validate-agent.bats` 1,219), for **6,155**, not 5,506. The 200-line target is off by the same order of magnitude it was. (All figures `wc -l`; the resolver block by `awk '/BEGIN ADR-0020 SHARED BOUNDARY RESOLVER/,/END .../'`.)
>
> > **Superseded by `ef27c97` (re-measured 2026-09-19, at HEAD).** The paragraph above is a dated snapshot and its two load-bearing claims no longer hold. `scripts/skill-size-check.sh` is **509** lines, not 1,522 — it shrank by 1,013 — and the resolver is **no longer embedded in it**: `ef27c97` excised the 1,061-line block and the hook now sources `factory-audit`'s `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` by path (`RESOLVER_LIB` at `:483`, `. "$RESOLVER_LIB"` at `:492`), failing closed if the library is missing or defines no resolver. The single remaining `BEGIN ADR-0020 SHARED BOUNDARY RESOLVER` string in the hook is that fail-closed guard, not a copy. `factory-audit`'s four validator files now total **2,671** (`validate.sh` 255 + `lib-checks-skill.sh` 627 + `lib-checks-agent.sh` 685 + `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` 1,104) and `vale-wrap.sh` is **536**. So there is **one** resolver copy repo-wide, not two, and the "resolver is 52% of validator lines" arithmetic above is void along with its inputs. Only the refutation of finding 16 survives all of this unchanged.
> > **Superseded by `ef27c97` (re-measured 2026-09-19, at HEAD).** The paragraph above is a dated snapshot and its two load-bearing claims no longer hold. `scripts/skill-size-check.sh` is **509** lines, not ~~1,522~~ → **1,524** — it shrank by ~~1,013~~ → **1,015** — and the resolver is **no longer embedded in it**: `ef27c97` excised the 1,061-line block and the hook now sources `factory-audit`'s `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` by path (`RESOLVER_LIB` at `:483`, `. "$RESOLVER_LIB"` at `:492`), failing closed if the library is missing or defines no resolver. The single remaining `BEGIN ADR-0020 SHARED BOUNDARY RESOLVER` string in the hook is that fail-closed guard, not a copy. `factory-audit`'s four validator files now total **2,671** (`validate.sh` 255 + `lib-checks-skill.sh` 627 + `lib-checks-agent.sh` 685 + `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` 1,104) and `vale-wrap.sh` is **536**. So there is **one** resolver copy repo-wide, not two, and the "resolver is 52% of validator lines" arithmetic above is void along with its inputs. Only the refutation of finding 16 survives all of this unchanged. (**Corrected 2026-09-20:** this note originally read "not 1,522 — it shrank by 1,013", which contradicted the "−1,015" the closing note below states for the same commit. 1,522 was a stale pre-`ef27c97` reading: `git show ef27c97^:scripts/skill-size-check.sh | wc -l` is **1,524** and `ef27c97` is **509**, so the delta is **−1,015** in both places.)
>
> The three validators are **not three implementations**. They contain **one block, 1,061 lines, byte-identical in all three**, delimited by `# ===== BEGIN/END ADR-0020 SHARED BOUNDARY RESOLVER =====` and hashed by `tests/test-adr0020-contract.sh`. So 3,183 of 4,932 validator lines (65%) are that block × 3, and **what is left once the resolver is excised is 1,749 lines across all three** — 1,580 non-blank, 992 with comments and blanks both stripped. The duplication is forced by the self-containment constraint, which is why *merging* is the lever and *shrinking* is not.
>
@@ -421,9 +421,9 @@ Not covered by the area audits above; found on a final sweep of the root config
> Corrected headline: ~~**two** hand-maintained per-plugin locations (**three** for kyberforge)~~ → **one** hand-maintained per-plugin version location, `plugins/<name>/apm.yml` (**two** for kyberforge, adding the `executables.allow` key), not four. `2def060` deleted the root `packages[].version` lines (corrected 2026-09-16, review round). The root `packages[].description:` duplicates dropped in the same round are a separate duplication, not a version location, so they do not change this count — the audit's own "already done" note records the `plugin.json` deletion but never fixed the headline. Gitea skills drift across **six** values (`0.1.2, 0.1.3, 0.1.4, 0.1.5, 0.1.6, 1.0.1`), not five — ~~still six at HEAD on 2026-09-16~~ → **five** again at HEAD (`b426460`) on 2026-09-16 (`0.1.2, 0.1.4, 0.1.5, 0.1.6, 1.0.1`), because `8451169` bumped `gitea-branches` 0.1.3 → 0.1.4 under the new version-bump gate and it was the only skill at 0.1.3; re-derived by parsing `metadata.version` out of each `plugins/gitea/.apm/skills/*/SKILL.md` with PyYAML. ~~39 `SKILL.md` files ✓~~ → **38** carry it, and all 38 do (re-measured 2026-09-16; ADR-0025's merge took one). The `0.4.6` duplication between root `version:` and `marketplace.version:` is **forced by apm, not a repo choice** — deleting `marketplace.version` makes `--check-clean` go dirty.
>
> **"Nothing consumes `metadata.version`" is false twice over.** Machine enforcers: ~~`scripts/skill-size-check.sh:1365-1374`~~ → ~~`scripts/skill-size-check.sh:1370-1379`~~ → `scripts/skill-size-check.sh:323-335` and ~~`skill-audit/scripts/validate.sh:1292-1332`~~ → `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/factory-audit/scripts/lib-checks-skill.sh:235-283`, both FAIL tier, the latter citing ADR-0022 by name, with four dedicated bats cases and ~10 fixture generators baking the field in.
> Instruction-level consumers: `skill-author/SKILL.md:60` (bump minor on create, patch on improve), `create.md:89,101`, `improve.md:82`, and `forge/SKILL.md:54` + `references/version-bump.md`. apm parses it for Chatmode/Instruction/Context primitives but not for Skills, and never emits it. Precise statement: the value is written, shape-validated, and never read *downstream* — it is an agent-visible revision counter, and the drift table shows the counter is not being maintained.
> Instruction-level consumers: `skill-author/SKILL.md:60` (bump minor on create, patch on improve), `create.md:89,101`, ~~`improve.md:82`~~ → `improve.md:105`, and `forge/SKILL.md:54` + `references/version-bump.md`. apm parses it for Chatmode/Instruction/Context primitives but not for Skills, and never emits it. Precise statement: the value is written, shape-validated, and never read *downstream* — it is an agent-visible revision counter, and the drift table shows the counter is not being maintained.
>
> > **Repointed (2026-09-16, at HEAD; re-verified and corrected 2026-09-19):** `skill-audit/scripts/validate.sh` no longer exists — ADR-0025's merge moved the ADR-0022 check into `factory-audit`'s skill-side check library, where it is the `SEMVER_RE` block: comment header at `:235`, `SEMVER_RE` itself at `:254`, `fail()` calls at ~~`:261` and `:275`~~ → `:265` and `:280`, the block running `:235-283` (the next section header, `# SKILL.md size ceilings`, is at `:285`). That library is **627** lines, not 621. In `skill-size-check.sh` the check is at `:323-335`; the earlier note said the file "grew by 5 lines above the block", which is the wrong direction by two orders of magnitude — `ef27c97` excised the embedded resolver and the file **shrank** from 1,522 to **509** lines, which is why the range moved from the 1,300s to the 320s. All five instruction-level citations still resolve at HEAD, verified with `sed -n`.
> > **Repointed (2026-09-16, at HEAD; re-verified and corrected 2026-09-19):** `skill-audit/scripts/validate.sh` no longer exists — ADR-0025's merge moved the ADR-0022 check into `factory-audit`'s skill-side check library, where it is the `SEMVER_RE` block: comment header at `:235`, `SEMVER_RE` itself at `:254`, `fail()` calls at ~~`:261` and `:275`~~ → `:265` and `:280`, the block running `:235-283` (the next section header, `# SKILL.md size ceilings`, is at `:285`). That library is **627** lines, not 621. In `skill-size-check.sh` the check is at `:323-335`; the earlier note said the file "grew by 5 lines above the block", which is the wrong direction by two orders of magnitude — `ef27c97` excised the embedded resolver and the file **shrank** from 1,522 to **509** lines, which is why the range moved from the 1,300s to the 320s. ~~All five instruction-level citations still resolve at HEAD, verified with `sed -n`.~~ → **Corrected (2026-09-20): four of the five resolve, not five.** `improve.md:82` stopped carrying the `metadata.version` content at `baa2f5d`, three days before the 2026-09-19 verification claim was written, so that claim was false when made; the content is at ~~`improve.md:82`~~ → `improve.md:105` ("A skill carrying no `metadata.version` is seeded at `"1.0.0"`, not bumped"). The other four — `skill-author/SKILL.md:60`, `create.md:89`, `create.md:101`, `forge/SKILL.md:54` — do resolve at `1ec3e8a`.
>
> **ADR-0022 already considered and rejected dropping the field**, on the grounds that `skill-author` depends on it to decide whether a pass owes a bump — a rationale still live today. Superseding costs: rewrite skill-author's bump rule, delete `forge`'s version-bump route premise, strip two scripts, delete four bats cases, fix ~10 fixture generators, edit the scaffold template, update ~~`gates.md:97`~~ → ~~`gates.md:145`~~ → `gates.md:146` — and re-open the "is this field present here?" question issue #127 closed, just from the other side. *(Repointed 2026-09-16, at HEAD `b426460`: the `metadata.version` frontmatter sentence formerly at `gates.md:97` was at `:143-146`, the field itself on `:145`, and is at `:143-147` / `:146` at `4b17703`; verified with `grep -n "metadata.version" docs/spec/gates.md`.)* **Recommendation: keep it and fix the actual defect, which is that nobody bumps it.** Either enforce the bump in the skill-author workflow or declare the values advisory in the ADR.
>