diff --git a/LESSONS.md b/LESSONS.md
index 00518a3..1b9a1ed 100644
--- a/LESSONS.md
+++ b/LESSONS.md
@@ -245,3 +245,19 @@ noticed — and before describing any defect as pre-existing, run `git log -S` o
 plugin-content and vale-style drift deterministically and has no equivalent gate asserting tool-owned
 paths stay out of formatter scope — `.claude/settings.json` was the sixteenth exclude and nothing
 prevents a seventeenth.
+
+## 2026-08-16 — A rule reversed inside a retrofit leaves no trace unless someone writes it down
+
+`skill-author/SKILL.md:204` on `main` said "Keep reference chains one level deep — a reference file
+that references another reference file is rarely loaded correctly." The ADR-0020 retrofit replaced it
+with "Two hops from `SKILL.md`, never three" in `references/create.md` and `references/retrofit.md`,
+which permits exactly the chain the old rule banned. The looser rule is the right one and the
+retrofit could not have shipped without it: dispatch pushes each flow into its own file, so the
+shipped structure is `SKILL.md` → `improve.md` → `retrofit.md`, and a one-level ceiling would have
+made the mandatory dispatch pattern illegal. But ADR-0020 says nothing about chain depth, so the
+reversal was carried entirely by the diff — the new text asserts the new rule with no sign that a
+contradicting rule ever existed, and a reader who remembers the old one has no way to tell whether it
+was overturned or overlooked. Fix: when a change inverts a standing authoring rule rather than
+tightening or restating it, record the inversion where the rule's rationale lives — the ADR if the
+ADR is the reason, here otherwise. A rule that quietly flips is indistinguishable from a rule that
+was forgotten, and the second reading is the one that gets it re-added later.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-audit/references/description-quality.md b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-audit/references/description-quality.md
index 2a41718..d3863af 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-audit/references/description-quality.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-audit/references/description-quality.md
@@ -111,9 +111,12 @@ Flag as FAIL if:
   available). `Kyberforge.VagueWording` catches the known filler; imprecision outside that list is
   judgment.
 - **A boundary clause naming a target that does not resolve** to a real skill directory or agent
-  file in the authoring source. No script checks this for an agent file — `validate.sh` resolves
-  boundary targets for skills only, so resolve the name yourself against `plugins/*/.apm/skills/`
-  and `plugins/*/.apm/agents/`.
+  file in the authoring source. `validate.sh` resolves this for agent files at both scopes and
+  reports each unresolved target itself — take its verdict rather than re-resolving the name by
+  hand, because a hand-walk over a different universe can contradict it. What is left to you is
+  semantic and the script cannot reach it: whether a target that *does* resolve is the right
+  sibling to exclude, and whether a clause naming no target at all ("examine the files manually")
+  should have named one.
 - **`Use proactively` in a Copilot or vendor-neutral description.**
   `KyberforgeCopilot.ProactivePhrase` catches it. The phrase steers the Claude Code runtime and
   does nothing anywhere else, so in a `.agent.md` it is preloaded text that buys no behaviour.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/SKILL.md b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/SKILL.md
index c7af792..c6ca310 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/SKILL.md
@@ -53,6 +53,8 @@ Gates `agent-audit` enforces at every scope:
 - **Body** — no word gate, and a delegation check in its place: name the skill to invoke rather than restating what it does.
 - **Invocation** — decide whether the agent is model-delegated or reached only by name. Only Copilot's cloud/IDE format expresses that in frontmatter (`disable-model-invocation`, `user-invocable`).
 
+At every scope, five tools reach no subagent whatever `tools` says — `AskUserQuestion`, `EnterPlanMode`, `ExitPlanMode`, `ScheduleWakeup`, `WaitForMcpServers`. Never write a body that has the agent ask the user a question or enter plan mode; it describes a turn the runtime cannot give it.
+
 ## Step 4 — Validate and close
 
 Invoke `agent-audit` on each file written and resolve every FAIL before reporting done. It checks the field allowlist, name-to-stem match, leftover placeholders and template comments, the description budget and the Copilot body limit — do not hand-check those.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/assets/templates/claude-code.md b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/assets/templates/claude-code.md
index a09f07f..15a4175 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/assets/templates/claude-code.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/assets/templates/claude-code.md
@@ -25,12 +25,13 @@ description: FILL IN: Use when <trigger>. <One capability clause.> Not <thing> -
 
 <!-- tools: Read, Bash, Grep
      Optional. Allowlist of tool names: a comma-separated string or a YAML list.
-     Omit to inherit all tools from parent.
+     Restrict it to what the agent actually needs. Omit only when it needs them
+     all — omitting inherits every tool from the parent.
      Use Agent(type1,type2) to restrict which subagent types this agent can spawn.
      Omit Agent entirely to prevent this agent from spawning subagents.
      Never available to subagents regardless of tools field:
        AskUserQuestion, EnterPlanMode, ExitPlanMode, ScheduleWakeup, WaitForMcpServers
-     Exception: ExitPlanMode IS available when parent session runs in permissionMode: plan -->
+     Listing any of them is a finding: agent-audit enforces the flat rule. -->
 
 <!-- model: sonnet
      Optional. Aliases: sonnet, opus, haiku, fable. Or full model ID.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/improve.md b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/improve.md
index 00509be..0aef172 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/improve.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/improve.md
@@ -57,6 +57,11 @@ procedure a skill it can invoke already owns is an `agent-audit` FAIL. When a si
 missing procedure, check first whether an installed skill owns it and name that skill instead of
 transcribing it. See `references/contract.md`.
 
+The delegation check is not a length brake — it fires only on procedure an invocable skill already
+owns, and says nothing about original prose. That brake is judgment, and it is the only one left:
+for every sentence you add, ask "would the agent get this wrong without it?" and delete it if the
+answer is no.
+
 **Explain the why.** Reasoning-based instructions outperform rigid directives. A rule written in
 all caps (ALWAYS/NEVER) is usually better reframed as why the behaviour matters, so the agent can
 apply judgment at the edges.
@@ -73,4 +78,10 @@ that was already there.
 If the edit adds or removes research-sourced content, update `source_keys` in the edited file and
 the matching `sources.md` entry — the create flow's Step 3 has the rules.
 
+**Check for regressions before handing back.** `SKILL.md` Step 4 tells you to resolve every FAIL,
+which says nothing about a check that passed *before* these edits and no longer does. Compare the
+closing `agent-audit` against the agent's pre-edit state — a PASS that has become a SUGGESTION, or
+a SUGGESTION that has become a FAIL, is damage this flow caused and is in scope for it. Only the
+improve flow can make that comparison; the create flow has no prior state to compare against.
+
 Then return to `SKILL.md` Step 4.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/plugin-scope.md b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/plugin-scope.md
index a281f1e..3d71359 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/plugin-scope.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/plugin-scope.md
@@ -37,6 +37,11 @@ The rule is about a field's *shape*, not a fixed roster:
   Claude Code honours it for plugin subagents; the three fields plugin agents do silently ignore
   are `hooks`, `mcpServers` and `permissionMode`, and this is not one of them. Copilot's handling
   of the key is unconfirmed, which ADR-0016 accepts as a stated risk.
+
+  Its syntax is the same at every scope, and this is the one scope that cannot reach it anywhere
+  else: MCP tools are denied as `mcp__<server>`, `mcp__<server>__*` or `mcp__*`; both a YAML list
+  and a delimited string are accepted, and this repo writes the comma-separated string form
+  (`disallowedTools: Edit, Write, NotebookEdit`) — match it.
 - The Claude-only knobs (`isolation`, `maxTurns`, `effort`, `memory`, `permissionMode`, `skills`,
   `color`, `initialPrompt`, `background`, `hooks`, `mcpServers`) have no Copilot equivalent and
   are never written to this file at all. "Silently ignored at plugin scope" is the wrong framing:
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/project-user-scope.md b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/project-user-scope.md
index d144e6f..0e63019 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/project-user-scope.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/project-user-scope.md
@@ -25,7 +25,10 @@ duplicate silently.
 **`description`** — write it against `references/contract.md`. It is the primary signal for
 autonomous delegation.
 
-**`tools`** — an allowlist; omit it to inherit every tool from the parent. Use `Agent(type1,type2)`
+**`tools`** — an allowlist. Write it, and restrict it to the tools the agent actually needs;
+omitting it inherits every tool from the parent, which is the right value only when the agent
+genuinely needs all of them. Least privilege is the default, not the exception. Use
+`Agent(type1,type2)`
 to restrict which subagent types this agent may spawn, and omit `Agent` entirely to stop it
 spawning any. Five tools reach no subagent whatever this field says — `AskUserQuestion`,
 `EnterPlanMode`, `ExitPlanMode`, `ScheduleWakeup` and `WaitForMcpServers` — so listing one buys
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/SKILL.md b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/SKILL.md
index 7167378..5cc3a82 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/SKILL.md
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ scripts/vale-wrap.sh <skill-dir>/SKILL.md
 
 `validate.sh` findings become the `### Structure` dimension — its FAILs and its SUGGESTIONs both.
 
-If any of the three fails, cannot run, or reports something needing interpretation, read `references/validation-scripts.md` — it carries the manual fallback and the misleading exit codes.
+If any of the three cannot run, or exits non-zero for a reason other than findings, read `references/validation-scripts.md` — it carries the manual fallback and the misleading exit codes. Ordinary content FAILs are the expected outcome here and need no fallback.
 
 `validate-provenance.sh` prints nothing on success. Its FAIL and INFO findings become a separate `### Provenance` dimension, and it emits Why and Fix itself — surface those verbatim.
 
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/references/body-discipline.md b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/references/body-discipline.md
index f7f62a4..4f4af51 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/references/body-discipline.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/references/body-discipline.md
@@ -28,8 +28,10 @@ Include content the agent lacks:
 - The specific tools or sequences to use — not the full range of options
 - One default per decision point with one escape hatch
 
-Move to `references/`, behind an explicit "If X, read `references/file.md`" trigger — the literal
-conditional form, never a generic pointer:
+Move to `references/`, behind an explicit "If X, read `references/<file>.md`" trigger — the literal
+conditional form, never a generic pointer. Write the real filename in the skill under audit; the
+angle brackets are a placeholder here, and a literal `references/file.md` in a body is an ERROR
+from the ADR-0020 gate because no such file exists on disk. Move:
 
 - Lookup tables and spec restatements
 - Output schemas, templates and example blocks
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/references/patterns.md b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/references/patterns.md
index 4382c1c..fb144ca 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/references/patterns.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-audit/references/patterns.md
@@ -32,8 +32,16 @@ read after the mistake.
 inner fence as `` \`\`\` ``. An unescaped inner fence terminates the outer block and the remaining
 instructions render as prose.
 
-**Conditional references** state a specific trigger: "If the API returns a non-200 status, read
-`references/api-errors.md`." The generic form — pointing at the directory and hoping — defeats
+**Conditional references** state a specific trigger, naming a file that exists in the skill's own
+`references/` directory:
+
+```text
+If the API returns a non-200 status, read `references/api-errors.md`.
+```
+
+That block is fenced because the filename in it is illustrative — an unfenced `references/` pointer
+in a `SKILL.md` body must resolve on disk or the ADR-0020 gate reports a hard ERROR. The generic
+form — pointing at the directory and hoping — defeats
 progressive disclosure, because the agent either loads everything or loads nothing.
 `Kyberforge.PaddingPhrase` catches the common generic phrasing deterministically; other malformed
 forms are judgment.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-author/references/improve.md b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-author/references/improve.md
index ad4cb5e..ffdf625 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-author/references/improve.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-author/references/improve.md
@@ -85,4 +85,10 @@ improvise the cuts — four dry runs invented six to ten different answers to th
 If a signal points to a script or reference file, edit that file directly rather than adding a
 workaround in SKILL.md.
 
+**Check for regressions before handing back.** `SKILL.md` Step 4 tells you to resolve every FAIL,
+which says nothing about a check that passed *before* these edits and no longer does. Compare the
+closing audit against the skill's pre-edit state — a PASS that has become a SUGGESTION, or a
+SUGGESTION that has become a FAIL, is damage this flow caused and is in scope for it. Only the
+improve flow can make that comparison; the create flow has no prior state to compare against.
+
 Then return to `SKILL.md` Step 4.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-audit/references/description-quality.md b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-audit/references/description-quality.md
index 2a41718..d3863af 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-audit/references/description-quality.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-audit/references/description-quality.md
@@ -111,9 +111,12 @@ Flag as FAIL if:
   available). `Kyberforge.VagueWording` catches the known filler; imprecision outside that list is
   judgment.
 - **A boundary clause naming a target that does not resolve** to a real skill directory or agent
-  file in the authoring source. No script checks this for an agent file — `validate.sh` resolves
-  boundary targets for skills only, so resolve the name yourself against `plugins/*/.apm/skills/`
-  and `plugins/*/.apm/agents/`.
+  file in the authoring source. `validate.sh` resolves this for agent files at both scopes and
+  reports each unresolved target itself — take its verdict rather than re-resolving the name by
+  hand, because a hand-walk over a different universe can contradict it. What is left to you is
+  semantic and the script cannot reach it: whether a target that *does* resolve is the right
+  sibling to exclude, and whether a clause naming no target at all ("examine the files manually")
+  should have named one.
 - **`Use proactively` in a Copilot or vendor-neutral description.**
   `KyberforgeCopilot.ProactivePhrase` catches it. The phrase steers the Claude Code runtime and
   does nothing anywhere else, so in a `.agent.md` it is preloaded text that buys no behaviour.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/SKILL.md b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/SKILL.md
index c7af792..c6ca310 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/SKILL.md
@@ -53,6 +53,8 @@ Gates `agent-audit` enforces at every scope:
 - **Body** — no word gate, and a delegation check in its place: name the skill to invoke rather than restating what it does.
 - **Invocation** — decide whether the agent is model-delegated or reached only by name. Only Copilot's cloud/IDE format expresses that in frontmatter (`disable-model-invocation`, `user-invocable`).
 
+At every scope, five tools reach no subagent whatever `tools` says — `AskUserQuestion`, `EnterPlanMode`, `ExitPlanMode`, `ScheduleWakeup`, `WaitForMcpServers`. Never write a body that has the agent ask the user a question or enter plan mode; it describes a turn the runtime cannot give it.
+
 ## Step 4 — Validate and close
 
 Invoke `agent-audit` on each file written and resolve every FAIL before reporting done. It checks the field allowlist, name-to-stem match, leftover placeholders and template comments, the description budget and the Copilot body limit — do not hand-check those.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/assets/templates/claude-code.md b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/assets/templates/claude-code.md
index a09f07f..15a4175 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/assets/templates/claude-code.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/assets/templates/claude-code.md
@@ -25,12 +25,13 @@ description: FILL IN: Use when <trigger>. <One capability clause.> Not <thing> -
 
 <!-- tools: Read, Bash, Grep
      Optional. Allowlist of tool names: a comma-separated string or a YAML list.
-     Omit to inherit all tools from parent.
+     Restrict it to what the agent actually needs. Omit only when it needs them
+     all — omitting inherits every tool from the parent.
      Use Agent(type1,type2) to restrict which subagent types this agent can spawn.
      Omit Agent entirely to prevent this agent from spawning subagents.
      Never available to subagents regardless of tools field:
        AskUserQuestion, EnterPlanMode, ExitPlanMode, ScheduleWakeup, WaitForMcpServers
-     Exception: ExitPlanMode IS available when parent session runs in permissionMode: plan -->
+     Listing any of them is a finding: agent-audit enforces the flat rule. -->
 
 <!-- model: sonnet
      Optional. Aliases: sonnet, opus, haiku, fable. Or full model ID.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/improve.md b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/improve.md
index 00509be..0aef172 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/improve.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/improve.md
@@ -57,6 +57,11 @@ procedure a skill it can invoke already owns is an `agent-audit` FAIL. When a si
 missing procedure, check first whether an installed skill owns it and name that skill instead of
 transcribing it. See `references/contract.md`.
 
+The delegation check is not a length brake — it fires only on procedure an invocable skill already
+owns, and says nothing about original prose. That brake is judgment, and it is the only one left:
+for every sentence you add, ask "would the agent get this wrong without it?" and delete it if the
+answer is no.
+
 **Explain the why.** Reasoning-based instructions outperform rigid directives. A rule written in
 all caps (ALWAYS/NEVER) is usually better reframed as why the behaviour matters, so the agent can
 apply judgment at the edges.
@@ -73,4 +78,10 @@ that was already there.
 If the edit adds or removes research-sourced content, update `source_keys` in the edited file and
 the matching `sources.md` entry — the create flow's Step 3 has the rules.
 
+**Check for regressions before handing back.** `SKILL.md` Step 4 tells you to resolve every FAIL,
+which says nothing about a check that passed *before* these edits and no longer does. Compare the
+closing `agent-audit` against the agent's pre-edit state — a PASS that has become a SUGGESTION, or
+a SUGGESTION that has become a FAIL, is damage this flow caused and is in scope for it. Only the
+improve flow can make that comparison; the create flow has no prior state to compare against.
+
 Then return to `SKILL.md` Step 4.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/plugin-scope.md b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/plugin-scope.md
index a281f1e..3d71359 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/plugin-scope.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/plugin-scope.md
@@ -37,6 +37,11 @@ The rule is about a field's *shape*, not a fixed roster:
   Claude Code honours it for plugin subagents; the three fields plugin agents do silently ignore
   are `hooks`, `mcpServers` and `permissionMode`, and this is not one of them. Copilot's handling
   of the key is unconfirmed, which ADR-0016 accepts as a stated risk.
+
+  Its syntax is the same at every scope, and this is the one scope that cannot reach it anywhere
+  else: MCP tools are denied as `mcp__<server>`, `mcp__<server>__*` or `mcp__*`; both a YAML list
+  and a delimited string are accepted, and this repo writes the comma-separated string form
+  (`disallowedTools: Edit, Write, NotebookEdit`) — match it.
 - The Claude-only knobs (`isolation`, `maxTurns`, `effort`, `memory`, `permissionMode`, `skills`,
   `color`, `initialPrompt`, `background`, `hooks`, `mcpServers`) have no Copilot equivalent and
   are never written to this file at all. "Silently ignored at plugin scope" is the wrong framing:
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/project-user-scope.md b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/project-user-scope.md
index d144e6f..0e63019 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/project-user-scope.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author/references/project-user-scope.md
@@ -25,7 +25,10 @@ duplicate silently.
 **`description`** — write it against `references/contract.md`. It is the primary signal for
 autonomous delegation.
 
-**`tools`** — an allowlist; omit it to inherit every tool from the parent. Use `Agent(type1,type2)`
+**`tools`** — an allowlist. Write it, and restrict it to the tools the agent actually needs;
+omitting it inherits every tool from the parent, which is the right value only when the agent
+genuinely needs all of them. Least privilege is the default, not the exception. Use
+`Agent(type1,type2)`
 to restrict which subagent types this agent may spawn, and omit `Agent` entirely to stop it
 spawning any. Five tools reach no subagent whatever this field says — `AskUserQuestion`,
 `EnterPlanMode`, `ExitPlanMode`, `ScheduleWakeup` and `WaitForMcpServers` — so listing one buys
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/SKILL.md b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/SKILL.md
index 7167378..5cc3a82 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/SKILL.md
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ scripts/vale-wrap.sh <skill-dir>/SKILL.md
 
 `validate.sh` findings become the `### Structure` dimension — its FAILs and its SUGGESTIONs both.
 
-If any of the three fails, cannot run, or reports something needing interpretation, read `references/validation-scripts.md` — it carries the manual fallback and the misleading exit codes.
+If any of the three cannot run, or exits non-zero for a reason other than findings, read `references/validation-scripts.md` — it carries the manual fallback and the misleading exit codes. Ordinary content FAILs are the expected outcome here and need no fallback.
 
 `validate-provenance.sh` prints nothing on success. Its FAIL and INFO findings become a separate `### Provenance` dimension, and it emits Why and Fix itself — surface those verbatim.
 
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/references/body-discipline.md b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/references/body-discipline.md
index f7f62a4..4f4af51 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/references/body-discipline.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/references/body-discipline.md
@@ -28,8 +28,10 @@ Include content the agent lacks:
 - The specific tools or sequences to use — not the full range of options
 - One default per decision point with one escape hatch
 
-Move to `references/`, behind an explicit "If X, read `references/file.md`" trigger — the literal
-conditional form, never a generic pointer:
+Move to `references/`, behind an explicit "If X, read `references/<file>.md`" trigger — the literal
+conditional form, never a generic pointer. Write the real filename in the skill under audit; the
+angle brackets are a placeholder here, and a literal `references/file.md` in a body is an ERROR
+from the ADR-0020 gate because no such file exists on disk. Move:
 
 - Lookup tables and spec restatements
 - Output schemas, templates and example blocks
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/references/patterns.md b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/references/patterns.md
index 4382c1c..fb144ca 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/references/patterns.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-audit/references/patterns.md
@@ -32,8 +32,16 @@ read after the mistake.
 inner fence as `` \`\`\` ``. An unescaped inner fence terminates the outer block and the remaining
 instructions render as prose.
 
-**Conditional references** state a specific trigger: "If the API returns a non-200 status, read
-`references/api-errors.md`." The generic form — pointing at the directory and hoping — defeats
+**Conditional references** state a specific trigger, naming a file that exists in the skill's own
+`references/` directory:
+
+```text
+If the API returns a non-200 status, read `references/api-errors.md`.
+```
+
+That block is fenced because the filename in it is illustrative — an unfenced `references/` pointer
+in a `SKILL.md` body must resolve on disk or the ADR-0020 gate reports a hard ERROR. The generic
+form — pointing at the directory and hoping — defeats
 progressive disclosure, because the agent either loads everything or loads nothing.
 `Kyberforge.PaddingPhrase` catches the common generic phrasing deterministically; other malformed
 forms are judgment.
diff --git a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-author/references/improve.md b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-author/references/improve.md
index ad4cb5e..ffdf625 100644
--- a/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-author/references/improve.md
+++ b/plugins/kyberforge/skills/skill-author/references/improve.md
@@ -85,4 +85,10 @@ improvise the cuts — four dry runs invented six to ten different answers to th
 If a signal points to a script or reference file, edit that file directly rather than adding a
 workaround in SKILL.md.
 
+**Check for regressions before handing back.** `SKILL.md` Step 4 tells you to resolve every FAIL,
+which says nothing about a check that passed *before* these edits and no longer does. Compare the
+closing audit against the skill's pre-edit state — a PASS that has become a SUGGESTION, or a
+SUGGESTION that has become a FAIL, is damage this flow caused and is in scope for it. Only the
+improve flow can make that comparison; the create flow has no prior state to compare against.
+
 Then return to `SKILL.md` Step 4.