fix: remove the obsidian MCP server and the unreadable .mcp.json files

718c79a deleted every per-plugin .claude-plugin/plugin.json, which
reclassified each package from a marketplace plugin to a plain apm
package. That silently broke MCP propagation: apm_cli/deps/plugin_parser.py
maps a plugin-root .mcp.json into .apm/.mcp.json, and that code path runs
only for marketplace plugins. With no manifest, apm never reads the file.

Reproduced on ref-pinned consumer clones: at the parent commit a consumer
receives the obsidian server, at HEAD it receives none, and on upgrade apm
prints "Removed stale MCP server 'obsidian' from .mcp.json". This repo
consumes its own plugins through apm (ADR-0018), so the tracked root
.mcp.json would have been rewritten to an empty server map on the next
lock re-resolve -- silent tool loss plus unexplained working-tree drift.

The server is removed entirely rather than relocated to .apm/. It was
already a standing question (SIMPLIFICATION-AUDIT finding 37, deferred on
2026-09-13 pending confirmation, now confirmed), and plugins/bin/apm.yml
declares dependencies.mcp: [] -- apm's supported mechanism was never used.
All seven .mcp.json files go; the root one is apm-generated output and is
now gitignored alongside the other install artifacts.

ADR-0011's deferred ".mcp.json wiring gap" is moot twice over -- the
install route it blocked no longer exists and neither does the file --
and ADR-0018 records why it lost its only worked example of MCP
propagation. apm.lock.yaml still carries the server; it clears on the
first apm update after this reaches the default branch.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YR2CjVumUbEGWcMikcoXBD

.gitignore

@@ -34,6 +34,11 @@ apm_modules/
 .claude/skills/
 .claude/agents/
 
+# APM MCP deployment output — `apm install` writes the repo-root .mcp.json from
+# the MCP servers its dependencies declare, and regenerates it on every install.
+# It is apm's output, not repo content; nothing here is hand-authored.
+/.mcp.json
+
 # APM hook deployment output — `apm install` copies each package's referenced
 # hook scripts here and tracks its own settings.json entries in the sidecar.
 # Regenerated on every install; the authoring source is

.mcp.json

@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "mcpServers": {
-    "obsidian": {
-      "args": [
-        "@bitbonsai/mcpvault@0.15.0",
-        "docs/"
-      ],
-      "command": "npx",
-      "type": "stdio"
-    }
-  }
-}

.pre-commit-config.yaml

@@ -34,15 +34,19 @@ repos:
         # rationale, under which a fixture or vendored tree containing
         # `.../.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` would have been silently excluded
         # from formatting while an equivalent
-        # `.../.agents/plugins/marketplace.json` would not. The three root
-        # marketplace manifests match; anything else is hand-authored and gets
-        # formatted. The twelve per-plugin `plugin.json` alternatives were
+        # `.../.agents/plugins/marketplace.json` would not. Only the one root
+        # marketplace manifest matches now; anything else is hand-authored and
+        # gets formatted. The twelve per-plugin `plugin.json` alternatives were
         # dropped with the plugin manifests themselves when native
-        # `claude plugin install` support was removed -- apm probes `apm.yml`
-        # and never reached them.
+        # `claude plugin install` support was removed (ADR-0024) -- apm probes
+        # `apm.yml` and never reached them. The `.agents/plugins/` and
+        # `.github/plugin/` marketplace mirrors went the same way, and their
+        # alternations went with them: `check-useless-excludes` fails on a
+        # pattern that matches no file.
         #
-        # `.claude/settings.json` is the sixteenth, and it is excluded for a
-        # different reason: apm OWNS that file (ADR-0018, ADR-0019), and
+        # `.claude/settings.json` is the second and last alternation, and it is
+        # the only one here for a reason other than "generated manifest":
+        # apm OWNS that file (ADR-0018, ADR-0019), and
         # `apm audit --ci` replays the install into a scratch tree and diffs
         # the result byte-for-byte. `pretty-format-json` sorts object keys
         # unless `--no-sort-keys` is passed, while apm's hook integrator emits
@@ -53,7 +57,7 @@ repos:
         # happened when the SessionStart hook first landed in 2e395a4.
         # Re-running `apm install` fixes the file; leaving it in scope here
         # would re-break it on the very commit that carries the fix.
-        exclude: '^(\.claude-plugin/marketplace\.json|\.agents/plugins/marketplace\.json|\.github/plugin/marketplace\.json|\.claude/settings\.json)$'
+        exclude: '^(\.claude-plugin/marketplace\.json|\.claude/settings\.json)$'
       - id: check-yaml
         stages: ['pre-commit']
       - id: trailing-whitespace

CONTEXT.md

@@ -52,15 +52,16 @@ _Avoid_: command, prompt, macro
 
 **apm package**:
 The deployable unit apm builds and installs — one or more skills, agents, hooks, commands, and MCP
-servers under a single directory `plugins/<name>/`, consisting of that plugin's `apm.yml` plus the
-hand-authored `plugins/<name>/.apm/` tree it deploys from (ADR-0015).
-_Avoid_: plugin, package, bundle, module, plugin directory, source tree
+servers under a single directory `plugins/<name>/`, consisting of that directory's `apm.yml` plus
+the hand-authored `plugins/<name>/.apm/` tree it deploys from (ADR-0015).
+_Avoid_: bundle, module, source tree; and bare "plugin" for the *installable artifact*, which since
+ADR-0024 is an apm package and not a Claude Code plugin. "Plugin" stays correct as a modifier in the
+repo's settled compounds — **Plugin marketplace**, "plugin units", `plugins/`.
 
 **Output profile**:
-An `apm pack` target format for the generated *marketplace* catalogue compiled from root
-`apm.yml`'s `marketplace:` block. Only `claude` is declared
-(`.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`); apm's own marketplace consumers read that same file, so one
-catalogue serves both. Mechanics: `docs/spec/architecture.md`.
+A named ecosystem format `apm pack` can compile the marketplace manifest into, declared per profile
+under root `apm.yml`'s `marketplace.outputs:`. apm defines `claude` and `codex`; each writes to its
+own default path unless overridden. Mechanics: `docs/spec/architecture.md`.
 _Avoid_: build target, export format
 
 **Plugin marketplace**:
@@ -167,6 +168,11 @@ _Avoid_: ticket, card, task
 - Skills can answer to two names, bare (`gitea-prs`) and namespaced (`gitea:gitea-prs`), depending on
   whether a native install exists at user scope alongside the apm one (ADR-0018) — resolved: write
   the bare name, which is the only form `apm install` produces.
+- "plugin" was used both for the installable artifact under `plugins/<name>/` and as a modifier in
+  settled compounds (**Plugin marketplace**, "plugin units", the `plugins/` directory itself) —
+  resolved: the installable artifact is an **apm package**, because ADR-0024 ended native
+  `claude plugin install` support and it is no longer a Claude Code plugin in any operative sense;
+  the compounds keep the word and are not being renamed.
 - "context" means both the model's live token window and the bounded domain this file describes —
   resolved: unqualified "context" in this repo means the token window.
 - "audit" was used for both an author skill's inline closeout and `forge`'s independent

README.md

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Content ships as six installable plugins, each an apm (Agent Package Manager) pa
 
 | Path | What it holds |
 | --- | --- |
-| `plugins/` | Six apm packages — `bin`, `core`, `git`, `gitea`, `kyberforge`, `lint` — each carrying skills, and where relevant agents, hooks, MCP servers, and bundled assets |
+| `plugins/` | Six apm packages — `bin`, `core`, `git`, `gitea`, `kyberforge`, `lint` — each carrying skills, and where relevant agents, hooks, and bundled assets |
 | `providers/claude-code/` | Claude Code adapter, deployed to `~/.claude/` via `scripts/install.sh` |
 | `core/` | Provider-agnostic always-on content — `core/AGENTS.md` and `core/instructions/` |
 | `docs/` | Specs (`docs/spec/`), architectural decisions (`docs/adr/`), governance, research, and notes |
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ apm install
 pre-commit install -t pre-commit -t commit-msg -t pre-push
 ```
 
-**`apm install`** deploys the six plugins into `.claude/skills/` and `.claude/agents/`. Both are gitignored install output, *not* authoring source — `plugins/<name>/.apm/` remains the only place to edit. It needs the network, materializes `apm_modules/` (which stays gitignored), and also configures the `obsidian` MCP server into the repo's `.mcp.json`.
+**`apm install`** deploys the six plugins into `.claude/skills/` and `.claude/agents/`. Both are gitignored install output, *not* authoring source — `plugins/<name>/.apm/` remains the only place to edit. It needs the network and materializes `apm_modules/` (which stays gitignored).
 
 **Git hooks** must be wired for **all three stages**. This repo's `.pre-commit-config.yaml` has no `default_install_hook_types`, so a plain `pre-commit install` silently skips `commit-msg` (Conventional Commits) and `pre-push` (the full gate) — the `-t` flags above are not optional. The `pc-run` skill handles this and the troubleshooting around it, if you would rather not remember the flags.
 
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ See [`docs/spec/gates.md`](docs/spec/gates.md) for what each hook enforces and w
 
 ## Editing plugin content
 
-`plugins/<name>/.apm/` is the only hand-edited source for plugin content — the root `marketplace.json` manifest is generated by `apm pack`, and a hand-edit there is reported as drift by `apm-pack-check-clean`. Hand-authored material that is not an `.apm/` primitive (`README.md`, `docs/`, `bin/`, `sources.md`, `.mcp.json`) lives at the plugin root instead.
+`plugins/<name>/.apm/` is the only hand-edited source for plugin content — the root `marketplace.json` manifest is generated by `apm pack`, and a hand-edit there is reported as drift by `apm-pack-check-clean`. Hand-authored material that is not an `.apm/` primitive (`README.md`, `docs/`, `bin/`, `sources.md`) lives at the plugin root instead.
 
 Full model, including what's exempt and why: [`docs/spec/architecture.md`](docs/spec/architecture.md).
 

SIMPLIFICATION-AUDIT.md

@@ -6,7 +6,20 @@ Assumptions agreed before analysis: anything is on the table, Claude Code and Co
 
 Counting convention: line counts are hand-edited `.apm/` source unless marked "incl. mirror". Every `.apm/` file has a byte-identical generated copy at the plugin root, so plugin cuts count double in the repo total.
 
-> **Superseded (2026-09-14):** the mirror is gone (commit `718c79a`, ADR-0024). "incl. mirror" totals below are historical; roughly 70% of each remains live (kyberforge 44,568 → ~33,000).
+> **Superseded (2026-09-14):** the mirror is gone (commit `718c79a`, ADR-0024). "incl. mirror" totals below are historical. Measured against the 2026-09-10 baseline (`9eb8bc7`), what remains live varies by plugin — 44% to 71%, not a uniform ~70%:
+>
+> | Plugin | Baseline (incl. mirror) | Today | Live |
+> |---|---|---|---|
+> | kyberforge | 44,568 | 31,473 | 70.6% |
+> | git | 9,889 | 6,050 | 61.2% |
+> | gitea | 6,047 | 3,471 | 57.4% |
+> | core | 3,873 | 2,360 | 60.9% |
+> | lint | 1,558 | 923 | 59.2% |
+> | bin | 4,704 | 2,083 | 44.3% |
+>
+> Across all six the baseline was 70,639 lines and 46,360 remain (65.6%). The mirror was 20,061 of those lines, so mirror deletion alone would have left ~71.6%; everything below that line is source the other findings cut, which is why bin — where findings 10, 12, and 13 landed hardest — is the outlier. (Counted as tracked lines under `plugins/<name>/` at `9eb8bc7` and in the current working tree.)
+
+> **Reviewed (2026-09-14):** commits `718c79a` and `d2480b8` were put through a five-agent review. Result: **zero skill, agent or hook regressions** — 39 skills before and after, all gates passing, and both hook removals (`validate-plugins`, `check-plugin-content-sync`) genuinely moot rather than merely unenforced. One real functional regression was found — MCP propagation to consumers, broken by the same commit's manifest deletion; see finding 37 — along with the numeric and bookkeeping drift in this document's own 2026-09-14 notes, corrected in place above and below.
 
 ## 1. The shape of the problem
 
@@ -24,7 +37,7 @@ Counting convention: line counts are hand-edited `.apm/` source unless marked "i
 | Preload tax (39 skill names + descriptions)                               | 10,987 chars, ~2,750 tokens per session                                                 |
 | 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's pre-push figure of 14 is also stale: with `validate-plugins` and `check-plugin-content-sync` gone the stage now reports 11 (9 repo-authored plus 2 pre-commit `meta` hooks); see the corrected §3 target.
+> **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]`**. Like for like that is 14 → 9 repo-authored pre-push hooks. The stage *reports* 11, 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.
 
 The pattern across every area is the same: the payload (skill bodies, rules, decisions) is small and the scaffolding around it (mirrors, research dumps, sync gates, tests of tests, justification prose) is 10 to 30 times larger. A quarter of all commits have gone into maintaining the scaffolding.
 
@@ -59,7 +72,7 @@ Where the 276 s goes (each suite run alone, sequential):
 
 Five suites account for 215 s of 276 s. Three of those five (sync-plugin-content, vale-style-sync, adr0020-differential) test tooling that findings 2, 7, and 14 propose to delete or shrink, so the fastest path to a quick pre-push is removing the duplication those tests guard rather than optimising the tests.
 
-> **Done (2026-09-14):** see commit `718c79a` on `docs/simplification-audit`. The three struck-through rows are gone: `test-sync-plugin-content.sh` (83 s, 1,289 lines, 92 cases), `check-plugin-content-sync` (4.5 s) and `validate-plugins` (4.9 s). Expected, not re-measured: roughly 88 s comes off every push (~83 s of it out of `run-tests`, which loses its single slowest suite), on the arithmetic of the 2026-09-10 figures alone. The remaining rows have not been re-timed since, so treat every number in this section as the 2026-09-10 baseline minus those three, not as a fresh measurement.
+> **Done (2026-09-14):** see commit `718c79a` on `docs/simplification-audit`. The three struck-through rows are gone: `test-sync-plugin-content.sh` (83 s, 1,289 lines, 92 cases), `check-plugin-content-sync` (4.5 s) and `validate-plugins` (4.9 s). Expected, not re-measured: roughly 92 s comes off every push (83 + 4.5 + 4.9 = 92.4 s) (~83 s of it out of `run-tests`, which loses its single slowest suite), on the arithmetic of the 2026-09-10 figures alone. The remaining rows have not been re-timed since, so treat every number in this section as the 2026-09-10 baseline minus those three, not as a fresh measurement.
 
 ## 3. Enforcement layer: hooks, tests, scripts
 
@@ -94,11 +107,11 @@ This is the area you named as hardest to understand and slowest. Root cause: mos
    > **Superseded then done (2026-09-14):** see commit `718c79a` on `docs/simplification-audit`. The recommendation ("target a third") is void, not met — the §8 question it depended on was settled the other way. Answering "apm-only" (ADR-0024) removed the mirror's reason to exist, and with the mirror gone the script guarded nothing, so the whole thing was deleted rather than shrunk: `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh` (813 lines), `tests/test-sync-plugin-content.sh` (1,289 lines — the finding said 1,291), the `check-plugin-content-sync` pre-push hook, and `scripts/lib/marketplace-plugins.sh` (86 lines, whose only consumer was the sync script, and which finding 1 had explicitly kept alive for it). `validate-plugins` went with them, and the twelve per-plugin `plugin.json` manifests the script regenerated. The finding's own premise — "the mirror itself must stay" — is what turned out to be wrong.
 
 8. **`docs/spec/gates.md` (1,048 lines) is roughly 15% "what is enforced" and 85% post-mortems** of defects already fixed and pinned by tests. The 60-line hook table is the useful part. Target 200 lines. The same applies to the 106 comment lines in `.pre-commit-config.yaml` and to `scripts/`, where 8 of 15 files are 40 to 60% comments. Effort M.
-   > **Partially done (2026-09-13):** see commit `a35f5e8` on `docs/simplification-audit`. The 85%-post-mortem characterization was stale — the file had already shrunk to 966 lines by other findings, and most of what remained is load-bearing "why this design" rationale cited by ADRs and tests, not dead incident narration. Cut only the two genuinely stale passages: a reproduction paragraph carrying explicitly outdated numbers, and a retrofit-process narrative superseded by current state — 966 → 930 lines. `.pre-commit-config.yaml`'s comments were left untouched; on inspection they're compact constraint notes, not filler. Target of 200 lines not reached and not recommended — would require deleting content the file itself flags as load-bearing.
+   > **Partially done (2026-09-13):** see commit `a35f5e8` on `docs/simplification-audit`. The 85%-post-mortem characterization was stale — the file had already shrunk to 966 lines by other findings, and most of what remained is load-bearing "why this design" rationale cited by ADRs and tests, not dead incident narration. Cut only the two genuinely stale passages: a reproduction paragraph carrying explicitly outdated numbers, and a retrofit-process narrative superseded by current state — a 36-line cut, 966 → 930 as measured at commit `a35f5e8`. Those two figures describe that commit only, not the file: `718c79a` and later findings have edited `gates.md` again, so read its current length from the file rather than quoting a number here. `.pre-commit-config.yaml`'s comments were left untouched; on inspection they're compact constraint notes, not filler. Target of 200 lines not reached and not recommended — would require deleting content the file itself flags as load-bearing.
 
 **Proposed target.** ~~Pre-push 14 hooks to 6: `run-tests`, `validate-plugins`, `validate-marketplace`, `apm-pack-check-clean`, `check-plugin-content-sync`, `check-release-needed`.~~
 
-> **Corrected (2026-09-14):** two of the six named targets no longer exist — `validate-plugins` and `check-plugin-content-sync` were deleted in commit `718c79a` (finding 7, ADR-0024). Actual state today: **9 repo-authored pre-push hooks** — `run-tests`, `check-executables-allow-sync`, `apm-audit-ci`, `check-apm-agents-valid`, `apm-pack-check-clean`, `check-vale-style-sync`, `check-scope-walkup-sync`, `check-release-needed`, `validate-marketplace` — plus the 2 pre-commit `meta` hooks that also run at this stage, so 11 are reported at pre-push. `validate-marketplace` was kept: the root `marketplace:` block in `apm.yml` and the root `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` + `plugin.json` stay, because apm's own marketplace consumers read that same catalogue and `<name>@holocron` short names depend on it.
+> **Corrected (2026-09-14):** two of the six named targets no longer exist — `validate-plugins` and `check-plugin-content-sync` were deleted in commit `718c79a` (finding 7, ADR-0024). Actual state today: **9 repo-authored pre-push hooks** — `run-tests`, `check-executables-allow-sync`, `apm-audit-ci`, `check-apm-agents-valid`, `apm-pack-check-clean`, `check-vale-style-sync`, `check-scope-walkup-sync`, `check-release-needed`, `validate-marketplace` — plus the 2 pre-commit `meta` hooks that also run at this stage, so 11 are reported at pre-push. `validate-marketplace` was kept: the root `marketplace:` block in `apm.yml` and the root `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` stay, because apm's own marketplace consumers read that same catalogue and `<name>@holocron` short names depend on it. (That manifest is the only tracked file under `.claude-plugin/` — `git ls-files .claude-plugin` returns it alone. The sibling `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` is a local `apm pack` byproduct, has never been tracked on any branch, and is ignored at `.gitignore:59`; it was not "kept", because it was never there.)
 
 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.
 
@@ -188,8 +201,11 @@ Not covered by the area audits above; found on a final sweep of the root config
 
 36. **The release-tag mechanism guards an external contract with no known consumer.** `.pre-commit-hooks.yaml` exports three hooks for other repos to pin by `rev: <tag>`. `check-release-needed` (242 lines + 442 test), `test-vale-hooks-consumer` (270 lines), ADR-0014, and three tags exist to serve that. If no other repo pins these hooks today, the whole mechanism can be deferred until one does. Effort S.
 
-37. **Two `.mcp.json` files declare an Obsidian vault server over `docs/`** (root and `plugins/bin/`; the other five plugin `.mcp.json` files are empty stubs), while `AGENTS.md` forbids using an external memory system for this repo. If the Obsidian tools are unused, drop both and the `reinject_mcp_servers` explanation in the bin README; the bin `plugin.json` pair regenerates. Effort S.
+37. [x] ~~**Two `.mcp.json` files declare an Obsidian vault server over `docs/`** (root and `plugins/bin/`; the other five plugin `.mcp.json` files are empty stubs), while `AGENTS.md` forbids using an external memory system for this repo. If the Obsidian tools are unused, drop both and the `reinject_mcp_servers` explanation in the bin README; the bin `plugin.json` pair regenerates. Effort S.~~
     > **Not proceeding (2026-09-13):** premise doesn't hold. The server exposes the repo's own git-tracked `docs/` folder — not an external/off-repo store — so it isn't the "external memory system" AGENTS.md's rule targets. It was deliberately added and versioned (3 commits), is documented as current intended behavior in both READMEs, and ADR-0018 uses it as its only concrete worked example of apm's MCP-dependency propagation mechanism actually working. No skill invokes the Obsidian tools as a workflow step, but that alone doesn't make the config dead. No changes made; recommend a human confirm whether the vault tooling is still wanted before removing it.
+    > **Confirmed and done (2026-09-14):** the human confirmed the vault tooling is not wanted — remove it entirely. All seven `.mcp.json` files deleted (the six plugin-root files and the repo-root one), and the repo-root path added to `.gitignore` so a local `apm` run cannot recreate it as tracked content. The bin README's `reinject_mcp_servers` explanation goes with it; the `plugin.json` pair the finding expected to regenerate no longer exists (deleted in `718c79a`, finding 7).
+    >
+    > What made this urgent is the substantive discovery, not the tidying: **deleting the per-plugin `plugin.json` manifests in `718c79a` had already broken MCP propagation silently.** `apm_cli/deps/plugin_parser.py` maps a plugin-root `.mcp.json` → `.apm/.mcp.json`, and that code path runs only for *marketplace* plugins — with no manifest, apm never reads the file. `plugins/bin/apm.yml` declares `dependencies.mcp: []`, so the supported mechanism was never used either. Proved on ref-pinned consumer clones: at the parent commit a consumer gets an `obsidian` server, at HEAD it gets none, and on upgrade apm prints `Removed stale MCP server 'obsidian' from .mcp.json` — which would in time have stripped the server from this repo's own tracked `.mcp.json` once the lock re-resolved. Deleting the files makes the intent match the behaviour instead of leaving a config that silently does nothing.
 
 38. [x] ~~**`pc-author` / `pc-run` (689 lines) carry generic pre-commit documentation.** `hooks-by-language.md` (128 lines) and `failure-patterns.md` (133) restate pre-commit.com. Keep the skills, trim to the house-specific rules. Effort S.~~
     > **Corrected then done (2026-09-13):** see commit `a622200` on `docs/simplification-audit`. Independent re-verification found the 689-line figure overstated (actual combined size 598 lines) and the realistic cut smaller than a rewrite (~60-85 lines, concentrated in the two named reference files, not the SKILL.md files or the four short flow files, which are house-specific gates rather than restatement). Landed within that range: `hooks-by-language.md` 128 → 92 lines (collapsed six per-language tables repeating the same repo/rev/rationale into one shared-repo table plus a small other-repos table); `failure-patterns.md` 133 → 109 lines (removed generic SSH/proxy and shellcheck SC-code restatement, compressed generic schema-error bullets). Kept verbatim: both "Unverified — not in research corpus" flags, the rev-freshness caveat, the `rtk git add -u`/`rtk git commit` fix (ADR-0023), and the `pre-commit install -f` warning. Combined cut: 60 lines. Flat mirror regenerated and verified byte-identical.
@@ -205,14 +221,15 @@ Findings 9, 10, 11, and 12 are coupled through the provenance validator and the
 ## 8. Questions to settle before starting
 
 - [x] ~~**Native Claude Code marketplace install vs apm-only.** The flat mirror, `check-plugin-content-sync`, and ADR-0017 exist only for native `claude plugin install`. If apm install is the only supported path, the mirror and its 2,100 lines of tooling go away. Which install paths must work for consumers?~~
-  > **Answered (2026-09-14):** apm-only. See ADR-0024 (`docs/adr/0024-apm-is-the-only-supported-install-path.md`) and commit `718c79a` on `docs/simplification-audit`. Native `claude plugin install` support is dropped; the flat mirror, the twelve per-plugin manifests, `sync-plugin-content.sh`, its test suite, `lib/marketplace-plugins.sh`, and the `check-plugin-content-sync` and `validate-plugins` hooks are all deleted (245 files changed, −22,602 lines). ADR-0017 carries a superseded banner. Kept deliberately: the root `marketplace:` block and root `.claude-plugin/` manifests, which apm's own consumers read. This answer is what voided finding 7's recommendation and closed §3's `check-plugin-content-sync` target.
+  > **Answered (2026-09-14):** apm-only. See ADR-0024 (`docs/adr/0024-apm-is-the-only-supported-install-path.md`) and commit `718c79a` on `docs/simplification-audit`. Native `claude plugin install` support is dropped; the flat mirror, the twelve per-plugin manifests, `sync-plugin-content.sh`, its test suite, `lib/marketplace-plugins.sh`, and the `check-plugin-content-sync` and `validate-plugins` hooks are all deleted (245 files changed, −22,602 lines). ADR-0017 carries a superseded banner. Kept deliberately: the root `marketplace:` block and the root `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`, which apm's own consumers read. (`marketplace.json` is the only tracked file under `.claude-plugin/`; the root `plugin.json` beside it is untracked local `apm pack` output, ignored at `.gitignore:59`.) This answer is what voided finding 7's recommendation and closed §3's `check-plugin-content-sync` target.
 - **Copilot CLI legacy path.** Is `.github/plugin/marketplace.json` still read by any Copilot version you target? If not, finding 2c is a pure delete.
 - **Provenance chain.** Is "which upstream informed this file" a requirement you still want, or was it a governance experiment? Finding 11 hinges on this.
 - **ADR-0012 (three core skills) and the one-script-per-skill install constraint.** The merges in 14, 15, and 24 need the first revisited and are the only way around the second. Are you open to superseding ADR-0012?
 - **Granularity of git/gitea skills.** One `git` skill vs seven trades routing precision for size. Is one broad description acceptable?
 - **Auto-update at session start.** Do you want the install refreshed from the remote every time a session opens (finding 34), or is a manual `apm update` acceptable?
 - **External hook consumers.** Does any other repo pin this repo's `.pre-commit-hooks.yaml` by tag today? If not, finding 36 defers the release mechanism entirely.
-- **Obsidian MCP.** Are the Obsidian tools over `docs/` used by anyone? If not, finding 37 is a pure delete.
+- [x] ~~**Obsidian MCP.** Are the Obsidian tools over `docs/` used by anyone? If not, finding 37 is a pure delete.~~
+  > **Answered (2026-09-14):** not used — remove entirely. All seven `.mcp.json` files are deleted and the repo-root path is gitignored; see finding 37, which also records the functional regression this uncovered (since `718c79a` deleted the per-plugin manifests, apm no longer propagated the server to consumers at all).
 
 ## 9. Carried forward from the apm-only decision (2026-09-14)
 
@@ -221,8 +238,10 @@ Recorded here so they are not rediscovered as defects. All follow from commit `7
 **Two accepted residuals.**
 
 - **Native install still half-works, and cannot be prevented.** apm reuses Claude's catalogue format by design, so a Claude Code user can still register holocron natively and will install six plugins containing zero skills. Accepted, not overlooked: no schema change closes this, because the format that makes it possible is the format apm's own consumers need.
-- **Consumers now receive test fixtures.** apm installs from `.apm/`, which carries the `tests/` directories the mirror used to strip, so 17 `.bats` fixture files across 6 skills now ship. Suppressing them means switching all six `apm.yml` files from `includes: auto` to explicit lists, where a wrong list silently drops content — worse failure mode than the noise. Deferred deliberately.
+- **Consumers now receive test fixtures.** apm installs from `.apm/`, which carries the `tests/` directories the mirror used to strip, so a consumer installing from this branch receives **10 `.bats` files across 6 skills**, plus those skills' 6 `tests/README.md` files — 16 files. (Repo-wide, 17 tracked paths contain `/tests/`: the 10 `.bats` and 7 `README.md`, one of which is a template asset under `skill-author/assets/templates/tests/` and is not a test fixture.) This is what consumers *receive*, not what this checkout shows: `.claude/skills/` here currently holds zero `.bats` files, because that deployed tree is stale and predates this branch. The mechanism was confirmed empirically on a ref-pinned consumer clone — the 16 files are absent at the parent commit and present at HEAD. Suppressing them means switching all six `apm.yml` files from `includes: auto` to explicit lists, where a wrong list silently drops content — worse failure mode than the noise. Deferred deliberately.
 
 **Negative result — do not re-litigate.** Deleting native install does *not* relax the self-containment constraint. `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/skill-author/references/deployment-modes.md`, sourced from the agentskills.io spec, states it independently for APM package mode: the spec defines no cross-skill sharing. So findings 14 and 15 still require *merging* skills; sharing one file between two skills remains impossible, and §8's "one-script-per-skill install constraint" bullet is unchanged by this decision.
 
-**Latent regression.** ADR-0017's `check_apm_symlinks()` was the only thing reporting that apm's bundle exporter silently drops symlinks under `.apm/`. It is gone. No symlinks exist under any `.apm/` today, so this is latent rather than live — but the next symlink added there will be dropped from the install with no error.
+**Accepted gap — symlinks under `.apm/`.** ADR-0017's `check_apm_symlinks()` was the only thing reporting that symlinks under `.apm/` do not survive to a consumer. It is gone, and no replacement guard is being added — the human decided to accept the gap.
+
+The mechanism is not the bundle exporter, as ADR-0017 assumed; it is the **install** path, and it has since been verified. `apm_cli/security/gate.py`'s `ignore_non_content()` is a `shutil.copytree` ignore callback whose docstring says "Excludes symlinks (security)"; it is used at `apm_cli/integration/skill_integrator.py:424`, `:791` and `:1152`. Materialization into `apm_modules/` dereferences first, so symlinked content survives *there* and is dropped when skills are deployed out of it. ADR-0024 flagged the prediction as unverified; it holds, with that corrected attribution. No symlinks exist under any `.apm/` today, so nothing is broken now — but the next one added there will silently not reach consumers, and nothing will say so.

docs/adr/0001-skills-in-agents-dir.md

@@ -5,9 +5,10 @@ as this repo's authoring source of truth) and, for plugin-scope agent files spec
 ADR-0016 (plugin-scope `.apm/agents/*.agent.md` drops provider-specific fields). Since issue
 #90's conversion executed, plugin content is authored under `plugins/<name>/apm.yml` +
 `.apm/{skills,agents,hooks}/` — not the flat `skills/`/`agents/` layout this ADR describes —
-and `.claude-plugin/plugin.json`/`.github/plugin/plugin.json` are compiled output of `apm pack`,
-not hand-authored. This ADR's content is kept below as the historical record of the
-pre-APM decision; it is no longer the current model.
+and `.claude-plugin/plugin.json`/`.github/plugin/plugin.json` were compiled output of `apm pack`,
+not hand-authored — and as of ADR-0024 (2026-09-14) both are deleted, along with native
+`claude plugin install` support; `apm install` is the only route. This ADR's content is kept
+below as the historical record of the pre-APM decision; it is no longer the current model.
 
 ---
 

docs/adr/0006-plugin-version-parity.md

@@ -11,6 +11,11 @@ divergence is no longer possible by construction. `plugin-author`, the skill tha
 invariant, is deleted per ADR-0015 rather than adapted. Kept below as the historical record of
 the pre-APM decision.
 
+**Fully void as of ADR-0024 (2026-09-14).** Both manifests are now deleted outright, so the two
+files this ADR was about no longer exist in any form, compiled or hand-authored. `apm.yml`'s
+`version:` is the only version field a plugin has. This ADR states no patch-bump rule and never
+did — ADR-0015 retired that rule explicitly; do not cite this ADR as the source of one.
+
 ---
 
 Each plugin has two manifests: `plugin.json` (Copilot CLI) and `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` (Claude Code). Both tools support a `version` field. Prior to this decision, only the CC manifest carried `version`; the Copilot manifest omitted it.

docs/adr/0011-gitea-skill-deep-modules.md

@@ -67,6 +67,14 @@ than being wired into the plugin manifest. This means the gitea plugin is not ye
 standalone via `claude plugin install gitea@holocron` without manual MCP setup. A follow-up Gitea
 issue tracks closing this gap.
 
+**Correction (2026-09-14):** this gap is now closed by removal rather than by wiring. ADR-0024
+made apm the only supported install path, so `claude plugin install gitea@holocron` is no longer
+a route this repo supports, and the per-plugin manifests it needed are gone. Because apm reads a
+plugin-root `.mcp.json` only on the marketplace-plugin code path, that file became unreadable;
+every `plugins/*/.mcp.json` was deleted, including this one. A plugin that needs an MCP server
+declares it in `dependencies.mcp` in its `apm.yml` — the supported mechanism, which this repo has
+never used. The follow-up issue this paragraph anticipates is moot.
+
 **Research backfill.** The existing research docs
 (`plugins/gitea/docs/research/docs/gitea/`) are 100% code-derived from gitea-mcp source with zero
 external/best-practice content (the original docs.gitea.com fetch timed out and was never

docs/adr/0013-vale-harness-scope-and-rule-sources.md

@@ -22,8 +22,10 @@ spec-governed content, and `plugin.json` is JSON, not prose Vale can meaningfull
 
 **Rule categories are prose-pattern-matchable only.** Structural, schema, and security concerns
 stay out of this Vale-based harness because this repo already has dedicated tools for them:
-`skill-frontmatter` (required frontmatter fields), `validate-plugins`/`validate-marketplace`
+`skill-frontmatter` (required frontmatter fields), `validate-marketplace`
 (`claude plugin validate --strict`, schema), and `gitleaks`/`detect-private-key` (secrets).
+(ADR-0024 removed the companion `validate-plugins` gate along with the per-plugin manifests it
+checked; the argument here is unaffected.)
 Duplicating those concerns as Vale rules would fight tools that already own them better.
 
 **Governance docs are excluded as a rule source.** `docs/research/governance_principles/CONTROLS.md`

docs/adr/0014-vale-prefilter-ships-from-the-plugin.md

@@ -115,6 +115,9 @@ doesn't wonder if it was overlooked.
 - `plugins/kyberforge`'s `plugin.json` and `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` both patch-bump for every
   shipped content change (per ADR-0006's version-parity invariant): `1.2.5` for the relocation
   itself, `1.2.6` for the self-locating `vale-wrap.sh` that followed.
+  **Amended 2026-09-14 (ADR-0024):** a record of what was done then, not current practice. Both
+  manifests are deleted and `apm.yml`'s `version:` is a plugin's only version field; ADR-0015
+  retired the parity/patch-bump rule this bullet invokes.
 - **`.pre-commit-hooks.yaml` entries are a bare script path and nothing else — a constraint, not a
   house style, and it binds every future hook here, not just the Vale two.** Since pre-commit
   rewrites only `entry[0]` into the hook-repo clone, no argument token in any entry can reference

docs/adr/0015-apm-replaces-plugin-marketplace-authoring.md

@@ -180,4 +180,7 @@ correction) sorted what they document into three buckets:
   marketplace. The manifest-compilation deliverable this ADR describes was genuinely complete;
   runtime discoverability was not. Fixed in ADR-0017 (a second, compiled flat-directory content
   mirror at each plugin root, generated by `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh`) — see that ADR for
-  the root cause and the fix.
+  the root cause and the fix. **Superseded 2026-09-14:** ADR-0024 deleted that mirror and its
+  generator along with native `claude plugin install` support. The discoverability gap this
+  paragraph describes is therefore no longer bridged — it is no longer a gap this repo has, because
+  apm is now the only supported install path and apm reads `.apm/` directly.

docs/adr/0018-repo-consumes-its-own-plugins-through-apm.md

@@ -5,6 +5,16 @@ authored `.apm/` tree discoverable by hosts that install natively. Both are abou
 marketplace. This ADR is about consuming it: how the plugins get onto the machine this repo is
 worked on.
 
+**Correction (2026-09-14): the flat content mirror named above no longer exists.** ADR-0017 is
+superseded by ADR-0024, and commit `718c79a` deleted the mirror
+(`plugins/<name>/{skills,agents,hooks}/`) along with its generator, its test suite and its pre-push
+gate; native `claude plugin install` is no longer a supported path, so there are no longer "hosts
+that install natively" for it to serve. Nothing this ADR decides depends on the mirror — it appears
+here only as the other half of "producing the marketplace", and once more under "Install output is
+gitignored" below, where the two copies of plugin content ADR-0017 governed are now one, `.apm/`
+itself, and committing the deployed skills would make a second rather than a third. Read both
+mentions as historical.
+
 **Status: executed (2026-08-14).** All six packages are installed into `/root/ai-development` by
 `apm install`; the six native project-scope installs (`claude plugin uninstall <name>@holocron
 --scope project`) are gone and `.claude/settings.json`'s `enabledPlugins` block is empty.
@@ -121,6 +131,19 @@ unprompted. The `gitea` and `context7` servers were never plugin-provided — th
 apm's "contributed no entries to claude settings; skipped" warning on `kyberforge` and `lint` is
 accurate and harmless.
 
+**Correction (2026-09-14): the MCP propagation above stopped operating, and the files it read are
+deleted.** It ran on one code path only — `apm_cli/deps/plugin_parser.py` maps a plugin-root
+`.mcp.json` onto `.apm/.mcp.json` for packages apm treats as *marketplace plugins*. Commit
+`718c79a` (ADR-0024) deleted every `plugins/*/.claude-plugin/plugin.json` and
+`plugins/*/.github/plugin/plugin.json`, so each package is now a plain apm package and that path no
+longer runs. The supported declaration was never in use either: `plugins/bin/apm.yml` has
+`dependencies.mcp: []`. That left the six plugin-root `.mcp.json` files dead config — five of them
+empty stubs, only `plugins/bin`'s carrying the `obsidian` server — and all six are now deleted along
+with the server itself, which is not wanted. The repo-root `.mcp.json` was apm's own generated
+output that happened to be tracked; it is deleted and gitignored, on the same reasoning as
+`.claude/skills/`. The rest of this paragraph is unaffected: `gitea` and `context7` were never
+plugin-provided, and the hooks claim never depended on any of this.
+
 **A `.apm/` edit now needs a round trip.** The dependency resolves from the remote, so an edit is
 invisible to the running session until it is pushed and the install is refreshed. Under the native
 install with `autoUpdate` the shape was the same; it was more noticeable here at first because the

docs/adr/0019-session-start-hook-keeps-the-apm-install-current.md

@@ -105,6 +105,15 @@ resolves to the mirror, where the script does not exist — verified, apm report
 `plugins/kyberforge/hooks/` either: that directory is `rm -rf`'d by every content sync (ADR-0017).
 A test pins the reference.
 
+> **Amendment (2026-09-14) — the mirror half of that reasoning is gone; the conclusion is not.**
+> ADR-0024 deleted the flat mirror and `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh`, so neither the `apm pack`
+> mirror-filtering behaviour nor the `rm -rf` content sync described above still happens. The
+> reference must stay exactly as written, for the reason that survives independently: `.apm/` is the
+> sole hand-edited authoring source (ADR-0015), it is what ships in the installed package root, and
+> `plugins/kyberforge/hooks/` no longer exists at all — so `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/...` still
+> names a path with nothing at it, now because the directory is gone rather than because a sync
+> emptied it. `tests/test-apm-current-hook.sh` still pins the literal string.
+
 **Session startup gets slower when the install is stale.** Measured: ~0.7 s for the `apm outdated`
 check when everything is current, ~10.4 s when six packages are behind and the refresh runs. The
 hook declares `timeout: 380` to cover a cold multi-package fetch. That number is not free-standing:

docs/adr/0024-apm-is-the-only-supported-install-path.md

@@ -28,12 +28,15 @@ What that audience costs is measurable:
 |---|---|
 | Tracked mirror files under `plugins/*/{skills,agents,hooks}/` | 213 files, ~20,000 lines |
 | `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh` | 813 lines |
-| `tests/test-sync-plugin-content.sh` | 1,291 lines, 92 cases, ~83 seconds |
+| `tests/test-sync-plugin-content.sh` | 1,289 lines, 92 cases, ~83 s |
 | `scripts/lib/marketplace-plugins.sh` | helper, used only by the above |
-| `check-plugin-content-sync` pre-push hook | ~5 seconds per push |
+| `check-plugin-content-sync` pre-push hook | ~4.5 s per push |
+| `validate-plugins` pre-push hook | ~4.9 s per push (6 × `claude plugin validate --strict`) |
 
-Roughly 22,000 lines of tracked content and tooling, and about 88 seconds on every push. The test
-alone is close to 30% of `run-tests`' wall time — the single largest item in it.
+Roughly 22,000 lines of tracked content and tooling, and about 92 seconds on every push (83 + 4.5 +
+4.9; the two hook timings are the 2026-09-10 baseline measurements recorded in
+`SIMPLIFICATION-AUDIT.md`, not re-measured here). The test alone is close to 30% of `run-tests`'
+wall time — the single largest item in it.
 
 **The native path's automated gate does not gate anything.** ADR-0017 cites
 `claude plugin validate --strict` passing on all six plugins as one of two verifications. That
@@ -50,8 +53,13 @@ not that the mirror works.
 cheap rather than a trade. apm's skills convergence deploys skills to `.agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md`,
 the shared path read by Copilot, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, OpenCode and Windsurf, with Claude Code as
 the special case at `.claude/skills/`. The mirror served two hosts (Claude Code and Copilot, the
-latter only ever partially — see ADR-0017's own `hooks` amendment). apm serves seven. A consumer who
-installs holocron through apm gets strictly more than one who installed it natively.
+latter only ever partially — see ADR-0017's own `hooks` amendment). apm serves eleven through those
+two roots: ten targets resolve to `.agents/skills/` — the six named above plus `agent-skills`,
+`antigravity`, `hermes` and `openclaw`, which are rooted there natively rather than by an explicit
+`deploy_root` — and `claude` is the eleventh at `.claude/skills/`. Four further targets (`kiro`,
+`grok-build`, `grok-cloud`, `copilot-cowork`) deploy skills under roots of their own, for fifteen in
+total; counted from `apm_cli/integration/targets.py` this session. A consumer who installs holocron
+through apm gets strictly more than one who installed it natively.
 
 **Verified empirically, not reasoned about.** In a scratch clone with the mirror and the six
 per-plugin manifest pairs deleted:
@@ -81,6 +89,11 @@ load-bearing for apm resolution; they were load-bearing only for the native inst
   the six per-plugin manifest pairs (`.claude-plugin/plugin.json`, `.github/plugin/plugin.json`).
 - Delete `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh`, `tests/test-sync-plugin-content.sh`,
   `scripts/lib/marketplace-plugins.sh`, and the `check-plugin-content-sync` pre-push hook.
+- Delete the `validate-plugins` pre-push hook (`claude plugin validate --strict` over every plugin
+  directory). It is removed on the evidence above — it reads manifests only, so with the per-plugin
+  manifest pairs gone it has nothing left to read, and even while they existed it could not detect
+  the empty-content defect. `validate-marketplace`, which validates the one manifest this repo still
+  ships, is **kept**.
 - **Keep** the root `marketplace:` block in `apm.yml` and the compiled
   `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`. apm's own marketplace consumers read that same file; removing
   it would stop holocron being an apm marketplace at all.
@@ -92,7 +105,7 @@ content is what ends native support; keeping the catalogue is what preserves apm
 
 ## Considered options
 
-**Status quo — keep mirroring on every branch (rejected).** Pays ~22,000 tracked lines and ~88
+**Status quo — keep mirroring on every branch (rejected).** Pays ~22,000 tracked lines and ~92
 seconds per push for a path with no users and no working gate. It is not free in author attention
 either: ADR-0017 accrued four amendments in two days, every one of them about a detail of the
 mirroring mechanism rather than about the content being mirrored.
@@ -106,7 +119,7 @@ exact shape: the `mattpocock-skills` entry removed from root `apm.yml` on 2026-0
 
 Rejected on three grounds, stacking:
 
-1. It keeps the 813-line script and the 1,291-line test alive in full. It reduces how often they
+1. It keeps the 813-line script and the 1,289-line test alive in full. It reduces how often they
    run, not how much there is to maintain — and the maintenance, not the runtime, is what ADR-0017's
    amendment history shows to be the real cost.
 2. It requires per-package tagging discipline this repo does not practise. `git tag` lists
@@ -121,11 +134,20 @@ Rejected on three grounds, stacking:
 
 **Also delete the marketplace catalogue (proposed, then rejected on evidence).** The initial shape
 of this decision deleted `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` along with everything else, on the
-reasoning that it is a Claude Code artifact. That is wrong. `apm marketplace add` reads
-`.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` — falling back to `.github/plugin/marketplace.json`, which this
-repo already deleted — and that read is what makes holocron an apm marketplace and what gives
-consumers the `<name>@holocron` short-name form. Deleting it would have broken apm consumers in
-order to remove a file whose format Claude Code merely happens to share.
+reasoning that it is a Claude Code artifact. That is wrong. `apm marketplace add` probes
+`_MARKETPLACE_PATHS` in `apm_cli/marketplace/client.py` — `marketplace.json`, then
+`.github/plugin/marketplace.json`, then `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`, first hit wins — and that
+read is what makes holocron an apm marketplace and what gives consumers the `<name>@holocron`
+short-name form. Deleting it would have broken apm consumers in order to remove a file whose format
+Claude Code merely happens to share.
+
+Note the probe order: `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` is the **last** resort, not the first, and
+the `.github/plugin/marketplace.json` this repo deleted earlier outranked it. That deletion was
+still inconsequential, but for a reason that has to be established rather than assumed — dropping a
+higher-priority candidate only demotes resolution to the next one, and a reviewer reproduced
+`apm marketplace add` against the post-deletion tree: it registered, found all 6 plugins, and
+resolved via `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`. What would break is deleting the last candidate,
+which is exactly what this option proposed.
 
 **Declare holocron an apm marketplace as a new step (moot).** Considered as a follow-on to the
 above, and found to be already done: the `marketplace:` block in root `apm.yml` *is* the
@@ -145,7 +167,7 @@ README note is the only available mitigation, and a note is not a gate.
 
 **2. Consumers now receive dev-fixture files.** apm installs from `.apm/`, and `.apm/` contains the
 per-skill `tests/` directories the mirror explicitly stripped (ADR-0017's depth-scoped
-`<category>/<name>/tests` exclusion). 17 `.bats` files across 6 skills therefore now deploy into
+`<category>/<name>/tests` exclusion). 10 `.bats` files across 6 skills therefore now deploy into
 every consumer's skill directories. Suppressing them would mean switching all six `apm.yml` files
 from `includes: auto` to explicit include lists — and an explicit list that is wrong silently drops
 content, which is the same failure class ADR-0017 was written to fix. Trading a cosmetic problem for
@@ -157,9 +179,15 @@ now discoverable in the install output and would otherwise be found and double-r
 they do not belong to — exactly the `apm_modules/` problem ADR-0018 recorded, arriving by a second
 route. Any future script that walks this repo's tree needs both exclusions.
 
-**4. No version bumps.** ADR-0006 patch-bumps a plugin when its shipped content changes. Nothing
-under `.apm/` is touched here; only compiled artifacts are removed. The shipped content is
-byte-identical, so no bump is owed. This also avoids triggering the `executables.allow`
+**4. No version bumps.** There is no standing rule that would require one. The patch-bump-on-content-
+change convention this repo once followed was ADR-0006's, and ADR-0015 explicitly retired it as a
+dual-manifest artifact: "Conventions that existed only because of hand-authored dual manifests
+(ADR-0006's version-parity/patch-bump rule …) are obsolete under `apm.yml`'s single-manifest model
+and were deliberately dropped." ADR-0015 also records that apm "has no native version-bump
+automation at all", so nothing mechanical demands one either. What remains is the substantive test,
+and it is satisfied independently: nothing under `.apm/` is touched here, only compiled artifacts are
+removed, so the content every apm consumer receives is byte-identical before and after. This also
+avoids triggering the `executables.allow`
 `kyberforge#<version>` pin cascade ADR-0019 describes, which would otherwise turn a cleanup into a
 multi-file coordinated edit for no functional gain.
 
@@ -195,14 +223,32 @@ because each was a decision someone spent real effort on:
 - The `hooks/hooks.json` path-correction amendment (2026-08-14) is moot: there is no mirrored hooks
   file to place.
 - The symlink amendment (2026-08-14) is **not** moot, and this is the one real regression.
-  `check_apm_symlinks()` read the `.apm/` source tree directly to report symlinks, because apm's
-  bundle exporter filters them out silently and the resulting content loss is invisible to any
-  mirror-versus-mirror diff. That check dies with the script. Whether `apm install`'s own copy path
-  drops symlinks the same way the bundle exporter does was **not verified this session** — the
-  exporter's `is_file() and not is_symlink()` test is in `apm_cli/bundle/plugin_exporter.py`, a
-  different code path from dependency installation. If it does, symlinked content under `.apm/` is
-  now silently lost with nothing reporting it. No symlink exists under any `.apm/` today, so this is
-  a latent gap rather than an active one, but it should be re-checked before anyone adds one.
+  `check_apm_symlinks()` read the `.apm/` source tree directly to report symlinks, because apm
+  filters them out silently and the resulting content loss is invisible to any mirror-versus-mirror
+  diff. That check dies with the script.
+
+  A previous revision of this ADR left open whether `apm install`'s own copy path drops symlinks the
+  way the bundle exporter does. It does, and the mechanism is now confirmed by reading the installed
+  apm source. Deployment filters them: `ignore_non_content()` in `apm_cli/security/gate.py` is a
+  `shutil.copytree` ignore callback whose docstring states "Excludes symlinks (security)", and
+  `apm_cli/integration/skill_integrator.py` passes it — or the equivalent `_build_copy_ignore()` —
+  to every `copytree` that materialises a skill (`:424`, `:791`, `:1152`), with further per-file
+  `is_symlink()` drops for `bin/` entries and the plugin manifest at `:1671` and `:1696`. None of
+  these log the skip. Materialization into `apm_modules/`, by contrast, **dereferences**: for git
+  sources `deps/github_downloader.py` copies the checkout out with `robust_copytree`/`robust_copy2`
+  and no symlink filter, and for local sources `install/phases/local_content.py`'s
+  `_copy_tree_dereferencing_validated()` resolves each in-package symlink and copies its content as
+  a real file (erroring on dangling, escaping or circular ones). So a symlink under `.apm/` survives
+  into `apm_modules/` as real content and is then silently dropped on deploy — the failure is at the
+  deploy step, not the fetch, which is why it would not show up in a cache inspection.
+
+  **This is accepted, and no replacement guard is added.** No symlink exists under any `.apm/`
+  today, and the mitigations available are worse than the exposure: a standalone repo-side checker
+  would be a new script to maintain for a condition that has never occurred, and it could only warn,
+  since the drop happens inside apm. The operative rule is therefore a convention rather than a
+  gate: do not introduce a symlink under any `plugins/*/.apm/` tree. If one is ever needed, the
+  filtering above is the reason it will not reach consumers, and closing the gap properly means an
+  upstream change in apm, not a local one.
 
 **8. ADR-0017's own exit condition was different from this one, and that is worth noting.** Its
 final consequence anticipated deletion, but conditioned it on an upstream fix: "a future apm release

docs/spec/architecture.md

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ One compiler produces the generated content in the tree:
 
 apm is the only supported install path. A flat `skills/`, `agents/`, `hooks/` mirror used to be compiled to each plugin root so Claude Code's installer could convention-scan it, alongside a per-plugin `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` and `.github/plugin/plugin.json`; both are gone, together with native `claude plugin install` support. apm reads `plugins/<name>/apm.yml` and deploys from `.apm/` directly, and never probed those manifests.
 
-`.apm/` is the sole hand-edited authoring source for plugin content. Hand-authored material that is not an `.apm/` primitive — `README.md`, `docs/`, `bin/`, `sources.md`, `.mcp.json`, and per-plugin extras such as `plugins/gitea/references/` and `plugins/bin/evals/` — lives at the plugin **root**. A hand-edit to the generated `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` is reported as drift by the `apm-pack-check-clean` pre-push hook.
+`.apm/` is the sole hand-edited authoring source for plugin content. Hand-authored material that is not an `.apm/` primitive — `README.md`, `docs/`, `bin/`, `sources.md`, and per-plugin extras such as `plugins/gitea/references/` and `plugins/bin/evals/` — lives at the plugin **root**. A hand-edit to the generated `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` is reported as drift by the `apm-pack-check-clean` pre-push hook.
 
 Plugin-root documentation belongs in `docs/`. That convention is older than the mirror's removal: a hand-written `README.md` placed inside a mirrored directory used to be destroyed by the next sync with no drift report, which cost the repo one document — `plugins/kyberforge/hooks/README.md`, since restored to `plugins/kyberforge/docs/hooks.md`.
 

docs/spec/gates.md

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ a PR merged through Gitea's merge button, where no local push happens at all.
 
 ## The pre-push gate
 
-Ten hooks, grouped below by what they guard rather than by the order `.pre-commit-config.yaml` declares them in.
+Nine hooks, grouped below by what they guard rather than by the order `.pre-commit-config.yaml` declares them in.
 
 **Core checks**
 
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ drift in generated text.
 | `apm-audit-ci` | `apm audit --ci` once per manifest — root plus each of the six plugin packages |
 | `apm-pack-check-clean` | `apm pack --check-versions --check-clean --dry-run` — the compiled marketplace still matches what `apm.yml` + `.apm/` would generate, and per-package versions agree with the `per_package` strategy |
 
-**Host validators** (both need the `claude` CLI on PATH)
+**Host validators** (needs the `claude` CLI on PATH)
 
 | Hook | Guards |
 |---|---|
@@ -116,9 +116,9 @@ git ls-files | grep -E '^plugins/[^/]+/\.apm/skills/.*SKILL\.md$' \
 ```
 
 The first count equals the number of skill directories (`ls -d plugins/*/.apm/skills/*/ | wc -l`);
-the second returns exactly the template. The remaining unmatched `SKILL.md` files in the tree are the
-generated flat mirror, which is excluded by the `.apm/` segment on purpose — a mirror edit is drift,
-not an authoring change.
+the second returns exactly the template. Every other tracked `SKILL.md` in the tree is one of the
+four vendored `plugins/kyberforge/docs/research/examples/skill-write/` corpus files, excluded by the
+`.apm/skills/` segment — the first of the two deliberate exclusions above.
 
 ### Two independent gate families, neither replaced the other
 
@@ -613,9 +613,11 @@ Two prefilter hooks, with `.apm/`-scoped `files:` patterns:
 | `vale-audit-prefilter-skill` | `^plugins/[^/]+/\.apm/skills/[^/]+/SKILL\.md$` |
 | `vale-audit-prefilter-agent` | `^plugins/[^/]+/\.apm/agents/[^/]+\.agent\.md$` |
 
-Only the **authoring source** triggers them. A `SKILL.md` in the generated flat mirror matches
-neither pattern, so prose findings surface only when you edit the file you are supposed to be
-editing. Without the binary the hooks fail with a bare "command not found" and no install pointer.
+Only the **authoring source** triggers them. The `skill-author` scaffold template and the four
+vendored research-corpus `SKILL.md` files match neither pattern (see
+[Skill and agent context gates](#skill-and-agent-context-gates-adr-0020), which uses the same scope
+for `skill-size-check`), so prose findings surface only when you edit a file this repo actually
+authors. Without the binary the hooks fail with a bare "command not found" and no install pointer.
 
 **Two hooks, not one combined hook.** Both manifests split the prefilter in two precisely because a
 single hook can point at only one copy, and that copy would silently 0-file-skip the other file
@@ -864,10 +866,9 @@ does not deploy and the replay does not compare; shared enforcement belongs in
 
 ### Why it is excluded from `pretty-format-json`
 
-It is the **sixth and last alternation** in that hook's `exclude:` pattern, and the only one there
-for a reason other than "generated manifest". Mind which number you are quoting: **six alternations,
-expanding to sixteen real files** — 3 root marketplace manifests, 2 per plugin × 6 plugins, plus this
-one.
+It is the **second and last alternation** in that hook's `exclude:` pattern, and the only one there
+for a reason other than "generated manifest". Mind which number you are quoting: **two alternations,
+expanding to two real files** — `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`, plus this one.
 
 `pretty-format-json --autofix` sorts object keys unless `--no-sort-keys` is passed, while apm's hook
 integrator emits insertion order (`matcher` before `hooks`, `type` before `command`). Leaving the
@@ -895,10 +896,13 @@ this remote before any network call.
   enforcement table (deterministic vs. auditor judgment), and every rejected alternative
 - `docs/adr/0019-session-start-hook-keeps-the-apm-install-current.md` — the `SessionStart` hook, the
   executable-trust gate, and the version-pinned allow key
-- `docs/adr/0017-plugin-content-mirror-bridges-apm-to-host-discovery.md`,
-  `docs/adr/0015-apm-replaces-plugin-marketplace-authoring.md`,
-  `docs/adr/0014-vale-prefilter-ships-from-the-plugin.md` — plugin content sync, apm-generated
-  manifests, committed Vale styles
+- `docs/adr/0024-apm-is-the-only-supported-install-path.md` — apm as the sole install path, and the
+  deletion of the flat content mirror and its `check-plugin-content-sync` gate. It supersedes
+  `docs/adr/0017-plugin-content-mirror-bridges-apm-to-host-discovery.md` (**superseded** — plugin
+  content sync, kept as the historical record)
+- `docs/adr/0015-apm-replaces-plugin-marketplace-authoring.md`,
+  `docs/adr/0014-vale-prefilter-ships-from-the-plugin.md` — apm-generated manifests, committed Vale
+  styles
 - `docs/spec/architecture.md` — directory structure, install pipeline, what is generated and what is
   hand-authored
 - `.pre-commit-config.yaml` — the hooks themselves, with inline rationale comments

plugins/bin/.mcp.json

@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "mcpServers": {
-    "obsidian": {
-      "args": [
-        "@bitbonsai/mcpvault@0.15.0",
-        "docs/"
-      ],
-      "command": "npx",
-      "type": "stdio"
-    }
-  }
-}

plugins/bin/README.md

@@ -4,40 +4,32 @@ A place for things to be binned
 
 ## Install
 
-**Claude Code:**
+apm is the only supported install path (ADR-0024). Declare this package in the consuming project's `apm.yml`:
 
-```bash
-claude plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>
-claude plugin install bin@<marketplace-name>
+```yaml
+dependencies:
+  apm:
+    - git: git@git.dev.rkdr.net:Defame1297/holocron.git
+      path: plugins/bin
 ```
 
-**GitHub Copilot CLI:**
+Then:
 
 ```bash
-copilot plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>
-copilot plugin install bin
+apm install
 ```
 
-**Local (development):**
+The entry above is unpinned and tracks the remote's default branch — add `ref: <tag>` to pin a release. Registering the catalogue instead (`apm marketplace add git@git.dev.rkdr.net:Defame1297/holocron.git --name holocron`) gets you the `bin@holocron` short name, but writes to `~/.apm/marketplaces.json` at user scope; the git+path object needs nothing beyond the manifest.
 
-```bash
-# Claude Code
-claude --plugin-dir ./plugins/bin
-
-# GitHub Copilot CLI
-copilot plugin install ./plugins/bin
-```
+**Native plugin installs do not work.** This package ships no per-plugin manifest and no flat content directories, so a host that installs it natively gets zero skills — and Claude Code raises no error while doing it (ADR-0024).
 
 ## Contents
 
 | Component | Path | Description |
 |---|---|---|
-| Skills | `.apm/skills/` → `skills/` | Slash commands available after install |
-| MCP servers | `.mcp.json` | The `obsidian` server (`npx @bitbonsai/mcpvault@0.15.0 docs/`), hand-authored at the plugin root |
+| Skills | `.apm/skills/` | Slash commands available after install |
 
-`.apm/` is the authoring source; `skills/` is the generated mirror plugin hosts scan (ADR-0017). This plugin ships no agents. It is the only plugin here with a non-empty `.mcp.json`, which is why its compiled manifests are the only ones carrying an `mcpServers` block.
-
-The two compiled manifests get that block by different routes. `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` gets it from apm itself: `build_plugin_manifest`'s Claude branch calls `collect_mcp_servers`, which reads `.mcp.json`, sanitizes it, and inlines the resulting server objects. `.github/plugin/plugin.json` gets nothing from apm — the Copilot branch drops the field — so `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh`'s `reinject_mcp_servers()` puts it back, as the **string `".mcp.json"`** rather than the resolved objects. Copilot's manifest schema types the field as "string or object — MCP server config path or inline definitions", and a path reference cannot carry a credential into a committed manifest. See ADR-0017's `mcpServers` amendment.
+`.apm/` is the authoring source and the only thing apm deploys (ADR-0024). This plugin ships no agents.
 
 ## Author
 

plugins/core/.mcp.json

@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "mcpServers": {}
-}

plugins/core/README.md

@@ -4,37 +4,32 @@ Skills for authoring and auditing a repo's AGENTS.md and the provider adapter fi
 
 ## Install
 
-**Claude Code:**
+apm is the only supported install path (ADR-0024). Declare this package in the consuming project's `apm.yml`:
 
-```bash
-claude plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>
-claude plugin install core@<marketplace-name>
+```yaml
+dependencies:
+  apm:
+    - git: git@git.dev.rkdr.net:Defame1297/holocron.git
+      path: plugins/core
 ```
 
-**GitHub Copilot CLI:**
+Then:
 
 ```bash
-copilot plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>
-copilot plugin install core
+apm install
 ```
 
-**Local (development):**
+The entry above is unpinned and tracks the remote's default branch — add `ref: <tag>` to pin a release. Registering the catalogue instead (`apm marketplace add git@git.dev.rkdr.net:Defame1297/holocron.git --name holocron`) gets you the `core@holocron` short name, but writes to `~/.apm/marketplaces.json` at user scope; the git+path object needs nothing beyond the manifest.
 
-```bash
-# Claude Code
-claude --plugin-dir ./plugins/core
-
-# GitHub Copilot CLI
-copilot plugin install ./plugins/core
-```
+**Native plugin installs do not work.** This package ships no per-plugin manifest and no flat content directories, so a host that installs it natively gets zero skills — and Claude Code raises no error while doing it (ADR-0024).
 
 ## Contents
 
 | Component | Path | Description |
 |---|---|---|
-| Skills | `.apm/skills/` → `skills/` | Slash commands available after install |
+| Skills | `.apm/skills/` | Slash commands available after install |
 
-`.apm/` is the authoring source; `skills/` is the generated mirror plugin hosts scan (ADR-0017).
+`.apm/` is the authoring source and the only thing apm deploys (ADR-0024).
 
 ## Skills
 

plugins/git/.mcp.json

@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "mcpServers": {}
-}

plugins/git/README.md

@@ -4,29 +4,24 @@ Skills and agents for working with a local Git clone over the git wire protocol,
 
 ## Install
 
-**Claude Code:**
+apm is the only supported install path (ADR-0024). Declare this package in the consuming project's `apm.yml`:
 
-```bash
-claude plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>
-claude plugin install git@<marketplace-name>
+```yaml
+dependencies:
+  apm:
+    - git: git@git.dev.rkdr.net:Defame1297/holocron.git
+      path: plugins/git
 ```
 
-**GitHub Copilot CLI:**
+Then:
 
 ```bash
-copilot plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>
-copilot plugin install git
+apm install
 ```
 
-**Local (development):**
+The entry above is unpinned and tracks the remote's default branch — add `ref: <tag>` to pin a release. Registering the catalogue instead (`apm marketplace add git@git.dev.rkdr.net:Defame1297/holocron.git --name holocron`) gets you the `git@holocron` short name, but writes to `~/.apm/marketplaces.json` at user scope; the git+path object needs nothing beyond the manifest.
 
-```bash
-# Claude Code
-claude --plugin-dir ./plugins/git
-
-# GitHub Copilot CLI
-copilot plugin install ./plugins/git
-```
+**Native plugin installs do not work.** This package ships no per-plugin manifest and no flat content directories, so a host that installs it natively gets zero skills and zero agents — and Claude Code raises no error while doing it (ADR-0024).
 
 ## Conventions
 
@@ -38,10 +33,10 @@ Installing this plugin without `rtk`? Every prefixed command is a plain `git` in
 
 | Component | Path | Description |
 |---|---|---|
-| Skills | `.apm/skills/` → `skills/` | `git-commits`, `git-branches`, `git-history`, `git-remotes`, `git-submodules`, `git-workflow`, `git-worktrees`, `pc-author`, `pc-run` |
-| Agents | `.apm/agents/` → `agents/` | `git-orchestrate` |
+| Skills | `.apm/skills/` | `git-commits`, `git-branches`, `git-history`, `git-remotes`, `git-submodules`, `git-workflow`, `git-worktrees`, `pc-author`, `pc-run` |
+| Agents | `.apm/agents/` | `git-orchestrate` |
 
-`.apm/` is the authoring source; `skills/`/`agents/` are the generated mirrors plugin hosts scan (ADR-0017) — edit only under `.apm/`.
+`.apm/` is the authoring source and the only thing apm deploys (ADR-0024).
 
 ## Author
 

plugins/gitea/.mcp.json

@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "mcpServers": {}
-}

plugins/kyberforge/.mcp.json

@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "mcpServers": {}
-}

plugins/kyberforge/README.md

@@ -4,42 +4,36 @@ Skills and agents for creating, maintaining, and managing a Claude Code / Copilo
 
 ## Install
 
-**Claude Code:**
+apm is the only supported install path (ADR-0024). Declare this package in the consuming project's `apm.yml`:
 
-```bash
-claude plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>
-claude plugin install kyberforge@<marketplace-name>
+```yaml
+dependencies:
+  apm:
+    - git: git@git.dev.rkdr.net:Defame1297/holocron.git
+      path: plugins/kyberforge
 ```
 
-**GitHub Copilot CLI:**
+Then:
 
 ```bash
-copilot plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>
-copilot plugin install kyberforge
+apm install
 ```
 
-**Local (development):**
+The entry above is unpinned and tracks the remote's default branch — add `ref: <tag>` to pin a release. Registering the catalogue instead (`apm marketplace add git@git.dev.rkdr.net:Defame1297/holocron.git --name holocron`) gets you the `kyberforge@holocron` short name, but writes to `~/.apm/marketplaces.json` at user scope; the git+path object needs nothing beyond the manifest.
 
-```bash
-# Claude Code
-claude --plugin-dir ./plugins/kyberforge
-
-# GitHub Copilot CLI
-copilot plugin install ./plugins/kyberforge
-```
+**Native plugin installs do not work.** This package ships no per-plugin manifest and no flat content directories, so a host that installs it natively gets zero skills, agents and hooks — and Claude Code raises no error while doing it (ADR-0024).
 
 ## Contents
 
-Authoring source lives in `.apm/`. The `skills/`, `agents/`, and `hooks/hooks.json` paths below are the generated mirror that plugin hosts actually scan — produced by `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh`, never hand-edited (ADR-0017).
+Authoring source lives in `.apm/`; it is the only content source and the only thing `apm install` deploys (ADR-0024).
 
 | Component | Path | Description |
 |---|---|---|
-| Skills | `.apm/skills/` → `skills/` | Slash commands available after install |
-| Agents | `.apm/agents/*.agent.md` → `agents/` | Role-based agents; one vendor-neutral `.agent.md` per agent, copied verbatim to both targets (ADR-0016) |
-| Hooks | `.apm/hooks/` → `hooks/hooks.json` | Event-triggered automation — read by Claude Code only, see below |
-| MCP servers | `.mcp.json` | Model Context Protocol server definitions (hand-authored at the plugin root) |
+| Skills | `.apm/skills/` | Slash commands available after install |
+| Agents | `.apm/agents/*.agent.md` | Role-based agents; one vendor-neutral `.agent.md` per agent (ADR-0016) |
+| Hooks | `.apm/hooks/` | Event-triggered automation — Claude Code only, see below |
 
-**Hooks are Claude Code-only in practice.** Claude Code convention-scans `hooks/hooks.json` at the plugin root, so that file is live. Copilot CLI has no default hooks path — `agents` and `skills` default to `agents/` and `skills/`, but `hooks` defaults to nothing (`docs/research/docs/github-copilot-plugins/configuration.md:47`), so Copilot reads hooks only via an explicit `"hooks": "hooks.json"` pointer in `plugin.json` (`docs/research/docs/github-copilot-plugins/examples.md:49`). apm's manifest compiler strips pointer fields from every manifest it generates, so neither `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` nor `.github/plugin/plugin.json` carries one, and re-injecting it is the option ADR-0017 explicitly rejected. Copilot therefore loads no hooks from this plugin — and did not load them from the old root-level `hooks.json` either. The Copilot half of this row is aspirational, not current behaviour.
+**Hooks are Claude Code-only.** apm merges `.apm/hooks/*.json` into the consuming project's `.claude/settings.json` at install. Copilot CLI has no default hooks path — `agents` and `skills` default to `agents/` and `skills/`, but `hooks` defaults to nothing (`docs/research/docs/github-copilot-plugins/configuration.md:47`), so Copilot reads hooks only via an explicit pointer in a plugin manifest — and since ADR-0024 there is no per-plugin manifest to carry one. Copilot therefore loads no hooks from this plugin. Details, including why a pointer was the wrong fix even when a manifest existed, are in `docs/hooks.md`.
 
 ## Skills
 

plugins/kyberforge/docs/README.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Plugin documentation. Not read automatically by Claude Code or GitHub Copilot CL
 
 | Path | Purpose |
 |------|---------|
-| `hooks.md` | Where this plugin's hooks are authored (`.apm/hooks/`), where they are generated to (`hooks/hooks.json`), and the Claude Code and Copilot CLI schemas |
+| `hooks.md` | Where this plugin's hooks are authored (`.apm/hooks/`), what apm deploys them into (`.claude/settings.json`), and the Claude Code and Copilot CLI schemas |
 
 Everything else under this directory is research material.
 

plugins/kyberforge/docs/hooks.md

@@ -1,23 +1,21 @@
 # Hooks
 
-Reference for this plugin's hook definitions: where to edit them, where they end up, and what the
-host reads.
-
-This document lives in `docs/` rather than next to the hooks it describes. `plugins/kyberforge/hooks/`
-is a **generated mirror** — `scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh` runs `rm -rf` on it before every
-rebuild, so any hand-written file placed there is deleted on the next sync with no drift warning
-(a prior copy of this document was lost exactly that way). See ADR-0017.
+Reference for this plugin's hook definitions: where to edit them, what apm does with them, and what
+the host ends up reading.
 
 ## Where to edit
 
-Author hooks in `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/hooks/*.json`. `apm pack --format plugin` merges every
-file in that directory into a single `hooks.json`, which `sync-plugin-content.sh` copies to
-`plugins/kyberforge/hooks/hooks.json` — the path Claude Code convention-scans. Never edit the
-mirrored file; the `check-plugin-content-sync` pre-push hook reports it as drift.
+Author hooks in `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/hooks/*.json`. `.apm/` is the only content source and
+`apm install` is the only supported install path (ADR-0024) — there is no generated mirror at the
+plugin root and no per-plugin `plugin.json`, so `.apm/hooks/` is both where you edit and what ships.
 
-## Claude Code structure
+apm merges every `*.json` in that directory into a single hook definition and writes the event
+bindings into the consuming project's `.claude/settings.json`; see "Deployed shape" below. Scripts a
+hook invokes live in the same directory, alongside the JSON that references them.
 
-`hooks/hooks.json` is read by Claude Code. Structure:
+## Hook file structure
+
+The shape Claude Code reads, and therefore the shape to author under `.apm/hooks/`:
 
 ```json
 {
@@ -43,7 +41,7 @@ only the per-agent `hooks` field, not the plugin-level set. Treat the five names
 this repo has verified, not as the schema. Check Claude Code's own hooks documentation before wiring
 an event not listed here.
 
-## Referencing a script — use the `.apm/` path, not the mirror
+## Referencing a script — use the `.apm/` path
 
 Use `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}` to reference scripts inside this plugin; the plugin runs from a cache or
 `apm_modules/` path after install, not its original repo location. **Address the script at its
@@ -55,15 +53,9 @@ Use `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}` to reference scripts inside this plugin; the plugin
 
 The obvious-looking `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/check-apm-current.sh` does not work, and fails
 quietly enough to be worth spelling out. apm resolves the placeholder against the installed package
-root, where `hooks/` is the **generated mirror** — and `apm pack` merges only `*.json` out of
-`.apm/hooks/`, dropping every non-JSON file. So the mirror contains `hooks.json` and nothing else.
-apm prints `Hook script not found: .../hooks/check-apm-current.sh` and then deploys the hook anyway,
-pointing at a path with no file behind it.
-
-Nor can the script be hand-placed in `plugins/kyberforge/hooks/` to satisfy that path:
-`sync-plugin-content.sh` runs `rm -rf` on the directory before every rebuild (ADR-0017), so it would
-be deleted on the next sync with no drift warning — the same trap that ate this document's
-predecessor.
+root, and there is no `hooks/` directory there at all — the package's content is `.apm/`. apm prints
+`Hook script not found: .../hooks/check-apm-current.sh` and then deploys the hook anyway, pointing at
+a path with no file behind it.
 
 `tests/test-apm-current-hook.sh` pins the reference so a well-meaning "simplification" back to
 `hooks/` fails the suite rather than silently disabling the hook.
@@ -77,7 +69,9 @@ tracked in a `.claude/apm-hooks.json` sidecar, so an uninstall removes them with
 hand-authored hooks. Both `.claude/hooks/` and the sidecar are gitignored install output.
 
 Note that apm's **executable-trust gate is off** unless the consuming project's `apm.yml` has an
-`executables:` block — without one, package hooks deploy with no prompt. See ADR-0019.
+`executables:` block — without one, package hooks deploy with no prompt. The allow key is
+version-pinned (`kyberforge#<version>`), so a version bump on one side alone stops the hook
+deploying; `check-executables-allow-sync` is the pre-push gate that catches it. See ADR-0019.
 
 ## The SessionStart hook
 
@@ -89,11 +83,11 @@ ADR-0019.
 **Where it looks for the lockfile.** The hook resolves a project directory as `${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}`
 when the host exports it (Claude Code does, for SessionStart hooks) and the current directory
 otherwise, then exits silently unless that directory holds an `apm.lock.yaml` — which is what makes
-it inert for any host that installed this plugin natively rather than through apm. Both `apm`
-invocations run against the same resolved directory. The earlier spelling checked a bare
-`apm.lock.yaml` against the session's cwd, so a session opened in a subdirectory of an
-apm-consuming repo no-opped silently. Keep the cwd fallback: a host that sets no
-`CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR` must still get inert-but-harmless behaviour, not an unset-variable error.
+it inert in any project that does not consume packages through apm. Both `apm` invocations run
+against the same resolved directory. The earlier spelling checked a bare `apm.lock.yaml` against the
+session's cwd, so a session opened in a subdirectory of an apm-consuming repo no-opped silently.
+Keep the cwd fallback: a host that sets no `CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR` must still get inert-but-harmless
+behaviour, not an unset-variable error.
 
 **The `timeout` in `hooks.json` must exceed the script's own budget.** The script spends at most
 `timeout 60 apm outdated` plus `timeout 300 apm update`; the hook entry declares `timeout: 380`, the
@@ -113,74 +107,45 @@ hook.
 
 ## GitHub Copilot CLI
 
-Copilot reads a differently-shaped `hooks.json`: `version: 1` is required, each entry is
-`type: "command"` with separate `bash` and `powershell` scripts, and the lifecycle points are
-lowercase and differently named (`sessionStart`, `sessionEnd`, `userPromptSubmitted`, `preToolUse`,
-`postToolUse`, `errorOccurred`, `agentStop`). See
-`docs/research/docs/github-copilot-plugins/configuration.md`.
+**Copilot loads no hooks from this plugin.** Two independent reasons, either one sufficient:
 
-There is no separate Copilot hooks file at this plugin root, and — as things stand — **Copilot
-resolves to no hooks file at all.** Two corrections to an earlier revision of this document, which
-got both halves of this wrong:
+- **Nothing can point Copilot at a hooks file.** Copilot types `hooks` as a `plugin.json` field of
+  type "string or object" with **no default**
+  (`docs/research/docs/github-copilot-plugins/configuration.md:47`), so there is no convention path
+  for it to scan — it reads hooks only via an explicit pointer. Since ADR-0024 there is no
+  per-plugin Copilot manifest at all, so there is nothing to carry that pointer.
+- **The two ecosystems do not share a hooks format.** Copilot reads a differently-shaped
+  `hooks.json`: `version: 1` is required, each entry is `type: "command"` with separate `bash` and
+  `powershell` scripts, and the lifecycle points are lowercase and differently named (`sessionStart`,
+  `sessionEnd`, `userPromptSubmitted`, `preToolUse`, `postToolUse`, `errorOccurred`, `agentStop`).
+  See `docs/research/docs/github-copilot-plugins/configuration.md`. apm merges `.apm/hooks/*.json`
+  into one definition with no per-target shaping, and that definition is Claude-shaped.
 
-**The deleted root `hooks.json` was not a stale sync artifact.** `plugins/kyberforge/hooks.json` was
-added in `2287ddc` (2026-06-20), the commit that created the plugin, well before
-`scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh` existed; `plugins/lint/hooks.json` arrived the same way in
-`f326df4`. Main's Copilot manifest `plugins/kyberforge/plugin.json` declared `"hooks": "hooks.json"`,
-and `plugins/lint/plugin.json` did the same — these were deliberately pointed-at Copilot hooks files,
-not leftovers. The sync (`38f1ba4`) later took ownership of that path, and ADR-0017's 2026-08-14
-amendment moved the generated file to `hooks/hooks.json` because that, not the plugin root, is the
-path Claude Code convention-scans.
-
-**Only Claude Code resolves to `hooks/hooks.json`.** Claude Code finds it by auto-discovery.
-Copilot does not: `docs/research/docs/github-copilot-plugins/configuration.md:47` types `hooks` as a
-`plugin.json` field of type "string or object" with **no default**, so there is no convention path to
-scan, and `jq 'has("hooks")'` returns `false` for all six `.github/plugin/plugin.json` files that
-`apm pack` emits. With the pointer gone and no auto-discovery to fall back on, the Copilot ecosystem
-sees zero hooks.
-
-The effect looks like the twin of the `mcpServers` gap that ADR-0017's 2026-08-13 amendment
-re-injects for: same "string or object" type, same absence of a default, same outcome of a Copilot
-manifest with no pointer. The *mechanism* differs, and ADR-0017 is explicit about it — `mcpServers`
-is actively stripped by `build_plugin_manifest`, whereas `hooks` "was never in
-`build_plugin_manifest`'s strip list at all"; it is simply never emitted, because `apm.yml` has no
-key that produces one. So this is an absence apm never fills, not a removal to reverse.
-
-## Why no `hooks` pointer is injected
-
-**Decided (2026-08-14, PR #95): the gap stays documented rather than patched.** `sync-plugin-content.sh`
-does *not* re-inject a `hooks` pointer into `.github/plugin/plugin.json`, and a test pins that
-absence. Full reasoning is in ADR-0017's "no `hooks` pointer" amendment; the short version, because
-the one-line fix looks obvious and someone will propose it again:
-
-The `mcpServers` re-injection is safe because `.mcp.json` is **one format both ecosystems read**, so
-the pointer is a true statement about the file whatever it contains. Hooks have no shared format.
-Compare the two structures above: Claude Code wants `PreToolUse` with `matcher` objects; Copilot
-requires `version: 1`, lowercase event names, and per-shell `bash`/`powershell` keys. And apm merges
-`.apm/hooks/*.json` into **exactly one** `hooks.json` with no per-target shaping — the same file
-Claude Code convention-scans. One file, two incompatible readers.
-
-So a pointer would tell Copilot that a Claude-shaped file is Copilot-shaped: an incomplete manifest
-traded for a wrong one. It is not inert even today — `{"hooks": {}}` has no `version: 1`, so the
-pointer would name a file invalid against the very schema it is pointed at from. And it does not
-become correct later: whoever writes the first real hook writes it in one shape, and it is the
-Claude shape in practice, since Claude Code auto-discovers the same file and is what hooks here are
-authored against.
+The second reason is why "just add a pointer" was rejected even while a Copilot manifest existed: a
+pointer would tell Copilot that a Claude-shaped file is Copilot-shaped, trading an incomplete
+manifest for a wrong one. ADR-0024 consequence 7 records that the question is now moot — the
+manifest it argued about is gone — but the schema mismatch it turned on is not, and it is what any
+future Copilot hooks support has to solve.
 
 **What this costs you:** a hook authored under `.apm/hooks/` reaches Claude Code and not Copilot.
 That is a real limitation, and it is the accepted one until apm emits a per-target hooks file or the
 two schemas converge. If you need a Copilot hook today, raise it — it needs an upstream change or a
 second authoring path, not a pointer.
 
-## Symlinks under `.apm/` do not survive
+## Symlinks under `.apm/` do not survive, and nothing reports it
 
-Do not author any file under `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/` as a symlink. apm's bundle exporter filters
-symlinks out of the bundle entirely and says nothing, so the file never reaches the mirror. Since
-`sync-plugin-content.sh` builds both sides of its drift comparison from that same bundle, the loss
-used to be invisible to `--check` as well. `check_apm_symlinks()` now reads the `.apm/` source tree
-directly and fails the sync with the offending path — replace the symlink with a regular file.
+Do not author any file under `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/` as a symlink. apm's copy path filters
+symlinks out silently: `ignore_non_content()` in `apm_cli/security/gate.py` is a
+`shutil.copytree` ignore callback that drops every entry answering `is_symlink()`, commented
+"Excludes symlinks (security)". The file never reaches the consumer's install, and no warning is
+printed at any point.
 
-It stays quiet about one place: `.apm/<category>/<name>/tests/`, the dev-fixture directory the
-mirror excludes anyway (a symlink there loses nothing, because nothing under it is mirrored). A
-`tests/` deeper than that — `assets/templates/tests/`, a scaffolding asset the mirror does carry —
-is reported like anywhere else. See ADR-0017's symlink amendment.
+**No gate catches this.** The pre-push check that used to read the `.apm/` tree and fail on the
+offending path was deleted along with the content mirror, and the decision was taken not to replace
+it (ADR-0024 consequence 7). This document is the only thing standing between a symlink and silent
+content loss. No symlink exists under any `.apm/` today; add one and it is dropped on deploy with
+nothing reporting it. Replace it with a regular file.
+
+The old exemption for `.apm/<category>/<name>/tests/` no longer applies either. That directory was
+exempt only because the mirror excluded it; apm deploys it like any other content (ADR-0024
+consequence 2), so a symlink there loses content the same as anywhere else.

plugins/lint/.mcp.json

@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "mcpServers": {}
-}

tests/run-tests.sh

@@ -141,6 +141,14 @@ run_bats
 # apm_modules/ is excluded for the same reason tests/run-bats.sh excludes it:
 # `apm install` materializes dependency copies of this repo's own plugins there,
 # and re-running a dependency's tests re-runs what plugins/ already covers.
+#
+# .claude/skills/ is excluded for the same reason, one install step later. apm
+# deploys skills there straight from each plugin's `.apm/` tree, `tests/` dirs
+# and all, so any `<skill>/tests/test-*.sh` file under plugins/ would also land
+# at .claude/skills/<name>/tests/ and be discovered and run a second time. No
+# such file exists today -- the skill suites are all .bats, where run-bats.sh
+# already hit this -- so the exclusion is symmetry with its sibling, kept here
+# so the first shell suite added under a skill does not reintroduce it.
 SCRIPTS=()
 while IFS= read -r script; do
   SCRIPTS+=("$script")
@@ -149,6 +157,7 @@ done < <(
     -not -path "*/.git/*" \
     -not -path "*/.claude/worktrees/*" \
     -not -path "*/apm_modules/*" \
+    -not -path "*/.claude/skills/*" \
     | sort
 )