SIMPLIFICATION-AUDIT.md

@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ This is the area you named as hardest to understand and slowest. Root cause: mos
    >
    > Marked `[x]`: all three of this finding's decisions are resolved — `check-manifests` deleted (`e647f14`), `apm-audit-ci` kept on the grill above, `apm-marketplace-check` removed (`0dffff3`).
 
-2. **~~Four~~ ~~two~~ → one surviving "keep two copies in sync" gate: ~~1,100 script lines + 1,600 test lines~~ ~~778 script lines + 1,079 test lines~~ → 381 script lines + 297 test lines.** Each one is a symptom of duplication that could be removed instead of guarded:
+2. [x] **~~Four~~ ~~two~~ → one surviving "keep two copies in sync" gate: ~~1,100 script lines + 1,600 test lines~~ ~~778 script lines + 1,079 test lines~~ → 381 script lines + 297 test lines.** Each one is a symptom of duplication that could be removed instead of guarded:
    > **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at HEAD):** `467bbd7` deleted `check-vale-style-sync` with finding 14's merge, so the "two" above is now **one** — `check-scope-walkup-sync`, at **381** script lines (`wc -l scripts/check-scope-walkup-sync.sh`) and **297** test lines (`wc -l tests/test-check-scope-walkup-sync.sh`). Both grew since `a6434e0`, where they measured 365 + 282. Reading `check-executables-allow-sync` into the group as the note below does makes it two gates, **603 + 540** (222 + 243 for that one, unchanged).
    > **Re-measured (2026-09-14, at `a6434e0`):** two of the four are gone — `check-marketplace-mirror-sync` deleted in `0dffff3` (2c below) and, though it was never in this finding's own count, `check-plugin-content-sync` in `718c79a`. The two that survive are `check-vale-style-sync` (413 script + 797 test) and `check-scope-walkup-sync` (365 + 282); `check-executables-allow-sync` also survives, shrunk to 222 + 243 (2d below), and counts as the third if that gate is read as part of this group rather than as its own item. Two-gate total 778 + 1,079; three-gate total 1,000 + 1,322. The per-bullet script and test figures below are all still exact at this commit except `check-executables-allow-sync`'s "474 lines", which 2d already corrects.
    - [x] ~~`check-vale-style-sync`: 413 lines + 798 test lines guarding a byte-identical 526-line `vale-wrap.sh` and style directory copied between skill-audit and agent-audit. About 350 of its lines run Vale glob probes against the hook file patterns. Disappears if the two audit skills merge (finding 14); the probes belong in `test-vale-wrap.sh`.~~ **Done (2026-09-15, `467bbd7`)** — hook, script and test all deleted; see the settled note below for the corrected probe arithmetic.
@@ -123,15 +123,16 @@ This is the area you named as hardest to understand and slowest. Root cause: mos
    - [x] ~~`check-executables-allow-sync`: 474 lines to assert one string equals kyberforge's version. A six-line grep, or drop it (the failure mode is visible and recoverable).~~
      > **Corrected then partially done (2026-09-13):** see commit `1b01e25` on `docs/simplification-audit`. Independent re-verification found "drop it" unsafe — ADR-0019's own Consequences section calls this failure mode *silent* and says a silent-staleness failure here is worse than the duplication the other gates catch, directly contradicting the finding's "visible and recoverable" claim. The hook stays. Shrunk `scripts/check-executables-allow-sync.sh` 231 → 222 lines by deduplicating two comment blocks that re-derived ADR-0019's own reasoning inline, replacing them with a pointer at the ADR. The dual-reader design (PyYAML plus a hand-rolled fallback, so a missing PyYAML can't silently skip the check) was found to be load-bearing, not redundant, and left intact; test file unchanged (behavior unaffected). All 23 test cases and the live pre-push hook run still pass.
    Effort S each, M for the walk-up.
+   > **Closed (2026-09-16).** Every bullet is settled: `check-vale-style-sync` went with finding 14, `check-marketplace-mirror-sync` with 2c, and `check-executables-allow-sync` was kept and shrunk (2d). `check-scope-walkup-sync` **stays**: finding 14 left its four ports at four (see §10), and finding 15 was refuted, so the author-side pair will not merge either. The "held" note above is resolved by those two outcomes.
 
-3. **Tests of the test harness: 1,090 lines testing 475 lines.** `test-run-tests.sh` and `test-run-bats.sh` defend "green either way" holes that exist only because the runners hand-roll TAP parsing and set-equality checks. Replace both runners with about 40 lines (`bats -r plugins` plus a parallel `find | xargs` over `test-*.sh`) and delete the meta-tests. `lib/batch-run.sh` stays; ~~`sync-plugin-content.sh` sources it~~ both runners source it. Effort M.
+3. [x] **Tests of the test harness: 1,090 lines testing 475 lines.** `test-run-tests.sh` and `test-run-bats.sh` defend "green either way" holes that exist only because the runners hand-roll TAP parsing and set-equality checks. Replace both runners with about 40 lines (`bats -r plugins` plus a parallel `find | xargs` over `test-*.sh`) and delete the meta-tests. `lib/batch-run.sh` stays; ~~`sync-plugin-content.sh` sources it~~ both runners source it. Effort M.
    > **Not proceeding (2026-09-13):** premise doesn't hold. A full read of both runners and both meta-tests found the "TAP-parsing/set-equality" logic is regression coverage for specific past incidents — a `BATS_FILE_FLOOR` hardcode once let deleted test files vanish silently ("155 tests, 0 failures" with 11 tests missing); a missing/broken `run-bats.sh` used to make the whole bats suite disappear with a green summary; a formatter change once reported "0 tests, 0 failures" as a pass. Replacing the runners as specified would delete exactly the guards against that failure class. No changes made. Re-scoping this would mean deciding, guard by guard, which are still worth keeping — a design decision, not a mechanical cleanup.
    > **Rationale corrected, decision unchanged (2026-09-14, at `a6434e0`):** the stated reason `lib/batch-run.sh` survives was void — `sync-plugin-content.sh` was deleted in `718c79a`. The conclusion is unaffected: `batch-run.sh` (90 lines) is sourced by `tests/run-tests.sh:185` and `tests/run-bats.sh:138`, and copied into fixture trees by `tests/test-run-tests.sh:51` and `tests/test-run-bats.sh:49`. Since the finding is **not proceeding**, both runners stay and keep sourcing it, so nothing is orphaned. Note the knock-on if this is ever re-scoped: with the sync script gone, "replace both runners" would leave `batch-run.sh` with no caller at all, which the original wording assumed it could not. Headline figures re-measured: the meta-tests are **1,090 lines** (675 + 415, as stated) against **490** runner lines, not 475 — the runners grew from 273 + 202 at the `9eb8bc7` baseline. (Both runners and `batch-run.sh` were under concurrent edit when this was measured; figures are as of `a6434e0`.)
 
 4. [x] ~~**`skill-frontmatter` is a 62-line bash script inlined in YAML** with its own 366-line test. `skill-size-check.sh` already parses the same frontmatter with PyYAML. Fold it in (about 15 Python lines), delete the inline hook, its test, and the 79 lines in `gates.md` arguing for the split. Effort S.~~
    > **Done (2026-09-12):** see commit `c8a7c9e` on `docs/simplification-audit`. Added a ~20-line required-frontmatter check (`name`, `description`, `metadata.version` as three-part semver) to `scripts/skill-size-check.sh`, reusing the YAML mapping `description_value()` already parses. Removed the inline `skill-frontmatter` hook (~80 lines) from `.pre-commit-config.yaml` and deleted `tests/test-skill-frontmatter.sh` (366 lines). Removed the 79-line "the other hook on that scope" discussion from `docs/spec/gates.md` and its now-dangling cross-reference, replacing both with a one-line note of the fold; updated the pre-push hook counts there. Updated fixture builders in `tests/test-skill-size-check.sh`, `tests/test-adr0020-body-checks.sh`, `tests/test-adr0020-targets.sh`, `tests/test-adr0020-differential.sh`, and `tests/test-vale-hooks-consumer.sh` to carry valid `metadata.version` so the new check doesn't spuriously fail existing fixtures.
 
-5. **`skill-size-check.sh` has six test files totalling 3,589 lines for one 1,497-line script**, split by ADR section rather than behaviour. `test-adr0020-differential.sh` is 452 lines for 12 assertions. Merge to two files. Effort M.
+5. [x] **`skill-size-check.sh` has six test files totalling 3,589 lines for one 1,497-line script**, split by ADR section rather than behaviour. `test-adr0020-differential.sh` is 452 lines for 12 assertions. Merge to two files. Effort M.
    > **Not proceeding (2026-09-14):** premise doesn't hold, in the same way finding 3's did not. The six suites are **not** split by ADR section — they are split by failure class, and five of the six headers name the incident they guard. (The exception is `tests/test-skill-size-check.sh`, whose header names no incident: it describes the two gate families the script must not conflate and flags the constant-agreement block as the load-bearing part.) `test-adr0020-contract.sh` defends *structural* claims that "each one fails silently": that the resolver block copied verbatim into three scripts has not drifted, that both interpreter preflights still exist, that `verbose: true` is still set on the hook (the entire delivery mechanism for the SUGGESTION tier). It records that the `validate-provenance.sh` pair "had already drifted" once. `test-adr0020-differential.sh` compares *verdicts* between `skill-size-check.sh` and `validate.sh` on real files, and its header states that constant-agreement is "necessary but demonstrably not sufficient — a previous review found the two scripts disagreeing on real files while every constant matched perfectly", with two ceilings excluded "until a real divergence shipped behind the exclusion". The suites also do not cover the same scripts: `contract` reaches `validate-provenance.sh` (`tests/test-adr0020-contract.sh:115-116` byte-compares both copies of it). Merging by subject would delete exactly the guards against silent drift between hand-duplicated validators. Re-measured at HEAD: **3,619 lines** across six suites against a **1,517-line** script, not 3,589/1,497. That ratio is the cost of the duplication, not an independent defect — it is deleted by **finding 16**, which removes the thing being differentially compared. **#5 is downstream of #16 and should be reconsidered only after it.** The one salvageable part is a performance change, not a coverage change: `test-adr0020-differential.sh` spends 29 s of every push re-running two validators over the live corpus, and could be sped up with no coverage loss. That is a different finding than the one written here.
 
 6. [x] ~~**Prose-grep tests.** `test-governance-layer.sh` and `test-instructions-and-docs.sh` (583 lines) grep markdown for phrases, including a one-shot "issue 0015 refactor incomplete" assertion made permanent and an assertion that `docs/notes/` exists. Delete both.~~ `check-apm-agents-valid.sh` (~~161 + 264 test lines~~ → **167 + 282**, re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD) is a loop plus fail-closed guards around `validate.sh`; it folds into the merged audit skill's own tests (finding 14). Effort S.
@@ -140,7 +141,7 @@ This is the area you named as hardest to understand and slowest. Root cause: mos
 7. [x] ~~**`check-plugin-content-sync.sh` is 813 lines wrapping `apm pack`, with a 1,291-line test.** The mirror itself must stay (Claude Code marketplace installs need flat directories), and the script does real work a bare `git diff` would lose: it strips `tests/` from the mirror, regenerates both `plugin.json` files with `mcpServers` reinjected, and packs into a scratch copy so `--check` never mutates. Even so, 2,100 lines for that is disproportionate; target a third. Effort M.~~
    > **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.
+8. [x] **`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 — 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.
    >
    > **Closed (2026-09-16, grill): done to the extent recommended.** The `gates.md` cut in `a35f5e8` stands; the 200-line target stays rejected (the file is ~~1,113 lines at HEAD~~ → **1,164** lines at HEAD (`b426460`), `wc -l docs/spec/gates.md`, grown by later findings' sections, and read on demand only). The tests target below is struck: ~~findings 3, 5 and 16 each found dense suites to be named-incident regression coverage~~ → findings 3 and 5 each found dense test suites to be named-incident regression coverage, and finding 16 found the same of dense validator code, whose comments are an incident log. Any future cut to a test suite is its own finding and starts by reading that suite's header.
@@ -165,13 +166,13 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research
 
 ### 4.1 Cross-plugin (apply everywhere)
 
-9. **Delete `docs/research/` from every plugin (~19,000 lines).** kyberforge's alone is 14,143 lines, 32% of the plugin, and about 8,900 of those are vendored third-party content (Anthropic `skill-creator` including a 1,325-line `viewer.html` and ten `.py` files, obra/superpowers, mattpocock). The rest is copied tool documentation. The gitea references explicitly say the research doc "has a known history of drifting from the deployed server". Every `apm.yml` uses `includes: auto`; whether the directory ships to consumers needs one check. Keep upstream URLs in one line per plugin README; git history keeps the rest. Check obra/superpowers licence if anything is retained. Goes together with finding 11: 32 `sources.md` files carry "Research doc" paths into these directories. Effort S.
+9. [x] **Delete `docs/research/` from every plugin (~19,000 lines).** kyberforge's alone is 14,143 lines, 32% of the plugin, and about 8,900 of those are vendored third-party content (Anthropic `skill-creator` including a 1,325-line `viewer.html` and ten `.py` files, obra/superpowers, mattpocock). The rest is copied tool documentation. The gitea references explicitly say the research doc "has a known history of drifting from the deployed server". Every `apm.yml` uses `includes: auto`; whether the directory ships to consumers needs one check. Keep upstream URLs in one line per plugin README; git history keeps the rest. Check obra/superpowers licence if anything is retained. Goes together with finding 11: 32 `sources.md` files carry "Research doc" paths into these directories. Effort S.
    > **Decision (2026-09-12):** Keep. `docs/research/` is retained on purpose — it's read by agents doing work sourced from those docs. Not proceeding.
 
 10. [x] ~~**Delete per-skill `README.md` and `references/README.md` (48 files, 1,574 lines).** They restate the SKILL.md in narrative form. The pre-commit config itself notes a skill README "is consumer-facing prose that no agent ever loads". Keep one plugin-level README with one line per skill. Requires dropping the README criterion in `skill-audit/references/file-structure.md` and the README step in `new-skill.sh`. Effort S.~~
    > **Done (2026-09-12):** see commit `edcc57c` on `docs/simplification-audit`. Deleted the 48 per-skill/reference READMEs plus 2 scaffold templates; dropped the README criterion from `skill-audit`'s `file-structure.md` and `finding-criteria.md` and the README-generation step from `new-skill.sh`; updated `new-skill.bats` to match. Plugin-root READMEs were kept, not part of this finding.
 
-11. **Drop the provenance chain: `sources.md`, `source_keys` frontmatter, `validate-provenance.sh`.** 32 plugin and skill `sources.md` files (about 1,300 lines) plus 9 research indexes, 216 source files with `source_keys`, ~~two copies of the validator (1,198 and 632 lines)~~ → **one validator, 2,171 lines across four files**, with ten checks, and ~~125 bats tests~~ → **138 bats tests** exist to track which upstream informed which file. Git blame and a URL in the README do the same job. This is more code than the content it tracks. Effort M (touches ~~skill-audit, both validator copies~~ → **`factory-audit`, its one provenance validator**, two repo tests, and every skill's frontmatter).
+11. [x] **Drop the provenance chain: `sources.md`, `source_keys` frontmatter, `validate-provenance.sh`.** 32 plugin and skill `sources.md` files (about 1,300 lines) plus 9 research indexes, 216 source files with `source_keys`, ~~two copies of the validator (1,198 and 632 lines)~~ → **one validator, 2,171 lines across four files**, with ten checks, and ~~125 bats tests~~ → **138 bats tests** exist to track which upstream informed which file. Git blame and a URL in the README do the same job. This is more code than the content it tracks. Effort M (touches ~~skill-audit, both validator copies~~ → **`factory-audit`, its one provenance validator**, two repo tests, and every skill's frontmatter).
     > **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at HEAD):** ADR-0025 merged the two copies, so the "two copies" arithmetic throughout this finding and its note below no longer resolves. The provenance validator is now `factory-audit/scripts/` `validate-provenance.sh` (320) + `lib-provenance-skill.sh` (1,145) + `lib-provenance-agent.sh` (572) + `lib-contributing-files.sh` (134) = **2,171** lines (`wc -l` on the four), against **3,209** bats lines (`validate-provenance-skill.bats` 2,062 + `validate-provenance-agent.bats` 1,147) carrying **138** cases (`grep -c '^@test'`). Note this is *more* than the 1,198 + 632 = 1,830 the finding counted, not less: the merge deduplicated the resolver and the Contributing-files parser, not the per-mode provenance checks, and the shared entry script added the exit-tier and library guards described in `docs/spec/gates.md`. The `sources.md` census also moved: **45 files / 1,756 lines** — 27 skill `references/sources.md` (1,207), 13 research indexes (435), 4 plugin-root (100), 1 scaffold template (14). The note below's 46 / 1,752 swept in `docs/adr/0013-vale-harness-scope-and-rule-sources.md`, which matches `sources\.md$` and is not one. Imbalance at HEAD: **5,380 validator+bats lines against 1,756 of metadata, 3.1:1** — worse than the 2.6:1 below, on the same direction of argument.
     > **Verified (2026-09-14, at HEAD `062ca47`):** direction defensible, two scope figures wrong, and **blocked on a decision the finding never poses**. The `sources.md` census below is exact, and so are the finding's own validator and bats figures (1,198 / 632 lines, 125 bats tests); the scope errors are narrower than an earlier revision of this note claimed.
     >
@@ -216,7 +217,7 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research
     >
     > Not proceeding. ADR-0020's rejected alternative and ADR-0025 point 7 now carry this measurement. The remaining overlap is unguarded; ADR-0020 names a text-sync gate as the only option for this pair, and 36 lines of shared Description prose do not justify one.
 
-16. **Cut the validators by an order of magnitude.** `validate.sh` is 1,677 lines of bash with embedded Python, ported twice; `skill-size-check.sh` is 1,497. Target about 200 lines total: frontmatter present, size ceilings, boundary targets resolve. The 526-line `vale-wrap.sh` exists to work around folded `>` scalars in descriptions; writing descriptions as `|` literal blocks removes the folding problem, but the wrapper is also the exported hook entry in `.pre-commit-hooks.yaml` and carries the NOT RUN guard the audits depend on, so it shrinks rather than disappears. This is where the real complexity lives and is the item most worth discussing. Effort L.
+16. [x] **Cut the validators by an order of magnitude.** `validate.sh` is 1,677 lines of bash with embedded Python, ported twice; `skill-size-check.sh` is 1,497. Target about 200 lines total: frontmatter present, size ceilings, boundary targets resolve. The 526-line `vale-wrap.sh` exists to work around folded `>` scalars in descriptions; writing descriptions as `|` literal blocks removes the folding problem, but the wrapper is also the exported hook entry in `.pre-commit-hooks.yaml` and carries the NOT RUN guard the audits depend on, so it shrinks rather than disappears. This is where the real complexity lives and is the item most worth discussing. Effort L.
     > **Refuted (2026-09-14, at HEAD `062ca47`). Finding 16 has no independent content — its only safe saving belongs to finding 14.**
     >
     > **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at HEAD) — the basis of every figure below changed when ADR-0025 landed; the refutation is unaffected.** There are no longer three validators or two `vale-wrap.sh` copies. The headline's "ported twice" is void, and its `1,677` and `526` no longer name anything. At HEAD: `scripts/skill-size-check.sh` is **1,522** (the note below's 1,517 was correct at `a6434e0`); `factory-audit`'s validator is **2,663** lines across four files (`validate.sh` 255 + `lib-checks-skill.sh` 621 + `lib-checks-agent.sh` 683 + `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` 1,104); `vale-wrap.sh` is **535**, one copy. Validator total **4,185**, of which the resolver is **2,165** (the 1,061-line block still embedded in `skill-size-check.sh`, plus `lib-boundary-resolver.sh`'s 1,104 — the same 1,061 block wrapped in 43 lines of library preamble, which is why the byte-identity test compares the block and not the files). So the resolver is now **52%** of validator lines, not 65%, and **2,020** lines remain once it is excised, not 1,749. Tests: the six repo suites over `skill-size-check.sh` are **3,907** (was 3,619) and the two in-skill validator bats files **2,248** (`validate-skill.bats` 1,029 + `validate-agent.bats` 1,219), for **6,155**, not 5,506. The 200-line target is off by the same order of magnitude it was. (All figures `wc -l`; the resolver block by `awk '/BEGIN ADR-0020 SHARED BOUNDARY RESOLVER/,/END .../'`.)
@@ -233,10 +234,10 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research
     >
     > Where the savings actually are: **merge skill-audit + agent-audit (finding 14) → ~~−1,587 lines~~ → landed 2026-09-15 at −2,934 lines, zero coverage loss.** A second option — sourcing the resolver into `scripts/skill-size-check.sh` rather than embedding it (−1,061) — is technically possible but couples the root hook to plugin layout and dismantles the byte-identity contract test's design; needs a decision, not an assumption.
 
-17. **Fold `forge` and `apm-install`.** `forge` is a four-row routing table plus 207 lines of references explaining fork vs inline; it should be 25 lines with no references. `apm-install` (53 lines + 17-line sources) becomes a sixth dispatch row in `apm-workflow`. Effort S.
+17. [x] **Fold `forge` and `apm-install`.** `forge` is a four-row routing table plus 207 lines of references explaining fork vs inline; it should be 25 lines with no references. `apm-install` (53 lines + 17-line sources) becomes a sixth dispatch row in `apm-workflow`. Effort S.
    > **Decision (2026-09-16):** Not proceeding — the human declined this finding. `forge` and `apm-install` stay as separate skills.
 
-18. **Delete prose the model already knows.** "Valid characters: lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens"; what pipx does and PEP 668; "code blocks carry a language tag"; "data to stdout, diagnostics to stderr". Ironically `body-discipline.md` instructs auditors not to include "concepts the agent already knows". Effort S.
+18. [x] **Delete prose the model already knows.** "Valid characters: lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens"; what pipx does and PEP 668; "code blocks carry a language tag"; "data to stdout, diagnostics to stderr". Ironically `body-discipline.md` instructs auditors not to include "concepts the agent already knows". Effort S.
     > **Re-scoped and folded into finding 22 (2026-09-14).** All four named examples were located, and they are four different classes of thing — only one is what the finding describes:
     >
     > | Example | Location | What it actually is |
@@ -259,10 +260,10 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research
 
 ### 4.3 git and gitea (153 + 93 files, 9,889 + 6,047 lines incl. mirror; source 3,288 + 2,286)
 
-19. **Delete the two router skills and two orchestrate agents (309 lines + 195 reference lines).** No skill invokes them as a step; they appear only in boundary clauses (`AGENTS.md`, `git-worktrees`, `gitea-issues`, `gitea-prs`) and as worked examples in ~~agent-audit references~~ → **`factory-audit`'s `references/agent-body-and-delegation.md` and `references/agent-description-quality.md`** (repointed 2026-09-16 at HEAD; ADR-0025 moved them), all of which must change in the same commit or `skill-size-check` fails on the dangling target. Claude Code already routes on descriptions. The chain today is `git-workflow` step 5 invokes `git-orchestrate`, whose step 5 invokes `git-commits`, which runs `rtk git commit`: three hops. Both agents exceed 900 words; ADR-0020 deliberately sets no agent body gate. Effort S.
+19. [x] **Delete the two router skills and two orchestrate agents (309 lines + 195 reference lines).** No skill invokes them as a step; they appear only in boundary clauses (`AGENTS.md`, `git-worktrees`, `gitea-issues`, `gitea-prs`) and as worked examples in ~~agent-audit references~~ → **`factory-audit`'s `references/agent-body-and-delegation.md` and `references/agent-description-quality.md`** (repointed 2026-09-16 at HEAD; ADR-0025 moved them), all of which must change in the same commit or `skill-size-check` fails on the dangling target. Claude Code already routes on descriptions. The chain today is `git-workflow` step 5 invokes `git-orchestrate`, whose step 5 invokes `git-commits`, which runs `rtk git commit`: three hops. Both agents exceed 900 words; ADR-0020 deliberately sets no agent body gate. Effort S.
     > **Not proceeding (2026-09-13):** premise doesn't hold. There are no separate "router skills" — only two `.agent.md` files. `git-orchestrate` is not a dangling boundary-clause reference; it's `git-workflow` step 5's actual execution backend (documented both directions), so deleting it breaks `git-workflow`'s only execution path rather than tidying an orphan. `gitea-orchestrate` is intentional per ADR-0011 (agent-facing counterpart for agent callers) even though `gitea-workflow` doesn't call it. A third, undocumented instance of the same pattern (`apm-orchestrate`) exists and isn't addressed by this finding. The four boundary-clause locations named above don't actually reference either agent. No changes made. This needs the "short discussion" §7 bucket 2 implies, not a mechanical delete.
 
-20. **Collapse git 7 skills to 1; gitea 7 to 2.** Git references are man-page restatement: `git-log-format.md` (242 lines listing `%H`, `%ar`), `conventional-commits-spec.md` (170 lines), `worktrees.md` (178), `merging.md` explaining fast-forward. Roughly 60% of the plugin is generic. The genuinely house-specific content fits in about 150 lines: the `rtk` rule and ADR-0023 exceptions, main/master refusal, `--no-verify`, the `-i --autosquash` 2.39.5 trap, `--force-with-lease --force-if-includes`, bisect exit codes, submodule push ordering, the detached-HEAD worktree trap. Gitea is more legitimately specific (MCP schema quirks: `tree_sha`, `withLines`, silent drops on PR create, `per_page` 20 vs 30, 404 means 403) and splits naturally into `gitea-tracker` (issues, PRs, labels, milestones) and `gitea-repo` (branches, files, releases). Risk: one description must carry all trigger phrases; keep a dispatch table at the top of the body. Keep `pc-author` and `pc-run` (finding 38). Effort M.
+20. [x] **Collapse git 7 skills to 1; gitea 7 to 2.** Git references are man-page restatement: `git-log-format.md` (242 lines listing `%H`, `%ar`), `conventional-commits-spec.md` (170 lines), `worktrees.md` (178), `merging.md` explaining fast-forward. Roughly 60% of the plugin is generic. The genuinely house-specific content fits in about 150 lines: the `rtk` rule and ADR-0023 exceptions, main/master refusal, `--no-verify`, the `-i --autosquash` 2.39.5 trap, `--force-with-lease --force-if-includes`, bisect exit codes, submodule push ordering, the detached-HEAD worktree trap. Gitea is more legitimately specific (MCP schema quirks: `tree_sha`, `withLines`, silent drops on PR create, `per_page` 20 vs 30, 404 means 403) and splits naturally into `gitea-tracker` (issues, PRs, labels, milestones) and `gitea-repo` (branches, files, releases). Risk: one description must carry all trigger phrases; keep a dispatch table at the top of the body. Keep `pc-author` and `pc-run` (finding 38). Effort M.
     > **Refuted as specified (2026-09-14, at HEAD `062ca47`). The routing concern is not a risk to mitigate — it is a blocking gate failure.**
     >
     > What holds: skill counts (git 7 `git-*` + `pc-*`, gitea 7); the four named git reference files at their stated sizes (`git-log-format.md` 242, `conventional-commits-spec.md` 170, `worktrees.md` 178; `merging.md` is 31, among the smallest). "Roughly 60% generic" holds at the top of its range — two independent methods give **54–60%**. Gitea being "more legitimately specific" holds and is **understated**: gitea is ~**72% house-specific**, the inverse of git, with ~50 MCP quirks beyond the five named (no `method:"close"` on `issue_write`; `draft:true` is literally a `"WIP:"` title prefix; **no update tool for releases exists at all**; `replace_labels` clears unlisted labels; org-label methods take `org` not `owner`). Note commit `6cfc357` (finding 13) touched none of the four named files, so its trim does not deflate this evidence.
@@ -303,10 +304,10 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research
     >
     > **Deferred (2026-09-16, grill).** The human is excluding `bin` from this audit: its skills are "binned for a reason" and will be fixed or relocated as a separate piece of work. Nothing in this finding is executed here; the itemised ~165-line estimate above is the starting point for that work. `bin` is still covered by the version-bump gate (finding 33) until then.
 
-23. **bin: merge `grill-me` into `grill-with-docs`.** `grill-me` is 16 lines and a subset of the docs flow; `grill-with-docs` creates `CONTEXT.md` when missing, so the merged skill needs a no-write opt-out. `caveman` (50 lines) and `zoom-out` (9) are hand-invoked prompts rather than workflow skills; they are also the repo's `disable-model-invocation` exemplars in `CONTEXT.md`, `contract.md`, ADR-0020, ADR-0021, and `gates.md`, and `install.sh` has no path for `~/.claude/commands/`, so moving them means picking a new exemplar. `improve-codebase-architecture` defines its glossary twice (inline and in `language.md`; the README documents the split as intentional). Effort S.
+23. [x] **bin: merge `grill-me` into `grill-with-docs`.** `grill-me` is 16 lines and a subset of the docs flow; `grill-with-docs` creates `CONTEXT.md` when missing, so the merged skill needs a no-write opt-out. `caveman` (50 lines) and `zoom-out` (9) are hand-invoked prompts rather than workflow skills; they are also the repo's `disable-model-invocation` exemplars in `CONTEXT.md`, `contract.md`, ADR-0020, ADR-0021, and `gates.md`, and `install.sh` has no path for `~/.claude/commands/`, so moving them means picking a new exemplar. `improve-codebase-architecture` defines its glossary twice (inline and in `language.md`; the README documents the split as intentional). Effort S.
    > **Decision (2026-09-16):** Not proceeding — the human declined this finding. `grill-me` and `grill-with-docs` stay separate.
 
-24. **core: `provider-adapter-author` is a 1,200-line wrapper around one instruction** ("replace duplicated lines with `@AGENTS.md`, keep provider-specific lines"): a 496-line validator with a 519-line bats suite for a check that is a grep. `agentsmd-author` already calls `agentsmd-audit` as mandatory closeout, and both route to `provider-adapter-author` in boundary clauses that must change with it. Target: one `agentsmd` skill with an audit mode, adapter conversion as a step, validator about 40 lines. Needs an ADR-0012 revisit. Effort L.
+24. [x] **core: `provider-adapter-author` is a 1,200-line wrapper around one instruction** ("replace duplicated lines with `@AGENTS.md`, keep provider-specific lines"): a 496-line validator with a 519-line bats suite for a check that is a grep. `agentsmd-author` already calls `agentsmd-audit` as mandatory closeout, and both route to `provider-adapter-author` in boundary clauses that must change with it. Target: one `agentsmd` skill with an audit mode, adapter conversion as a step, validator about 40 lines. Needs an ADR-0012 revisit. Effort L.
     > **Refuted (2026-09-14, at HEAD `062ca47`). Not deferred — the target fails the repo's own gate before any judgment call is reached, so the ADR-0012 §8 question is moot for this finding.**
     >
     > **The merge is arithmetically impossible as specified.** Body word counts: `agentsmd-author` 485 + `agentsmd-audit` 361 + `provider-adapter-author` 514 = **1,360 words against `BODY_MAX_WORDS=900`** (ADR-0020 hard FAIL). Descriptions: 251 + 275 + 280 = **806 chars into a field capped at 400**. Relocating the overflow into `references/` is PR #129's named anti-goal, and issue #117 records that `references/` is where neither the size gate nor Vale looks.
@@ -319,15 +320,15 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research
     >
     > Two further blockers if it were ever revisited: the merge dissolves `agentsmd-author`'s standing prohibition *"Never write to a provider file yourself, in any circumstance"* (SKILL.md:21), a hazard `c59e4bf` closed after the validator's own size-FAIL remediation text "actively invited the prohibited edit"; and `skill-size-check.sh:121` + `tests/test-skill-size-check.sh:729` both cite `a8cd5e8`'s exit-2 split as precedent for their own, so deleting it orphans two live cross-references.
 
-25. **lint: delete the `lint-runner` agent.** Its body is "call `vale-run`, reformat output", which `--output=JSON` already gives; it exists for backends that do not exist. It is the example boundary clause in three `agent-author` templates and ADR-0016, so those need a new example. About 40% of `vale-config` is install tables and settings lists the model can fetch from vale.sh. Keep the house-verified matrices (`E100`/`E201`, `Packages` below glob, frontmatter, ignore paths). `lint/docs/research/docs/vale/` overlaps the skill's own references by about two thirds. Effort S.
+25. [x] **lint: delete the `lint-runner` agent.** Its body is "call `vale-run`, reformat output", which `--output=JSON` already gives; it exists for backends that do not exist. It is the example boundary clause in three `agent-author` templates and ADR-0016, so those need a new example. About 40% of `vale-config` is install tables and settings lists the model can fetch from vale.sh. Keep the house-verified matrices (`E100`/`E201`, `Packages` below glob, frontmatter, ignore paths). `lint/docs/research/docs/vale/` overlaps the skill's own references by about two thirds. Effort S.
    > **Decision (2026-09-16):** Not proceeding — the human declined this finding. The `lint-runner` agent stays.
 
 ## 5. Prose and docs (9,600 lines, 109,000 words outside plugins)
 
-26. **Move or delete `docs/research/` and `docs/notes/` (4,500 lines, 47% of prose words).** Six of eleven research files are linked only from each other; they are self-described session audit trails, agendas, and a "temporary build reference". `docs/notes/factory-research-gaps-conflicts.md` says "Status: Superseded"; `factory-integration-decisions.md` says "Complete" and its decisions already live in ADRs, yet `AGENTS.md` tells every session to read it. `archive/team-self-organisation-sprint-brief.md` (3,400 words) is unrelated to this repo. Archive or delete; drop the three `AGENTS.md` pointers. Moving `CONTROLS.md` to `docs/spec/` means updating its literal path in nine or more files including the deployed `governance.md`. Effort S.
+26. [x] **Move or delete `docs/research/` and `docs/notes/` (4,500 lines, 47% of prose words).** Six of eleven research files are linked only from each other; they are self-described session audit trails, agendas, and a "temporary build reference". `docs/notes/factory-research-gaps-conflicts.md` says "Status: Superseded"; `factory-integration-decisions.md` says "Complete" and its decisions already live in ADRs, yet `AGENTS.md` tells every session to read it. `archive/team-self-organisation-sprint-brief.md` (3,400 words) is unrelated to this repo. Archive or delete; drop the three `AGENTS.md` pointers. Moving `CONTROLS.md` to `docs/spec/` means updating its literal path in nine or more files including the deployed `governance.md`. Effort S.
     > **Decision (2026-09-12):** Keep. Same reasoning as finding 9 — these docs are intentional context for sourced work. Not proceeding.
 
-27. **Four governance documents say one thing.** `core/instructions/governance.md` (949 words, always-on), `docs/ai-constitution.md` (2,906), `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md` (1,413), `CONTROLS.md` (1,224), with near-identical preambles and, in three of the four, a "what this file does not govern" block pointing at the others. The constitution repeats one of its own principle lead sentences. Keep `governance.md` as the operative file, trimmed to about 50 lines (drop the classification table that repeats the bullets above it, the footer, the non-governance block). Dedupe the constitution by about 20%. Effort M.
+27. [x] **Four governance documents say one thing.** `core/instructions/governance.md` (949 words, always-on), `docs/ai-constitution.md` (2,906), `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md` (1,413), `CONTROLS.md` (1,224), with near-identical preambles and, in three of the four, a "what this file does not govern" block pointing at the others. The constitution repeats one of its own principle lead sentences. Keep `governance.md` as the operative file, trimmed to about 50 lines (drop the classification table that repeats the bullets above it, the footer, the non-governance block). Dedupe the constitution by about 20%. Effort M.
     > **Refuted as framed (2026-09-14, at HEAD `062ca47`). All four word counts are exact — the first finding in this audit whose figures survive checking — and everything built on them fails.**
     >
     > **"Four documents say one thing" misreads audience separation as duplication.** They are one principle set projected onto four execution surfaces, and each projection is load-bearing: `governance.md` is imperative *to the model* and injected into every session; `HUMANS.md` is imperative *to a person* on a wiki; `CONTROLS.md` is a declarative spec *for CI tooling*; the constitution is the justification layer with citations. Take "secrets never enter AI context": the constitution states it with evidence, `governance.md` tells the model never to emit one, `HUMANS.md` tells the person never to paste one, `CONTROLS.md` specifies the pre-commit hook that catches both when the first two fail. `CONTROLS.md:8` names this explicitly — *"Agent instructions and human practitioner rules are probabilistic… A control that runs automatically in CI enforces a principle more reliably than any instruction in any file."* The three "what this file does not govern" blocks are the seams that keep the four from bleeding together, each pointing at a different file for a different reason. Real overlap is ~15%.
@@ -342,11 +343,11 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research
     >
     > **Honest ceiling: 168 words / 17.7%** of the file's 949 — the cross-reference scaffolding only: preamble **43** (lines 3–5), non-governance block **77** (71–76), footer **48** (79–82), landing at ~67 lines with no rule loss. (An earlier revision said 47 for the preamble, which is only reachable by counting lines 1–7 — that sweeps in the `#` glyph and a `---` rule as words.) Plus 133 words from the constitution. Not 50 lines, not 20%.
     >
-    > **Two defects the finding missed, both worth fixing independently of it.** (1) **A live bug: `docs/HUMANS.md` does not exist** — the file is `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md`. The wrong path appears **five times across three files**, including the **deployed** `core/instructions/governance.md:82`, which is self-inconsistent (line 73 correct, line 82 broken); the other four are `CONTROLS.md:5,101,106` and `ai-constitution.md:238`. (An earlier revision said "four times" while enumerating all five.) **Fixed (2026-09-15):** all five corrected to `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md`; the deployed copy under `~/.claude/` is now stale until `scripts/install.sh` re-runs. (2) The deployed always-on file carries **repo-relative pointers that dangle in every project but this one** — an agent told to "read it when making decisions not covered here" cannot. That is the substantive question this finding should have asked. The footer is additionally self-referential: `governance.md:80` lists the file as compatible with itself.
+    > **Two defects the finding missed, both worth fixing independently of it.** (1) **A live bug: `docs/HUMANS.md` does not exist** — the file is `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md`. The wrong path appears **five times across three files**, including the **deployed** `core/instructions/governance.md:82`, which is self-inconsistent (line 73 correct, line 82 broken); the other four are `CONTROLS.md:5,101,106` and `ai-constitution.md:238`. (An earlier revision said "four times" while enumerating all five.) **Fixed (2026-09-15):** all five corrected to `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md`; the deployed copy under `~/.claude/` ~~is now stale until `scripts/install.sh` re-runs~~ → was redeployed on 2026-09-16 (see §10). (2) The deployed always-on file carries **repo-relative pointers that dangle in every project but this one** — an agent told to "read it when making decisions not covered here" cannot. That is the substantive question this finding should have asked. The footer is additionally self-referential: `governance.md:80` lists the file as compatible with itself.
     >
     > **Decision (2026-09-16):** Not proceeding — the human declined this finding, including the 168-word cross-reference trim. `core/instructions/governance.md` and the other three governance documents stay as they are. The `docs/HUMANS.md` path defect was fixed separately (see §10).
 
-28. **ADRs: 2,740 lines, 72% in eight ADRs over 150 lines.** ADR-0020 is 513 lines with a 71-line measurement log as Context; ADR-0017 has 173 lines of amendments against 45 of decision. ADR-0001 is superseded and ADR-0006 moot, both keeping full text below the banner. ADR-0002 is three lines. Truncate superseded ones to the banner, fold amendments into the decision, cap Context at 20 lines, add a 25-line `docs/adr/README.md` index with status. The rules already live in `gates.md`; the ADRs need only decision and consequences. Effort M.
+28. [x] **ADRs: 2,740 lines, 72% in eight ADRs over 150 lines.** ADR-0020 is 513 lines with a 71-line measurement log as Context; ADR-0017 has 173 lines of amendments against 45 of decision. ADR-0001 is superseded and ADR-0006 moot, both keeping full text below the banner. ADR-0002 is three lines. Truncate superseded ones to the banner, fold amendments into the decision, cap Context at 20 lines, add a 25-line `docs/adr/README.md` index with status. The rules already live in `gates.md`; the ADRs need only decision and consequences. Effort M.
     > **Moved backwards (measured 2026-09-14 over `afa7187^`..`a6434e0`):** today's ADR-0024 work did the opposite of this finding on every axis, and that is recorded here so it is a known trade rather than a surprise. `docs/adr/` went from **23 files / 2,748 lines** to **24 / 3,084** — one new ADR (0024, 259 lines) plus amendment and banner text across **eleven existing ADRs** (0001, 0006, 0011, 0013, 0014, 0015, 0017, 0018, 0019, 0020, 0021 — 87 lines added, 10 removed, net **+77**), for a total of net **+336 lines (+12%)**. The two ADRs this finding names for truncation both grew *below* their banners instead: **ADR-0001 26 → 27** lines and **ADR-0006 22 → 27**, each gaining a fresh "as of ADR-0024" paragraph rather than losing the historical body beneath it. ADR-0017 gained a supersession banner while keeping its four amendments in full — the exact shape this finding proposes to fold.
     >
     > Not a defect in that work: a supersession has to be recorded somewhere, and an unread stale ADR is worse than a long one. But it does mean the finding's estimate is now conservative and its "truncate superseded ones to the banner" step has more to remove than when it was written — ADR-0001, ADR-0006 and ADR-0017 are all superseded-with-full-body today. **State the basis when re-measuring:** this is a two-SHA measurement, not a standing count, and further ADR amendments were being written by other sessions while it was taken. Re-derive with `git ls-tree -r --name-only <sha> docs/adr` before acting on it.
@@ -395,7 +396,7 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research
 
 Not covered by the area audits above; found on a final sweep of the root config and install pipeline. The install pipeline itself (`scripts/install.sh` 55 lines, `deploy-manifest.sh` 24, statusline 109) is fine and needs nothing.
 
-33. **Every plugin version lives in four places (five for kyberforge), plus one per skill.** `plugins/<name>/apm.yml`, two generated `plugin.json` files, the root `apm.yml` packages list, the `executables.allow` key (`kyberforge#1.6.2`), and a `metadata.version` in all ~~39~~ → **38** SKILL.md files (ADR-0022) that nothing consumes and that drifts freely (gitea skills sit at five different values). Repo tags (`v2.0.1`) follow a third scheme that the declared `tagPattern: v{version}` can never match under `per_package` versioning. ADR-0006, ADR-0022, `check-executables-allow-sync`, `skill-frontmatter`, and `apm pack --check-versions` all exist to police this. Proposal: one version per plugin in its `apm.yml`; drop `metadata.version` and ADR-0022; let `apm pack` derive the rest. Effort M.
+33. [x] **Every plugin version lives in four places (five for kyberforge), plus one per skill.** `plugins/<name>/apm.yml`, two generated `plugin.json` files, the root `apm.yml` packages list, the `executables.allow` key (`kyberforge#1.6.2`), and a `metadata.version` in all ~~39~~ → **38** SKILL.md files (ADR-0022) that nothing consumes and that drifts freely (gitea skills sit at five different values). Repo tags (`v2.0.1`) follow a third scheme that the declared `tagPattern: v{version}` can never match under `per_package` versioning. ADR-0006, ADR-0022, `check-executables-allow-sync`, `skill-frontmatter`, and `apm pack --check-versions` all exist to police this. Proposal: one version per plugin in its `apm.yml`; drop `metadata.version` and ADR-0022; let `apm pack` derive the rest. Effort M.
     > **Partially advanced (2026-09-14):** see commit `718c79a` on `docs/simplification-audit`. Two of the four locations per plugin are gone: the twelve generated `plugin.json` manifests (`plugins/*/.claude-plugin/` and `plugins/*/.github/plugin/`) were deleted with the mirror. ADR-0006 needed no action — it was already moot and governed only those two now-deleted manifests, so no version bumps were required by the change. **Not closed.** Still outstanding: `plugins/<name>/apm.yml`, the root `apm.yml` packages list, the `executables.allow` pin, and `metadata.version` in all ~~39~~ → **38** SKILL.md files (still unconsumed, still drifting), plus ADR-0022 and the `v{version}` `tagPattern` mismatch. *(Since closed, 2026-09-16 grill — see the decision note at the end of this finding.)*
     > **Verified (2026-09-14, at HEAD `062ca47`): headline wrong, central claim inverted — and it contains the one zero-risk, empirically-verified win in this audit.**
     >
@@ -416,7 +417,7 @@ Not covered by the area audits above; found on a final sweep of the root config
     >
     > **Decided and done (2026-09-16, grill): enforce the bump.** Advisory status and dropping the field were both rejected. The six root `apm.yml` `packages[].version` lines are deleted (`apm pack --check-versions --check-clean` still passes, output unchanged), which also makes ADR-0006's "the only version field a plugin has" true. `scripts/check-skill-version-bump.sh` now runs at pre-push: any skill directory that changed against its merge-base with `main`, `tests/` excluded, must carry a strictly higher `metadata.version` than ~~`main`~~ → the same skill had at that merge-base (not `main`'s current tip; see `gates.md:90` and `:111-112`, and the hook comment at `.pre-commit-config.yaml:203-206`. *Amended in the 2026-09-16 review round: the gate now also compares against the `origin/main` tip; see §11.*); new, renamed and deleted skills are exempt; every plugin is covered, `bin` included. Recorded as a dated section in ADR-0022, not a new ADR. The 17 skills changed on this branch without a bump took a patch bump in the same commit. The `executables.allow` pin and the inert `tagPattern` are left as the note above recommends.
 
-34. **The SessionStart hook auto-updates the install on every startup.** `check-apm-current.sh` runs `apm outdated` (network, 60 s timeout) and then `apm update --yes` (300 s timeout) at every session start, rewriting `apm.lock.yaml`. That is why the lock file is dirty at the start of this session and why `AGENTS.md` has to explain "commit or discard it deliberately". It is a 60-line script with a 368-line test, an ADR (0019), the `executables.allow` pin, and a sync hook behind it. For a repo that is its own source, the update belongs in `install.sh` or a manual `apm update`, not in session startup. Effort S to remove; the design question is whether auto-update at startup is wanted at all.
+34. [x] **The SessionStart hook auto-updates the install on every startup.** `check-apm-current.sh` runs `apm outdated` (network, 60 s timeout) and then `apm update --yes` (300 s timeout) at every session start, rewriting `apm.lock.yaml`. That is why the lock file is dirty at the start of this session and why `AGENTS.md` has to explain "commit or discard it deliberately". It is a 60-line script with a 368-line test, an ADR (0019), the `executables.allow` pin, and a sync hook behind it. For a repo that is its own source, the update belongs in `install.sh` or a manual `apm update`, not in session startup. Effort S to remove; the design question is whether auto-update at startup is wanted at all.
     > **Refuted (2026-09-14, at HEAD `062ca47`). The evidence is inverted: the finding cites as proof of over-eagerness a session in which the mechanism did not fire, and the observed state is the exact silent failure ADR-0019 exists to prevent.**
     >
     > **The update is conditional, not unconditional.** `check-apm-current.sh:42-43` captures `apm outdated` and `exit 0`s unless the output matches `outdated dependenc(y|ies) found`. The staleness test is a real SHA comparison (`apm_cli/commands/outdated.py`, git-branch branch) of the lockfile's `resolved_commit` against the remote tip. On a current install the cost is one **~0.8 s** check and **no lock rewrite** — confirmed by timed probe. `hooks.json` also declares `"matcher": "startup"` only, so `--resume`/`--continue`/post-compact sessions never fire it (ADR-0019 sub-decision 3).
@@ -482,7 +483,7 @@ Not covered by the area audits above; found on a final sweep of the root config
 >
 > **Updated (2026-09-16, after the finding 15 grill):** **15** is refuted on measurement (see its note), so no finding is open. **22** stays deferred with `bin`.
 
-> **Re-derived (2026-09-16, at HEAD):** this ordering was written before the findings were worked, and ~~seven of its entries are now closed~~ → ~~all but two~~ → ~~all but one~~ → all of its bucket-2 and bucket-3 entries are now closed (corrected later on 2026-09-16, after the grill, and again once **36** closed and once **15** was refuted). Struck above: **14** landed (`467bbd7`, ADR-0025); **7** was superseded then done (`718c79a`); **3**, **5** and **19** are not proceeding on refuted premises; ~~**34**,~~ **16** and **24** are refuted outright; **34** was refuted as a removal and then decided and done as documentation of the branch hazard in ADR-0019 (`afcf477`), with the hook kept; **33** was decided and done (enforce the bump, `8451169`); **8**, **20** and **28** closed at the grill; **17**, **23** and **25** were declined by the human; **11** was declined by the human; **36** was done (`4de5b6b`). ~~**5** is left standing but is downstream of 16 by its own note, so it cannot be taken in this bucket's order.~~ **5** is closed with 16: its own note says it is downstream of 16, and 16 is refuted. ~~Still open, per the Status note above: **15** alone, now that **36** is done (`4de5b6b`);~~ **15** was refuted on measurement after its own grill, so none is still open; **22** is deferred with `bin`. Read each finding's own marker, not this list — it is a plan of record, not a status board. Bucket 1 is left as written: every entry in it is marked `[x]` or carries a decision note at its own finding.
+> **Re-derived (2026-09-16, at HEAD):** this ordering was written before the findings were worked, and ~~seven of its entries are now closed~~ → ~~all but two~~ → ~~all but one~~ → all of its bucket-2 and bucket-3 entries are now closed (corrected later on 2026-09-16, after the grill, and again once **36** closed and once **15** was refuted). Struck above: **14** landed (`467bbd7`, ADR-0025); **7** was superseded then done (`718c79a`); **3**, **5** and **19** are not proceeding on refuted premises; ~~**34**,~~ **16** and **24** are refuted outright; **34** was refuted as a removal and then decided and done as documentation of the branch hazard in ADR-0019 (`afcf477`), with the hook kept; **33** was decided and done (enforce the bump, `8451169`); **8**, **20** and **28** closed at the grill; **17**, **23** and **25** were declined by the human; **11** was declined by the human; **36** was done (`4de5b6b`). ~~**5** is left standing but is downstream of 16 by its own note, so it cannot be taken in this bucket's order.~~ **5** is closed with 16: its own note says it is downstream of 16, and 16 is refuted. ~~Still open, per the Status note above: **15** alone, now that **36** is done (`4de5b6b`);~~ **15** was refuted on measurement after its own grill, so none is still open; **22** is deferred with `bin`. Read each finding's own marker, not this list — it is a plan of record, not a status board. Bucket 1 is left as written: every entry in it is marked `[x]` or carries a decision note at its own finding. *(Updated 2026-09-16:)* `[x]` now marks every closed finding, whatever the outcome — done, refuted, declined or not proceeding; read the note for which. The only finding without one is **22**, deferred with `bin`.
 
 Findings 9, 10, 11, and 12 are coupled through the provenance validator and the audit criteria; land them together or the audit gates start reporting the removals.
 
@@ -516,7 +517,7 @@ Findings 9, 10, 11, and 12 are coupled through the provenance validator and the
   > **Recommendation on evidence (2026-09-14): keep it; finding 34 refuted.** The premise that it runs on every startup is false (the update is conditional on a real SHA check), the lock was not dirty, the hook did not fire this session, and the install is currently **9 commits behind `main` with nothing reporting it** — the failure the hook exists to prevent. `install.sh`, the proposed alternative host, has no apm step. Still formally the human's call, but the factual basis for removing it does not survive. See finding 34.
   >
   > **Decided (2026-09-16, grill):** keep the hook and document the feature-branch hazard; skipping the refresh off the default branch was rejected. Landed in ADR-0019 (`afcf477`). See finding 34's closing note.
-- ~~**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.~~
+- [x] ~~**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.~~
   > **Evidence gathered, decision deferred (2026-09-14).** No consumer found: the Gitea instance holds two repos, and the other pins seven hook repos, none of them this one. No consumer-driven commit in the 13 touching the mechanism. Off-instance clones undeterminable — but ADR-0024 accepted exactly this standard when it deleted the mirror. The mechanism is additionally **already broken** (a consumer pinning `rev: v2.0.1` gets a stale `skill-size-check.sh`, and the guard cannot fire through Gitea's merge button). The human deferred the decision on 2026-09-14; the finding is ready to execute when it is taken. See finding 36.
   > **Answered (2026-09-16):** no consumer, and the human took the decision: the mechanism is removed (`4de5b6b`), and ADR-0014 is amended to record why. See finding 36.
 - [x] ~~**Obsidian MCP.** Are the Obsidian tools over `docs/` used by anyone? If not, finding 37 is a pure delete.~~
@@ -531,7 +532,7 @@ Recorded here so they are not rediscovered as defects. All follow from commit `7
 - **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 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.
+**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~~ → finding 14 required *merging* skills (done, ADR-0025), and finding 15 would have too (refuted on measurement, 2026-09-16); sharing one file between two skills remains impossible, and §8's "one-script-per-skill install constraint" bullet is unchanged by this decision.
 
 **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.
 
@@ -581,7 +582,7 @@ The recurring failure mode is worth naming, because it has now produced six wron
 
 > **Executed, and one knock-on claim corrected (2026-09-15).** Finding 14 landed as `factory-audit` (ADR-0025); yield **2,934 lines and one pre-push hook**, and the §8 blocker turned out to be a non-issue. The body was the binding ceiling, not the description, which ships at 241 characters, under the 250 target, once a duplicated trigger register was removed. See finding 14's own note for the corrections.
 >
-> **The merge does not unblock `check-scope-walkup-sync`, and nothing in this audit should be read as saying it does.** §3's finding 2 bullet says that gate "disappears if the ports share one script or the skills merge"; the second half of that is wrong, and the first is unreachable. The gate cross-checks **four** independent `$HOME`/`.git`/`apm.yml` walk-up ports, and only two of them are in the audit pair (`validate.sh`'s `detect_scope`, `validate-provenance.sh`'s `find_plugin_root`). The other two — `new-agent.sh`'s and `new-skill.sh`'s `find_package_root` — live in the **author** skills, which finding 15 has not merged and which could not be merged into the audit skill in any case. Four ports go to four ports.
+> **The merge does not unblock `check-scope-walkup-sync`, and nothing in this audit should be read as saying it does.** §3's finding 2 bullet says that gate "disappears if the ports share one script or the skills merge"; the second half of that is wrong, and the first is unreachable. The gate cross-checks **four** independent `$HOME`/`.git`/`apm.yml` walk-up ports, and only two of them are in the audit pair (`validate.sh`'s `detect_scope`, `validate-provenance.sh`'s `find_plugin_root`). The other two — `new-agent.sh`'s and `new-skill.sh`'s `find_package_root` — live in the **author** skills, which ~~finding 15 has not merged~~ → stay separate now that finding 15 is refuted (2026-09-16), and which could not be merged into the audit skill in any case. Four ports go to four ports.
 >
 > It cannot degrade into a text diff either, which is the shape that would let it be deleted rather than merely shrunk: the two audit-side ports are **Python** (`def detect_scope`, `def find_plugin_root`, inside heredocs) and the two author-side ports are **Bash** functions. Byte-comparing them is not an option at any point on this path, so the behavioural fixture cross-check is the only available form of the gate. It survives finding 15 too.
 >
@@ -589,7 +590,7 @@ The recurring failure mode is worth naming, because it has now produced six wron
 
 ### Two defects to fix independently of any finding
 
-- **~~A live bug in always-on context.~~ Fixed (2026-09-15).** The deployed `core/instructions/governance.md` cited `docs/HUMANS.md`, which does not exist — the file is `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md`. Five occurrences across three files (`governance.md:82`, which was self-inconsistent against its own correct line 73; `CONTROLS.md:5,101,106`; `ai-constitution.md:238`), in a file `@`-imported into every session in every project. All five now point at `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md`. Note the deployed copy under `~/.claude/` no longer matches the repo until `scripts/install.sh` re-runs.
+- **~~A live bug in always-on context.~~ Fixed (2026-09-15).** The deployed `core/instructions/governance.md` cited `docs/HUMANS.md`, which does not exist — the file is `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md`. Five occurrences across three files (`governance.md:82`, which was self-inconsistent against its own correct line 73; `CONTROLS.md:5,101,106`; `ai-constitution.md:238`), in a file `@`-imported into every session in every project. All five now point at `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md`. ~~Note the deployed copy under `~/.claude/` no longer matches the repo until `scripts/install.sh` re-runs.~~ **Deployed (2026-09-16):** the fixed file was copied to `~/.claude/core/instructions/governance.md` and `diff -rq core ~/.claude/core` is clean. `install.sh` itself was deliberately not run: it overwrites `~/.claude/settings.json` wholesale, and the deployed copy carried machine-local keys (`model`, `extraKnownMarketplaces`, `autoMemoryEnabled`, notification flags) that the repo's `providers/claude-code/settings.json` does not.
 - **This checkout's install is stale and there is a branch hazard.** At the time of the wave `apm outdated` reported 6 outdated dependencies, 9 commits behind `main`, with a clean tree and nothing reporting it. **Do not run `apm update` on this branch** — it resolves against `main` and restores the obsidian MCP server that commit `c96ca9c` removed here. Reproduced. The mechanism is worse than "reinstalls `plugins/bin/.mcp.json`": apm never writes into `plugins/`, it re-materialises the file under `apm_modules/` and regenerates the repo-root `/.mcp.json` — which `c96ca9c` gitignored, so the restoration would not appear in `git status` at all. This belongs in ADR-0019's Consequences; see finding 34.
   > **Landed (2026-09-16):** commit `afcf477` amended ADR-0019's Consequences with the feature-branch hazard, and the discard guidance for a feature branch is now also in `AGENTS.md` and `README.md` (`dd0b923`). The reason those two files and ADR-0019 gave for discarding the lock was wrong, and the review round below corrected it. See finding 34's closing note.