feat(410): the skills own the full reflexes, in words any client can read (#4029)

Step 2 of milestone 410 "One owner per piece of guidance". Skills are the
part of every client package shared verbatim (Agent Skills, decision #4027),
so they state each reflex in full and name no particular client.

using-scribe gains what only the static session context said:
- a retrieved rule outranks a default habit; ask when no rule speaks to it
- log on completing a task and on hitting a problem, not only successes
- the systems_hint on an untagged record is the tagging question, answered
  at the moment of work

Client-specific text leaves the skills, rewritten as the universal idea:
- using-scribe: "keep one copy" no longer names CLAUDE.md, MEMORY.md, native
  auto-memory or autoMemoryEnabled; "this plugin" becomes Scribe
- reusing-code / shape-accounting: Write/Edit and Bash become editor tools
  and shell edits; the prior-art "hook" becomes the prior-art hint; a plugin
  version number is dropped

tests/test_guidance_ownership.py:
- test_the_skills_name_no_particular_client fails on any Claude Code path,
  memory file, slash command, hook event or tool name in a skill, each
  marker commented with why it is client-specific; a companion test shows
  it can fail
- three registry topics for what using-scribe now owns; the loss guard
  stays green

Plugin version minted.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "scribe",
   "description": "Scribe system-of-record for Claude Code: MCP tools over your notes/tasks/projects/rules, a session-start push channel that surfaces your active-project context, process-skills (writing-plans, reporting-back, systematic-debugging, verification, brainstorming, reusing-code), and your saved Scribe Processes auto-surfaced as skills (/scribe:sync). Replaces superpowers + file-memory with one app-backed plugin.",
-  "version": "2026.09.14.1438",
+  "version": "2026.09.14.1550",
   "author": {
     "name": "Bryan Van Deusen"
   },

plugin/skills/reusing-code/SKILL.md

@@ -47,8 +47,8 @@ through recall/auto-inject; this skill is the active reflex around that.
 - **A `Shape ledger at …` line is the ledger speaking, not the record.** It
   names a duplicate family ("identical body in N other files, no canon"), a
   repeated name ("defined in N other files") or a canon elsewhere for a name
-  you just wrote — for edits made through Bash
+  you just wrote — for edits made through a shell
-  (sed, heredocs, scripts) as much as through Write/Edit. Derive the family or
+  (sed, heredocs, scripts) as much as through your editor tools. Derive the family or
   reuse the canon *now*; a family that is convention rather than copies is
   dismissed with `classify_shapes(..., status="exempt",
   reason_code="convention-plumbing")`, never ignored.

plugin/skills/shape-accounting/SKILL.md

@@ -47,12 +47,12 @@ need a hand judgment:
 - **The sync** stamps a snippet's own reference location `canonical`
   (`classified_by: mechanical`).
 - **The write path** stamps instances as you work: when you `get_snippet` a
-  canon and then Write/Edit code that references or resembles it, the
+  canon and then write code that references or resembles it, the
   definitions being written land as `instance` rows (`classified_by: hook`,
-  the evidence in `reason`), and the prior-art hook tells you what landed
+  the evidence in `reason`), and the prior-art hint tells you what landed
   ("Shape accounting: recorded at … → instance of #N"). Offered-but-unopened
   snippets stamp nothing — so *pull the canon you are instantiating*; that
-  pull is what turns your reuse into accounting. A hook row is evidence, not
+  pull is what turns your reuse into accounting. A `hook` row is evidence, not
   judgment: it never overrides a classification you made, and a
   `classify_shapes` call overrides it.
 
@@ -91,8 +91,8 @@ The catalogue exists so the codebase is DRY **from inception**, not as DRY as
 the last sweep left it. Three surfaces say so without anyone running an audit
 (milestone 299):
 
-- **At the write** — the prior-art hint (the Write/Edit hook, and since
+- **At the write** — the prior-art hint (delivered beside a write where your
-  0.1.39 the after-write hook on Bash, so sed/heredoc/script edits count too)
+  client supports it; shell edits count as much as editor writes)
   carries a `Shape ledger at <path>` line when a name just written is a known
   **duplicate family** ("identical body in N other files, no canon"), a
   **repeated name** ("defined in N other files, no canon") or a
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ Three questions the ledger answers mechanically (#2793):
   proposer did not match to that canon. `diverges_from` names the canon.
   Judge it: `instance` if it should be built from the canon (and rebuild
   it), `variant` with the why if the departure is deliberate. The write-path
-  hook asks the same question in-band the moment such a shape is written.
+  hint asks the same question in-band the moment such a shape is written.
 - **History** — `shape_history(project_id, path, symbol?)`: the current rows
   plus every `classified` / `vanished` / `reappeared` / `drifted` event with
   its commit — "instance of #N from <date>, re-judged variant of #M because

plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md

@@ -31,28 +31,25 @@ Do this actively. Nothing is handed to a session up front to stand in for it —
 rules arrive by retrieval, when your work or the operator's message matches
 one — so asking and entering the project are the reliable path.
 
-## Scribe holds these functions — don't keep a second copy
+## Scribe holds these functions — keep one copy
 
-This plugin makes Scribe the home for the operator's **rules, recall, and
+Scribe is the home for the operator's **rules, recall, and planning** — the
-planning** — the jobs Claude's native auto-memory would otherwise do. When the
+jobs your client's own local memory files would otherwise do. Route those jobs
-plugin is present, route those jobs to Scribe and **do not also write them to
+to Scribe instead of also writing them locally: codify rules with
-native memory**: codify rules with `create_rule` / `create_project_rule`,
+`create_rule` / `create_project_rule`, capture durable knowledge as Scribe
-capture durable knowledge as Scribe notes, and keep plans in Scribe milestones
+notes, and keep plans in Scribe milestones (via `start_planning`). One copy, in
-(via `start_planning`) — not in `MEMORY.md` or `CLAUDE.md`. One copy, in Scribe; let any existing local
+Scribe; let any existing local memory shrink as Scribe takes over.
-memory shrink as Scribe takes over. Don't maintain both stores in parallel.
 
 Two constraints on *how* that's achieved:
 
-- **Steer behavior; never flip a native switch.** The plugin must work with
+- **Steer behaviour; leave the client's own settings as they are.** Scribe works
-  native auto-memory at its default (ON). Never tell the operator to set
+  alongside a client's built-in memory at its defaults. You replace memory's
-  `autoMemoryEnabled:false` or otherwise disable a built-in function to make
+  functions by *doing the work in Scribe*, so there is no reason to ask the
-  Scribe "win" — a setting the operator may not know was changed (and wouldn't
+  operator to switch a built-in feature off — a setting they didn't knowingly
-  know to restore) is exactly the hidden breakage to avoid. You replace memory's
+  change is breakage they won't know to restore.
-  functions by *doing the work in Scribe*, not by turning memory off.
+- **A Scribe-shaped hole is acceptable.** If Scribe is later removed, the
-- **A Scribe-shaped hole is acceptable.** If the plugin is later removed, the
+  operator recovers context over time — that's fine. Local memory doesn't need
-  operator recovers context over time — that's fine. You do **not** need to keep
+  to be kept as a self-sufficient fallback.
-  native memory as a self-sufficient fallback. The only thing to avoid is
-  breakage caused by a settings change the operator didn't make knowingly.
 
 ## The reflex
 
@@ -98,6 +95,13 @@ Two constraints on *how* that's achieved:
    session it has nothing to do with — but retrieval only fires if something
    asks.
 
+   **A retrieved rule outranks a default habit.** Before a hard-to-reverse or
+   outward-facing act — changing shared state, publishing, deleting, sending
+   something outside the session — the operator's rules decide what to do, not
+   the generic conventions your client or your training suggest. When a rule
+   and a habit disagree, the rule wins; when no rule speaks to it, ask rather
+   than assume.
+
    **Ask hardest where you feel most certain.** Rules about which TOOL to reach
    for — use the forge's MCP client rather than curling its API, don't stand up
    a local stack, don't run the suite CI owns — govern moves that feel like
@@ -118,7 +122,9 @@ Two constraints on *how* that's achieved:
    plans/specs to local `.md` files. See the **writing-plans** skill.
 
 5. **Keep state honest.** Set a task `in_progress` when you start it, `done` the
-   moment it's complete; log progress as you go.
+   moment it's complete; log progress as you go. Always log when you
+   **complete** a task and when you **hit or discover a problem**, so a change
+   of direction is on the record and not only the successes.
 
 6. **Fixes are issues, not work-logs.** When you fix a problem — even one solved
    in passing — record it as its own issue (`create_task(kind="issue")`) with
@@ -141,6 +147,11 @@ Two constraints on *how* that's achieved:
    not restraint. Only a record genuinely about no particular area goes
    untagged.
 
+   Every read and write of a project record shows its `systems`. An untagged
+   one carries a `systems_hint` question instead — on creates, updates and
+   work-logs alike. Treat it as the tagging question asked at the moment of
+   work: tag the record, create the missing System, or deliberately leave it.
+
 8. **Name the record, never just its number.** Whenever you refer to a Scribe
    record — in a message to the operator, a commit message, a task body, a
    work-log — write the id *and* its title: `#3244 "the staleness signal"`,
@@ -307,6 +318,6 @@ nothing will tell you it drifted.
 
 ## Other Scribe process-skills
 
-This plugin also ships focused process-skills — writing-plans, reporting-back,
+Scribe also ships focused process-skills — writing-plans, reporting-back,
 systematic debugging, verification, and brainstorming. Reach for the matching one when its
 situation arises, the same way you reach for this skill.

tests/test_guidance_ownership.py

@@ -112,6 +112,9 @@ TOPICS: tuple[Topic, ...] = (
     Topic("an id exists only once a create returns it", "skill:using-scribe",
           ("exists only once a create", "{{ref:")),
     Topic("tag records to systems as you write", "skill:using-scribe", ("system_ids", "create_system")),
+    Topic("answer the systems_hint at the moment of work", "skill:using-scribe", ("systems_hint",)),
+    Topic("a retrieved rule outranks a default habit", "skill:using-scribe", ("outranks a default habit",)),
+    Topic("log on completion and on a problem", "skill:using-scribe", ("hit or discover a problem",)),
     Topic("the project's design system binds ui", "skill:using-scribe", ("resolve_design_system",)),
     Topic("name the record, never just its number", "skill:using-scribe", ("name the record",)),
     Topic("project inception is a decision", "skill:using-scribe", ("decide_project_inception",)),
@@ -196,3 +199,55 @@ def test_the_loss_guard_can_fail():
     reported = missing_topics((split, absent, whole), surfaces)
     assert len(reported) == 2
     assert reported[0].startswith("'split'") and "nowhere" in reported[1]
+
+
+# ── The skills are client-neutral (milestone 410 step 2) ────────────────
+#
+# Agent Skills is an open format read by dozens of clients (#4023), so the
+# skills folder is the part of every client package that is shared verbatim.
+# Anything only one client understands belongs in that client's adapter —
+# for Claude Code, the plugin's static context, hooks and commands — or the
+# skill reads as nonsense everywhere else. Each marker below names a thing
+# exactly one client has:
+#   - "claude", "~/.claude", ".claude/"   the client itself and its paths
+#   - "claude.md", "memory.md", "auto-memory", "automemoryenabled"
+#                                          Claude Code's local memory files/setting
+#   - "/compact", "/scribe:"               Claude Code slash commands
+#   - "sessionstart", "userpromptsubmit", "pretooluse", "posttooluse"
+#                                          Claude Code hook event names
+#   - "write/edit"                         Claude Code's editor tool names
+#   - "claude_plugin_root"                 the Claude Code plugin root variable
+# `Bash` is matched case-sensitively as a word: it is Claude Code's shell tool
+# name, while "bash" in prose is just the shell.
+CLIENT_SPECIFIC = (
+    "claude", "~/.claude", ".claude/", "claude.md", "memory.md", "auto-memory",
+    "automemoryenabled", "/compact", "/scribe:", "sessionstart", "userpromptsubmit",
+    "pretooluse", "posttooluse", "write/edit", "claude_plugin_root",
+)
+CLIENT_TOOL_NAME = re.compile(r"\bBash\b")
+
+
+def client_specific_hits(text: str) -> list[str]:
+    hits = [m for m in CLIENT_SPECIFIC if m in text.lower()]
+    if CLIENT_TOOL_NAME.search(text):
+        hits.append("Bash")
+    return hits
+
+
+def test_the_skills_name_no_particular_client():
+    offenders = {
+        str(p.relative_to(ROOT)): client_specific_hits(p.read_text())
+        for p in sorted((ROOT / "plugin/skills").glob("*/SKILL.md"))
+    }
+    offenders = {path: hits for path, hits in offenders.items() if hits}
+    assert not offenders, (
+        f"skills that name one client: {offenders}. Skills are shared by every "
+        f"client package (decision #4027); say the universal thing in the skill "
+        f"and put the client's own name for it in that client's adapter."
+    )
+
+
+def test_the_client_guard_can_fail():
+    assert client_specific_hits("keep a copy in CLAUDE.md") == ["claude", "claude.md"]
+    assert client_specific_hits("edits made through Bash") == ["Bash"]
+    assert client_specific_hits("edits made through a bash shell") == []