diff --git a/plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json b/plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
index 86ab450..1d30bdb 100644
--- a/plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
+++ b/plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "scribe",
   "description": "Scribe for Claude Code: connects the scribe MCP server, adds the hooks that deliver live project state and relevant records at the right moment, ships the shared client-neutral Scribe skills (using-scribe, writing-plans, reporting-back, systematic-debugging, verification, brainstorming, reusing-code, shape-accounting), and syncs your saved Scribe Processes as skills (/scribe:sync).",
-  "version": "2026.09.24.1042",
+  "version": "2026.09.24.1358",
   "author": {
     "name": "Bryan Van Deusen"
   },
diff --git a/plugin/PACKAGING.md b/plugin/PACKAGING.md
index fd96a0e..780825e 100644
--- a/plugin/PACKAGING.md
+++ b/plugin/PACKAGING.md
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ another one means adding files, not moving or rewriting any.
 | Piece | Where | What it is |
 |---|---|---|
 | **The skills** | `plugin/skills/*/SKILL.md` | Agent Skills (the open SKILL.md format). They state every Scribe reflex in full and name no client. `tests/test_guidance_ownership.py` fails if a skill names a particular client, or references anything outside its own folder. Every client package ships this folder verbatim. |
-| **The MCP server** | `<base URL>/mcp` | HTTP, `Authorization: Bearer <fmcp_ key>`. Its `_INSTRUCTIONS` is a client-neutral index (≤2,000 chars); each tool's description carries its contract; in-band responses (`placement`, `report_back`, `systems_hint`, the duplicate gate, the guessed-id refusal) fire in every client. |
+| **The MCP server** | `<base URL>/mcp` | HTTP, `Authorization: Bearer <fmcp_ key>`. Its `_INSTRUCTIONS` is a client-neutral orientation — the workflow across tools (≤1,600 chars, #4389); each tool's description carries its contract; in-band responses (`placement`, `report_back`, `systems_hint`, the duplicate gate, the guessed-id refusal) fire in every client. |
 | **The adapter API** | `<base URL>/api/plugin/*` | Plain `GET` endpoints any client's hooks can call with the same key (read scope is enough): `context` (live session state), `retrieve` (rules, preferences and notes for a message), `prior-art` (records and shape-ledger hints for code being written), `tool-rules` (rules for a command about to run), `report-check` (records a completion-report check and returns the reason for a block), `processes` (stored Processes to expose as skills). |
 | **The API key** | Scribe → Settings → API Keys | One `fmcp_` key per install. Read scope for hooks; write scope for the MCP tools. |
 
diff --git a/plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md b/plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md
index da75f16..c469ab9 100644
--- a/plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md
@@ -17,19 +17,8 @@ If the working directory maps to a Scribe project, call `enter_project(id)` —
 it returns the project's goal, the milestones and open tasks worked on most
 recently, its Systems and the titles of its own rules in one shot.
 
-**A directory does not have to be a git repo to have a project.** A repo is
-bound by its remote (`list_repo_bindings` shows the bindings). Anything else —
-a notes folder, a server's config directory, a scratch directory — is bound by
-a `.scribe` file naming the project:
-
-    {"instance": "https://scribe.example.com", "project_id": 2, "project": "Homelab"}
-
-`instance` is what makes the id trustworthy. An id means nothing on its own —
-it is a different project on every Scribe — so a marker that has travelled to
-another instance is ignored rather than followed to the wrong project. A bare
-`2` also works when writing the file by hand. When work plainly belongs to a
-project and the directory names none, offer to write the marker;
-`list_projects` has the id.
+Binding a directory that is not a git repo, or starting a new project, has
+its own steps: read [projects.md](projects.md).
 
 Then **ask before you act**: before anything hard to reverse or outward-facing,
 search the rules for what you are about to do. Reflex 2 below is why asking,
@@ -120,17 +109,9 @@ Two constraints on *how* that's achieved:
    learned is that something MUST be done a certain way, that is a rule to
    propose, not a preference to harden in place.
 
-   **A lesson grows each time it proves itself.** When one arrives and the
-   situation it names is the one you are actually in, you are the single
-   reader placed to tell whether its trigger is keyed right and whether its
-   claim covers what you are seeing. `update_lesson` takes what you now know:
-   another incident added to what taught it, the claim stated more exactly,
-   or — the edit worth most — a trigger re-keyed to the situation that really
-   fired. A lesson nobody reaches is seldom wrong; far more often it is
-   waiting in a situation nobody is in. One claim that has met the same
-   failure four times is worth more than four claims that each met it once,
-   so when a near-duplicate create hands back an existing id, that is the
-   record to grow.
+   **A lesson grows each time it proves itself.** When one arrives and names the
+   situation you are actually in, `update_lesson` it with what you now know;
+   [writing-records.md](writing-records.md) says what is worth adding.
 
    **Preferences shape how work is done, never what gets recorded.** They
    govern your conduct — how you report, how carefully you pace, which form
@@ -246,47 +227,10 @@ Two constraints on *how* that's achieved:
    re-measurement, a reversed decision), pass the old id in `supersedes` so the
    stale record is demoted and labelled rather than left competing.
 
-10. **A few notes assert a FACT, and those can carry their own check.**
-   Supersession only fires once somebody has read a note and disagreed — which
-   is the case where it was already believed. A note asserting something about
-   *someone else's* software — what a service does on a duplicate upload, how a
-   forge numbers its CI runs, what an updater compares — can instead carry
-   `verify_with` (how to check it) and `expires_when` (the STATE that ends it:
-   "when the forge numbers runs per workflow", never "in six months").
-   `notes_due_for_verification` lists them least-recently-confirmed first, with
-   never-checked at the top; `mark_note_verified` records what you found, and
-   `still_true=False` deliberately writes nothing — a note whose check failed
-   is wrong rather than in a state worth recording, so it keeps its place.
-
-   **The test is one question: could this note become false without anyone
-   editing it?** If no, leave both fields empty. That is the normal case, and
-   an empty `verify_with` is the positive marker for "this is a decision, there
-   is nothing to go and check" — not an unfinished record. The sweep is only
-   worth reading while almost nothing is on it, so a check added out of
-   tidiness costs the whole surface, not just that note.
-
-   **The sharper form of the same test: is the thing this note describes yours
-   to change?** If yes it is a decision — editing your own software is how it
-   changes, and you will know you did it. Measured against a real corpus, every
-   note that earned a check was about somebody ELSE's software: a signing
-   service, a forge, a hub, an SDK, a model, a dependency set.
-
-   **Three that look like candidates and are not:**
-   - **Resume pointers and "current state" notes.** They go stale fastest of
-     anything, which is exactly why they tempt — but the cure is to update or
-     delete them, not to schedule a check. A sweep full of pointers is a sweep
-     nobody reads.
-   - **Measurements of your own system.** They go false because you changed
-     something, and you knew. A measurement earns a check only when what it
-     measures is outside your control.
-   - **A decision that RESTS on somebody else's behaviour.** The decision is
-     still a decision. Put the check on the note asserting the fact, and link
-     the decision to it.
-
-   Not for tasks — a task's decay is its status, and a done issue records what
-   happened rather than asserting something that can go false. Not for snippets
-   either: `verify_snippet` compares the recorded location and code against the
-   repo, which is richer and already wired to drift detection.
+10. **A note that asserts a fact about someone else's software can carry its
+   own check** (`verify_with`, `expires_when`), swept by
+   `notes_due_for_verification`. Most notes should not: read
+   [writing-records.md](writing-records.md) before filling either field.
 
 11. **Report back in a shape the operator can read.** They were not there while
    you worked, so organise the reply around **where the work stands**, not the
@@ -311,80 +255,18 @@ bound — confine the session to it:
 - If something clearly belongs to a *different* project, say so and **ask before
   switching** — never silently operate cross-project.
 
-## Starting a project: decide what it inherits
+## Read these when the moment comes
 
-A project's inheritance is a **decision, not a default**. Before
-`create_project`, ask the operator the two inception questions and pass the
-answers — never create a project bare by default:
+Each is part of this skill, kept in its own file because it matters at one
+moment rather than on every turn:
 
-- which **design system** its UI is built from (`list_design_systems`; or
-  none) → `design_system_id=<id | -1>`
-- whether to **seed the standard starter Systems** so records can be tagged
-  from day one → `seed_systems=true|false`
-
-Rules are not an inception question: a global rule already applies to every
-project, and a project's own rules are written on it as they come up.
-
-If `enter_project` returns an `inception` key, the project was never decided
-(it inherits its defaults silently): raise that ask once, with the defaults it
-carries, then `decide_project_inception(project_id, …)`. Existing projects
-were stamped "legacy" and do not ask; any project can be re-decided. The
-design-system and Systems tools still work one at a time — inception is the
-moment they are decided together, and the record of why.
-
-## Where a new rule goes
-
-A rule has one of two homes, and the home IS its reach:
-
-- **Global** — in a rulebook (`create_rule` into a topic). It applies in every
-  project, and reaches a session wherever the work matches it. A rulebook is a
-  *themed* grouping of general rules (e.g. a review checklist), not a list of
-  projects it binds — there is no subscribing a project to one.
-- **Project** (`create_project_rule`) — anything specific to one project (its
-  files, paths, quirks). It reaches only that project's sessions.
-
-Names one project's specifics → project rule; a standard that holds wherever
-the kind of work it describes happens → global. Never put project-specific
-detail in a rulebook — it would reach every other project. A project that
-departs from a global rule writes its own and links it with
-`relate_rules(kind="overrides")`, which says why. A rule that turns out to be
-in the wrong home — a project rule that holds everywhere, a global one only a
-single project needs — moves with `move_rule`, which keeps its id, history,
-areas and edges. Propose the move and make it on a yes.
-
-**Whichever home it gets, a rule needs `when_to_apply`.** It is the only thing
-that decides whether the rule is ever seen: nothing is preloaded, so a rule
-with no trigger is not a quiet rule, it is an unreachable one. Write the moment
-in the words a session actually produces — the command, the error, the
-half-formed ask — not the category it belongs to.
-
-**Before writing one, ask what already covers that moment.**
-`what_might_apply("the moment you are about to write a record for")` — fifty
-candidates and no bar, so an existing record cannot hide under a threshold the
-way it can from `search`. When something already covers the moment, the reach
-is that record: improve its trigger or its statement rather than standing a
-second one beside it. Two records describing the same moment compete in one
-ranked list against one budget, and the slot they take from each other is the
-third candidate that would have said something different. Two records may
-legitimately share a moment and say *different* things — a rule for what must
-happen, a preference for how to report it. What this catches is the same thing
-said twice at two strengths, which is worse than either alone: a session that
-retrieves the softer copy has been told that binding guidance is optional.
-
-**First ask whether it's a rule at all.** A rule is prose you have to remember
-and apply; Scribe's other entities are structure a tool can resolve and check.
-Visual standards belong in a **design system**, not a rulebook — a token can be
-inherited, resolved per mode, rendered to a stylesheet and diffed against code,
-and none of that survives being written as a rule. A repeatable procedure is a
-**process**; reusable code is a **snippet**. Reach for a rule when the thing
-really is a standing instruction about how to work.
-
-Then ask what force it carries, by the question above. A standing instruction
-that merely costs consistency is a **preference** (`create_preference`), and a
-transferable insight that costs time is a **lesson** (`create_lesson`), keyed
-to the situation it applies to so a later session meets it there. Both are
-first-class outcomes of noticing something, not what's left when a rule
-proposal fails.
+- [projects.md](projects.md) — a directory with no project; starting a project
+  (`decide_project_inception` when `enter_project` returns `inception`).
+- [writing-records.md](writing-records.md) — before writing a rule, preference
+  or lesson (where it goes, its `when_to_apply`, what already covers the
+  moment), and before giving a note a check.
+- [missed-retrieval.md](missed-retrieval.md) — a rule that missed the moment it
+  governed, or keeps arriving where it doesn't apply.
 
 ## You are the judge of what the record says
 
@@ -415,49 +297,6 @@ stored, so when you fix how judgments are made, go and look at the ones
 already there. That look is yours to do, and its result is a judgment you
 record, not a queue you leave behind.
 
-## When a record doesn't reach the moment it should
-
-Retrieval misjudging is ordinary, and it is fixable — but only by whoever
-notices. **Either direction counts:** a rule that should have governed a moment
-and never arrived, and a rule that arrives on every turn and never applies. So
-does **either noticer**: the operator saying *"that should have fired"*, and you
-noticing it yourself — you reached for a rule nobody offered you, or you were
-handed the same rule five times and set it aside five times.
-
-**Take it to the record first and the dial second.** A rule's `when_to_apply`
-IS the text its similarity score is computed against, so when a rule misses a
-moment it governs, the overwhelmingly likely cause is that its trigger does not
-describe that moment in the words a session actually produces. Rewording one
-trigger changes one rule's reach. Moving a floor changes what every record on
-that surface does, and a floor cannot tell a badly-worded trigger from a
-genuinely distant record — so one lowered to rescue a single rule admits
-everything else that was sitting in the same band.
-
-1. **Read the refused records.** `retrieval_telemetry(days=N,
-   near_miss_samples=5)` names by id what each surface refused and by how much.
-   Open them with `get_rule` / `get_note`. This is the step that carries the
-   answer: the statistic says a record was close, and only the record says
-   whether it was *right*.
-2. **Fix the trigger.** `update_rule(when_to_apply=...)`, written as the
-   symptom — what the session was doing or saying at the moment it needed this
-   rule — not the situation the rule belongs to. Then check that it worked:
-   `what_might_apply("the moment, in the operator's own words")` and read where
-   the rule now ranks. The change is measurable, so measure it, and say the
-   before and after when you report it.
-3. **Then consider the dial.** `retrieval_surfaces` shows what is in force per
-   arm and whether the number is still calibrated; `tune_retrieval` moves it.
-   `reason` is required and has to say what you read, because it is what lets
-   the operator disagree with a number they did not choose.
-
-Reaching for `tune_retrieval` before opening a single record is the wrong move,
-and it is the one that feels efficient. Worked example, measured on this
-install: a rule granting a routine push scored 0.6515 and ranked 5th for the
-moment it governed, behind three rules that *restrained* the same act. Every
-percentile said "lower the floor" — and lowering it would have delivered those
-three restraints and still not the rule. Rewriting the trigger to lead with the
-symptom moved the same rule to 1st at 0.7130, ahead of all three. Only then was
-the floor worth touching.
-
 ## Building UI: the project's design system binds
 
 `enter_project` names the project's `design_system` when it has one. Before
diff --git a/plugin/skills/using-scribe/missed-retrieval.md b/plugin/skills/using-scribe/missed-retrieval.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d65750e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugin/skills/using-scribe/missed-retrieval.md
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# When a record doesn't reach the moment it should
+
+Part of the using-scribe skill. Read it when a rule should have governed a
+moment and never arrived, when one arrives on every turn and never applies,
+or before touching a retrieval floor.
+
+Retrieval misjudging is ordinary, and it is fixable — but only by whoever
+notices. **Either direction counts:** a rule that should have governed a moment
+and never arrived, and a rule that arrives on every turn and never applies. So
+does **either noticer**: the operator saying *"that should have fired"*, and you
+noticing it yourself — you reached for a rule nobody offered you, or you were
+handed the same rule five times and set it aside five times.
+
+**Take it to the record first and the dial second.** A rule's `when_to_apply`
+IS the text its similarity score is computed against, so when a rule misses a
+moment it governs, the overwhelmingly likely cause is that its trigger does not
+describe that moment in the words a session actually produces. Rewording one
+trigger changes one rule's reach. Moving a floor changes what every record on
+that surface does, and a floor cannot tell a badly-worded trigger from a
+genuinely distant record — so one lowered to rescue a single rule admits
+everything else that was sitting in the same band.
+
+1. **Read the refused records.** `retrieval_telemetry(days=N,
+   near_miss_samples=5)` names by id what each surface refused and by how much.
+   Open them with `get_rule` / `get_note`. This is the step that carries the
+   answer: the statistic says a record was close, and only the record says
+   whether it was *right*.
+2. **Fix the trigger.** `update_rule(when_to_apply=...)`, written as the
+   symptom — what the session was doing or saying at the moment it needed this
+   rule — not the situation the rule belongs to. Then check that it worked:
+   `what_might_apply("the moment, in the operator's own words")` and read where
+   the rule now ranks. The change is measurable, so measure it, and say the
+   before and after when you report it.
+3. **Then consider the dial.** `retrieval_surfaces` shows what is in force per
+   arm and whether the number is still calibrated; `tune_retrieval` moves it.
+   `reason` is required and has to say what you read, because it is what lets
+   the operator disagree with a number they did not choose.
+
+Reaching for `tune_retrieval` before opening a single record is the wrong move,
+and it is the one that feels efficient. Worked example, measured on this
+install: a rule granting a routine push scored 0.6515 and ranked 5th for the
+moment it governed, behind three rules that *restrained* the same act. Every
+percentile said "lower the floor" — and lowering it would have delivered those
+three restraints and still not the rule. Rewriting the trigger to lead with the
+symptom moved the same rule to 1st at 0.7130, ahead of all three. Only then was
+the floor worth touching.
diff --git a/plugin/skills/using-scribe/projects.md b/plugin/skills/using-scribe/projects.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4088f1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugin/skills/using-scribe/projects.md
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# Projects: binding a directory, and starting one
+
+Part of the using-scribe skill. Read it when a working directory maps to no
+project, or when a new project is about to be created.
+
+## Binding a directory to a project
+
+**A directory does not have to be a git repo to have a project.** A repo is
+bound by its remote (`list_repo_bindings` shows the bindings). Anything else —
+a notes folder, a server's config directory, a scratch directory — is bound by
+a `.scribe` file naming the project:
+
+    {"instance": "https://scribe.example.com", "project_id": 2, "project": "Homelab"}
+
+`instance` is what makes the id trustworthy. An id means nothing on its own —
+it is a different project on every Scribe — so a marker that has travelled to
+another instance is ignored rather than followed to the wrong project. A bare
+`2` also works when writing the file by hand. When work plainly belongs to a
+project and the directory names none, offer to write the marker;
+`list_projects` has the id.
+
+## Starting a project: decide what it inherits
+
+A project's inheritance is a **decision, not a default**. Before
+`create_project`, ask the operator the two inception questions and pass the
+answers — never create a project bare by default:
+
+- which **design system** its UI is built from (`list_design_systems`; or
+  none) → `design_system_id=<id | -1>`
+- whether to **seed the standard starter Systems** so records can be tagged
+  from day one → `seed_systems=true|false`
+
+Rules are not an inception question: a global rule already applies to every
+project, and a project's own rules are written on it as they come up.
+
+If `enter_project` returns an `inception` key, the project was never decided
+(it inherits its defaults silently): raise that ask once, with the defaults it
+carries, then `decide_project_inception(project_id, …)`. Existing projects
+were stamped "legacy" and do not ask; any project can be re-decided. The
+design-system and Systems tools still work one at a time — inception is the
+moment they are decided together, and the record of why.
diff --git a/plugin/skills/using-scribe/writing-records.md b/plugin/skills/using-scribe/writing-records.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9876571
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugin/skills/using-scribe/writing-records.md
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+# Writing a rule, a lesson, or a note that asserts a fact
+
+Part of the using-scribe skill. Read it before `create_rule`,
+`create_project_rule`, `create_preference` or `create_lesson`; when a lesson
+arrives that names the situation you are actually in; and before filling
+`verify_with` or `expires_when` on a note.
+
+## Contents
+- Where a new rule goes — its home, its trigger, what already covers the moment
+- A lesson grows each time it proves itself
+- A note that asserts a fact can carry its own check
+
+## Where a new rule goes
+
+A rule has one of two homes, and the home IS its reach:
+
+- **Global** — in a rulebook (`create_rule` into a topic). It applies in every
+  project, and reaches a session wherever the work matches it. A rulebook is a
+  *themed* grouping of general rules (e.g. a review checklist), not a list of
+  projects it binds — there is no subscribing a project to one.
+- **Project** (`create_project_rule`) — anything specific to one project (its
+  files, paths, quirks). It reaches only that project's sessions.
+
+Names one project's specifics → project rule; a standard that holds wherever
+the kind of work it describes happens → global. Never put project-specific
+detail in a rulebook — it would reach every other project. A project that
+departs from a global rule writes its own and links it with
+`relate_rules(kind="overrides")`, which says why. A rule that turns out to be
+in the wrong home — a project rule that holds everywhere, a global one only a
+single project needs — moves with `move_rule`, which keeps its id, history,
+areas and edges. Propose the move and make it on a yes.
+
+**Whichever home it gets, a rule needs `when_to_apply`.** It is the only thing
+that decides whether the rule is ever seen: nothing is preloaded, so a rule
+with no trigger is not a quiet rule, it is an unreachable one. Write the moment
+in the words a session actually produces — the command, the error, the
+half-formed ask — not the category it belongs to.
+
+**Before writing one, ask what already covers that moment.**
+`what_might_apply("the moment you are about to write a record for")` — fifty
+candidates and no bar, so an existing record cannot hide under a threshold the
+way it can from `search`. When something already covers the moment, the reach
+is that record: improve its trigger or its statement rather than standing a
+second one beside it. Two records describing the same moment compete in one
+ranked list against one budget, and the slot they take from each other is the
+third candidate that would have said something different. Two records may
+legitimately share a moment and say *different* things — a rule for what must
+happen, a preference for how to report it. What this catches is the same thing
+said twice at two strengths, which is worse than either alone: a session that
+retrieves the softer copy has been told that binding guidance is optional.
+
+**First ask whether it's a rule at all.** A rule is prose you have to remember
+and apply; Scribe's other entities are structure a tool can resolve and check.
+Visual standards belong in a **design system**, not a rulebook — a token can be
+inherited, resolved per mode, rendered to a stylesheet and diffed against code,
+and none of that survives being written as a rule. A repeatable procedure is a
+**process**; reusable code is a **snippet**. Reach for a rule when the thing
+really is a standing instruction about how to work.
+
+Then ask what force it carries, by the question SKILL.md's reflex 2 asks: what
+happens if someone doesn't do this? A standing instruction that merely costs
+consistency is a **preference** (`create_preference`), and a transferable
+insight that costs time is a **lesson** (`create_lesson`), keyed to the
+situation it applies to so a later session meets it there. Both are first-class
+outcomes of noticing something, not what's left when a rule proposal fails.
+
+## A lesson grows each time it proves itself
+
+When one arrives and the situation it names is the one you are actually in, you
+are the single reader placed to tell whether its trigger is keyed right and
+whether its claim covers what you are seeing. `update_lesson` takes what you
+now know: another incident added to what taught it, the claim stated more
+exactly, or — the edit worth most — a trigger re-keyed to the situation that
+really fired. A lesson nobody reaches is seldom wrong; far more often it is
+waiting in a situation nobody is in. One claim that has met the same failure
+four times is worth more than four claims that each met it once, so when a
+near-duplicate create hands back an existing id, that is the record to grow.
+
+## A note that asserts a fact can carry its own check
+
+**A few notes assert a FACT, and those can carry their own check.**
+Supersession only fires once somebody has read a note and disagreed — which
+is the case where it was already believed. A note asserting something about
+*someone else's* software — what a service does on a duplicate upload, how a
+forge numbers its CI runs, what an updater compares — can instead carry
+`verify_with` (how to check it) and `expires_when` (the STATE that ends it:
+"when the forge numbers runs per workflow", never "in six months").
+`notes_due_for_verification` lists them least-recently-confirmed first, with
+never-checked at the top; `mark_note_verified` records what you found, and
+`still_true=False` deliberately writes nothing — a note whose check failed
+is wrong rather than in a state worth recording, so it keeps its place.
+
+**The test is one question: could this note become false without anyone
+editing it?** If no, leave both fields empty. That is the normal case, and
+an empty `verify_with` is the positive marker for "this is a decision, there
+is nothing to go and check" — not an unfinished record. The sweep is only
+worth reading while almost nothing is on it, so a check added out of
+tidiness costs the whole surface, not just that note.
+
+**The sharper form of the same test: is the thing this note describes yours
+to change?** If yes it is a decision — editing your own software is how it
+changes, and you will know you did it. Measured against a real corpus, every
+note that earned a check was about somebody ELSE's software: a signing
+service, a forge, a hub, an SDK, a model, a dependency set.
+
+**Three that look like candidates and are not:**
+- **Resume pointers and "current state" notes.** They go stale fastest of
+  anything, which is exactly why they tempt — but the cure is to update or
+  delete them, not to schedule a check. A sweep full of pointers is a sweep
+  nobody reads.
+- **Measurements of your own system.** They go false because you changed
+  something, and you knew. A measurement earns a check only when what it
+  measures is outside your control.
+- **A decision that RESTS on somebody else's behaviour.** The decision is
+  still a decision. Put the check on the note asserting the fact, and link
+  the decision to it.
+
+Not for tasks — a task's decay is its status, and a done issue records what
+happened rather than asserting something that can go false. Not for snippets
+either: `verify_snippet` compares the recorded location and code against the
+repo, which is richer and already wired to drift detection.
diff --git a/src/scribe/mcp/server.py b/src/scribe/mcp/server.py
index 5ffca8b..fe1854e 100644
--- a/src/scribe/mcp/server.py
+++ b/src/scribe/mcp/server.py
@@ -23,49 +23,48 @@ from quart import Quart
 #     client's own conventions, never a copy of the above.
 # tests/test_guidance_ownership.py holds the topic registry that enforces it.
 #
-# THIS BLOCK IS THE SERVER'S ORIENTATION, WRITTEN AS AN INDEX. It reaches
-# every MCP client, so it names no client, and it points at where each reflex
-# is stated rather than restating it. A new topic gets a line here only if it
-# is a session-start reflex; its full statement goes to its owner.
+# THIS BLOCK IS THE SERVER'S ORIENTATION: the workflow across tools. It reaches
+# every MCP client, so it names no client, and it points at where each practice
+# is stated rather than restating it. What belongs here, per the spec and the
+# field (spike #4389): how the tools fit together — which to call first, which
+# before which. What does not: a tool's own contract (its description carries
+# it), and stance — who judges, how to report, what a missed rule means. Those
+# fire mid-work, not at the start; the skills state them and in-band responses
+# (`placement`, `report_back`) cue them at the moment they apply. A new topic
+# gets a line here only if it is a session-start practice.
 #
-# BUDGET: at most 2,000 characters (test_instructions_fit_the_fold). Claude
+# BUDGET: at most 1,600 characters (test_instructions_fit_the_fold). Claude
 # Code injects only the first ~2,048 characters of a server's instructions and
 # cuts the rest mid-word (#2562, observed live), and other clients differ, so
-# nothing load-bearing may sit past the fold. The history of what was traded
+# nothing load-bearing may sit past the fold; the rest of the field runs
+# ~600–1,600 (#4389), and a block pressed against the cap is being used as a
+# rulebook. The history of what was traded
 # for space before the ownership split (milestones 317, 333, 409) is in
 # decision #4027 and the notes it supersedes.
 _INSTRUCTIONS = """
 Scribe is the operator's system of record, and yours: recall before acting,
-record as you go, keep one copy here rather than in local memory files.
+record as you go, keep one copy here rather than in local memory files. Each
+practice below is stated in full in the using-scribe skill (if your client
+reads Agent Skills) and in each tool's description.
 
-Each reflex is stated in full in the using-scribe skill (if your client reads
-Agent Skills) and each tool's description. The index:
-- ORIENT: enter_project(id) loads the project, open work, Systems and design
+- Start with enter_project(id): the project, open work, Systems and design
   system. An `inception` key: ask what it inherits, then
   decide_project_inception.
-- RULES: nothing preloads; a rule arrives when your work matches it. Before a
-  consequential act, what_might_apply("what you are about to do") — fifty
-  ranked, no bar. search(content_type="rule") reads one you suspect. Silence
-  means nothing matched, not none. Rules bind; preferences guide and you keep
-  them current; lessons inform.
-- MISSED: a rule that missed you is a trigger to fix, not a floor to move
-  (retrieval_telemetry).
-- JUDGE: you are the judge of record — what a shape is, whether a finding
-  holds, whether work is done. Surfacing one for them to rule on is the
-  judgment not made. Escalate their acts, not your decisions.
-- RECALL: search before acting, scoped with the active project_id.
-- RECORD: create_task; a fix is kind="issue". add_task_log as you go; status
-  in_progress on start, done on finish. Tag system_ids.
-- PLAN with an arc: find the existing plan first
-  (search(content_type="milestone")) and add steps to it; else
-  start_planning(steps=[...]).
-- IDS exist only once a create returns them. Records citing each other go
-  through create_records, writing {{ref:N}} for the Nth record.
-- REUSE: search snippets before building; create_snippet what you build.
-- UI: the project's design system binds; resolve_design_system before
+- Rules are not preloaded; one arrives when your work matches it. Before a
+  consequential act, what_might_apply("what you are about to do");
+  search(content_type="rule") reads one you suspect. Silence means nothing
+  matched, not none. Rules bind; preferences guide and you keep them current;
+  lessons inform.
+- Search before acting or building, scoped with the active project_id; start
+  from a recorded snippet, and create_snippet what you build.
+- Work is tasks (a fix is kind="issue"): in_progress on start, add_task_log as
+  you go, done on finish; tag system_ids.
+- A plan is a milestone: find the existing one
+  (search(content_type="milestone")) before start_planning.
+- IDs exist only once a create returns them; records citing each other go
+  through create_records, writing {{ref:N}} for the Nth.
+- In UI work the project's design system binds: resolve_design_system before
   hand-writing a value.
-- REPORT from the `placement` a task write returns: where it sits, what
-  changed, what needs them, what next.
 
 Creates are duplicate-gated: a near-match returns the existing id to update.
 shared:true records are another user's suggestion, not settled practice.
diff --git a/tests/helpers.py b/tests/helpers.py
index f844fe7..ccbebc0 100644
--- a/tests/helpers.py
+++ b/tests/helpers.py
@@ -475,3 +475,19 @@ async def rule_row(rule_id: int):
 
     async with async_session() as s:
         return await s.get(Rule, rule_id)
+
+
+def skill_text(name: str) -> str:
+    """Everything a bundled skill states: its SKILL.md, then each reference file.
+
+    A skill keeps what matters on most turns in SKILL.md and moves what matters
+    at one moment into sibling files it links (Agent Skills progressive
+    disclosure, #4398). Both are the skill's own statement, so a test asking
+    "does this skill still say X" reads them together rather than pinning X to
+    whichever file it happens to sit in today.
+    """
+    import pathlib
+
+    folder = pathlib.Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "plugin" / "skills" / name
+    refs = sorted(p for p in folder.glob("*.md") if p.name != "SKILL.md")
+    return "\n\n".join(p.read_text() for p in [folder / "SKILL.md", *refs])
diff --git a/tests/test_guidance_ownership.py b/tests/test_guidance_ownership.py
index db86c97..513b81b 100644
--- a/tests/test_guidance_ownership.py
+++ b/tests/test_guidance_ownership.py
@@ -25,7 +25,10 @@ WHAT IT PINS
    moments declares that in `shared_with`, with the reason beside it.
 3. THE INDEX NAMES THE SESSION-START REFLEXES. `_INSTRUCTIONS` is the one
    surface every MCP client receives, so each reflex it indexes keeps its
-   `index` markers there — a one-line pointer, not a copy.
+   `index` markers there — a one-line pointer, not a copy. Only session-start
+   practices carry `index`: judging, reporting and the missed-rule route fire
+   mid-work, and #4389 took them out of the index (the skills and the in-band
+   responses carry them at the moment they apply).
 
 WHAT IT CANNOT SEE
 
@@ -45,6 +48,8 @@ import pathlib
 import re
 from typing import NamedTuple
 
+from tests.helpers import skill_text
+
 ROOT = pathlib.Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
 
 
@@ -72,7 +77,7 @@ def delivered_surfaces() -> dict[str, str]:
     The one definition of "delivered" for this module:
       - `instructions` — the MCP server's `_INSTRUCTIONS` (every MCP client)
       - `docstrings`   — the MCP tool modules (tool descriptions, every client)
-      - `skill:<name>` — each bundled Agent Skill
+      - `skill:<name>` — each bundled Agent Skill, reference files included
       - `static`       — the Claude Code adapter's static session context
       - `commands`     — the Claude Code adapter's slash commands
       - `live`         — the live session context the server builds
@@ -87,8 +92,10 @@ def delivered_surfaces() -> dict[str, str]:
         "commands": "".join(p.read_text() for p in sorted((ROOT / "plugin/commands").glob("*.md"))),
         "live": _live_session_context_source(),
     }
+    # A skill is SKILL.md plus the reference files it links (#4398): one
+    # owner, however many files it is split across.
     for skill in sorted((ROOT / "plugin/skills").glob("*/SKILL.md")):
-        surfaces[f"skill:{skill.parent.name}"] = skill.read_text()
+        surfaces[f"skill:{skill.parent.name}"] = skill_text(skill.parent.name)
     return {label: _norm(text) for label, text in surfaces.items()}
 
 
@@ -174,8 +181,7 @@ TOPICS: tuple[Topic, ...] = (
     # returned zero events. Machinery with no route to it.
     Topic("a missed rule is a trigger to fix before a floor to move", U,
           ("retrieval_telemetry", "tune_retrieval", "retrieval_surfaces"),
-          "take it to the record first and the dial second",
-          index=("retrieval_telemetry",)),
+          "take it to the record first and the dial second"),
     Topic("ask what already covers a moment before writing a record", U,
           ("what_might_apply",), "ask what already covers that moment"),
     Topic("reference notes update in place; dev-logs don't", U, ("reference note",),
@@ -193,7 +199,7 @@ TOPICS: tuple[Topic, ...] = (
           ("create_snippet", "when_to_use", "first build", "second copy"),
           "prior art offered beside a write is not noise", index=("create_snippet",)),
     Topic("report back where the work stands", "skill:reporting-back", ("reporting-back", "placement"),
-          "take the placement from the record", index=("placement",)),
+          "take the placement from the record"),
     Topic("the operator's own reply shapes come first", "skill:reporting-back",
           ("reply_preferences", 'content_type="rule"'),
           "the operator's own shapes come first"),
@@ -225,8 +231,7 @@ TOPICS: tuple[Topic, ...] = (
     # that trimming one cannot quietly take the other with it.
     Topic("the agent judges the record, and judging is attended", U,
           ("judge of record", "attended", "classify_shapes"),
-          "a record that is wrong stays wrong until something rewrites it",
-          index=("judge of record",)),
+          "a record that is wrong stays wrong until something rewrites it"),
     Topic("a finding surfaced and not judged is a finding dropped",
           "skill:reporting-back", ("you are the judge", "hard to reverse"),
           "it reads as diligence and functions as a backlog"),
diff --git a/tests/test_instruction_surfaces_agree.py b/tests/test_instruction_surfaces_agree.py
index 8fa4307..47ab15f 100644
--- a/tests/test_instruction_surfaces_agree.py
+++ b/tests/test_instruction_surfaces_agree.py
@@ -45,11 +45,12 @@ def _all_surfaces() -> list[tuple[str, str]]:
     the push channel to the operator installing the plugin, and telling a human
     what the hook does is not the same act as telling an agent it need not pull.
     The boundary is "does a session read this", which is skills (loaded by
-    description match), the hook-injected static context, and the MCP server's
+    description match, and each reference file a skill links is read on its
+    own, so it is its own surface — #4398), the hook-injected static context, and the MCP server's
     own instructions.
     """
     found = [(str(p.relative_to(ROOT)), p.read_text())
-             for p in (ROOT / "plugin" / "skills").rglob("SKILL.md")]
+             for p in (ROOT / "plugin" / "skills").rglob("*.md")]
     found += [(str(p.relative_to(ROOT)), p.read_text())
               for p in (ROOT / "plugin" / "hooks").glob("*.md")]
     server = ROOT / "src" / "scribe" / "mcp" / "server.py"
@@ -69,8 +70,11 @@ def _instructions_text() -> str:
 # Claude Code injects only the first ~2,048 characters of an MCP server's
 # instructions and silently cuts the rest mid-word (#2562: observed live —
 # the previous 20k-char version delivered ~10% of itself, and none of the
-# Systems tagging guidance ever reached a session). 2,000 leaves margin.
-INSTRUCTIONS_BUDGET = 2000
+# Systems tagging guidance ever reached a session). The budget is set below
+# the cap, not at it: the field runs ~600–1,600 characters (spike #4389), and
+# a block pressed against 2,048 is being used for depth that belongs in a
+# skill.
+INSTRUCTIONS_BUDGET = 1600
 
 
 def test_instructions_fit_the_fold():
@@ -181,9 +185,10 @@ def test_the_strength_guard_can_fail():
 # ── Reporting back (milestone 409 step 3) ──────────────────────────────
 #
 # The reporting-back skill carries the shapes, but a skill only helps if it
-# fires. The reflex that sends a session to it is stated in using-scribe; the
-# server's index carries a REPORT line pointing at `placement`, and the in-band
-# cue on update_task is the half that fires on its own in every client. The
+# fires. The reflex that sends a session to it is stated in using-scribe, and
+# the in-band cue on update_task (`placement`, `report_back`) is the half that
+# fires on its own in every client. The server's index carried a REPORT line
+# until #4389: reporting is a mid-work stance, not a session-start practice. The
 # static context was a second plugin-side copy until milestone 410.
 
 REPORT_REFLEX = "report back in a shape the operator can read"
diff --git a/tests/test_retrieval_miss_route.py b/tests/test_retrieval_miss_route.py
index 48e8fcf..77a924e 100644
--- a/tests/test_retrieval_miss_route.py
+++ b/tests/test_retrieval_miss_route.py
@@ -41,7 +41,6 @@ import pathlib
 import re
 
 ROOT = pathlib.Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
-SKILL = ROOT / "plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md"
 
 # The three tools that shipped with no route to them. Named together because
 # the gap was all three at once, and a partial fix would leave the loop broken
@@ -51,7 +50,10 @@ TUNING_TOOLS = ("retrieval_telemetry", "update_rule", "retrieval_surfaces",
 
 
 def _skill() -> str:
-    return SKILL.read_text()
+    # The route lives in missed-retrieval.md, a reference file of using-scribe
+    # (#4398); the skill is SKILL.md and its references read together.
+    from tests.helpers import skill_text
+    return skill_text("using-scribe")
 
 
 def _instructions() -> str:
@@ -139,20 +141,19 @@ def test_writing_a_new_record_asks_what_already_covers_the_moment():
     assert "no bar" in text
 
 
-def test_the_index_points_at_the_route_without_restating_it():
+def test_the_route_stays_off_the_index():
     """`_INSTRUCTIONS` is the only surface every MCP client gets (decision #4027).
 
-    It indexes; using-scribe states. A client with no Agent Skills support still
-    learns the ordering exists and which tool opens it.
+    It carried a one-line MISSED pointer to this route until #4389, which found
+    the index was being used as a rulebook: a missed rule is noticed mid-work,
+    not at session start, and the spec asks server instructions for the
+    workflow across tools, not stance. using-scribe states the route (the tests
+    above pin it); the index keeps what_might_apply, the tool that opens it.
 
-    Whitespace-flattened before matching. The block is hard-wrapped to fit a
-    2,000-character budget, so a phrase straddles a line break the moment
-    anything before it changes length — #4103 shipped a guard that broke
-    exactly that way, on text nobody had touched.
+    Whitespace-flattened before matching: the block is hard-wrapped, so a
+    phrase straddles a line break the moment anything before it changes length
+    (#4103).
     """
-    text = " ".join(_instructions().split())
-    assert "retrieval_telemetry" in text
-    assert "not a floor to move" in text
-    # The route itself must NOT be here — 2,000 characters is the whole budget
-    # and Claude Code cuts the rest mid-word (#2562).
-    assert "take it to the record first" not in text.lower()
+    text = " ".join(_instructions().split()).lower()
+    assert "what_might_apply" in text
+    assert "take it to the record first" not in text
diff --git a/tests/test_skill_structure.py b/tests/test_skill_structure.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d83377
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_skill_structure.py
@@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
+"""Every bundled skill keeps the shape Agent Skills can load well (#4398).
+
+WHY THIS EXISTS
+
+Anthropic's skill authoring guidance
+(platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/agent-skills/best-practices):
+keep the SKILL.md body under 500 lines, split into reference files as it
+nears that, and link each reference file ONE level deep from SKILL.md —
+Claude may only preview a file reached through another reference file.
+
+using-scribe reached 478 lines because every new practice lands there, the
+same squeeze `_INSTRUCTIONS` was in before #4389. It was split: what matters
+on most turns stays in SKILL.md, what matters at one moment (placing a rule,
+a missed retrieval, starting a project) moved to files SKILL.md names with
+the moment to open them. These tests keep that shape from quietly undoing
+itself.
+
+WHAT IT PINS
+
+1. A BUDGET BELOW THE GUIDELINE. 500 is where loading degrades; the budget
+   sits under it so the next addition is a choice about what moves out, not
+   a squeeze past the line.
+2. EVERY REFERENCE FILE IS LINKED FROM SKILL.md. A file nothing links is
+   never read — it states guidance that reaches nobody.
+3. NO REFERENCE FILE LINKS ANOTHER. One level deep, per the guidance.
+4. A LONG REFERENCE FILE OPENS WITH ITS CONTENTS, so a partial read still
+   shows what the file covers.
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import pathlib
+import re
+
+SKILLS = pathlib.Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "plugin" / "skills"
+
+SKILL_LINE_BUDGET = 350
+TOC_AFTER_LINES = 100
+_MD_LINK = re.compile(r"\]\(([^)#\s]+\.md)\)")
+
+
+def _skill_dirs() -> list[pathlib.Path]:
+    return sorted(p.parent for p in SKILLS.glob("*/SKILL.md"))
+
+
+def _refs(folder: pathlib.Path) -> list[pathlib.Path]:
+    return sorted(p for p in folder.glob("*.md") if p.name != "SKILL.md")
+
+
+def over_budget(texts: dict[str, str], budget: int) -> list[str]:
+    return [f"{k}: {len(t.splitlines())} lines" for k, t in texts.items()
+            if len(t.splitlines()) > budget]
+
+
+def unlinked(skill_md: str, ref_names: list[str]) -> list[str]:
+    linked = set(_MD_LINK.findall(skill_md))
+    return [n for n in ref_names if n not in linked]
+
+
+def nested(refs: dict[str, str]) -> list[str]:
+    return [f"{name} → {target}" for name, text in refs.items()
+            for target in _MD_LINK.findall(text)]
+
+
+def missing_contents(refs: dict[str, str], after: int) -> list[str]:
+    return [name for name, text in refs.items()
+            if len(text.splitlines()) > after and "## Contents" not in text]
+
+
+def test_every_skill_md_fits_its_budget():
+    found = over_budget({d.name: (d / "SKILL.md").read_text() for d in _skill_dirs()},
+                        SKILL_LINE_BUDGET)
+    assert not found, (
+        f"SKILL.md over {SKILL_LINE_BUDGET} lines: {found}. Move what matters at "
+        f"one moment into a reference file SKILL.md links with that moment "
+        f"(#4398), rather than raising the budget toward 500."
+    )
+
+
+def test_every_reference_file_is_linked_from_skill_md():
+    found = [f"{d.name}/{n}" for d in _skill_dirs()
+             for n in unlinked((d / "SKILL.md").read_text(), [p.name for p in _refs(d)])]
+    assert not found, (
+        f"reference files no SKILL.md links: {found}. Nothing reads a file "
+        f"nothing names — link it from SKILL.md with the moment to open it."
+    )
+
+
+def test_reference_files_are_one_level_deep():
+    found = [f"{d.name}/{x}" for d in _skill_dirs()
+             for x in nested({p.name: p.read_text() for p in _refs(d)})]
+    assert not found, (
+        f"reference files linking other files: {found}. Link each from SKILL.md "
+        f"directly; a file reached through another may only be previewed."
+    )
+
+
+def test_long_reference_files_open_with_contents():
+    found = [f"{d.name}/{n}" for d in _skill_dirs()
+             for n in missing_contents({p.name: p.read_text() for p in _refs(d)},
+                                       TOC_AFTER_LINES)]
+    assert not found, f"reference files over {TOC_AFTER_LINES} lines with no '## Contents': {found}"
+
+
+def test_the_guards_can_fail():
+    """Rule 167: each guard bites on the failure it exists for."""
+    assert over_budget({"s": "x\n" * 400}, SKILL_LINE_BUDGET) == ["s: 400 lines"]
+    assert unlinked("see [a](a.md)", ["a.md", "b.md"]) == ["b.md"]
+    assert nested({"a.md": "then [b](b.md)"}) == ["a.md → b.md"]
+    assert missing_contents({"a.md": "x\n" * 150}, TOC_AFTER_LINES) == ["a.md"]
diff --git a/tests/test_verification_guidance_survives.py b/tests/test_verification_guidance_survives.py
index aa7fc45..139440b 100644
--- a/tests/test_verification_guidance_survives.py
+++ b/tests/test_verification_guidance_survives.py
@@ -91,12 +91,11 @@ def test_the_skill_carries_the_test_a_writer_can_actually_apply():
     read while deciding what to write. The one-question form has to be in the
     second place too, or the guidance only reaches callers who already opened
     the tool."""
-    import pathlib
+    from tests.helpers import skill_text
 
-    skill = pathlib.Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / (
-        "plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md"
-    )
-    text = " ".join(skill.read_text().split())
+    # Reference files included: the full statement sits in writing-records.md
+    # and SKILL.md keeps the pointer (#4398).
+    text = " ".join(skill_text("using-scribe").split())
     assert "could this note become false without anyone editing it" in text.lower(), (
         "the using-scribe skill no longer carries the one-question test. That "
         "question is what makes the distinction applicable rather than merely "