diff --git a/ci-requirements.md b/ci-requirements.md
index ee09c7e..41972e9 100644
--- a/ci-requirements.md
+++ b/ci-requirements.md
@@ -29,15 +29,25 @@ real Postgres), build (docker buildx).
 Anything CI installs at job time that isn't in the image. Promotion
 candidates if more than one project needs them.
 
-- `jq` + `shellcheck` — apt-installed in the **plugin** job, which lints
-  the four Claude Code hook scripts and runs their fail-open smoke test.
-  Per `docs/process.md`'s decision checkpoint, single-consumer deps stay
+- `shellcheck` — apt-installed in the **plugin** job, which lints the
+  Claude Code hook scripts and runs their fail-open smoke test. Per
+  `docs/process.md`'s decision checkpoint, single-consumer deps stay
   per-job until a second consumer wants them; Scribe is the only one so
-  far. Both are small (jq ~1 MB, shellcheck ~20 MB) and would be
-  promotion candidates the moment another project lints shell.
-  **jq is load-bearing for the smoke test specifically**: every hook
-  starts with `command -v jq || exit 0`, so without it the test passes
-  while exercising nothing.
+  far. It is small (~20 MB) and would be a promotion candidate the moment
+  another project lints shell.
+
+- `jq` — **no longer installed anywhere, and should not be promoted.**
+  It was installed in two jobs, and this file used to record it as "load-
+  bearing for the smoke test specifically", because every hook opened
+  `command -v jq || exit 0` and the test would otherwise pass while
+  exercising nothing. That was the tail wagging the dog: the hooks ship to
+  users, jq is absent by default on macOS, the Debian/Ubuntu slim images,
+  Alpine and most CI containers, and a machine without it got no context,
+  no rules, no prior art and no process sync in silence. #4107 removed the
+  dependency rather than documenting it, so the smoke test now runs on a
+  bare image — which is the condition it was always meant to assert. The
+  hooks use only POSIX tools (awk, sed, tr, od, cut, head, tail, grep,
+  sort, date, printf) plus `git` and `curl`.
 
 ## Notes