diff --git a/plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json b/plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
index f53a334..00946bb 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": "2026.09.14.1723",
+  "version": "2026.09.14.2001",
   "author": {
     "name": "Bryan Van Deusen"
   },
diff --git a/plugin/hooks/scribe_static_context.md b/plugin/hooks/scribe_static_context.md
index 5dac691..d20ddde 100644
--- a/plugin/hooks/scribe_static_context.md
+++ b/plugin/hooks/scribe_static_context.md
@@ -10,15 +10,14 @@ shape-accounting) carry their arcs.
 
 What only Claude Code needs said:
 
-- **Keep one copy — in Scribe, not Claude Code's local memory.** The
-  operator's rules, plans and project notes go to Scribe, not also to
-  `CLAUDE.md` or auto-memory. Leave auto-memory at its default setting: you
-  replace its job by doing the work in Scribe, not by switching it off.
+- **Keep one copy — in Scribe, not Claude Code's local memory.** Claude
+  Code's local memory is `CLAUDE.md` and auto-memory: the operator's rules,
+  plans and project notes go to Scribe instead, and using-scribe says how
+  Scribe works alongside them.
 - **Lines injected beside your work are retrieval.** When the operator sends a
   message, and before a write or a command, Scribe may add rules, preferences,
   notes and prior art that resemble what you are doing. Open the ones that
-  apply. They are what matched, never the whole set — using-scribe says how to
-  ask for the rest.
+  apply; using-scribe says what a quiet turn means.
 - **Compact at clean seams.** Because work is recorded as you go, a compaction
   is safe once in-flight state is logged. After finishing a block of work in a
   long session, log it to Scribe, then tell the operator it's a good moment to
diff --git a/plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md b/plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md
index 33a8419..a63d758 100644
--- a/plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md
@@ -13,23 +13,14 @@ asked for.
 
 ## Do this first (every session)
 
-**You are not holding the operator's rules, and no call loads them all.**
-There is no standing set to pull. A rule reaches you when what you are about to
-do matches it — a command, code you are writing, or what the operator just
-asked for — and on most turns none will. That is the surface working.
-
-**So the reflex is to ASK, not to load.** Before a consequential act — anything
-hard to reverse or outward-facing — `search(content_type="rule")` for the thing
-you are about to do. An empty session is not evidence of an empty rulebook.
-
 If the working repo maps to a Scribe project (you're in a known repo, or
 `list_repo_bindings` shows a binding), call `enter_project(id)` — it returns the
 project plus the rules bound to the areas it works in, open tasks, and recent
 notes in one shot.
 
-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.
+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,
+not loading, is how the operator's rules reach you.
 
 ## Scribe holds these functions — keep one copy
 
@@ -59,12 +50,20 @@ Two constraints on *how* that's achieved:
    re-deriving it or opening a duplicate. When a project is in scope, pass its
    `project_id` so results stay scoped.
 
-2. **Rules are binding, and silence does not mean there are none.** Nothing
-   is preloaded, so "no rule arrived" means "nothing matched" — never "no rule
-   exists". Ask with `search(content_type="rule")` before a consequential act,
-   and pull a record's full statement with `get_rule(id)` when it is about to
-   bite. When a project is in scope, `enter_project(id)` also returns the rules
-   bound to its areas.
+2. **Rules are binding, and they reach you by retrieval.** No call loads the
+   operator's rules and no standing set is handed to a session. A rule arrives
+   when what you are about to do resembles what it is about — a command, the
+   code you are writing, the operator's message — and on most turns none will.
+   That is the surface working: it is what lets a rulebook keep growing, since
+   a rule costs nothing in a session it has nothing to do with. A rule binds
+   just as hard for never having been handed to you.
+
+   So "no rule arrived" means "nothing matched", never "no rule exists" — an
+   empty session is not evidence of an empty rulebook. Retrieval fires when
+   something asks: before a consequential act, `search(content_type="rule")` on
+   what you are about to do, and pull a record's full statement with
+   `get_rule(id)` when it is about to bite. When a project is in scope,
+   `enter_project(id)` also returns the rules bound to its areas.
 
    **`kind` says how much force a record carries, and it is never something to
    infer.** A **rule** must be followed: ignoring it breaks something or
@@ -84,17 +83,6 @@ Two constraints on *how* that's achieved:
    asks. If what you learned is that something MUST be done a certain way,
    that is a rule to propose, not a preference to harden in place.
 
-   Every rule is RETRIEVED: one reaches you when a command, the code you are
-   writing or the operator's message resembles what it is about, and a rule
-   binds just as hard for never having been handed to you. So before a
-   consequential act, `search(content_type="rule")` on what you are about to
-   do. An empty session is not evidence that no rule applies; it is only
-   evidence that nothing has matched yet, and those are different claims.
-
-   Retrieval is what lets a rulebook keep growing — a rule costs nothing in a
-   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