feat(500): who decides what - the agent settles what only it can see, the operator decides direction (#5494)

The operator's line (2026-10-09), reconciling their 2026-09-21 ruling
(#4218, "you are the judge") with "not that Claude should make all
decisions": judging covers the work and its records - facts, findings,
measurements, whether work is done - and direction stays theirs:
priorities, what the thing should be, trade-offs only they can price,
anything they live with, and every act hard to undo or facing outward.

- reply_shapes: a one-line form in the core (every turn), the full text
  in the asks slice (where a question gets handed back). Slice budget
  1400 -> 1600 for it.
- reporting-back "You are the judge": "the operator reads the decision -
  they do not make it" replaced; the line is drawn by who can see the
  evidence, not by how hard the call is.
- plugin version minted.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

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, family-canon), and syncs your saved Scribe Processes as skills (/scribe:sync).",
-  "version": "2026.10.06.1827",
+  "version": "2026.10.09.1835",
   "author": {
     "name": "Bryan Van Deusen"
   },

plugin/skills/reporting-back/SKILL.md

@@ -111,8 +111,11 @@ default differ, the preference is what they asked for.
 ## You are the judge
 
 You are the judge of record for the work itself: what a shape is, whether a
-finding holds, whether a record is right, whether something is done. The
-operator reads the decision — they do not make it.
+finding holds, whether a record is right, whether something is done — the
+questions only you can see the evidence for. Decide them, and report what you
+decided and why so the operator can overrule it. **Direction is theirs:** what
+matters most, what the thing should be, a trade-off only they can price,
+anything they will live with afterwards.
 
 **A finding surfaced and not judged is a finding dropped, not deferred.** This
 is the failure that hides inside a good report: the symptom named, the cause
@@ -125,11 +128,12 @@ So: decide, act, and report what you decided and why. If the evidence is
 genuinely balanced, say which way you went and what would change your mind —
 that is still a decision.
 
-**What DOES go to them**, and the distinction is the act, not the difficulty:
-spending their money, reaching their infrastructure, merging to a protected
-branch, anything hard to reverse or facing outward — the **Handoff** and
-**Approval** shapes below. Judging a record is never one of these. A hard call
-is still yours; an irreversible act is still theirs.
+**What DOES go to them** is direction, and every act that is hard to reverse
+or faces outward: spending their money, reaching their infrastructure, merging
+to a protected branch — the **Decision**, **Handoff** and **Approval** shapes
+below. The test is who can see the evidence, not how hard the call is: a hard
+question of fact is still yours, and an easy question of direction is still
+theirs.
 
 **Judging is attended, not automatic.** You judge by reading the evidence and
 recording why. A threshold, a sweep or a rule that reclassifies in bulk with

src/scribe/services/reply_shapes.py

@@ -72,13 +72,15 @@ class ReplyShape:
 CORE_KEY = "core"
 
 # ~550 tokens at four characters a token. The core is paid for in every
-# session, so this is the ceiling the test holds it to — not a target. It
-# shipped at ~1,800, leaving room for the one-line judgement (milestone 500
-# step 2) and little else.
+# session, so this is the ceiling the test holds it to — not a target. It sits
+# at ~2,050 with the judgement line (milestone 500 step 2): close to full, so a
+# sentence added now has to replace one.
 CORE_BUDGET_CHARS = 2200
 # A slice is paid for only at its moment, and once per session; it can afford
 # more than the core and still has to stay a slice, not the old skill again.
-SLICE_BUDGET_CHARS = 1400
+# The asks slice is the largest (~1,530) because it carries who decides what in
+# full: handing a question back is what an ask is tempted to do.
+SLICE_BUDGET_CHARS = 1600
 
 
 _CORE = """\
@@ -96,6 +98,9 @@ record rather than recalled. Work with no record behind it says so.
 - **Answer the standing questions, even with "nothing"**: does anything need them, and \
 what happens next. A section that explains earns its place only when it changes what \
 they do or decide; the rest belongs in the record's log.
+- **Decide what only you can see; ask about direction.** Whether a finding holds, what a \
+measurement says, whether the work is done: settle it, act, and say why so they can \
+overrule it. Priorities, choices they will live with, and anything hard to undo are theirs.
 - **A decision they have made is the input to the work.** Act on it; reopen it only \
 for new evidence, said once.
 - **Holding an action until they say yes?** Put it near the top, under "Approval requested".
@@ -143,9 +148,17 @@ them · how it is undone.
 - **Conflict** (what you are about to do clashes with a rule, a plan or an earlier \
 decision) — what it says · what you were about to do · where they clash · A or B?
 
-Before asking, check whether you can find the answer yourself: something you can read \
-or measure is a fact to check, not a question to send. When an option rests on existing \
-behaviour, say whose call that was — theirs (cite it) or a past session's nobody confirmed."""
+**Who decides what.** You decide what only you can see the evidence for: whether a \
+finding holds, what a measurement says, whether a record is right, whether the work is \
+done, and anything you can settle by reading or measuring. Decide, act, and say why, so \
+they can overrule it; "your call" on one of these hands them a question they cannot see \
+into. Evenly balanced evidence is still yours — say which way you went and what would \
+change your mind. They decide direction: what matters most, what the thing should be, a \
+trade-off only they can price, anything they will live with afterwards — and every act \
+that is hard to undo or reaches outside the work.
+
+When an option rests on existing behaviour, say whose call that was — theirs (cite it) \
+or a past session's nobody confirmed."""
 
 
 _PLAN = """\

tests/test_reply_shapes.py

@@ -78,6 +78,17 @@ def test_the_core_carries_the_length_discipline():
     assert "what can go" in text
 
 
+def test_who_decides_what_rides_every_reply_and_every_ask():
+    """The operator's line (milestone 500 step 2): the agent settles what
+    only it can see, the operator decides direction. A one-liner every turn,
+    in full where a question is about to be handed back."""
+    core = reply_shapes.core().text.lower()
+    asks = reply_shapes.SHAPES["asks"].text.lower()
+    assert "decide what only you can see" in core and "direction" in core
+    assert "who decides what" in asks
+    assert "decide direction" in asks and "hard to undo" in asks
+
+
 def test_the_core_is_not_a_slice():
     """It rides every turn, whatever moment the turn reaches — so a moment
     lookup never hands it out a second time."""