docs(plugin): the instruction surfaces teach moments - reading a line that arrived at one, correcting a misfire, and giving a new rule its moments (milestone 458 step 8, #4926)

Until now only the tool arguments knew moments existed. The guidance
surfaces described rules as reached by resemblance alone:

- using-scribe: a short reflex paragraph and a new reference file,
  moments.md. It covers reading "at <moment>, reached by <action>", the
  reply held once at reply.report, map_action / unmap_action offered in
  one line, and the step 7 proposal line answered with judge_rule_moments.
- writing-records: asks WHEN a rule applies as well as what it is about.
  A rule, preference or process about a point in the work gets
  moments=[...] as it is written, and the trigger stays as the net.
- missed-retrieval: a missed WHEN is mounted or mapped, not reworded. A
  misfire is unmounted or unmapped.
- _INSTRUCTIONS: one clause (list_moments; mount rules about WHEN),
  1594 of 1600 chars.
- static context: injected lines include the rules mounted on a moment
  that was reached.
- test_guidance_ownership: three owned topics, so the text cannot quietly
  drop out.

Plugin 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), and syncs your saved Scribe Processes as skills (/scribe:sync).",
-  "version": "2026.10.05.2003",
+  "version": "2026.10.05.2039",
   "author": {
     "name": "Bryan Van Deusen"
   },

plugin/hooks/scribe_static_context.md

@@ -16,8 +16,10 @@ What only Claude Code needs said:
   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
+  notes and prior art that resemble what you are doing — and, when a tool call
-  apply; using-scribe says what a quiet turn means.
+  or the reply ending a turn reaches a moment of work, the rules mounted on
+  it. Open the ones that apply; using-scribe says what a quiet turn means and
+  how to correct a moment that fired wrongly.
 - **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

plugin/skills/using-scribe/SKILL.md

@@ -87,6 +87,12 @@ Two constraints on *how* that's achieved:
    then the global rules plus that project's own, never another project's. `enter_project(id)` lists the project's own
    rules by title.
 
+   **A rule about WHEN arrives at its moment, by lookup.** A rule mounted on a
+   moment of work (`list_moments`: `work.deliver`, `reply.report`, …) arrives
+   whenever an action reaches that moment, in a line naming both — nothing
+   said needs to resemble it. [moments.md](moments.md) says how to read those
+   lines, how to correct a moment that misfires, and when to mount one.
+
    **`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
    crosses a boundary. A **preference** records how the operator wants work
@@ -288,6 +294,9 @@ moment rather than on every turn:
   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.
+- [moments.md](moments.md) — a line that says a rule arrived *at* a moment, a
+  reply held for one read, an action that reached the wrong moment or none,
+  and a line proposing a mount.
 
 ## You are the judge of what the record says
 

plugin/skills/using-scribe/missed-retrieval.md

@@ -11,6 +11,21 @@ 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.
 
+**First ask whether it missed a WHEN or a WHAT.** A rule about a point in the
+work — it governs delivering, finishing, verifying, reporting, whatever the
+work is about — is not a trigger to reword: no wording resembles every piece
+of work that reaches that point. Mount it on the moment instead
+(`update_rule(moments=[...])`, from `list_moments`); a mount is a lookup, and
+it arrives every time the moment happens. When it is already mounted and still
+did not arrive, the action did not reach the moment on this install — offer
+`map_action` for that action. The reverse — a mounted rule arriving where it
+does not apply — is a mount or a mapping that is wrong: take the moment off
+the rule, or `unmap_action` the action that reached it. Each of these
+changes what the operator's sessions receive, so offer it in one line and make
+it on their yes. [moments.md](moments.md) has the
+detail. A rule about a subject missed its WHAT, and the rest of this page is
+for that.
+
 **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

plugin/skills/using-scribe/moments.md

@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+# Moments — rules that arrive when the work reaches a point
+
+Part of the using-scribe skill. Read it when a line says a rule arrived *at* a
+moment, when a reply is held for one read, when an action reached the wrong
+moment or none, and when a line proposes mounting a rule.
+
+## What a moment is
+
+Most rules reach you by resemblance: what you are doing looks like what the
+rule is about. A rule about WHEN — finishing, delivering, verifying,
+reporting — resembles nothing said at that point, so resemblance misses it.
+Such a rule is **mounted** on the moments of work it belongs to, and arrives
+by lookup whenever an action reaches one. `list_moments` names them, each
+with what is happening at it and the kinds of action that typically reach it:
+`work.deliver` when work is sent beyond the place it was made, `work.finish`
+when a piece of work is declared done, `reply.report` at the reply that ends a
+turn, and so on. A named procedure is its own moment, `skill.<name>`, reached when it is
+loaded.
+
+Which ACTIONS reach a moment is the install's: one operator delivers with a
+push, another with a deploy script. Shipped defaults cover the common ones,
+and each install corrects them for itself.
+
+## Reading a line that arrived at a moment
+
+The line names the moment and the action that reached it — *"at work.deliver,
+reached by `git push`"* — and the rule, with `get_rule(N)` to read it. Read it
+as you would any rule that arrived beside your work: it binds just as hard,
+and it came because of what you are doing now, not because of what you said.
+
+The reply that ends a turn is a moment too. When a rule mounted at
+`reply.report` has not been opened this session, the reply may be held once
+with its name: open it, then send the reply — unchanged, if it already does
+what the rule asks. The same rule is never held twice.
+
+## When the moment is wrong — correct it in the session
+
+A moment can fire on an action that is not that moment here, or an action can
+plainly be a moment and fire nothing. Either way the fix is one call, and it
+belongs in the session that noticed, not on a settings page:
+
+- **An action reached the wrong moment** — the line names a moment that is not
+  what you did: offer `unmap_action(tool, moment, match, reason)`.
+- **An action was a moment and nothing arrived** — the operator ships with
+  their own script, and nothing mounted on `work.deliver` came:
+  offer `map_action(tool, moment, match, reason)`.
+
+Offer it in one line, the way the operator would say it ("that deploy script
+is a deliver and nothing fired — map it?"), and make it on their yes. The
+correction lasts for every later session on the install; `list_moments` shows
+what each action reaches now.
+
+## When a line proposes a mount
+
+A rule that keeps being opened just after the same moment, across several
+sessions, probably belongs on that moment. A line says so, naming the rule,
+the moment and how often. It is a question for the operator, not a change you
+make: offer it in one line, and record their answer with
+`judge_rule_moments` — `confirm` mounts the rule, `reject` with their reason
+stops the question being asked again.
+
+The same tool answers proposals from a pass over the rules
+(`rules_to_mount`, `propose_rule_moments`, `rule_moment_proposals`): a pass
+proposes, and only the operator's yes mounts. Writing a NEW rule is different
+— its moments are part of writing it, and
+[writing-records.md](writing-records.md) says how.

plugin/skills/using-scribe/writing-records.md

@@ -1,13 +1,15 @@
 # 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
+`create_project_rule`, `create_preference`, `create_process` or
+`create_lesson`; when a lesson
 arrives that names the situation you are actually in; when the operator
 decides how some area of the work must behave; 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
+- When it applies — the moments a rule, a preference or a process is for
 - A ruling goes on the System it governs
 - A lesson grows each time it proves itself
 - A lesson names the rule it is an instance of
@@ -39,6 +41,22 @@ 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.
 
+**Then ask WHEN it applies, as well as what it is about.** A trigger is
+matched by resemblance, and a rule about a point in the work — finishing,
+delivering, verifying, reporting, asking — resembles nothing said at that
+point. Give such a rule its moments as you write it: `list_moments` names
+them, and `moments=[...]` on `create_rule`, `create_project_rule` or
+`create_preference` mounts it, so it arrives whenever an action reaches one.
+Keep the trigger anyway: it is the net for the moments nobody mapped. A rule
+about a subject — a library, a file, a style — has no moment; it is reached
+by meaning, and leaving `moments` empty is the answer, not an omission. A rule
+often has both: a point in the work, and the words a session uses at it.
+
+A stored **process** says the same about itself: `create_process(moments=…)`
+names the moments the procedure is for, so loading it reaches them and the
+rules mounted there arrive with it. A rule that only applies inside one
+procedure mounts on that procedure's own moment, `skill.<name>`.
+
 **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

src/scribe/mcp/server.py

@@ -43,14 +43,15 @@ from quart import Quart
 # 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. Each
+record as you go, keep one copy here, not in local memory files. Each
-practice below is stated in full in the using-scribe skill (if your client
+practice is stated in full in the using-scribe skill and each tool's
-reads Agent Skills) and in each tool's description.
+description.
 
 - 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 are not preloaded; one arrives when your work matches it. Before a
+- Rules are not preloaded; one arrives when your work matches it or reaches
+  a moment it is mounted on (list_moments; mount rules about WHEN). 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;

tests/test_guidance_ownership.py

@@ -185,6 +185,19 @@ TOPICS: tuple[Topic, ...] = (
     Topic("where a new rule goes, and its trigger", U, ("create_project_rule", "when_to_apply"),
           "whichever home it gets"),
     Topic("a rule vs the other entities", U, ("standing instruction",), "first ask whether it's a rule at all"),
+    # Moments (milestone 458 step 8). Delivery at a moment and its in-session
+    # corrections are owned by using-scribe's moments.md; the index carries one
+    # clause, and a new rule's moments are asked where its home and trigger are.
+    Topic("rules mounted on a moment arrive by lookup; correct a misfire in-session", U,
+          ("list_moments", "map_action", "unmap_action", "judge_rule_moments"),
+          "it belongs in the session that noticed, not on a settings page",
+          index=("list_moments", "moment")),
+    Topic("a new rule about when gets its moments as it is written", U,
+          ("moments=[...]", "create_process(moments="),
+          "then ask when it applies, as well as what it is about"),
+    Topic("a missed when is mounted or mapped, not reworded", U,
+          ("update_rule(moments=",),
+          "first ask whether it missed a when or a what"),
     # Milestone 416 step 9: the tuning tools shipped in #4102/#4104 and were
     # named on NO instruction surface — measured, `retrieval_tuning_history`
     # returned zero events. Machinery with no route to it.