wip(394): steps 6+7 — backend path and instruction surfaces

src/scribe/mcp/server.py

@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ from quart import Quart
 # them) was DECLINED a line, deliberately, by the operator — not overlooked.
 # The reasoning, so it is not re-litigated blind: this is a map, and its own
 # closing line says each tool's description carries the full contract. The
-# sweep is a curation act, not a session-start reflex like enter_project or
-# list_always_on_rules. Spending the last of the budget on it would leave the
+# sweep is a curation act, not a session-start reflex like enter_project.
+# Spending the last of the budget on it would leave the
 # map unable to grow for something more central later.
 #
 # The accepted cost: an agent that never opens create_note's docstring never
@@ -59,15 +59,15 @@ from quart import Quart
 #   - What it bought is not per-tool guidance and has nowhere else to live at
 #     session-start altitude. Rules were retrievable only by RESIDENCY: the
 #     always-on preload put them in front of the agent, and nothing told a
-#     session to go looking for one it had not been handed. The tier split is
-#     therefore load-bearing on ANY install (rule 115): a delivered rule costs
-#     tokens in every session forever, so a rulebook that only delivers cannot
-#     grow past what one session can hold, and every rule worth keeping has to
-#     become resident to bind at all. Retrieval is what lets it keep growing —
-#     and retrieval fires only if something asks, which nothing told a session
-#     to do. A tool-choice reflex asks least of all (#3476, #161).
-#   - This states the PULL for conditional rules, exactly as the surrounding
-#     line states it for always-on ones. Rule 119 makes these surfaces the
+#     session to go looking for one it had not been handed. That preload is
+#     gone (milestone 394), which makes this line LOAD-BEARING rather than
+#     supplementary: retrieval is now the only delivery, and retrieval fires
+#     only if something asks. A session that waits to be handed a rule is
+#     handed nothing. A tool-choice reflex asks least of all (#3476, #161).
+#   - It also has to carry what absence MEANS. "No rule arrived" is now the
+#     ordinary state rather than the exceptional one, and reading it as
+#     "there is no rule" is the #3720 defect at session scale. Rule 119 makes
+#     these surfaces the
 #     specification, so the same sentence lands on all three session-start
 #     surfaces, and test_instruction_surfaces_agree pins it.
 _INSTRUCTIONS = """
@@ -77,8 +77,8 @@ in local files (CLAUDE.md, auto-memory); Scribe holds the single copy.
 
 Hierarchy: Project -> Milestone -> Task/Note. The map, by purpose:
 - ORIENT: enter_project(id) at session start — rules, open tasks, recent
-  notes, Systems, design system. `inception` key: ask what the project
-  inherits, decide_project_inception (create_project takes the same).
+  notes, Systems, design system. `inception`: ask what the project
+  inherits, then decide_project_inception.
 - DO: create_task. Fixed a problem? kind="issue" (symptom -> root cause ->
   fix), never a work-log line on an unrelated task. Log with add_task_log;
   keep status honest — in_progress on start, done on finish.
@@ -88,9 +88,9 @@ Hierarchy: Project -> Milestone -> Task/Note. The map, by purpose:
   active project_id to stay in scope.
 - WHERE work happens: Systems. Tag records with system_ids as you write;
   create_system when the area is unmodelled.
-- HOW: rules bind; preferences guide. list_always_on_rules() at start;
-  before a consequential act, search(content_type="rule") — the resident
-  set is not all of them.
+- HOW: rules bind; preferences guide. Nothing preloads — a rule arrives
+  when your work matches it. Before a consequential act,
+  search(content_type="rule"); silence means nothing matched, not none.
 - UI: the project's design system is binding — resolve_design_system /
   get_design_system_stylesheet before hand-writing a value.
 - REUSE: search snippets before writing a helper; record what you build with
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ _READ_ONLY_TOOLS = frozenset({
     "get_task", "get_milestone", "get_recent", "enter_project",
     "list_milestones", "list_notes", "list_projects", "list_rulebooks",
     "list_rules", "list_tags", "list_tasks", "list_topics", "list_trash",
-    "list_always_on_rules", "search",
+    "search",
     "get_system", "list_systems", "list_system_records",
     # The global area catalog and its mapping REPORT — propose writes nothing;
     # map_system_to_canonical is the separate, explicitly-called write.