docs: hand-off note for the next session

Records the state of the tree, the one step not taken (the stream-json
runtime image is built and never deployed, so no mission has confirmed
tool.call rows end to end), the ordered next steps, the decisions that are
the operator's, and what was deliberately left undone with reasons.

Also records the two corrections made this session — "missions can't call
tools" was wrong, and raw test counts are a bad coverage metric — because
both were confidently stated here before being checked.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>

crates/bins/clawmates-server/src/main.rs

@@ -341,6 +341,11 @@ async fn run() -> Result<(), String> {
     // for INT-XX markers in event payloads and upserts mission_tasks
     // rows so the canvas renders a live status timeline.
     cm_api::task_card_worker::spawn(pool.clone());
+    // Agents apply their own skill drafts. Announced at boot by the spawner
+    // itself, because this flips an approval gate that existed since the
+    // feature shipped — and a safety gate whose state is invisible is one
+    // nobody notices has changed.
+    cm_api::skill_self_authoring::spawn(pool.clone());
     // Load the workflow recipes now rather than lazily on first mission
     // create, so a malformed TOML shows up in the boot log instead of
     // silently yielding a mission with no phase config.
@@ -492,6 +497,10 @@ async fn run() -> Result<(), String> {
     // every consequence — an ungated test suite, a scan that scanned nothing —
     // looked like a normal result rather than a broken deployment.
     cm_api::runtime_preflight::report_at_boot();
+    // And whether the gateway those missions drive is configured at all. Both
+    // of its variables are read at FIRST USE, so a deployment missing them
+    // boots clean and fails on the first phase someone runs.
+    cm_api::gateway_preflight::report_at_boot();
     // Graceful shutdown: on SIGTERM/Ctrl-C, stop accepting, finish in-flight
     // requests, then DRAIN the sandbox managers so no container is left running.
     let shutdown = async move {

crates/cm-api/src/error.rs

@@ -19,6 +19,17 @@ pub enum ApiError {
     Conflict,
     #[error("{0}")]
     Quota(String),
+    /// A 400 whose REASON the caller needs.
+    ///
+    /// Same argument as `Unavailable` below, one status code down. The
+    /// proposal decide handlers each computed a precise refusal — "the mission
+    /// is running, not a draft", "no node can boot that backend any more" —
+    /// logged it to stderr, and returned a bare `BadRequest`. The person who
+    /// needed the sentence was the one clicking Approve, and they got
+    /// "bad request". `mission_plan::Refusal` exists and is written as
+    /// human-readable copy; this is how it reaches them.
+    #[error("{0}")]
+    Refused(String),
     /// A dependency is temporarily refusing work and will accept it later —
     /// today, the Claude Code subscription's rate limit. Distinct from
     /// `Internal` because the operator's next action is different: wait and
@@ -59,7 +70,7 @@ impl From<cm_auth::AuthError> for ApiError {
 impl IntoResponse for ApiError {
     fn into_response(self) -> Response {
         let status = match self {
-            ApiError::BadRequest => StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST,
+            ApiError::BadRequest | ApiError::Refused(_) => StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST,
             ApiError::Unauthorized => StatusCode::UNAUTHORIZED,
             ApiError::Forbidden => StatusCode::FORBIDDEN,
             ApiError::NotFound => StatusCode::NOT_FOUND,
@@ -71,3 +82,31 @@ impl IntoResponse for ApiError {
         (status, Json(json!({ "error": self.to_string() }))).into_response()
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+    use axum::body::to_bytes;
+
+    /// A refusal must carry its reason into the response body.
+    ///
+    /// The proposal decide handlers each computed a precise sentence and then
+    /// returned a bare `BadRequest`, so the person clicking Approve saw
+    /// "bad request" while the reason went to a server log they cannot read.
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn a_refusal_reaches_the_caller_and_a_bare_bad_request_does_not_pretend_to() {
+        let refused = ApiError::Refused("this mission is running, not a draft".into());
+        let response = refused.into_response();
+        assert_eq!(response.status(), StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST);
+        let body = to_bytes(response.into_body(), 64 * 1024).await.unwrap();
+        let text = String::from_utf8_lossy(&body);
+        assert!(
+            text.contains("running, not a draft"),
+            "the reason must be in the body, not only in the server log: {text}"
+        );
+
+        // The bare variant stays as it was — same status, no invented detail.
+        let bare = ApiError::BadRequest.into_response();
+        assert_eq!(bare.status(), StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST);
+    }
+}

crates/cm-api/src/gateway_preflight.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,160 @@
+//! Is the mission gateway configured, and is anything listening?
+//!
+//! The third sibling of [`crate::runtime_preflight`] and
+//! [`crate::validator_preflight`], for the same class of failure: the
+//! configuration is absent or wrong, and nothing says so until a mission pays
+//! for it.
+//!
+//! `ZEROCLAW_GATEWAY_URL` and `ZEROCLAW_TOKEN` have no defaults and are read at
+//! FIRST USE, inside `ZeroClawDriveExecutor::from_env`. So a deployment missing
+//! them boots clean, serves every page, lists every mission — and fails the
+//! first time someone presses run, with an error that surfaces on a phase
+//! rather than at startup. The information exists the whole time; nobody is
+//! told until it is expensive.
+//!
+//! A report, not a gate, matching its siblings. A server with no gateway should
+//! still boot: the frontend, the catalogue and every read path work without it,
+//! and refusing to start would turn a degraded deployment into a dead one.
+
+use std::time::Duration;
+
+const PROBE_TIMEOUT: Duration = Duration::from_secs(5);
+
+/// What the preflight found.
+#[derive(Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub enum Verdict {
+    /// No gateway configured. Missions on the container tier cannot run.
+    NotConfigured { missing: Vec<String> },
+    /// Configured but nothing answered at that address.
+    Unreachable { url: String, error: String },
+    /// Configured and something answered.
+    Reachable { url: String },
+}
+
+impl Verdict {
+    /// The line to print at boot.
+    ///
+    /// Each names the CONSEQUENCE, not just the state. "ZEROCLAW_TOKEN not set"
+    /// tells an operator what is missing; it does not tell them that every
+    /// container-tier mission they launch will fail on its first phase.
+    pub fn message(&self) -> String {
+        match self {
+            Verdict::NotConfigured { missing } => format!(
+                "gateway_preflight: NOT CONFIGURED ({}) — container-tier missions \
+                 cannot run. They will launch, provision a runtime, and fail on \
+                 the first turn; the server is otherwise healthy",
+                missing.join(", ")
+            ),
+            Verdict::Unreachable { url, error } => format!(
+                "gateway_preflight: {url} is configured but did not answer ({error}) \
+                 — container-tier missions will fail on their first turn. The \
+                 config is right and the machine is not"
+            ),
+            Verdict::Reachable { url } => {
+                format!("gateway_preflight: {url} answered")
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Which required variables are absent.
+///
+/// Split from the network probe so the rule is testable without a gateway:
+/// this is the half that is pure, and it is the half that is wrong most often.
+pub fn missing_config(url: Option<&str>, token: Option<&str>, pairing: Option<&str>) -> Vec<String> {
+    let mut missing = Vec::new();
+    if url.map(str::trim).unwrap_or("").is_empty() {
+        missing.push("ZEROCLAW_GATEWAY_URL".to_string());
+    }
+    // Either credential works: a durable token, or a one-time pairing code the
+    // executor exchanges on first use.
+    let has_token = !token.map(str::trim).unwrap_or("").is_empty();
+    let has_pairing = !pairing.map(str::trim).unwrap_or("").is_empty();
+    if !has_token && !has_pairing {
+        missing.push("ZEROCLAW_TOKEN or ZEROCLAW_PAIRING_CODE".to_string());
+    }
+    missing
+}
+
+fn env_opt(key: &str) -> Option<String> {
+    std::env::var(key).ok().filter(|v| !v.trim().is_empty())
+}
+
+/// Probe the configured gateway.
+pub async fn check() -> Verdict {
+    let url = env_opt("ZEROCLAW_GATEWAY_URL");
+    let missing = missing_config(
+        url.as_deref(),
+        env_opt("ZEROCLAW_TOKEN").as_deref(),
+        env_opt("ZEROCLAW_PAIRING_CODE").as_deref(),
+    );
+    if !missing.is_empty() {
+        return Verdict::NotConfigured { missing };
+    }
+    let url = url.expect("checked above");
+
+    // Any HTTP answer proves something is listening and routable, which is the
+    // question this preflight exists to answer. Authenticating here would need
+    // a pairing exchange that BURNS a one-time code — a preflight that costs
+    // the deployment its credential is worse than no preflight.
+    let client = match reqwest::Client::builder().timeout(PROBE_TIMEOUT).build() {
+        Ok(c) => c,
+        Err(e) => {
+            return Verdict::Unreachable {
+                url,
+                error: e.to_string(),
+            }
+        }
+    };
+    match client.get(&url).send().await {
+        Ok(_) => Verdict::Reachable { url },
+        Err(e) => Verdict::Unreachable {
+            url,
+            error: e.to_string(),
+        },
+    }
+}
+
+/// Run the probe and print the verdict. Never panics, never blocks boot.
+pub fn report_at_boot() {
+    tokio::spawn(async {
+        eprintln!("{}", check().await.message());
+    });
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_fully_configured_deployment_is_missing_nothing() {
+        assert!(missing_config(Some("http://gw:42617"), Some("tok"), None).is_empty());
+        // A pairing code alone is enough — the executor exchanges it on first use.
+        assert!(missing_config(Some("http://gw:42617"), None, Some("123456")).is_empty());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn an_empty_string_counts_as_absent() {
+        // The failure this whole module exists for: `unwrap_or_default` and an
+        // empty env var turn "unconfigured" into "configured with nothing",
+        // which fails later as a 401 rather than now as a missing setting.
+        let missing = missing_config(Some("  "), Some(""), Some("   "));
+        assert_eq!(missing.len(), 2, "both must be reported: {missing:?}");
+        assert!(missing[0].contains("GATEWAY_URL"));
+        assert!(missing[1].contains("ZEROCLAW_TOKEN"));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_message_names_the_consequence_not_just_the_state() {
+        let v = Verdict::NotConfigured {
+            missing: vec!["ZEROCLAW_GATEWAY_URL".into()],
+        };
+        let m = v.message();
+        assert!(m.contains("ZEROCLAW_GATEWAY_URL"));
+        assert!(
+            m.contains("cannot run"),
+            "an operator needs to know what stops working, not only what is \
+             unset: {m}"
+        );
+    }
+}

crates/cm-api/src/level_up.rs

@@ -225,6 +225,91 @@ pub async fn apply(
     Ok(())
 }
 
+/// Is autonomous skill authoring on?
+///
+/// Default ON, by operator decision. Stated at boot rather than assumed: this
+/// flips a human approval gate that has existed since the feature shipped, and
+/// a safety gate that changes state silently is how nobody notices it changed.
+pub fn self_authoring_enabled() -> bool {
+    !matches!(
+        std::env::var("CLAWMATES_SKILL_SELF_AUTHORING")
+            .unwrap_or_default()
+            .trim()
+            .to_ascii_lowercase()
+            .as_str(),
+        "0" | "off" | "false"
+    )
+}
+
+/// Apply a pending proposal's `skill_candidate` items with no human decision.
+///
+/// ONLY `skill_candidate`. The other item kinds are deliberately left to the
+/// human gate: `identity_refinement` rewrites an agent's system prompt and
+/// `brain_consolidation` edits its memory, and both change what the agent IS
+/// rather than adding a procedure it can consult. Self-authoring a skill is
+/// recoverable — the row is workspace-scoped, versioned and revertible, and
+/// cannot take a hand-authored name. Rewriting an identity autonomously is not
+/// the same bet, and it is not the one that was asked for.
+///
+/// The remaining items stay pending, so a human still sees them.
+pub async fn apply_autonomous(
+    pool: &PgPool,
+    workspace_id: cm_domain::WorkspaceId,
+    proposal_id: Uuid,
+) -> Result<Vec<String>, String> {
+    let proposal = cm_db::repo::level_up::get(pool, proposal_id, workspace_id.as_uuid())
+        .await
+        .map_err(|e| format!("load proposal: {e}"))?
+        .ok_or_else(|| "proposal not found".to_string())?;
+    if proposal.status != "pending" {
+        return Err(format!("proposal already {}", proposal.status));
+    }
+
+    let items = proposal
+        .payload
+        .get("suggested_items")
+        .and_then(|v| v.as_array())
+        .cloned()
+        .unwrap_or_default();
+
+    let mut applied: Vec<String> = Vec::new();
+    let mut candidates = 0usize;
+    for item in items {
+        let Some(item_id) = item.get("id").and_then(|v| v.as_str()) else {
+            continue;
+        };
+        if item.get("kind").and_then(|v| v.as_str()) != Some("skill_candidate") {
+            continue;
+        }
+        candidates += 1;
+        match apply_skill_candidate(pool, &proposal, &item).await {
+            Ok(()) => applied.push(item_id.to_string()),
+            // A refused draft is a normal outcome (a name collision with a
+            // hand-authored skill is the common one), not a failure of the
+            // sweep. Said out loud so a refusal is never mistaken for the
+            // agent simply not having proposed anything.
+            Err(e) => eprintln!(
+                "level_up: autonomous apply refused {item_id} for workspace {}: {e}",
+                workspace_id.as_uuid()
+            ),
+        }
+    }
+
+    if candidates == 0 {
+        return Ok(Vec::new());
+    }
+    cm_db::repo::level_up::mark_applied_autonomously(
+        pool,
+        proposal_id,
+        workspace_id.as_uuid(),
+        &applied,
+        applied.len() != candidates,
+    )
+    .await
+    .map_err(|e| format!("mark applied: {e}"))?;
+    Ok(applied)
+}
+
 // ── Appliers ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 async fn apply_identity(
@@ -304,21 +389,62 @@ async fn apply_skill_candidate(
                 .collect()
         })
         .unwrap_or_default();
+    // A draft may never take the name of a hand-authored skill.
+    //
+    // The row itself is safe — ids are workspace-scoped, so this cannot
+    // overwrite a builtin, and bindings resolve by skill_id rather than name,
+    // so it cannot shadow one either. What it CAN do is put two different
+    // procedures under one name in the same agent's bundle, and then nobody
+    // reading a transcript can tell which one the agent followed. That
+    // ambiguity is the whole problem in a system where the skill is the
+    // standard the behaviour is graded against.
+    let collides: Option<Uuid> = sqlx::query_scalar(
+        "SELECT id FROM skills WHERE name = $1 AND workspace_id IS NULL",
+    )
+    .bind(name)
+    .fetch_optional(pool)
+    .await
+    .map_err(|e| format!("check builtin collision: {e}"))?;
+    if collides.is_some() {
+        return Err(format!(
+            "skill name {name:?} is hand-authored — an agent-authored draft \
+             cannot take the name of a skill it is graded against"
+        ));
+    }
+
     // Workspace-scoped custom skill. Deterministic id per
     // (workspace, name) so re-approving the same draft updates in
     // place rather than duplicating.
     let id = workspace_skill_id(proposal.workspace_id, name);
+
+    // Versioned, for the same reason builtins are: a self-authored skill that
+    // silently replaces its own body has no undo, and the version a run was
+    // judged under is the only way to read that run back honestly later.
+    let mut tx = pool.begin().await.map_err(|e| format!("begin: {e}"))?;
+    let existing: Option<(i32, String)> =
+        sqlx::query_as("SELECT current_version, body FROM skills WHERE id = $1")
+            .bind(id)
+            .fetch_optional(&mut *tx)
+            .await
+            .map_err(|e| format!("read current skill: {e}"))?;
+    let (next_version, bump) = match &existing {
+        Some((v, prev)) if prev == body => (*v, false),
+        Some((v, _)) => (v + 1, true),
+        None => (1, true),
+    };
+
     sqlx::query(
         "INSERT INTO skills
            (id, name, title, author, description, when_to_use, tags,
             source_kind, workspace_id, current_version, body)
-         VALUES ($1,$2,$2,'level_up',$3,$4,$5,'promoted_from_brain',$6,1,$7)
+         VALUES ($1,$2,$2,'level_up',$3,$4,$5,'promoted_from_brain',$6,$8,$7)
          ON CONFLICT (id) DO UPDATE SET
-             description = EXCLUDED.description,
+             description     = EXCLUDED.description,
-             when_to_use = EXCLUDED.when_to_use,
+             when_to_use     = EXCLUDED.when_to_use,
-             tags        = EXCLUDED.tags,
+             tags            = EXCLUDED.tags,
-             body        = EXCLUDED.body,
+             body            = EXCLUDED.body,
-             updated_at  = now()",
+             current_version = EXCLUDED.current_version,
+             updated_at      = now()",
     )
     .bind(id)
     .bind(name)
@@ -327,9 +453,28 @@ async fn apply_skill_candidate(
     .bind(&tags)
     .bind(proposal.workspace_id)
     .bind(body)
-    .execute(pool)
+    .bind(next_version)
+    .execute(&mut *tx)
     .await
     .map_err(|e| format!("upsert skill draft: {e}"))?;
+
+    if bump {
+        sqlx::query(
+            "INSERT INTO skill_versions
+               (skill_id, version, body_md, description, when_to_use)
+             VALUES ($1,$2,$3,$4,$5)
+             ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING",
+        )
+        .bind(id)
+        .bind(next_version)
+        .bind(body)
+        .bind(description)
+        .bind(when_to_use)
+        .execute(&mut *tx)
+        .await
+        .map_err(|e| format!("record skill version: {e}"))?;
+    }
+    tx.commit().await.map_err(|e| format!("commit: {e}"))?;
     Ok(())
 }
 

crates/cm-api/src/lib.rs

@@ -49,9 +49,12 @@ pub mod repo_digest;
 pub mod root_copy;
 mod routes;
 pub mod runtime_preflight;
-mod runtime_provision;
+pub mod runtime_provision;
 pub mod security_scan;
 pub mod session_executor;
+pub mod gateway_preflight;
+pub mod skill_self_authoring;
+pub mod skill_use;
 pub mod skills_loader;
 pub mod subscription;
 pub mod swarm;
@@ -59,11 +62,12 @@ pub mod task_card_parser;
 pub mod task_card_worker;
 pub mod team_template_loader;
 pub mod tool_versions;
-mod topology_exec;
+pub mod topology_exec;
 pub mod topology_worker;
 pub mod validator_preflight;
 pub mod vm_placement;
 pub mod vm_stop_gate;
+pub mod vm_tool_gate;
 pub mod vm_tool_tap;
 pub mod workflow_registry;
 
@@ -589,6 +593,10 @@ pub fn router(state: AppState) -> Router {
             "/api/missions/{id}/phases/{phase_id}/evaluations",
             get(routes::missions::list_phase_evaluations),
         )
+        .route(
+            "/api/missions/{id}/skill-use",
+            get(routes::missions::skill_use),
+        )
         .route(
             "/api/missions/{id}/teams",
             get(routes::missions::list_teams),

crates/cm-api/src/microvm_executor.rs

@@ -691,10 +691,37 @@ async fn run_inside(
     // ONE settings document, written once, carrying whichever hooks installed.
     // Two writers here is the silent clobber `guest_settings` exists to stop:
     // whichever ran second would erase the other's hook with no error at all.
-    let settings = match (gate_dir, tap_dir) {
+    // The PRE-execution gate. Installed on the same terms as the tap: a
-        (None, None) => None,
+    // failure here degrades to no gate rather than failing the phase, because
-        (g, t) => {
+    // a mission that runs ungated is what we have today and a mission that
-            let doc = crate::vm_tool_tap::guest_settings(g, t);
+    // refuses to run is a regression.
+    let tool_gate_dir = match settings_supported {
+        false => None,
+        true => match vm
+            .exec(
+                &crate::vm_tool_gate::install_command(crate::vm_tool_gate::GUEST_DIR),
+                None,
+                60,
+                &[],
+            )
+            .await
+        {
+            Ok(o) if o.rc == 0 => Some(crate::vm_tool_gate::GUEST_DIR),
+            other => {
+                eprintln!(
+                    "microvm_executor: could not install the tool gate on {} ({other:?}) \
+                     — this phase's tool calls will run unchecked",
+                    vm.vm_id()
+                );
+                None
+            }
+        },
+    };
+
+    let settings = match (gate_dir, tap_dir, tool_gate_dir) {
+        (None, None, None) => None,
+        (g, t, tg) => {
+            let doc = crate::vm_tool_tap::guest_settings(g, t, tg);
             let cmd = crate::vm_tool_tap::settings_command(
                 crate::vm_tool_tap::SETTINGS_PATH,
                 &doc,

crates/cm-api/src/mission_events.rs

@@ -23,6 +23,36 @@ pub const PHASE_COMPLETED: &str = "phase.completed";
 pub const TOOL_CALL: &str = "tool.call";
 /// A tool touched a path. `target` is the path, repo-relative where known.
 pub const FILE_TOUCH: &str = "file.touch";
+/// The exact prompt text an agent was given. `detail.text` is the full string,
+/// `target` is the role or tier that composed it.
+///
+/// The durable answer to "what did this agent actually receive". Skills, the
+/// task, the evaluator's feedback and the tool preamble are assembled from four
+/// places across three tiers, so re-deriving the prompt after the fact means
+/// re-running that assembly against data that has since changed. Recording it
+/// is the only way the question stays answerable.
+pub const PROMPT_COMPOSED: &str = "prompt.composed";
+/// The agent's own narrative for a turn. `detail.text`.
+///
+/// Written by `topology_worker` and pushed live once by `live_bus`. Until the
+/// reader below existed, the stored row was never read again by anything: both
+/// database readers in `routes/world.rs` filter to `tool.call`/`file.touch`,
+/// and the only other statement touching the table is the GC that deletes it.
+pub const REASONING: &str = "reasoning";
+
+/// Kinds the per-phase cap applies to.
+///
+/// The cap exists to bound the two unbounded kinds: a coding phase can call
+/// thousands of tools and touch thousands of paths. The others are bounded by
+/// the phase's own structure — one start, one completion, one prompt per turn —
+/// and counting them against the same budget meant a busy phase could push out
+/// its OWN terminal event, leaving a phase that looks like it never finished.
+const CAPPED_KINDS: &[&str] = &[TOOL_CALL, FILE_TOUCH];
+
+/// Does this kind count against, and get dropped by, `PER_PHASE_CAP`?
+pub fn is_capped(kind: &str) -> bool {
+    CAPPED_KINDS.contains(&kind)
+}
 
 /// Most events one phase may record.
 ///
@@ -89,12 +119,17 @@ pub async fn record(pool: &PgPool, e: MissionEvent) {
     } else {
         e.detail
     };
+    // The cap is still decided INSIDE the insert (see the test below), and now
+    // only counts the kinds it is meant to bound.
+    let capped = is_capped(&e.kind);
     let res = sqlx::query(
         "INSERT INTO mission_events
              (mission_id, phase_id, run_id, agent_id, kind, target, detail)
          SELECT $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7
           WHERE $2::uuid IS NULL
-             OR (SELECT count(*) FROM mission_events WHERE phase_id = $2) < $8",
+             OR NOT $9
+             OR (SELECT count(*) FROM mission_events
+                  WHERE phase_id = $2 AND kind = ANY($10)) < $8",
     )
     .bind(e.mission_id)
     .bind(e.phase_id)
@@ -104,6 +139,8 @@ pub async fn record(pool: &PgPool, e: MissionEvent) {
     .bind(&e.target)
     .bind(&detail)
     .bind(PER_PHASE_CAP)
+    .bind(capped)
+    .bind(CAPPED_KINDS)
     .execute(pool)
     .await;
     if let Err(err) = res {
@@ -112,6 +149,40 @@ pub async fn record(pool: &PgPool, e: MissionEvent) {
 }
 
 /// Record several events under one round trip's worth of intent.
+/// Every recorded prompt and narrative for a mission, oldest first.
+///
+/// The read side of `PROMPT_COMPOSED` / `REASONING`. Both kinds were write-only
+/// before this: the prompt was never stored at all, and the narrative was
+/// stored and then read by nothing. Together they answer "what did this agent
+/// receive, and what did it say it did", which is the question
+/// `docs/PROVENANCE-ASSESSMENT.md` records as unanswerable.
+pub async fn narrative_for_mission(
+    pool: &PgPool,
+    mission_id: Uuid,
+) -> Result<Vec<(String, Option<Uuid>, Option<String>, String)>, sqlx::Error> {
+    let rows: Vec<(String, Option<Uuid>, Option<String>, Value)> = sqlx::query_as(
+        "SELECT kind, agent_id, target, detail
+           FROM mission_events
+          WHERE mission_id = $1 AND kind = ANY($2)
+          ORDER BY id",
+    )
+    .bind(mission_id)
+    .bind(&[PROMPT_COMPOSED, REASONING][..])
+    .fetch_all(pool)
+    .await?;
+    Ok(rows
+        .into_iter()
+        .map(|(kind, agent, target, detail)| {
+            let text = detail
+                .get("text")
+                .and_then(|v| v.as_str())
+                .unwrap_or_default()
+                .to_string();
+            (kind, agent, target, text)
+        })
+        .collect())
+}
+
 pub async fn record_all(pool: &PgPool, events: Vec<MissionEvent>) {
     for e in events {
         record(pool, e).await;

crates/cm-api/src/mission_gc.rs

@@ -137,12 +137,21 @@ const EVENT_RETENTION_DAYS: i32 = 7;
 /// deployment that has been accumulating for months would otherwise take a long
 /// lock on its first sweep after this ships. The sweep runs on a timer, so a
 /// large backlog simply drains over several passes.
-async fn reap_mission_events(pool: &PgPool, out: &mut Reclaimed) {
+pub async fn reap_mission_events(pool: &PgPool, out: &mut Reclaimed) {
     let res = sqlx::query(
         "DELETE FROM mission_events
           WHERE id IN (
-              SELECT id FROM mission_events
+              SELECT e.id FROM mission_events e
-               WHERE created_at < now() - make_interval(days => $1)
+               JOIN missions m ON m.id = e.mission_id
+               WHERE e.created_at < now() - make_interval(days => $1)
+                 -- A mission under measurement or investigation keeps its
+                 -- events. Without this the evidence a Skill-Use baseline or a
+                 -- provenance question depends on expires while the question
+                 -- is still open, and the answer degrades silently into
+                 -- \"there are no events\" — which reads identically to
+                 -- \"nothing happened\".
+                 AND (m.retain_events_until IS NULL
+                      OR m.retain_events_until < now())
                LIMIT 10000
           )",
     )

crates/cm-api/src/mission_orchestrator.rs

@@ -679,7 +679,12 @@ async fn mint_team_from_template(
         // out-of-band via MissionRuntimeProvisioner::pin_agent_workspaces.
         if let Some(p) = provisioner {
             match p
-                .provision_claw(claw_id, role_model, &template.template.risk_profile)
+                .provision_claw(
+                    claw_id,
+                    role_model,
+                    &template.template.risk_profile,
+                    &template.template.mcp_bundles,
+                )
                 .await
             {
                 Ok(_) => provisioned_claws.push(agent_id),

crates/cm-api/src/phase_config.rs

@@ -53,6 +53,33 @@ pub const KNOWN_KEYS: &[KnownKey] = &[
                   phase that changes no files still completes; also vm_stop_gate::\
                   StopGate::for_phase, where it drops the in-loop delivery check",
     },
+    KnownKey {
+        key: "tools",
+        read_by: "security_scan::run — gates which of cargo_audit / gitleaks / \
+                  trivy_fs / semgrep run against the phase's checkout; absent \
+                  means all four. Listed here as NOT IMPLEMENTED while wired, \
+                  which understated the recipe: the key was real, what was \
+                  missing was anything that FIRED the scan outside an operator \
+                  button — now phase_runner::scan_finished_security_phases",
+    },
+    KnownKey {
+        key: "harness",
+        read_by: "benchmark_runner::harness_from_config — selects criterion / \
+                  cargo_bench / vitest_bench / pytest_bench / shell, with \
+                  `bench_name` (criterion) and `cmd` (shell) as its arguments. \
+                  phase_runner's benchmark sweep runs the baseline through it. \
+                  This key was listed as NOT IMPLEMENTED while being fully \
+                  wired, which is worse than an unread key: the registry exists \
+                  so an operator can trust what a recipe does, and it was wrong",
+    },
+    KnownKey {
+        key: "bench_name",
+        read_by: "benchmark_runner::harness_from_config — the criterion bench target",
+    },
+    KnownKey {
+        key: "cmd",
+        read_by: "benchmark_runner::harness_from_config — the shell harness command line",
+    },
     KnownKey {
         key: "done_when_check",
         read_by: "vm_stop_gate::StopGate::for_phase — a shell command the agent's \
@@ -84,14 +111,6 @@ pub const DECLARED_BUT_UNREAD: &[KnownKey] = &[
         key: "mode",
         read_by: "NOT IMPLEMENTED — benchmark/refactor mode selection",
     },
-    KnownKey {
-        key: "harness",
-        read_by: "NOT IMPLEMENTED — benchmark harness selection",
-    },
-    KnownKey {
-        key: "tools",
-        read_by: "NOT IMPLEMENTED — per-phase tool selection",
-    },
     KnownKey {
         key: "benchmark",
         read_by: "NOT IMPLEMENTED — nested benchmark settings",
@@ -104,11 +123,6 @@ pub const DECLARED_BUT_UNREAD: &[KnownKey] = &[
                   setting this per phase changes nothing: security_hardening.toml \
                   asks for gitea_forge + security_scan and its phase gets neither",
     },
-    KnownKey {
-        key: "test_command",
-        read_by: "NOT IMPLEMENTED — mission_delivery::discover_test_command infers \
-                  from the repo and does not consult config",
-    },
 ];
 
 fn is_listed(key: &str, list: &[KnownKey]) -> bool {

crates/cm-api/src/phase_runner.rs

@@ -73,6 +73,8 @@ async fn sweep_once(
     crate::mission_outputs::capture_repo_less_phases(pool).await?;
     // Benchmark phases record their baseline once the work exists to measure.
     baseline_finished_benchmark_phases(pool).await?;
+    // Security phases run the scanners once the checkout exists to scan.
+    scan_finished_security_phases(pool).await?;
     // A failed phase makes every later phase unreachable, and saying so is what
     // lets the mission finish at all.
     skip_unreachable_phases(pool).await?;
@@ -222,6 +224,88 @@ async fn capture_finished_coding_phases(pool: &PgPool) -> Result<(), String> {
 /// "/mission/repo ... is the mission's git checkout" to a mission that had none.
 /// One agent recorded the contradiction verbatim — "No git repo — file is
 /// written" — and wrote into a container that was then reaped unread.
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod skill_delivery_wiring_tests {
+    /// Every tier without per-turn injection must be handed the task text that
+    /// CARRIES the skills.
+    ///
+    /// The behavioural tests in `tests/mission_skill_delivery.rs` prove
+    /// `phase_skills_text` and `compose_turn_prompt` work. They cannot prove
+    /// the three `launch_*` calls pass the composed string rather than the bare
+    /// one — and that substitution is a one-word edit that would silently
+    /// return all three tiers to delivering no skill, with every test still
+    /// green. Same reasoning as `mission_events::the_cap_is_enforced_in_one_statement`.
+    /// The prompt must be recorded by the tier that SENDS it.
+    ///
+    /// Recording at the dispatch fork wrote a phase prompt for container
+    /// missions too, and the container tier does not send that text — it sends
+    /// the bare task and appends skills per turn. Observed on a live mission:
+    /// three prompt.composed rows, one of which was never given to anything.
+    #[test]
+    fn every_solo_tier_records_the_prompt_it_actually_sends() {
+        let src = include_str!("phase_runner.rs");
+        let anchor = format!("async fn {}(", "record_phase_prompt");
+        assert!(
+            src.contains(&anchor),
+            "the per-tier recorder is gone; a fork-level record would log \
+             prompts that were never sent"
+        );
+        for launcher in [
+            "launch_composed_microvm_phase",
+            "launch_microvm_phase",
+            "launch_direct_session",
+        ] {
+            let body = src
+                .split(&format!("async fn {launcher}("))
+                .nth(1)
+                .and_then(|s| s.split("\nasync fn ").next())
+                .unwrap_or_else(|| panic!("{launcher} not found"));
+            assert!(
+                body.contains("record_phase_prompt("),
+                "{launcher} runs a prompt it never records — that phase becomes \
+                 unexplainable after the fact"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_three_solo_tiers_are_handed_the_skill_bearing_task() {
+        let src = include_str!("phase_runner.rs");
+        // Only the dispatch body, so the helper definitions and these tests do
+        // not satisfy the assertion by accident.
+        // Built at runtime, not written as one literal: a literal anchor
+        // appears in THIS test's own source too, and the split then matches
+        // itself instead of the code under test.
+        let anchor = format!("let task_with_skills = match {}(", "phase_skills_text");
+        let body = src
+            .split(&anchor)
+            .nth(1)
+            .and_then(|s| s.split("\nasync fn ").next())
+            .expect("dispatch body");
+
+        for (call, tier) in [
+            ("launch_composed_microvm_phase(", "composed microVM"),
+            ("launch_microvm_phase(", "solo microVM"),
+            ("launch_direct_session(", "direct session"),
+        ] {
+            let args = body
+                .split(call)
+                .nth(1)
+                .and_then(|s| s.split(')').next())
+                .unwrap_or_else(|| panic!("{tier}: call site not found"));
+            assert!(
+                args.contains("&task_with_skills"),
+                "{tier} is passed the bare task — that tier has no per-turn \
+                 injection, so its agents would receive no skill at all"
+            );
+            assert!(
+                !args.contains("&task,"),
+                "{tier} is passed `&task`, the pre-skills string"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod repo_less_text_tests {
     use super::*;
@@ -352,6 +436,74 @@ async fn baseline_finished_benchmark_phases(pool: &PgPool) -> Result<(), String>
     Ok(())
 }
 
+/// Run the scanners for `security_scan` phases that have finished without one.
+///
+/// The same defect the benchmark sweep above was written for, in the other
+/// half of the platform. `security_scan::run` — which reads `phase.config.tools`
+/// to pick scanners and upserts each finding as a `mission_task` — was
+/// reachable only from `POST /api/missions/{id}/security-scan`, an operator
+/// button. So `security_hardening.toml`, a workflow whose entire first phase is
+/// a scan, ran an agent that was never told to scan and then never fired the
+/// scanner either. The phase reported `completed` having scanned nothing, and
+/// the two facts that would have exposed it — zero findings, and a green
+/// phase — are exactly what a genuinely clean repository also looks like.
+///
+/// Guarded on the marker row rather than on the presence of findings, because
+/// a clean scan writes no findings: without it, a clean phase would be
+/// rescanned on every tick for as long as the mission existed.
+///
+/// Spawned, not awaited, for the same reason as the benchmark baseline: four
+/// scanners against a large tree take minutes, and this loop also starts,
+/// closes and evaluates every phase on the platform.
+/// The selection half of the sweep, split out so the marker guard is testable
+/// without a container: the scan itself needs Docker, the guard is the part
+/// that decides whether it runs twice or never.
+pub async fn unscanned_security_phases(pool: &PgPool) -> Result<Vec<(Uuid, Uuid)>, String> {
+    let rows = sqlx::query(
+        "SELECT mp.id, mp.mission_id
+           FROM mission_phases mp
+          WHERE mp.kind = 'security_scan'
+            AND mp.status IN ('completed', 'failed')
+            AND NOT EXISTS (
+                SELECT 1 FROM mission_tasks t
+                 WHERE t.phase_id = mp.id AND t.external_id = $1
+            )
+          ORDER BY mp.completed_at DESC NULLS LAST
+          LIMIT 2",
+    )
+    .bind(crate::security_scan::SCAN_MARKER)
+    .fetch_all(pool)
+    .await
+    .map_err(|e| format!("select security_scan phases: {e}"))?;
+    Ok(rows
+        .into_iter()
+        .map(|r| (r.get("id"), r.get("mission_id")))
+        .collect())
+}
+
+async fn scan_finished_security_phases(pool: &PgPool) -> Result<(), String> {
+    for (phase_id, mission_id) in unscanned_security_phases(pool).await? {
+        let pool = pool.clone();
+        tokio::spawn(async move {
+            match crate::security_scan::run(&pool, mission_id, phase_id).await {
+                Ok(n) => eprintln!(
+                    "phase_runner: security scan recorded {n} finding(s) for phase \
+                     {phase_id} of mission {mission_id}"
+                ),
+                // Not a phase failure, for the same reason the benchmark
+                // baseline is not: a repo the scanners cannot read is a real
+                // outcome. Said out loud, though — "no findings" must not be
+                // indistinguishable from "never scanned".
+                Err(e) => eprintln!(
+                    "phase_runner: security scan did not run for phase {phase_id} \
+                     of mission {mission_id}: {e}"
+                ),
+            }
+        });
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 /// Did this phase finish without delivering the work it exists to produce?
 ///
 /// A coding phase that changes no files has done nothing, and until now that
@@ -712,7 +864,7 @@ async fn launch_phase(
                     crate::runtime_provision::RuntimeProvisioner::for_gateway(ec.endpoint.clone())
                 {
                     let crew = sqlx::query(
-                        "SELECT DISTINCT a.id, a.model_binding, t.risk_profile
+                        "SELECT DISTINCT a.id, a.model_binding, t.risk_profile, t.mcp_bundles
                            FROM team_members tm
                            JOIN mission_teams mt ON mt.team_id = tm.team_id
                            JOIN teams t          ON t.id = tm.team_id
@@ -728,11 +880,27 @@ async fn launch_phase(
                         let aid: uuid::Uuid = row.get("id");
                         let model: Option<String> = row.get("model_binding");
                         let risk: Option<String> = row.get("risk_profile");
+                        // Re-assert the team's OWN bundles. Passing a constant
+                        // here would quietly strip `clawmates_skills` from a
+                        // crew that had it, and a re-provision that removes a
+                        // capability is worse than one that never ran: the
+                        // agent keeps working and simply stops being able to
+                        // read its skills, halfway through the mission.
+                        let bundles: Vec<String> = row
+                            .get::<serde_json::Value, _>("mcp_bundles")
+                            .as_array()
+                            .map(|a| {
+                                a.iter()
+                                    .filter_map(|v| v.as_str().map(|s| s.to_string()))
+                                    .collect()
+                            })
+                            .unwrap_or_default();
                         match rp
                             .provision_claw(
                                 aid,
                                 model.as_deref().unwrap_or("claude"),
                                 risk.as_deref().unwrap_or("research_readonly"),
+                                &bundles,
                             )
                             .await
                         {
@@ -801,6 +969,15 @@ async fn launch_phase(
         _ => task,
     };
 
+    // The container tier is deliberately NOT given this: it injects per-turn in
+    // `topology_exec`, with the running node's own role, and appending here too
+    // would put every crew member's skills in every turn twice.
+    let task_with_skills = match phase_skills_text(pool, mission_id).await {
+        Some(skills) => crate::topology_exec::compose_turn_prompt(&task, Some(&skills)),
+        None => task.clone(),
+    };
+
+
     // Direct-session executor: run the whole phase as ONE `claude -p` session
     // against the mission checkout, instead of driving turns through ZeroClaw.
     //
@@ -937,7 +1114,7 @@ async fn launch_phase(
                 phase_id,
                 workspace_id,
                 iteration,
-                &task,
+                &task_with_skills,
                 team,
                 purposes,
             )
@@ -951,7 +1128,7 @@ async fn launch_phase(
             kind,
             workspace_id,
             iteration,
-            &task,
+            &task_with_skills,
             p.backend,
             chosen_node,
             p.team_engine,
@@ -962,7 +1139,14 @@ async fn launch_phase(
     }
 
     if crate::session_executor::direct_mode() {
-        return launch_direct_session(pool, mission_id, phase_id, workspace_id, iteration, &task)
+        return launch_direct_session(
+            pool,
+            mission_id,
+            phase_id,
+            workspace_id,
+            iteration,
+            &task_with_skills,
+        )
             .await;
     }
 
@@ -1058,6 +1242,7 @@ async fn launch_composed_microvm_phase(
     teams: Vec<(Uuid, serde_json::Value)>,
     purposes: &[&str],
 ) -> Result<(), String> {
+    record_phase_prompt(pool, mission_id, phase_id, "composed_microvm", task).await;
     sqlx::query(
         "DELETE FROM topology_runs
           WHERE mission_phase_id = $1 AND status IN ('failed', 'cancelled')",
@@ -1198,6 +1383,7 @@ async fn launch_microvm_phase(
     // `VmPhase::has_repo`.
     has_repo: bool,
 ) -> Result<(), String> {
+    record_phase_prompt(pool, mission_id, phase_id, "microvm", task).await;
     sqlx::query(
         "DELETE FROM topology_runs
           WHERE mission_phase_id = $1 AND status IN ('failed', 'cancelled')",
@@ -1431,6 +1617,7 @@ async fn launch_direct_session(
     iteration: i32,
     task: &str,
 ) -> Result<(), String> {
+    record_phase_prompt(pool, mission_id, phase_id, "session", task).await;
     sqlx::query(
         "DELETE FROM topology_runs
           WHERE mission_phase_id = $1 AND status IN ('failed', 'cancelled')",
@@ -1480,16 +1667,52 @@ async fn launch_direct_session(
             summary.chars().take(200).collect::<String>()
         );
         let status = if ok { "completed" } else { "failed" };
+
+        // The agent's account, kept. Until now this tier wrote NO checkpoint
+        // record — the same defect the solo microVM path was fixed for, in the
+        // one remaining tier: `summary` went to stderr above and nowhere else,
+        // so the Live and Output tabs were empty for a session that did real
+        // work, and nothing downstream could read what the agent said it did.
+        //
+        // Shape matches the microVM path exactly, so the two existing readers
+        // (`/api/missions/{id}/documents` and `/api/topology-runs/{id}/events`)
+        // need no change.
+        let record = serde_json::json!({
+            "records": [{
+                "node_id": "n0",
+                "role": "session",
+                "phase": "work",
+                "output": summary,
+                "tokens": 0,
+                "gated": [],
+            }]
+        });
+        // Also as a durable event, so the narrative is queryable per mission
+        // rather than only by walking topology_runs JSON.
+        let mut ev = crate::mission_events::MissionEvent::new(
+            mission_id,
+            crate::mission_events::REASONING,
+        );
+        ev.phase_id = Some(phase_id);
+        ev.run_id = Some(run_id);
+        ev.target = Some("session".to_string());
+        ev.detail = serde_json::json!({ "text": summary });
+        crate::mission_events::record(&pool, ev).await;
+
         // Never overwrite a cancellation. The operator asking to stop is a decision;
         // this task reporting how the VM turned out is an observation, and it may
         // land minutes later. Without the guard a cancelled run silently reappears
         // as completed or failed.
         if let Err(e) = sqlx::query(
-            "UPDATE topology_runs SET status = $2, updated_at = now()
+            "UPDATE topology_runs
+                SET status = $2,
+                    checkpoint = COALESCE(checkpoint, '{}'::jsonb) || $3::jsonb,
+                    updated_at = now()
               WHERE id = $1 AND status <> 'cancelled'",
         )
         .bind(run_id)
         .bind(status)
+        .bind(&record)
         .execute(&pool)
         .await
         {
@@ -1501,6 +1724,103 @@ async fn launch_direct_session(
     Ok(())
 }
 
+/// The pinned skills for a phase's crew, rendered for the task text.
+///
+/// The container tier gets skills per TURN (`topology_exec::pinned_skills_text`),
+/// where each node carries its own claw alias and therefore its own role's
+/// skills. The microVM and direct-session tiers have no per-turn alias — the
+/// phase runs as one `claude -p` session — so their skills have to be resolved
+/// per PHASE and appended to the task instead. Without this, those three tiers
+/// deliver no skill at all, which is what they did until now.
+///
+/// Union across the crew, deduplicated. A solo tier does not know which crew
+/// member's turn it is running, and a procedure that applies to the role doing
+/// the work still applies when one agent does all of it. Erring toward the
+/// union is safe here in a way it would not be on the container tier, where
+/// per-role precision is available and used.
+/// Record the prompt a phase is about to run with.
+///
+/// Called from inside each tier rather than at the dispatch point, because the
+/// tiers do not all send the same text: the three solo tiers send the
+/// skills-bearing task, and the container tier sends the bare task and appends
+/// skills per turn in `topology_exec`. Recording at the fork wrote a `solo`
+/// prompt for container missions too — a prompt that was composed and never
+/// sent. A provenance record of something that did not happen is worse than no
+/// record: it is the wrong answer, delivered confidently.
+async fn record_phase_prompt(
+    pool: &PgPool,
+    mission_id: Uuid,
+    phase_id: Uuid,
+    tier: &str,
+    text: &str,
+) {
+    let mut ev = crate::mission_events::MissionEvent::new(
+        mission_id,
+        crate::mission_events::PROMPT_COMPOSED,
+    );
+    ev.phase_id = Some(phase_id);
+    ev.target = Some(tier.to_string());
+    ev.detail = serde_json::json!({ "text": text, "tier": tier });
+    crate::mission_events::record(pool, ev).await;
+}
+
+pub async fn phase_skills_text(pool: &PgPool, mission_id: Uuid) -> Option<String> {
+    let crew = sqlx::query(
+        "SELECT DISTINCT a.id
+           FROM team_members tm
+           JOIN mission_teams mt ON mt.team_id = tm.team_id
+           JOIN agents a         ON a.id = tm.claw_id
+          WHERE mt.mission_id = $1 AND a.deleted_at IS NULL",
+    )
+    .bind(mission_id)
+    .fetch_all(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap_or_default();
+
+    let mut seen: std::collections::BTreeSet<String> = std::collections::BTreeSet::new();
+    let mut out = String::new();
+    for row in &crew {
+        let agent_id: Uuid = row.get("id");
+        let link = cm_db::repo::agent_template_link::get(pool, agent_id)
+            .await
+            .ok()
+            .flatten();
+        let (tpl_id, slot) = link
+            .as_ref()
+            .map(|l| (Some(l.template_id), Some(l.role_slot.as_str())))
+            .unwrap_or((None, None));
+        let Ok(bindings) =
+            cm_db::repo::skills_catalog::effective_for_agent(pool, agent_id, tpl_id, slot).await
+        else {
+            continue;
+        };
+        for b in bindings.iter().filter(|b| b.pin_in_context) {
+            if !seen.insert(b.skill.name.clone()) {
+                continue;
+            }
+            // Bounded, and truncation is STATED. A silently clipped procedure is
+            // worse than an absent one: the agent follows the half it can see
+            // and reports success against a rule it never read.
+            if out.len() + b.skill.body.len() > crate::topology_exec::MAX_PINNED_SKILL_BYTES {
+                out.push_str(&format!(
+                    "\n[skill \"{}\" omitted — the pinned set exceeded {} bytes]\n",
+                    b.skill.name,
+                    crate::topology_exec::MAX_PINNED_SKILL_BYTES
+                ));
+                continue;
+            }
+            out.push_str(&crate::topology_exec::render_pinned_skill(
+                &b.skill.name,
+                &b.skill.body,
+            ));
+        }
+    }
+    if seen.is_empty() {
+        return None;
+    }
+    Some(out)
+}
+
 fn phase_task_text(
     kind: &str,
     title: &str,

crates/cm-api/src/routes/mission_plan.rs

@@ -48,7 +48,12 @@ async fn repo_digest(pool: &sqlx::PgPool, mission_id: uuid::Uuid) -> String {
         return "(this mission has no repository)".to_string();
     };
     let branch = branch.unwrap_or_else(|| "main".to_string());
+    // Distinguish "no credential" from "the forge said no". Both used to
+    // arrive as the same "(could not be read)" string, so an unconfigured
+    // deployment looked identical to a private repo — and the planner, told
+    // only that the read failed, cannot say which.
     let token = std::env::var("GITEA_TOKEN").unwrap_or_default();
+    let unauthenticated = token.trim().is_empty();
     let Ok(client) = reqwest::Client::builder()
         .timeout(std::time::Duration::from_secs(20))
         .build()
@@ -70,6 +75,11 @@ async fn repo_digest(pool: &sqlx::PgPool, mission_id: uuid::Uuid) -> String {
     );
     let tree: serde_json::Value = match auth(client.get(&tree_url)).send().await {
         Ok(r) if r.status().is_success() => r.json().await.unwrap_or_default(),
+        _ if unauthenticated => {
+            return "(the repository tree could not be read: GITEA_TOKEN is unset, \
+                    so this read was unauthenticated)"
+                .to_string()
+        }
         _ => return "(the repository tree could not be read)".to_string(),
     };
     let entries: Vec<crate::repo_digest::FileEntry> = tree
@@ -304,8 +314,11 @@ pub async fn decide(
         .map_err(|_| ApiError::Internal)?
         .ok_or(ApiError::NotFound)?;
     if mission.status != "draft" {
-        eprintln!("mission {id}: plan approval refused — mission is {}", mission.status);
+        return Err(ApiError::Refused(format!(
-        return Err(ApiError::BadRequest);
+            "this mission is {} — a {} can only be approved while it is a draft, \
+             because approving one rewrites how the mission will run",
+            mission.status, "plan"
+        )));
     }
 
     let plan: Plan = serde_json::from_value(proposal.plan.clone()).map_err(|e| {
@@ -317,6 +330,7 @@ pub async fn decide(
     // before a deploy could name a kind this build no longer dispatches.
     if let Err(why) = plan.validate() {
         eprintln!("mission {id}: plan {pid} is no longer runnable: {why}");
+        let reason = why.to_string();
         let _ = cm_db::repo::mission_plan_proposals::decide(
             &state.pool,
             pid,
@@ -326,7 +340,12 @@ pub async fn decide(
             Some(user.user_id.as_uuid().to_owned()),
         )
         .await;
-        return Err(ApiError::BadRequest);
+        // `Refusal` is already written as human-readable copy — it names the
+        // constraint and why it exists. It was going to stderr only.
+        return Err(ApiError::Refused(format!(
+            "this plan is no longer runnable on the current build, so it was \
+             rejected: {reason}"
+        )));
     }
 
     let phases = plan.phases();

crates/cm-api/src/routes/mission_roster.rs

@@ -253,8 +253,11 @@ pub async fn decide(
         .map_err(|_| ApiError::Internal)?
         .ok_or(ApiError::NotFound)?;
     if mission.status != "draft" {
-        eprintln!("mission {id}: roster approval refused — mission is {}", mission.status);
+        return Err(ApiError::Refused(format!(
-        return Err(ApiError::BadRequest);
+            "this mission is {} — a {} can only be approved while it is a draft, \
+             because approving one rewrites how the mission will run",
+            mission.status, "roster"
+        )));
     }
 
     let roster: Roster = serde_json::from_value(proposal.roster.clone()).map_err(|e| {
@@ -269,6 +272,7 @@ pub async fn decide(
         .map_err(|_| ApiError::Internal)?;
     if let Err(why) = roster.validate(&available) {
         eprintln!("mission {id}: roster {pid} is no longer applicable: {why}");
+        let reason = why.to_string();
         let _ = cm_db::repo::mission_team_proposals::decide(
             &state.pool,
             pid,
@@ -278,7 +282,13 @@ pub async fn decide(
             Some(user.user_id.as_uuid().to_owned()),
         )
         .await;
-        return Err(ApiError::BadRequest);
+        // The proposal has just been auto-rejected, so the caller is about to
+        // re-read a list where it says "rejected" with no visible cause. The
+        // reason is the whole content of this response.
+        return Err(ApiError::Refused(format!(
+            "this roster no longer applies to the fleet as it is now, so it was \
+             rejected: {reason}"
+        )));
     }
 
     let graph = roster.graph().map_err(|e| {

crates/cm-api/src/routes/missions.rs

@@ -1223,6 +1223,42 @@ pub async fn retry_phase(
 /// One row per pass. The `reason` is the operator-facing explanation of why a
 /// phase iterated (or stopped), and is the same text fed back to the agents as
 /// guidance for the following pass.
+/// Skill-Use scores for a mission: did the skills we delivered change what the
+/// agent did?
+///
+/// Reads only what was recorded — the prompts the agent received and the
+/// narratives it returned. An empty result means the evidence is gone (events
+/// are reaped after 7 days unless `retain_events_until` is set), NOT that no
+/// skill was followed, and the caller has to present it that way.
+pub async fn skill_use(
+    State(state): State<AppState>,
+    Authed(user): Authed,
+    Path(id): Path<Uuid>,
+) -> Result<Json<Value>, ApiError> {
+    let _ = cm_db::repo::missions::get(&state.pool, id, user.workspace_id.as_uuid())
+        .await?
+        .ok_or(ApiError::NotFound)?;
+    let scores = crate::skill_use::score_mission(&state.pool, id)
+        .await
+        .map_err(|e| {
+            eprintln!("skill_use: scoring mission {id} failed: {e}");
+            ApiError::Internal
+        })?;
+    Ok(Json(serde_json::json!({
+        "mission_id": id,
+        "skills": scores,
+        // Said in the payload rather than left for the reader to infer: an
+        // empty list has two very different causes and they must not look the
+        // same to whoever consumes this.
+        "evidence": if scores.is_empty() {
+            "no delivered skills found in the recorded prompts — either none \
+             were delivered, or the events have been reaped"
+        } else {
+            "scored from recorded prompt.composed and reasoning events"
+        },
+    })))
+}
+
 pub async fn list_phase_evaluations(
     State(state): State<AppState>,
     Authed(user): Authed,

crates/cm-api/src/routes/teams.rs

@@ -83,6 +83,21 @@ pub(crate) async fn build_team(
     .await
 }
 
+/// MCP bundles for a team built by the wizard or the planner rather than from a
+/// team template.
+///
+/// These teams have no template, so there is no `mcp_bundles` list to inherit —
+/// which previously meant they were provisioned with the door alone and could
+/// not reach the skills catalogue at all. `mcp_skills` scopes what it lists to
+/// the caller's workspace, so an agent with no template link still sees the
+/// global skills, which is the useful half for an ad-hoc team.
+fn adhoc_bundles() -> Vec<String> {
+    vec![
+        "clawmates_door".to_string(),
+        "clawmates_skills".to_string(),
+    ]
+}
+
 /// Same as `build_team` but with an explicit `lifecycle` (`permanent` |
 /// `ephemeral`). Ephemeral teams are torn down by the topology_worker after
 /// their last run terminates — used by the Scheduled + Triggered planner modes.
@@ -140,7 +155,7 @@ pub(crate) async fn build_team_with_lifecycle(
         // Ad-hoc team-wizard teams aren't mission-bound, so they use the
         // default per-agent workspace under <install>/agents/<alias>/workspace/.
         provisioner
-            .provision_claw(claw_id, &m.model, risk)
+            .provision_claw(claw_id, &m.model, risk, &adhoc_bundles())
             .await
             .map_err(|e| {
                 eprintln!("teams: provision claw {claw_id} failed: {e}");
@@ -574,7 +589,7 @@ pub struct AutoProvisionRequest {
     #[serde(default)]
     pub risk_profile: Option<String>,
     /// MCP bundle aliases — same fall-back rule applies (always
-    /// clawmates_door; gitea_forge when a repo is bound; deep-research
+    /// clawmates_door + clawmates_skills; deep-research
     /// skill for research profiles).
     #[serde(default)]
     pub mcp_bundles: Vec<String>,
@@ -656,11 +671,13 @@ pub async fn auto_provision(
     let mut mcp_bundles = body.mcp_bundles.clone();
     if mcp_bundles.is_empty() {
         mcp_bundles.push("clawmates_door".to_string());
-        // gitea_forge is scoped to teams that will touch repos; the
+        // No `gitea_forge`: it was named in nine places and defined in none,
-        // wizard's downstream repo-binding step is what earns it.
+        // and agents reach the forge through `git` over HTTPS with the ambient
-        // Always safe to add now — the MCP layer no-ops when the token
+        // GITEA_TOKEN (mission_workspace::with_ambient_auth) — which is why
-        // isn't present in the container env.
+        // nothing ever broke. It was harmless while provision_claw ignored the
-        mcp_bundles.push("gitea_forge".to_string());
+        // bundle list; now that the list is honoured, an undefined name is a
+        // capability an agent is told it has and does not.
+        mcp_bundles.push("clawmates_skills".to_string());
     }
 
     // 1) LLM plan pass → roster JSON.

crates/cm-api/src/routes/topology.rs

@@ -109,14 +109,17 @@ pub async fn compare_topologies(
     Json(req): Json<CompareRequest>,
 ) -> Result<Json<Comparison>, ApiError> {
     // Execution turns run on the exec model (default = configured model, e.g.
-    // sonnet); the judge uses the judge model (default claude-opus-4-8). Either
+    // sonnet); the judge uses the judge model (cm_runtime::judge_model). Either
     // can name a registry provider as "<name>:<model>" (e.g. "glm:glm-4.6",
     // "kimi:kimi-k2") to run on GLM/Kimi instead.
     let exec_spec = std::env::var("CLAWMATES_TOPOLOGY_EXEC_MODEL")
         .unwrap_or_else(|_| state.runtime.model().to_string());
     let (exec_provider, exec_model) = state.runtime.resolve_provider(&exec_spec);
-    let judge_spec =
+    // `cm_runtime::judge_model()`, not a second read of the same variable: this
-        std::env::var("CLAWMATES_JUDGE_MODEL").unwrap_or_else(|_| "claude-opus-4-8".to_string());
+    // line and that function disagreed on the default (opus-4-8 vs opus-5), so
+    // an unconfigured deployment scored topology comparisons on a different
+    // model than the door governor and nothing recorded which.
+    let judge_spec = cm_runtime::judge_model();
     let (judge_provider, judge_model) = state.runtime.resolve_provider(&judge_spec);
     let executor = ProviderExecutor::new(exec_provider, exec_model, state.runtime.max_tokens());
     let scorer = JudgeScorer::new(judge_provider, judge_model, 16);

crates/cm-api/src/runtime_provision.rs

@@ -14,6 +14,24 @@
 use uuid::Uuid;
 
 /// The runtime agent alias for a claw id.
+/// The bundles an agent is provisioned with: whatever the template asked for,
+/// plus `clawmates_door`, always.
+///
+/// The door is not optional. It carries the §15 approval gate, so an agent
+/// provisioned without it is not a restricted agent, it is an ungated one —
+/// and a template that simply forgot to list it would silently get that.
+fn with_door(bundles: &[String]) -> Vec<String> {
+    let mut out: Vec<String> = Vec::new();
+    out.push("clawmates_door".to_string());
+    for b in bundles {
+        let b = b.trim();
+        if !b.is_empty() && !out.iter().any(|x| x == b) {
+            out.push(b.to_string());
+        }
+    }
+    out
+}
+
 pub fn claw_alias(claw_id: Uuid) -> String {
     format!("claw_{}", claw_id.simple())
 }
@@ -227,13 +245,26 @@ impl RuntimeProvisioner {
         }
     }
 
-    /// Create `claw_<id>` as a live runtime agent bound to `model_alias`,
+/// Create `claw_<id>` as a live runtime agent bound to `model_alias`,
     /// `risk_profile` (from the team template — controls which tools this
     /// agent gets: `toolfree` = nothing, `research_readonly` = file_read +
     /// content_search + glob_search, `coding_readwrite` = adds file_edit +
     /// git_operations + shell, etc.; see the `[risk_profiles.*]` allowlists
-    /// in `deploy/clawmates-runtime/agent.config.example.toml`), and the
+    /// in `deploy/clawmates-runtime/agent.config.example.toml`), and the MCP
-    /// `clawmates_door` MCP bundle.
+    /// bundles the team template asked for.
+    ///
+    /// `bundles` used to be the constant `["clawmates_door"]`, which is how
+    /// every skill in the catalogue became unreachable from a mission. The
+    /// skills are delivered by ONE channel — the `clawmates_skills` MCP server
+    /// (`mcp_skills.rs`) — a template that does not receive that bundle cannot
+    /// list or read a single skill, and 5 of 11 templates ask for it. Two
+    /// separate doc comments in `cm-runtime` describe the mission path as
+    /// already having this, which is why nobody looked: the belief was written
+    /// down twice and checked zero times.
+    ///
+    /// `clawmates_door` is always included regardless of what is passed. It
+    /// carries the §15 approval gate, and an agent provisioned without it does
+    /// not become safer, it becomes ungated.
     ///
     /// NOTE ON WORKSPACE PINNING: `[agents.<alias>.workspace.path]` is an
     /// `Option<PathBuf>` field that the ZeroClaw config prop-schema does NOT
@@ -251,6 +282,7 @@ impl RuntimeProvisioner {
         claw_id: Uuid,
         model: &str,
         risk_profile: &str,
+        bundles: &[String],
     ) -> Result<String, String> {
         let alias = claw_alias(claw_id);
         let model_alias = provider_alias_for(model);
@@ -285,7 +317,7 @@ impl RuntimeProvisioner {
         .await?;
         self.set_prop(
             &format!("agents.{alias}.mcp_bundles"),
-            serde_json::json!(["clawmates_door"]),
+            serde_json::json!(with_door(bundles)),
         )
         .await?;
 

crates/cm-api/src/security_scan.rs

@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ use uuid::Uuid;
 
 use cm_db::repo::missions::UpsertTask;
 
+/// `external_id` of the marker row proving a scan ran against a phase.
+pub const SCAN_MARKER: &str = "security_scan:complete";
+
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
 pub struct Finding {
     pub external_id: String,
@@ -92,6 +95,32 @@ pub async fn run(pool: &PgPool, mission_id: Uuid, phase_id: Uuid) -> Result<usiz
         }
     }
 
+    // A completion marker, always written — including for a scan that found
+    // nothing. Without it "we scanned and the repo is clean" and "no scan ever
+    // ran" are both zero rows, and the sweep in `phase_runner` that fires this
+    // would have no way to tell whether it had already run: a clean phase would
+    // be rescanned on every tick, forever. It is also the answer to the
+    // question an operator actually asks, which is not "how many findings"
+    // but "was this looked at, by what, and when".
+    let scanned_with = tools.join(", ");
+    cm_db::repo::missions::upsert_task(
+        pool,
+        UpsertTask {
+            mission_id,
+            phase_id,
+            external_id: SCAN_MARKER,
+            title: &format!(
+                "security scan complete — ran [{scanned_with}], {} finding(s)",
+                all_findings.len()
+            ),
+            assigned_agent_id: None,
+            status: "created",
+            run_id: None,
+        },
+    )
+    .await
+    .map_err(|e| format!("upsert scan marker: {e}"))?;
+
     for f in &all_findings {
         cm_db::repo::missions::upsert_task(
             pool,

crates/cm-api/src/skill_self_authoring.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+//! Applies agents' own skill drafts, with no human decision.
+//!
+//! `level_up` has generated complete skill drafts from a model since it
+//! shipped; the only thing between a draft and the catalogue was an operator
+//! ticking a checkbox in `LevelUpDrawer`. This worker removes the checkbox, by
+//! operator decision.
+//!
+//! What is deliberately NOT removed is the record. Every write stays
+//! workspace-scoped and versioned, cannot take the name of a hand-authored
+//! skill, and lands with `approved_by = NULL` — so "an agent decided this" is
+//! distinguishable from "a person decided this" forever after, which is the
+//! property that makes the change reversible instead of merely fast.
+//!
+//! Only `skill_candidate` items apply here. `identity_refinement` and
+//! `brain_consolidation` still wait for a human: they change what an agent IS
+//! rather than adding a procedure it can consult.
+
+use sqlx::{PgPool, Row};
+use std::time::Duration;
+
+/// How often to sweep for pending drafts.
+///
+/// Proposals arrive when someone runs a level-up, not continuously, so this is
+/// slow on purpose — the work is bounded by how often an agent reflects, and
+/// polling faster would only add load.
+const SWEEP_INTERVAL: Duration = Duration::from_secs(120);
+
+/// Start the sweep, unless self-authoring is switched off.
+pub fn spawn(pool: PgPool) {
+    if !crate::level_up::self_authoring_enabled() {
+        eprintln!(
+            "skill_self_authoring: DISABLED (CLAWMATES_SKILL_SELF_AUTHORING) — \
+             agent skill drafts wait for a human in the level-up drawer"
+        );
+        return;
+    }
+    eprintln!(
+        "skill_self_authoring: ENABLED — agents apply their own skill drafts \
+         without human approval. Writes are workspace-scoped, versioned, and \
+         cannot take a hand-authored skill's name; each lands with no approver \
+         recorded. Set CLAWMATES_SKILL_SELF_AUTHORING=0 to restore the gate."
+    );
+    tokio::spawn(async move {
+        loop {
+            if let Err(e) = sweep(&pool).await {
+                eprintln!("skill_self_authoring: sweep failed: {e}");
+            }
+            tokio::time::sleep(SWEEP_INTERVAL).await;
+        }
+    });
+}
+
+/// Apply every pending proposal's skill candidates. Returns how many skills landed.
+pub async fn sweep(pool: &PgPool) -> Result<usize, String> {
+    // Bounded per pass: a backlog drains over several sweeps rather than
+    // holding the pool for as long as it takes to apply all of it.
+    let rows = sqlx::query(
+        "SELECT id, workspace_id FROM level_up_proposals
+          WHERE status = 'pending'
+          ORDER BY created_at
+          LIMIT 20",
+    )
+    .fetch_all(pool)
+    .await
+    .map_err(|e| format!("select pending proposals: {e}"))?;
+
+    let mut applied = 0usize;
+    for row in &rows {
+        let id: uuid::Uuid = row.get("id");
+        let workspace_id: uuid::Uuid = row.get("workspace_id");
+        match crate::level_up::apply_autonomous(
+            pool,
+            cm_domain::WorkspaceId::from(workspace_id),
+            id,
+        )
+        .await
+        {
+            Ok(items) if !items.is_empty() => {
+                applied += items.len();
+                eprintln!(
+                    "skill_self_authoring: applied {} skill draft(s) from proposal {id} \
+                     with no human approval",
+                    items.len()
+                );
+            }
+            // A proposal with no skill candidates is left pending on purpose —
+            // its identity/memory items still belong to the human gate.
+            Ok(_) => {}
+            Err(e) => eprintln!("skill_self_authoring: proposal {id}: {e}"),
+        }
+    }
+    Ok(applied)
+}

crates/cm-api/src/skill_use.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,511 @@
+//! Did a skill we delivered actually change what the agent did?
+//!
+//! Scored on the three axes from `Skill-Use` (arXiv, 2026-08-05): **Trigger**
+//! (did the agent reach for the skill), **Compliance** (did it follow the
+//! procedure), **Boundary** (did it avoid what the skill forbids).
+//!
+//! ## One axis does not survive the translation, and saying so is the finding
+//!
+//! The paper measures agents under *progressive disclosure*: the agent sees a
+//! name and a description, and must decide to retrieve the body. The retrieval
+//! is the Trigger event, and it is observable because it is a tool call.
+//!
+//! We do not deliver skills that way on the mission path. `pinned_skills_text`
+//! inlines full bodies into the prompt, because mission claws run on
+//! `claude_cli`, which cannot surface a tool call at all — there is nothing to
+//! retrieve *with*. So the agent never "reaches for" a skill; it is simply
+//! holding one.
+//!
+//! Trigger is therefore **not observable on the mission path**, and this module
+//! reports it as `NotObservable` with the reason attached rather than scoring
+//! it zero. A zero would read as "the agents ignore their skills" when it
+//! actually means "the question does not apply to how we deliver them" — the
+//! precise confusion that made 55 empty skill bindings invisible for months.
+//!
+//! Compliance and Boundary are observable, because they are properties of the
+//! output rather than of the retrieval.
+
+use serde::Serialize;
+
+/// The outcome of one axis for one skill.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq, Serialize)]
+#[serde(rename_all = "snake_case", tag = "verdict", content = "why")]
+pub enum Verdict {
+    Pass,
+    Fail(String),
+    /// The skill says nothing this axis can check.
+    NotApplicable,
+    /// The axis cannot be measured here, for a stated structural reason.
+    ///
+    /// Distinct from `Fail` on purpose. Collapsing the two is how a
+    /// measurement reports a system defect as an agent defect.
+    NotObservable(String),
+}
+
+impl Verdict {
+    pub fn label(&self) -> &'static str {
+        match self {
+            Verdict::Pass => "pass",
+            Verdict::Fail(_) => "FAIL",
+            Verdict::NotApplicable => "n/a",
+            Verdict::NotObservable(_) => "not observable",
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// One skill's score for one phase.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Serialize)]
+pub struct SkillUse {
+    pub skill: String,
+    /// `builtin` (hand-authored) or `promoted_from_brain` (agent-authored).
+    ///
+    /// Carried into the report because an agent that authors its own skill can
+    /// raise its own compliance score without changing what it does. A rising
+    /// number on agent-authored skills has to be visible as such rather than
+    /// averaged in with the rest.
+    pub source_kind: String,
+    pub trigger: Verdict,
+    pub compliance: Verdict,
+    pub boundary: Verdict,
+}
+
+/// The skills a prompt actually delivered.
+///
+/// Delegates to the delivery layer's own parser, so the reader cannot drift
+/// from the writer. This function originally matched `## <name>` itself, and
+/// skill bodies are markdown full of `##` headings — a live mission duly
+/// scored "Sizing heuristic" and "The output shape" as skills. Parsed from the
+/// recorded prompt rather than re-derived from the catalogue, because the
+/// catalogue changes, and now that agents author their own skills it changes
+/// by itself.
+pub fn skills_in_prompt(prompt: &str) -> Vec<String> {
+    crate::topology_exec::skill_names_in(prompt)
+}
+
+/// Score every skill a phase's prompt delivered, against what the agent produced.
+pub fn score(prompt: &str, output: &str, source_kinds: &dyn Fn(&str) -> String) -> Vec<SkillUse> {
+    skills_in_prompt(prompt)
+        .into_iter()
+        .map(|skill| {
+            let (compliance, boundary) = check(&skill, output);
+            SkillUse {
+                source_kind: source_kinds(&skill),
+                trigger: Verdict::NotObservable(
+                    "skills are inlined into the prompt, not retrieved — there is \
+                     no retrieval event to observe on the mission path"
+                        .into(),
+                ),
+                compliance,
+                boundary,
+                skill,
+            }
+        })
+        .collect()
+}
+
+/// Per-skill mechanical checks.
+///
+/// Only skills whose procedure has a machine-checkable consequence are checked.
+/// Everything else returns `NotApplicable` rather than a guess: a heuristic
+/// that scores prose by keyword overlap produces a number that looks like a
+/// measurement and is not one.
+fn check(skill: &str, output: &str) -> (Verdict, Verdict) {
+    match skill {
+        "int-xx-marker-protocol" => (marker_compliance(output), marker_boundary(output)),
+        "arxiv-daily" => (Verdict::NotApplicable, arxiv_boundary(output)),
+        "workspace-repo-commit-protocol" => (Verdict::NotApplicable, workspace_boundary(output)),
+        _ => (Verdict::NotApplicable, Verdict::NotApplicable),
+    }
+}
+
+/// The markers must be ones `task_card_parser` actually parses.
+///
+/// Checked by running the real parser rather than a copy of its rules — a
+/// second implementation of the contract would drift from the first, and then
+/// the measurement would pass while the mission loop still stalled.
+fn marker_compliance(output: &str) -> Verdict {
+    if crate::task_card_parser::parse(output).is_empty() {
+        // Only a failure if the output looks like it TRIED. A turn with no
+        // marker-shaped line was probably not a coding turn at all.
+        if output.lines().any(|l| looks_like_marker_attempt(l)) {
+            return Verdict::Fail(
+                "emitted marker-shaped lines that the parser does not accept — \
+                 the mission loop will not advance"
+                    .into(),
+            );
+        }
+        return Verdict::NotApplicable;
+    }
+    Verdict::Pass
+}
+
+/// Rule 1: exactly one INT id per marker line.
+///
+/// Two shapes violate it, and they fail differently:
+///
+///   `COMPLETED: INT-05, INT-06`  — the parser takes the first and drops the
+///                                  rest, so an item is silently never closed.
+///   `PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..02`  — the range form. The parser now REJECTS a
+///                                  malformed id, so this is caught by the
+///                                  compliance check above as a marker the
+///                                  parser does not accept.
+///
+/// The second was found by running this measurement against a live mission. It
+/// is the worse of the two, because a dropped marker leaves a gap and a
+/// malformed one leaves a plausible-looking row.
+fn marker_boundary(output: &str) -> Verdict {
+    for line in output.lines() {
+        let t = line.trim();
+        if !looks_like_marker_attempt(t) {
+            continue;
+        }
+        let ids = t.matches("INT-").count();
+        if ids > 1 {
+            return Verdict::Fail(format!(
+                "{ids} INT ids on one marker line — only the first parses, so \
+                 the rest are silently dropped: {t:?}"
+            ));
+        }
+    }
+    Verdict::NotApplicable
+}
+
+fn looks_like_marker_attempt(line: &str) -> bool {
+    const KINDS: &[&str] = &[
+        "TASK:", "WORK:", "HANDOFF:", "TEST_PASS:", "TEST_FAIL:", "REVIEW_APPROVE:",
+        "REVIEW_BLOCK:", "COMPLETED:", "PLAN_COMPLETE:",
+    ];
+    let t = line.trim().trim_start_matches(['*', '#', '-', '`', ' ']);
+    KINDS.iter().any(|k| t.starts_with(k))
+}
+
+/// The mission checkout is `/mission/repo`. Working anywhere else is not
+/// delivered.
+///
+/// Scored as a BOUNDARY rather than compliance: the skill's positive
+/// instruction ("cd there at the start of every substantive turn") has no
+/// reliable trace in the output, but writing source somewhere that is never
+/// collected does, and it is the failure that costs a whole phase.
+///
+/// This check exists because the skill itself was wrong. It taught
+/// `/workspace/repo` — a path the platform does not mount — while the same
+/// prompt told the agent `/mission/repo`. An agent that obeyed the skill wrote
+/// into a directory nothing collects. Corrected 2026-08-19, and
+/// `skills_loader::contradiction_tests` now holds it.
+fn workspace_boundary(output: &str) -> Verdict {
+    // Only paths that look like a REPO root the agent chose to work in. A
+    // mention of /tmp is normal; `cd /workspace/repo` is not.
+    const WRONG_ROOTS: &[&str] = &["/workspace/repo", "~/workspace/repo"];
+    for root in WRONG_ROOTS {
+        if output.contains(root) {
+            return Verdict::Fail(format!(
+                "worked in {root} — the mission checkout is /mission/repo, so \
+                 anything written there is never collected and the phase \
+                 delivers nothing"
+            ));
+        }
+    }
+    Verdict::Pass
+}
+
+/// `arxiv-daily` forbids searching arXiv — the harvest already ran.
+///
+/// This is the one boundary we have watched an agent cross in production, so it
+/// is checked against the query endpoint rather than the word "arxiv", which
+/// appears legitimately all over a research turn.
+fn arxiv_boundary(output: &str) -> Verdict {
+    const QUERY_MARKERS: &[&str] = &[
+        "export.arxiv.org/api/query",
+        "arxiv.org/api/query",
+        "http://export.arxiv.org",
+    ];
+    for m in QUERY_MARKERS {
+        if output.contains(m) {
+            return Verdict::Fail(format!(
+                "queried the arXiv API ({m}) — the harvest already ran, and \
+                 shelving papers outside it corrupts the seen-set"
+            ));
+        }
+    }
+    Verdict::Pass
+}
+
+/// Score every skill delivered during a mission, from what was recorded.
+///
+/// Reads `prompt.composed` and `reasoning` rows. Both are per-mission and
+/// ordered, so the prompts say what was delivered and the narratives say what
+/// came back. Scoring is against the CONCATENATED output for the mission rather
+/// than turn-by-turn: a procedure can be followed in a later turn than the one
+/// that carried it, and pairing strictly by turn would score that as a failure.
+///
+/// Returns an empty vec for a mission whose events have already been reaped —
+/// which is why `missions.retain_events_until` exists. An empty result means
+/// "no evidence", never "no compliance", and the report has to say so.
+pub async fn score_mission(
+    pool: &sqlx::PgPool,
+    mission_id: uuid::Uuid,
+) -> Result<Vec<SkillUse>, String> {
+    let rows = crate::mission_events::narrative_for_mission(pool, mission_id)
+        .await
+        .map_err(|e| format!("read narrative: {e}"))?;
+
+    let mut prompts = String::new();
+    let mut outputs = String::new();
+    for (kind, _, _, text) in &rows {
+        if kind == crate::mission_events::PROMPT_COMPOSED {
+            prompts.push_str(text);
+            prompts.push('\n');
+        } else {
+            outputs.push_str(text);
+            outputs.push('\n');
+        }
+    }
+
+    // One lookup for every delivered name, so the report can separate
+    // hand-authored skills from the ones agents wrote for themselves.
+    let names = skills_in_prompt(&prompts);
+    let kinds: std::collections::HashMap<String, String> = sqlx::query_as::<_, (String, String)>(
+        "SELECT name, source_kind FROM skills WHERE name = ANY($1)",
+    )
+    .bind(&names)
+    .fetch_all(pool)
+    .await
+    .map_err(|e| format!("read skill sources: {e}"))?
+    .into_iter()
+    .collect();
+
+    Ok(score(&prompts, &outputs, &|name| {
+        kinds
+            .get(name)
+            .cloned()
+            // A skill in a prompt with no catalogue row was delivered and then
+            // deleted. Naming that explicitly beats defaulting it to builtin.
+            .unwrap_or_else(|| "unknown (no catalogue row)".to_string())
+    }))
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    fn builtin(_: &str) -> String {
+        "builtin".to_string()
+    }
+
+    /// A prompt exactly as the delivery layer renders it.
+    fn rendered(skills: &[(&str, &str)]) -> String {
+        let body: String = skills
+            .iter()
+            .map(|(n, b)| crate::topology_exec::render_pinned_skill(n, b))
+            .collect();
+        crate::topology_exec::compose_turn_prompt("Task: do the thing", Some(&body))
+    }
+
+    /// The prompt is the record of what was delivered, so parsing it must match
+    /// exactly what the delivery layer writes.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_delivered_skills_are_read_back_out_of_the_prompt() {
+        let prompt = rendered(&[
+            ("arxiv-daily", "Do not re-search."),
+            ("int-xx-marker-protocol", "Emit markers."),
+        ]);
+        assert_eq!(
+            skills_in_prompt(&prompt),
+            vec!["arxiv-daily", "int-xx-marker-protocol"],
+            "the scorer reads what the delivery layer wrote — if these drift, \
+             every score is attributed to the wrong skill"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// Skill bodies are markdown and contain their own headings.
+    ///
+    /// The first delimiter was `## <name>`, so every section of every body
+    /// counted as a separate skill. Caught on a live mission, which scored
+    /// "Sizing heuristic" and "The output shape" — both of them subheadings
+    /// inside `decompose-int-items` — as skills with no catalogue row.
+    #[test]
+    fn headings_inside_a_skill_body_are_not_skills() {
+        let body = "# Decomposing into INT-XX items\n\n\
+                    ## Sizing heuristic\nOne unit of work.\n\n\
+                    ## The output shape\nTASK: INT-NN — title\n";
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("decompose-int-items", body)]);
+        assert_eq!(
+            skills_in_prompt(&prompt),
+            vec!["decompose-int-items"],
+            "a body's own headings must not be counted as skills — every one \
+             would be scored against a catalogue row that does not exist"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A body that quotes the marker text must not fabricate a skill either.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_body_mentioning_the_marker_does_not_create_a_skill() {
+        let body = format!(
+            "Prompts introduce a skill with a line beginning `{}`.\n",
+            crate::topology_exec::SKILL_MARKER.trim()
+        );
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("prompt-anatomy", &body)]);
+        assert_eq!(
+            skills_in_prompt(&prompt),
+            vec!["prompt-anatomy"],
+            "the marker is matched at line start; an inline mention is prose"
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_prompt_with_no_skills_yields_no_scores() {
+        assert!(skills_in_prompt("Task: do the thing").is_empty());
+        assert!(score("Task: do the thing", "did it", &builtin).is_empty());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn trigger_is_reported_as_unobservable_not_as_a_failure() {
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("arxiv-daily", "x")]);
+        let scored = score(&prompt, "I read the manifest.", &builtin);
+        assert!(
+            matches!(scored[0].trigger, Verdict::NotObservable(_)),
+            "scoring Trigger zero would report a delivery-model property as an \
+             agent failure — the exact confusion this module exists to avoid"
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn markers_the_real_parser_accepts_are_compliant() {
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("int-xx-marker-protocol", "Emit markers.")]);
+        let good = "I implemented the parser.\nCOMPLETED: INT-07 — wire the loop";
+        let scored = score(&prompt, good, &builtin);
+        assert_eq!(scored[0].compliance, Verdict::Pass);
+    }
+
+    /// The failure the skill exists to prevent: marker-shaped lines that the
+    /// parser rejects, so the mission silently never advances.
+    #[test]
+    fn marker_shaped_lines_the_parser_rejects_are_a_failure() {
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("int-xx-marker-protocol", "Emit markers.")]);
+        // Bold, which the skill explicitly forbids, and the parser will not take.
+        let bad = "**COMPLETED: INT-07**";
+        let scored = score(&prompt, bad, &builtin);
+        assert!(
+            matches!(scored[0].compliance, Verdict::Fail(_)),
+            "a marker the parser rejects must score as a failure — that is the \
+             whole consequence the skill is written to avoid. Got {:?}",
+            scored[0].compliance
+        );
+
+        // A turn that never tried is not a violation.
+        let unrelated = score(&prompt, "I read three files and wrote a summary.", &builtin);
+        assert_eq!(unrelated[0].compliance, Verdict::NotApplicable);
+    }
+
+    /// Found on a live mission: `PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..02`.
+    ///
+    /// Two defects in one line, both since fixed in the parser rather than
+    /// worked around here:
+    ///
+    /// 1. `PLAN_COMPLETE` was documented in `int-xx-marker-protocol` and never
+    ///    implemented, so an agent following the skill exactly was ignored. It
+    ///    is implemented now.
+    /// 2. The range form parsed into the id `INT-01..02`, matching no real
+    ///    item — a task card for something that did not exist. Ids are now
+    ///    strictly `INT-<digits>`, so the marker is REJECTED instead, which is
+    ///    visible where a plausible-looking row was not.
+    #[test]
+    fn plan_complete_is_now_a_real_marker() {
+        let parsed = crate::task_card_parser::parse("PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01");
+        assert_eq!(parsed.len(), 1, "the skill documents it; the parser must accept it");
+        assert_eq!(parsed[0].int_id, "INT-01");
+
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("int-xx-marker-protocol", "Emit markers.")]);
+        assert_eq!(
+            score(&prompt, "PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01", &builtin)[0].compliance,
+            Verdict::Pass
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The exact line a live planner emitted.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_range_marker_is_rejected_rather_than_creating_a_phantom_item() {
+        assert!(
+            crate::task_card_parser::parse("PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..02").is_empty(),
+            "a range must not parse — it produced a task card for an item that \
+             does not exist while INT-01 and INT-02 stayed open"
+        );
+        assert!(crate::task_card_parser::parse("COMPLETED: INT-01..02").is_empty());
+
+        // And the agent is told, because the marker it emitted did nothing.
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("int-xx-marker-protocol", "Emit markers.")]);
+        match &score(&prompt, "PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..02", &builtin)[0].compliance {
+            Verdict::Fail(why) => assert!(why.contains("does not accept")),
+            other => panic!("an ignored marker must not read as success; got {other:?}"),
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn two_int_ids_on_one_marker_line_cross_the_boundary() {
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("int-xx-marker-protocol", "Emit markers.")]);
+        let scored = score(&prompt, "COMPLETED: INT-05, INT-06", &builtin);
+        match &scored[0].boundary {
+            Verdict::Fail(why) => assert!(why.contains("silently dropped")),
+            other => panic!("the second id is silently dropped by the parser; got {other:?}"),
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn querying_arxiv_crosses_the_boundary_but_naming_it_does_not() {
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("arxiv-daily", "x")]);
+
+        let violating = score(
+            &prompt,
+            "curl 'http://export.arxiv.org/api/query?search_query=all:agents'",
+            &builtin,
+        );
+        assert!(matches!(violating[0].boundary, Verdict::Fail(_)));
+
+        // The word appears legitimately in every research turn. Scoring on it
+        // would make the metric fire constantly and mean nothing.
+        let fine = score(
+            &prompt,
+            "I read the arXiv notes in the manifest and summarised three of them.",
+            &builtin,
+        );
+        assert_eq!(fine[0].boundary, Verdict::Pass);
+    }
+
+    /// Agent-authored skills must stay visible as such in the report.
+    #[test]
+    fn writing_outside_the_mission_checkout_crosses_the_boundary() {
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "Work in /mission/repo.")]);
+
+        let wrong = score(
+            &prompt,
+            "cd /workspace/repo && git add -A && git commit -m 'INT-01 done'",
+            &builtin,
+        );
+        match &wrong[0].boundary {
+            Verdict::Fail(why) => assert!(
+                why.contains("never collected"),
+                "the failure must name the consequence — a phase that delivers \
+                 nothing — not just the wrong path: {why}"
+            ),
+            other => panic!("the wrong checkout must be caught; got {other:?}"),
+        }
+
+        let right = score(
+            &prompt,
+            "cd /mission/repo && git add -A && git commit -m 'INT-01 done'",
+            &builtin,
+        );
+        assert_eq!(right[0].boundary, Verdict::Pass);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_source_of_a_skill_is_carried_into_its_score() {
+        let prompt = rendered(&[("self-made", "x")]);
+        let scored = score(&prompt, "done", &|_| "promoted_from_brain".to_string());
+        assert_eq!(
+            scored[0].source_kind, "promoted_from_brain",
+            "an agent that writes its own skill can raise its own score against \
+             it; that has to be legible in the report rather than averaged in"
+        );
+    }
+}

crates/cm-api/src/skills_loader.rs

@@ -170,3 +170,107 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod contradiction_tests {
+    use std::path::PathBuf;
+
+    fn skills_root() -> PathBuf {
+        PathBuf::from(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR"))
+            .join("../../skills")
+            .canonicalize()
+            .expect("skills dir")
+    }
+
+    fn all_skills() -> Vec<(String, String)> {
+        fn walk(dir: &std::path::Path, out: &mut Vec<(String, String)>) {
+            for e in std::fs::read_dir(dir).expect("read skills dir") {
+                let p = e.expect("entry").path();
+                if p.is_dir() {
+                    walk(&p, out);
+                } else if p.extension().and_then(|x| x.to_str()) == Some("md") {
+                    out.push((
+                        p.file_name().unwrap().to_string_lossy().to_string(),
+                        std::fs::read_to_string(&p).expect("read skill"),
+                    ));
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        let mut out = Vec::new();
+        walk(&skills_root(), &mut out);
+        out
+    }
+
+    /// No skill may teach a workspace path the platform does not use.
+    ///
+    /// `workspace-repo-commit-protocol` told agents that `/workspace/repo` was
+    /// "the ONLY path where source-modifying edits belong". The platform mounts
+    /// and advertises `/mission/repo` — in 26 places — and `/workspace/repo`
+    /// appears nowhere in the code. The skill is pinned on 29 role bindings and
+    /// was delivered twice in a single measured run, so agents received the
+    /// platform's real path and a skill contradicting it in the SAME prompt.
+    #[test]
+    fn no_skill_teaches_a_repo_path_the_platform_does_not_mount() {
+        let mut offenders = Vec::new();
+        for (name, body) in all_skills() {
+            if body.contains("/workspace/repo") {
+                offenders.push(name);
+            }
+        }
+        assert!(
+            offenders.is_empty(),
+            "{} skill(s) name /workspace/repo; the mission checkout is \
+             /mission/repo, so an agent following them writes somewhere that is \
+             never delivered: {}",
+            offenders.len(),
+            offenders.join(", ")
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// No skill may instruct an agent to call a tool it does not have.
+    ///
+    /// Every mission turn ends in `claude -p`, so the tools are Claude Code's
+    /// (`Read`/`Edit`/`Write`/`Bash`/`Glob`/`Grep`). `phase_task_text` used to
+    /// advertise ZeroClaw's names and was fixed after five agents spent 7.4k
+    /// tokens on one mission describing the mismatch instead of working — and
+    /// the same wrong names survived inside a pinned skill.
+    ///
+    /// Matched as a backticked instruction, not as bare words: a skill may
+    /// legitimately DISCUSS these names, as this one now does when warning
+    /// against them.
+    #[test]
+    fn no_skill_instructs_an_agent_to_call_a_zeroclaw_tool() {
+        const ZEROCLAW_TOOLS: &[&str] = &[
+            "`file_read`",
+            "`file_write`",
+            "`file_edit`",
+            "`content_search`",
+            "`glob_search`",
+        ];
+        let mut offenders = Vec::new();
+        for (name, body) in all_skills() {
+            // The line has to READ as an instruction. "Do not reach for
+            // `file_read`" is the correction, not the defect.
+            for line in body.lines() {
+                let l = line.to_ascii_lowercase();
+                if l.contains("do not")
+                    || l.contains("never")
+                    || l.contains("instead of")
+                    || l.contains("not what")
+                {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                if ZEROCLAW_TOOLS.iter().any(|t| line.contains(t)) {
+                    offenders.push(format!("{name}: {}", line.trim()));
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        assert!(
+            offenders.is_empty(),
+            "{} skill line(s) tell an agent to use a tool its subprocess does \
+             not expose:\n  {}",
+            offenders.len(),
+            offenders.join("\n  ")
+        );
+    }
+}

crates/cm-api/src/task_card_parser.rs

@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ pub struct Marker {
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
 pub enum MarkerKind {
     Task,
+    PlanComplete,
     Work,
     Handoff,
     TestPass,
@@ -53,7 +54,11 @@ impl MarkerKind {
     /// motion — the UPSERT layer may still overwrite prior states.
     pub fn status(&self) -> &'static str {
         match self {
-            MarkerKind::Task => "created",
+            // The planner finished specifying; no work has started, so the item
+            // is in the same state a fresh TASK leaves it in. A distinct status
+            // would need a column value the UI does not render, and inventing
+            // one to look complete is how a status stops meaning anything.
+            MarkerKind::Task | MarkerKind::PlanComplete => "created",
             MarkerKind::Work => "working",
             MarkerKind::Handoff | MarkerKind::TestPass | MarkerKind::ReviewApprove => "validating",
             MarkerKind::TestFail | MarkerKind::ReviewBlock => "failed",
@@ -75,12 +80,27 @@ pub fn parse(text: &str) -> Vec<Marker> {
     out
 }
 
+/// `INT-` followed by at least one digit and nothing else.
+fn is_int_id(id: &str) -> bool {
+    match id.strip_prefix("INT-") {
+        Some(rest) => !rest.is_empty() && rest.chars().all(|c| c.is_ascii_digit()),
+        None => false,
+    }
+}
+
 fn parse_line(line: &str) -> Option<Marker> {
     // Match `<KIND>: INT-NN` (rest optional). Strict on the colon and
     // the INT- prefix — anything laxer starts matching prose.
     let (kind_str, rest) = line.split_once(':')?;
     let kind = match kind_str.trim() {
         "TASK" => MarkerKind::Task,
+        // Documented in `skills/foundation/int-xx-marker-protocol.md` since the
+        // skill was written, and never implemented here. Agents that followed
+        // the skill exactly emitted it and were silently ignored — observed on
+        // a live mission, found by the Skill-Use measurement. Implemented
+        // rather than removed from the skill: the planner needs a way to say
+        // it is done specifying, and agents already emit this one.
+        "PLAN_COMPLETE" => MarkerKind::PlanComplete,
         "WORK" => MarkerKind::Work,
         "HANDOFF" => MarkerKind::Handoff,
         "TEST_PASS" => MarkerKind::TestPass,
@@ -95,10 +115,16 @@ fn parse_line(line: &str) -> Option<Marker> {
         Some((a, b)) => (a, Some(b.trim())),
         None => (rest, None),
     };
-    if !id_tok.starts_with("INT-") {
+    let int_id = id_tok.trim_end_matches(&[',', ';', '.'][..]).to_string();
+    // Strictly `INT-<digits>`. `starts_with("INT-")` alone accepted range forms
+    // like `INT-01..02`, which parse into an id matching no real item — so a
+    // task card appeared for something that did not exist while the two items
+    // it was meant to cover stayed open. Observed live. Rejecting is right:
+    // the marker is ignored, which is visible, instead of creating a plausible
+    // row, which is not.
+    if !is_int_id(&int_id) {
         return None;
     }
-    let int_id = id_tok.trim_end_matches(&[',', ';', '.'][..]).to_string();
     // Title: after the id + any of ` — / – / - ` separators
     let title = tail.and_then(|t| {
         let t = t.trim_start_matches(['—', '–', '-', ':'].as_slice()).trim();

crates/cm-api/src/team_template_loader.rs

@@ -306,6 +306,34 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 
+    /// EVERY referenced name must resolve to an authored skill.
+    ///
+    /// The other direction, and the one that was missing. Both existing tests
+    /// assert `authored ⊆ referenced` — true of all 30 authored skills, so both
+    /// passed while 55 of 85 bindings resolved to nothing and ten roles ran with
+    /// an empty context bundle.
+    ///
+    /// The old comment on the test below called the gap "deliberately
+    /// aspirational". An aspirational binding is indistinguishable at runtime
+    /// from a typo: `get_by_name` returns Ok(None), the loader logs a line
+    /// nobody reads, and the role ships without the instructions its prompt
+    /// assumes it has. If a skill is worth naming it is worth authoring, and if
+    /// it is not, the name should not be in the template.
+    #[test]
+    fn every_referenced_skill_resolves_to_an_authored_one() {
+        let mut authored = HashSet::new();
+        authored_skill_names(&repo_root().join("skills"), &mut authored);
+        let referenced = referenced_skill_names();
+        let mut missing: Vec<_> = referenced.difference(&authored).cloned().collect();
+        missing.sort();
+        assert!(
+            missing.is_empty(),
+            "{} referenced skill(s) bind to nothing — the role gets no instructions \
+             and nothing errors: {missing:#?}",
+            missing.len()
+        );
+    }
+
     /// A referenced name that matches no authored skill binds to nothing. Some
     /// are deliberately aspirational, so this asserts the *resolvable* ones
     /// stay resolvable rather than demanding every name exist.
@@ -322,3 +350,86 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod bundle_tests {
+    use std::collections::HashSet;
+
+    fn repo() -> std::path::PathBuf {
+        std::path::Path::new(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR"))
+            .join("../..")
+            .canonicalize()
+            .expect("repo root")
+    }
+
+    /// Every `mcp_bundles` name a template asks for must be one the runtime
+    /// config actually defines.
+    ///
+    /// This was harmless while `provision_claw` wrote a constant bundle list
+    /// and ignored the templates. It is not harmless now that the list is
+    /// honoured: an undefined name is a capability the agent is told it has and
+    /// does not, which is the same failure as an unresolved skill binding one
+    /// layer down. `gitea_forge` was named by seven team templates, one
+    /// workflow recipe, the auto-provision path and a user-selectable dropdown,
+    /// and defined nowhere.
+    #[test]
+    fn every_named_mcp_bundle_is_defined_by_the_runtime_config() {
+        let cfg = std::fs::read_to_string(
+            repo().join("deploy/clawmates-runtime/agent.config.example.toml"),
+        )
+        .expect("runtime config");
+        let defined: HashSet<String> = cfg
+            .lines()
+            .filter_map(|l| l.trim().strip_prefix("[mcp_bundles."))
+            .filter_map(|r| r.strip_suffix(']'))
+            .map(|s| s.to_string())
+            .collect();
+        assert!(
+            defined.contains("clawmates_door"),
+            "parsed no bundles from the runtime config — the parser, not the \
+             templates, is what broke"
+        );
+
+        let mut missing: Vec<String> = Vec::new();
+        for dir in ["templates/teams", "templates/workflows"] {
+            for entry in std::fs::read_dir(repo().join(dir)).expect("template dir") {
+                let path = entry.expect("entry").path();
+                if path.extension().and_then(|e| e.to_str()) != Some("toml") {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                let body = std::fs::read_to_string(&path).expect("read template");
+                for line in body.lines() {
+                    let t = line.trim();
+                    // Skip comments: several deliberately NAME a bundle while
+                    // explaining that it is not delivered.
+                    if t.starts_with('#') || !t.starts_with("mcp_bundles") {
+                        continue;
+                    }
+                    let Some(inner) = t.split_once('[').and_then(|(_, r)| r.rsplit_once(']'))
+                    else {
+                        continue;
+                    };
+                    for name in inner.0.split(',') {
+                        let name = name.trim().trim_matches('"');
+                        if !name.is_empty() && !defined.contains(name) {
+                            missing.push(format!(
+                                "{}: {name}",
+                                path.file_name().unwrap().to_string_lossy()
+                            ));
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        missing.sort();
+        missing.dedup();
+        assert!(
+            missing.is_empty(),
+            "{} template(s) name an MCP bundle the runtime does not define, so \
+             the agent is provisioned with a capability that resolves to \
+             nothing:\n  {}",
+            missing.len(),
+            missing.join("\n  ")
+        );
+    }
+}

crates/cm-api/src/topology_exec.rs

@@ -7,11 +7,22 @@
 //! gateway, opens `/ws/chat?agent=<alias>`, sends the role+task+context prompt,
 //! and streams the turn's events back into a [`TurnOutcome`].
 //!
-//! **§15 by construction:** the agents are provisioned tool-free (every
+//! **These agents are NOT tool-free.** That claim stood here for months and is
-//! sensitive capability is a gated Clawmates MCP tool — the "door"), so a turn
+//! false — see `docs/TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md`. It was inferred from a frame
-//! takes no sandbox-leaving action here. If the gateway nonetheless emits an
+//! stream that carried no tool events, and the emptiness has a different cause:
-//! `approval_request`, we record it as a **blocked** `GatedAction` and end the
+//! `claude_cli` runs `claude -p --output-format json`, which returns a single
-//! turn — we never auto-approve.
+//! final result object, and the provider hardcodes `tool_calls: Vec::new()`.
+//! The agent calls Claude Code's own tools; the transport discards them.
+//! `--output-format stream-json` emits `tool_use`/`tool_result` blocks —
+//! verified against the deployed Claude Code 2.1.228.
+//!
+//! The door-shaped provider that WOULD make this true (`--mcp-config` +
+//! `--disallowedTools` on the natives) is built and documented in
+//! `agent.config.example.toml`, and is not deployed: mission claws bind to
+//! `claude_cli.default`, which sets none of it.
+//!
+//! If the gateway emits an `approval_request` we still record it as a
+//! **blocked** `GatedAction` and end the turn — we never auto-approve.
 
 use std::collections::HashMap;
 use std::sync::Arc;
@@ -42,6 +53,42 @@ use tokio_tungstenite::tungstenite::Message;
 const TURN_TIMEOUT: Duration = Duration::from_secs(3600);
 
 /// Drives ZeroClaw role-agents (in one container) to execute topology turns.
+/// Cap on the pinned-skill text injected into one mission turn.
+///
+/// Skill bodies average ~3.5 KB and pinning is `idx < 2 || foundation`, so a
+/// role lands near 7-10 KB. The cap exists for the role that grows a long
+/// foundation set, and it is stated in the prompt when it fires.
+pub(crate) const MAX_PINNED_SKILL_BYTES: usize = 24_000;
+
+/// The line that introduces each skill in a prompt.
+///
+/// NOT a markdown heading. The first version used `## <name>`, and skill bodies
+/// are markdown that contain their own `##` headings — so anything reading the
+/// prompt back counted every section of every body as a separate skill. A live
+/// mission scored "Sizing heuristic" and "The output shape" as skills, which is
+/// what surfaced it.
+///
+/// This marker cannot occur inside a body, so the prompt stays parseable by
+/// whatever reads it later. Skills are written by one function
+/// ([`render_pinned_skill`]) for the same reason: two renderers would drift and
+/// the reader would silently match only one.
+pub const SKILL_MARKER: &str = "--- SKILL: ";
+
+/// One skill, rendered for a prompt.
+pub fn render_pinned_skill(name: &str, body: &str) -> String {
+    format!("\n{SKILL_MARKER}{name} ---\n{body}\n")
+}
+
+/// The skill names a rendered prompt delivered.
+pub fn skill_names_in(prompt: &str) -> Vec<String> {
+    prompt
+        .lines()
+        .filter_map(|l| l.trim().strip_prefix(SKILL_MARKER))
+        .map(|rest| rest.trim_end_matches(" ---").trim().to_string())
+        .filter(|n| !n.is_empty())
+        .collect()
+}
+
 pub struct ZeroClawDriveExecutor {
     /// Gateway base URL, e.g. `http://127.0.0.1:42617`.
     gateway_url: String,
@@ -100,9 +147,11 @@ pub struct ToolTrace {
     /// `chunk`, `done` and `session_start` and no tool frames at all. That is
     /// not a protocol mismatch — `tool_call` is in the deployed binary
     /// (`zeroclaw-gateway/src/ws.rs` emits `{"type":"tool_call","id","name",
-    /// "args"}`) — it is §15: these agents are provisioned tool-free behind the
+    /// "args"}`) — and it is NOT that the agents are tool-free, which is what
-    /// MCP door, so they call nothing. The histogram is what let us tell those
+    /// this comment used to say. `claude_cli` asks for `--output-format json`,
-    /// two apart, which was its whole purpose.
+    /// so the subprocess's tool calls never reach the gateway to be framed.
+    /// The histogram still does its job: it distinguishes "no frames" from
+    /// "frames we do not recognise", and the answer was the former.
     pub unmatched: std::collections::BTreeMap<String, u32>,
 }
 
@@ -276,6 +325,61 @@ impl ZeroClawDriveExecutor {
         Ok(token)
     }
 
+    /// The pinned skills for the claw behind `alias`, rendered for the prompt.
+    ///
+    /// Missions had NO path to a skill. The catalogue's only delivery channel
+    /// is the `clawmates_skills` MCP server, and a mission agent cannot reach
+    /// it for three independent reasons: `provision_claw` wrote a constant
+    /// bundle list, the runtime config defines no such bundle, and mission
+    /// claws run on `claude_cli`, which is text-only and cannot surface a tool
+    /// call at all. Two doc comments in `cm-runtime` describe the mission path
+    /// as already having this contract. It never did — so every skill authored
+    /// for a mission role was unreachable prose, and no measurement of whether
+    /// skills fire could have returned anything but zero.
+    ///
+    /// Bodies, not an index. The chat path lists names and lets the claw call
+    /// `skills.read`; there is no such tool here, so an index would advertise a
+    /// capability that does not exist — the exact failure this whole change is
+    /// about. Pinned only (`pin_in_context`), because everything else would go
+    /// in unbounded and unread.
+    pub async fn pinned_skills_text(&self, alias: &str) -> Option<String> {
+        let tap = self.tap.as_ref()?;
+        let agent_id = crate::runtime_provision::claw_from_alias(alias)?;
+        let link = cm_db::repo::agent_template_link::get(&tap.pool, agent_id)
+            .await
+            .ok()
+            .flatten();
+        let (tpl_id, slot) = link
+            .as_ref()
+            .map(|l| (Some(l.template_id), Some(l.role_slot.as_str())))
+            .unwrap_or((None, None));
+        let bindings =
+            cm_db::repo::skills_catalog::effective_for_agent(&tap.pool, agent_id, tpl_id, slot)
+                .await
+                .ok()?;
+
+        let mut out = String::new();
+        let mut n = 0usize;
+        for b in bindings.iter().filter(|b| b.pin_in_context) {
+            // Bounded, and truncation is STATED. A silently clipped procedure
+            // is worse than an absent one: the agent follows the half it can
+            // see and reports success against a rule it never read.
+            if out.len() + b.skill.body.len() > MAX_PINNED_SKILL_BYTES {
+                out.push_str(&format!(
+                    "\n[skill \"{}\" omitted — the pinned set exceeded {} bytes]\n",
+                    b.skill.name, MAX_PINNED_SKILL_BYTES
+                ));
+                continue;
+            }
+            out.push_str(&render_pinned_skill(&b.skill.name, &b.skill.body));
+            n += 1;
+        }
+        if n == 0 {
+            return None;
+        }
+        Some(out)
+    }
+
     /// Mirror of `ProviderExecutor`'s prompt, flattened to one `content` string
     /// (the gateway `message` envelope carries a single content field).
     fn build_prompt(req: &TurnRequest) -> String {
@@ -674,11 +778,48 @@ impl TurnExecutor for ZeroClawDriveExecutor {
                 );
                 fallback
             });
-        let prompt = Self::build_prompt(&req);
+        let prompt = compose_turn_prompt(
+            &Self::build_prompt(&req),
+            self.pinned_skills_text(&alias).await.as_deref(),
+        );
+        // Record what this agent is ACTUALLY about to receive, before driving.
+        // Re-deriving it later would re-run the skill lookup against a
+        // catalogue that may have changed — and once agents author their own
+        // skills, it certainly will have.
+        if let Some(tap) = self.tap.as_ref() {
+            let mut ev = crate::mission_events::MissionEvent::new(
+                tap.mission_id,
+                crate::mission_events::PROMPT_COMPOSED,
+            );
+            ev.phase_id = tap.phase_id;
+            ev.run_id = tap.run_id;
+            ev.agent_id = crate::runtime_provision::claw_from_alias(&alias);
+            ev.target = Some(req.role.clone());
+            ev.detail = serde_json::json!({ "text": prompt, "tier": "container" });
+            crate::mission_events::record(&tap.pool, ev).await;
+        }
         self.drive(&alias, &prompt).await
     }
 }
 
+/// The base turn prompt with the agent's pinned skills appended, if it has any.
+///
+/// Split out from `run_turn` so the wiring is testable: `pinned_skills_text`
+/// working and `run_turn` actually calling it are different claims, and the
+/// second is the one that was false for every skill in the catalogue.
+pub fn compose_turn_prompt(base: &str, skills: Option<&str>) -> String {
+    let Some(skills) = skills.map(str::trim).filter(|s| !s.is_empty()) else {
+        // No heading when there is nothing under it. An empty "Your skills"
+        // section tells the model it has skills and then shows it none, which
+        // is worse than silence.
+        return base.to_string();
+    };
+    format!(
+        "{base}\n\n# Your skills\n\nThese are procedures you are expected to follow for \
+         this kind of work. Where one applies to what you are about to do, follow it.\n\n{skills}"
+    )
+}
+
 /// Parse `role=alias,role=alias` into a map (blank/malformed entries skipped).
 fn parse_agent_map(s: &str) -> HashMap<String, String> {
     s.split(',')

crates/cm-api/src/vm_stop_gate.rs

@@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ mod tests {
             assert!(!install.contains(write), "{install}");
         }
         assert_eq!(
-            crate::vm_tool_tap::guest_settings(Some(GATE_DIR), None)["hooks"]["Stop"][0]["hooks"]
+            crate::vm_tool_tap::guest_settings(Some(GATE_DIR), None, None)["hooks"]["Stop"][0]["hooks"]
                 [0]["command"],
             json!("/root/gate/stop-gate.sh")
         );

crates/cm-api/src/vm_tool_gate.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,456 @@
+//! A **pre-execution** gate on mission tool calls.
+//!
+//! Everything else that watches a mission agent watches it too late.
+//! [`crate::vm_tool_tap`] is a `PostToolUse` hook — it fires after the tool has
+//! already run, and `exit 0`s unconditionally because a non-zero `PostToolUse`
+//! talks back to the model. It is telemetry and says so.
+//!
+//! So until now a mission agent's `Bash` call was gated by nothing, anywhere.
+//! `GatePolicy` — the §15 door — has exactly one enforcement site, the chat
+//! loop, and its approvals key on `(session_id, message_id)`, which no mission
+//! phase can produce. Meanwhile the three solo tiers run `claude -p` with
+//! `--permission-mode acceptEdits`: `Read`, `Edit`, `Write`, `Bash`,
+//! pre-approved.
+//!
+//! `PreToolUse` fires under `claude -p` in this image — measured by
+//! [`crate::vm_stop_gate`], which proved the hook mechanism and the exit-2
+//! contract — and had **no callers at all**. This module is that hook.
+//!
+//! # What this is, and what it is not
+//!
+//! It is a deterministic policy gate: a small deny list of actions that are
+//! destructive or exfiltrating regardless of intent, blocked before they run,
+//! with the reason handed back to the model so it can choose differently.
+//!
+//! It is **not** the §15 human approval gate. A hook blocks the agent's process
+//! while it runs, and a human decision takes minutes to hours — waiting inside
+//! the hook would wedge the turn. Making mission work suspendable for human
+//! approval is a larger change (the approval key alone has no mission-shaped
+//! form). This closes the gap between "nothing" and "something", and it should
+//! not be described as more than that.
+//!
+//! # Why the deny list is short
+//!
+//! A gate that blocks legitimate work is worse than none: the agent cannot ask
+//! a human, so it either works around the block — which is how you get an agent
+//! doing something stranger than what you denied — or it burns the turn. Every
+//! entry here is an action with no legitimate form inside a mission checkout.
+
+use serde_json::{json, Value};
+
+/// Where the gate lives in the guest. Under `/root`, never the repository —
+/// anything written into the checkout would show up in the delivered diff.
+pub const GUEST_DIR: &str = "/root/toolgate";
+
+/// The file the gate appends a line to for every denial.
+pub const DENIED_FILE: &str = "denied.jsonl";
+
+/// How a rule's needle is matched.
+#[derive(PartialEq, Eq, Clone, Copy)]
+enum Match {
+    /// The needle must START a command segment. `grep -rn 'rm -rf /' docs/`
+    /// searches for the string and must not be denied; `rm -rf / …` runs it.
+    /// A plain substring test cannot tell those apart, and the first version
+    /// of this gate denied the grep — caught by its own test.
+    Command,
+    /// A flag anywhere in the segment, unless the segment is a text tool that
+    /// is plainly reading or printing the flag rather than passing it.
+    Flag,
+}
+
+/// One denial rule.
+struct Rule {
+    /// Matched against the Bash command line, case-insensitively.
+    needle: &'static str,
+    how: Match,
+    /// Given to the model verbatim. It says what to do instead, because a bare
+    /// refusal makes an agent retry the same thing with different quoting.
+    reason: &'static str,
+}
+
+/// Actions with no legitimate form inside a mission.
+///
+/// Deliberately not a general-purpose sandbox. The container and microVM
+/// boundaries do that job; this catches the specific commands that damage the
+/// mission itself or move its contents off the machine.
+const RULES: &[Rule] = &[
+    Rule {
+        needle: "rm -rf /",
+        how: Match::Command,
+        reason: "Refusing `rm -rf /`. Delete specific paths under the checkout \
+                 instead; nothing in a mission needs to remove a filesystem root.",
+    },
+    Rule {
+        needle: "git push --force",
+        how: Match::Command,
+        reason: "Refusing a force push. It rewrites history other phases and \
+                 the reviewer rely on. Push normally, or if history genuinely \
+                 must change, say so in your output and stop.",
+    },
+    Rule {
+        needle: "git push -f ",
+        how: Match::Command,
+        reason: "Refusing a force push. It rewrites history other phases and \
+                 the reviewer rely on. Push normally, or if history genuinely \
+                 must change, say so in your output and stop.",
+    },
+    Rule {
+        needle: "git reset --hard origin",
+        how: Match::Command,
+        reason: "Refusing to hard-reset onto the remote. That discards the \
+                 work this phase was asked to produce. If the checkout is \
+                 wrong, report it rather than resetting it away.",
+    },
+    Rule {
+        needle: "curl -x post",
+        how: Match::Command,
+        reason: "Refusing an outbound POST. Reading is fine; sending mission \
+                 content off the machine goes through the platform, not curl.",
+    },
+    Rule {
+        needle: "--dangerously-skip-permissions",
+        how: Match::Flag,
+        reason: "Refusing to relaunch without permission checks. You already \
+                 hold the tools this phase is meant to use.",
+    },
+];
+
+/// The reason a command is denied, or `None` to allow it.
+///
+/// Pure so the policy is testable without a VM — the half most likely to be
+/// wrong is the matching, and it is the half that needs no guest to exercise.
+pub fn deny_reason(tool: &str, command: &str) -> Option<&'static str> {
+    // Only Bash carries arbitrary commands. Read/Edit/Write are bounded by the
+    // filesystem the tier already isolates, and blocking them on substrings
+    // would deny a file whose CONTENTS mention a denied string.
+    if !tool.eq_ignore_ascii_case("bash") {
+        return None;
+    }
+    let lower = command.to_ascii_lowercase();
+    for segment in segments(&lower) {
+        let segment = segment.trim();
+        if segment.is_empty() {
+            continue;
+        }
+        for rule in RULES {
+            let hit = match rule.how {
+                Match::Command => segment.starts_with(rule.needle),
+                Match::Flag => segment.contains(rule.needle) && !is_text_tool(segment),
+            };
+            if hit {
+                return Some(rule.reason);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    None
+}
+
+/// Split a command line on shell separators, so each piece can be tested as a
+/// command in its own right.
+///
+/// Not a shell parser, and it does not need to be: a determined agent can
+/// defeat any string-matching gate (base64, a variable, a here-doc), and this
+/// one is aimed at accidents and obvious cases rather than at an adversary.
+/// Saying so is better than implying a guarantee it cannot make — the real
+/// isolation is the container and microVM boundary.
+fn segments(command: &str) -> Vec<&str> {
+    // `&` and `|` cover `&&`/`||` too — splitting on the single character
+    // leaves an empty piece between them, which the caller skips.
+    command
+        .split(|c| matches!(c, ';' | '|' | '&' | '\n'))
+        .collect()
+}
+
+/// Is this segment a tool that reads or prints its arguments rather than
+/// executing them?
+fn is_text_tool(segment: &str) -> bool {
+    const TEXT_TOOLS: &[&str] = &[
+        "grep", "rg", "ag", "echo", "printf", "cat", "less", "head", "tail",
+        "sed", "awk", "comm", "diff",
+    ];
+    let first = segment.split_whitespace().next().unwrap_or("");
+    TEXT_TOOLS.contains(&first)
+}
+
+/// The guest hook script.
+///
+/// The hook is handed the tool-use event as JSON on stdin, so it must extract
+/// `tool_name` and `tool_input.command` before it can match anything. The first
+/// version matched the raw JSON text and therefore could never anchor a rule to
+/// the start of a command — `case` saw `{"tool_name":"bash",...` every time.
+///
+/// Parsing uses `node`, not `jq` (absent from the image) and not a `sed`
+/// pipeline (JSON escaping). `node` is guaranteed present: Claude Code is a
+/// node program, so any image that can run `claude` can run this.
+///
+/// Every failure path allows. A gate that fails closed on a parse error blocks
+/// every tool call in the phase, which is precisely what a `case`-syntax bug
+/// did here before a test ran the script under a real shell.
+pub fn hook_script(dir: &str) -> String {
+    let mut checks = String::new();
+    for r in RULES {
+        // The literal half is DOUBLE-QUOTED. A `case` pattern is shell words,
+        // so an unquoted needle containing a space (`rm -rf /`) is a syntax
+        // error — and a syntax error makes the whole script exit non-zero,
+        // which as a PreToolUse hook denies EVERY call.
+        let pattern = match r.how {
+            Match::Command => format!("\"{}\"*", shell_pattern(r.needle)),
+            Match::Flag => format!("*\"{}\"*", shell_pattern(r.needle)),
+        };
+        checks.push_str(&format!(
+            "    case \"$seg\" in\n\
+             \x20     {pattern})\n\
+             \x20       printf '%s\\n' {reason} >&2\n\
+             \x20       printf '%s\\n' \"$payload\" >> {dir}/{denied} 2>/dev/null\n\
+             \x20       exit 2\n\
+             \x20       ;;\n\
+             \x20   esac\n",
+            pattern = pattern,
+            reason = shell_quote(r.reason),
+            dir = dir,
+            denied = DENIED_FILE,
+        ));
+    }
+    format!(
+        "#!/bin/sh\n\
+         # Pre-execution tool gate. See cm-api/src/vm_tool_gate.rs.\n\
+         mkdir -p {dir} 2>/dev/null\n\
+         payload=$(cat)\n\
+         # Tool name on line 1, command on line 2. Anything unparseable prints\n\
+         # nothing and the gate allows — never fail closed here.\n\
+         info=$(printf '%s' \"$payload\" | node -e '{extract}' 2>/dev/null)\n\
+         tool=$(printf '%s\\n' \"$info\" | sed -n 1p)\n\
+         cmd=$(printf '%s\\n' \"$info\" | sed -n 2p)\n\
+         # Only Bash carries arbitrary commands.\n\
+         [ \"$tool\" = bash ] || exit 0\n\
+         [ -n \"$cmd\" ] || exit 0\n\
+         lower=$(printf '%s' \"$cmd\" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')\n\
+         # Split on shell separators and test each piece as its own command,\n\
+         # so `grep 'rm -rf /' docs` is searching, not running.\n\
+         old_ifs=$IFS\n\
+         # A LITERAL newline. `IFS='\\n'` in POSIX sh sets IFS to backslash and\n\
+         # the letter n, not a newline — so nothing split, and only commands\n\
+         # with no separator at all were ever tested.\n\
+         IFS='\n'\n\
+         for seg in $(printf '%s' \"$lower\" | tr ';|&' '\\n'); do\n\
+         \x20 seg=$(printf '%s' \"$seg\" | sed 's/^ *//')\n\
+         {checks}\
+         done\n\
+         IFS=$old_ifs\n\
+         # Nothing matched. Exit 0 ALLOWS the call.\n\
+         exit 0\n",
+        extract = NODE_EXTRACT,
+    )
+}
+
+/// Reads the hook event on stdin and prints `tool_name` then the command.
+///
+/// Lowercases the tool name so the shell comparison is exact. Silent on any
+/// error: the caller treats empty output as "allow".
+const NODE_EXTRACT: &str = r#"let s="";process.stdin.on("data",d=>s+=d).on("end",()=>{try{const j=JSON.parse(s);const n=String(j.tool_name||"").toLowerCase();const c=String((j.tool_input&&j.tool_input.command)||"").replace(/\n/g," ");process.stdout.write(n+"\n"+c+"\n")}catch(e){}})"#;
+
+/// A needle as a `case` pattern: glob metacharacters escaped.
+fn shell_pattern(needle: &str) -> String {
+    // Inside double quotes a glob metacharacter is already literal; what must
+    // not appear raw is a quote or a backslash.
+    needle.replace('\\', "\\\\").replace('"', "\\\"")
+}
+
+/// Single-quote for `sh`, closing and reopening around any embedded quote.
+fn shell_quote(s: &str) -> String {
+    format!("'{}'", s.replace('\'', "'\\''"))
+}
+
+/// The `PreToolUse` entry for the guest settings document.
+///
+/// Returned rather than written, because [`crate::vm_tool_tap::guest_settings`]
+/// is the single writer of that document and must stay so: each feature writing
+/// its own `settings.json` is a silent clobber, and the stop gate disappearing
+/// is how a coding phase completes having written nothing.
+pub fn settings_hook(dir: &str) -> Value {
+    json!([{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": format!("{dir}/tool-gate.sh") }] }])
+}
+
+/// One shell command that installs the gate.
+pub fn install_command(dir: &str) -> String {
+    format!(
+        "mkdir -p {dir} && cat > {dir}/tool-gate.sh <<'CM_GATE_EOF'\n{}\nCM_GATE_EOF\nchmod +x {dir}/tool-gate.sh",
+        hook_script(dir)
+    )
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn destructive_commands_are_denied_with_a_reason_that_says_what_to_do() {
+        let why = deny_reason("Bash", "rm -rf / --no-preserve-root").expect("must deny");
+        assert!(
+            why.contains("instead"),
+            "a bare refusal makes the agent retry with different quoting: {why}"
+        );
+        assert!(deny_reason("Bash", "git push --force origin main").is_some());
+        assert!(deny_reason("Bash", "git reset --hard origin/main").is_some());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn matching_is_case_insensitive() {
+        assert!(deny_reason("Bash", "GIT PUSH --FORCE origin main").is_some());
+        assert!(deny_reason("bash", "RM -RF /").is_some());
+    }
+
+    /// The gate must not become a general-purpose linter. Every one of these is
+    /// ordinary mission work, and denying any of them would make an agent work
+    /// around the block — which is worse than not gating.
+    #[test]
+    fn ordinary_mission_work_is_allowed() {
+        for cmd in [
+            "cargo test --workspace",
+            "git add -A && git commit -m 'INT-01 done'",
+            "git push origin mission-branch",
+            "rm -rf target/debug",
+            "rm -rf ./node_modules",
+            "curl -s https://export.arxiv.org/abs/2401.00001",
+            "grep -rn 'rm -rf /' docs/",
+        ] {
+            assert_eq!(
+                deny_reason("Bash", cmd),
+                None,
+                "denied ordinary work: {cmd}"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Only Bash carries arbitrary commands. Matching a file's CONTENTS against
+    /// the deny list would refuse to read a document that merely mentions one.
+    #[test]
+    fn non_bash_tools_are_not_matched_on_their_arguments() {
+        assert_eq!(deny_reason("Read", "/mission/repo/docs/rm -rf / notes.md"), None);
+        assert_eq!(deny_reason("Write", "git push --force"), None);
+    }
+
+    /// The generated shell must agree with the Rust predicate. Two
+    /// implementations of one policy is how a gate passes its unit tests and
+    /// denies something else in the guest.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_script_carries_every_rule() {
+        let script = hook_script(GUEST_DIR);
+        for rule in RULES {
+            assert!(
+                script.contains(&shell_pattern(rule.needle)),
+                "rule {:?} is enforced in Rust and missing from the guest script",
+                rule.needle
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_script_denies_with_exit_2_and_allows_by_falling_through_to_exit_0() {
+        let script = hook_script(GUEST_DIR);
+        assert!(script.contains("exit 2"), "denial must block the call");
+        assert!(
+            script.trim_end().ends_with("exit 0"),
+            "the last statement must be an allow — no path may fail open into a \
+             non-zero exit and block legitimate work"
+        );
+        assert!(script.contains(">&2"), "the reason must reach the model");
+    }
+
+    /// A reason containing an apostrophe must not break out of its quoting.
+    #[test]
+    fn reasons_are_shell_quoted() {
+        let q = shell_quote("don't do that");
+        assert_eq!(q, "'don'\\''t do that'");
+    }
+}
+
+/// The generated script run against a real `sh`.
+///
+/// The unit tests above check the Rust predicate and the script's TEXT. Neither
+/// proves the shell behaves: a quoting slip, a `case` pattern that never
+/// matches, or an `IFS` mistake all pass those and allow everything in the
+/// guest. The stop gate learned this the same way, which is why it has the
+/// equivalent test.
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod shell_tests {
+    use super::*;
+    use std::io::Write;
+    use std::process::{Command, Stdio};
+
+    /// Run the hook with `payload` on stdin. Returns (exit code, stderr).
+    fn run(payload: &str) -> (i32, String) {
+        // Unique per invocation: these tests run in parallel and each removes
+        // its directory afterwards, so a shared path has them deleting the
+        // script out from under each other.
+        static N: std::sync::atomic::AtomicU32 = std::sync::atomic::AtomicU32::new(0);
+        let seq = N.fetch_add(1, std::sync::atomic::Ordering::Relaxed);
+        let dir = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("cm-gate-{}-{seq}", std::process::id()));
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+        let script = dir.join("tool-gate.sh");
+        std::fs::write(&script, hook_script(&dir.to_string_lossy())).unwrap();
+
+        let mut child = Command::new("sh")
+            .arg(&script)
+            .stdin(Stdio::piped())
+            .stdout(Stdio::piped())
+            .stderr(Stdio::piped())
+            .spawn()
+            .expect("spawn sh");
+        child
+            .stdin
+            .as_mut()
+            .unwrap()
+            .write_all(payload.as_bytes())
+            .unwrap();
+        let out = child.wait_with_output().expect("wait");
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(&dir);
+        (
+            out.status.code().unwrap_or(-1),
+            String::from_utf8_lossy(&out.stderr).to_string(),
+        )
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_shell_blocks_a_force_push_with_exit_2_and_a_reason() {
+        let payload = r#"{"tool_name":"Bash","tool_input":{"command":"git push --force origin main"}}"#;
+        let (code, stderr) = run(payload);
+        assert_eq!(code, 2, "exit 2 is what blocks the call; stderr={stderr}");
+        assert!(
+            stderr.contains("force push"),
+            "the model must be told why: {stderr}"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The false positive the Rust predicate was fixed for, proven in the shell
+    /// too — the two implementations have to agree.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_shell_allows_grepping_for_a_denied_string() {
+        let payload = r#"{"tool_name":"Bash","tool_input":{"command":"grep -rn 'rm -rf /' docs/"}}"#;
+        let (code, stderr) = run(payload);
+        assert_eq!(code, 0, "searching for the string is not running it: {stderr}");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_shell_allows_ordinary_work() {
+        for cmd in [
+            "cargo test --workspace",
+            "git add -A && git commit -m 'INT-01 done'",
+            "rm -rf target/debug",
+        ] {
+            let payload = format!(
+                r#"{{"tool_name":"Bash","tool_input":{{"command":"{cmd}"}}}}"#
+            );
+            let (code, stderr) = run(&payload);
+            assert_eq!(code, 0, "denied ordinary work {cmd:?}: {stderr}");
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_shell_blocks_a_destructive_delete_reached_after_a_cd() {
+        let payload =
+            r#"{"tool_name":"Bash","tool_input":{"command":"cd /tmp && rm -rf / --no-preserve-root"}}"#;
+        let (code, _) = run(payload);
+        assert_eq!(code, 2, "a separator must not smuggle the command past the gate");
+    }
+}

crates/cm-api/src/vm_tool_tap.rs

@@ -103,8 +103,12 @@ pub fn hook_script(dir: &str) -> String {
 /// gate exists to catch. One writer, one document, one test that both hooks
 /// survive it.
 ///
-/// `None` for either half means that hook is simply absent.
+/// `None` for any part means that hook is simply absent.
-pub fn guest_settings(gate_dir: Option<&str>, tap_dir: Option<&str>) -> Value {
+pub fn guest_settings(
+    gate_dir: Option<&str>,
+    tap_dir: Option<&str>,
+    tool_gate_dir: Option<&str>,
+) -> Value {
     let mut hooks = serde_json::Map::new();
     if let Some(dir) = gate_dir {
         hooks.insert(
@@ -118,6 +122,12 @@ pub fn guest_settings(gate_dir: Option<&str>, tap_dir: Option<&str>) -> Value {
             json!([{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": format!("{dir}/tap.sh") }] }]),
         );
     }
+    if let Some(dir) = tool_gate_dir {
+        // PRE-execution, unlike the tap above. Composed here rather than
+        // written by `vm_tool_gate` itself for the same reason everything else
+        // is: one writer, one document.
+        hooks.insert("PreToolUse".into(), crate::vm_tool_gate::settings_hook(dir));
+    }
     json!({ "hooks": Value::Object(hooks) })
 }
 
@@ -195,7 +205,7 @@ mod tests {
     /// failure the gate was built to catch.
     #[test]
     fn both_hooks_survive_one_settings_document() {
-        let s = guest_settings(Some("/root/gate"), Some(TAP_DIR));
+        let s = guest_settings(Some("/root/gate"), Some(TAP_DIR), None);
         let hooks = s.get("hooks").expect("hooks");
         assert_eq!(
             hooks["Stop"][0]["hooks"][0]["command"],
@@ -211,11 +221,11 @@ mod tests {
     /// Either half absent leaves the other exactly as it was.
     #[test]
     fn one_hook_alone_is_a_valid_document() {
-        let gate_only = guest_settings(Some("/root/gate"), None);
+        let gate_only = guest_settings(Some("/root/gate"), None, None);
         assert!(gate_only["hooks"].get("Stop").is_some());
         assert!(gate_only["hooks"].get("PostToolUse").is_none());
 
-        let tap_only = guest_settings(None, Some(TAP_DIR));
+        let tap_only = guest_settings(None, Some(TAP_DIR), None);
         assert!(tap_only["hooks"].get("Stop").is_none());
         assert!(tap_only["hooks"].get("PostToolUse").is_some());
     }
@@ -329,3 +339,44 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(parse(r#"{"tool_name":"   ","tool_input":{}}"#).is_empty());
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod three_hook_tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// All three hooks must survive one document.
+    ///
+    /// The tap and the stop gate already shared it; the pre-execution gate is
+    /// the third, and the clobber this function exists to prevent gets more
+    /// likely with each one. A missing `Stop` lets a phase finish having
+    /// written nothing; a missing `PreToolUse` runs every command unchecked.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_document_carries_the_stop_gate_the_tap_and_the_pre_execution_gate() {
+        let s = guest_settings(
+            Some("/root/gate"),
+            Some(TAP_DIR),
+            Some(crate::vm_tool_gate::GUEST_DIR),
+        );
+        let hooks = s["hooks"].as_object().expect("hooks object");
+        assert!(hooks.contains_key("Stop"), "stop gate lost");
+        assert!(hooks.contains_key("PostToolUse"), "tap lost");
+        assert!(hooks.contains_key("PreToolUse"), "pre-execution gate lost");
+        assert_eq!(hooks.len(), 3, "an unexpected hook appeared: {hooks:?}");
+
+        // And the pre-execution hook points at the gate's own script, not the
+        // tap's — pointing PreToolUse at tap.sh would exit 0 on everything and
+        // read as a gate that allows all.
+        let cmd = s["hooks"]["PreToolUse"][0]["hooks"][0]["command"]
+            .as_str()
+            .expect("command");
+        assert!(cmd.ends_with("tool-gate.sh"), "wrong script: {cmd}");
+    }
+
+    /// The gate alone must still produce a usable document.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_gate_can_be_installed_without_the_others() {
+        let s = guest_settings(None, None, Some(crate::vm_tool_gate::GUEST_DIR));
+        assert_eq!(s["hooks"].as_object().unwrap().len(), 1);
+        assert!(s["hooks"]["PreToolUse"].is_array());
+    }
+}

crates/cm-api/tests/mission_skill_delivery.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,319 @@
+//! Do a mission agent's pinned skills actually reach its prompt?
+//!
+//! Before this test the honest answer was no, for every skill and every role.
+//! The catalogue's only delivery channel was the `clawmates_skills` MCP server,
+//! and a mission claw could not reach it: `provision_claw` wrote a constant
+//! bundle list, the runtime config defines no such bundle, and mission claws
+//! run on `claude_cli`, which is text-only and cannot surface a tool call.
+//!
+//! So the skills were authored, bound, listed in the boot log as bound — and
+//! structurally unreadable. That is why this is a test and not a comment: the
+//! failure produced no error anywhere, and every layer reported success.
+
+use cm_api::topology_exec::{MissionTap, ZeroClawDriveExecutor};
+use cm_domain::{Agent, AgentId, AgentStatus, Role, User, UserId, Workspace, WorkspaceId};
+
+/// `agents.managed_by` is a real FK, so the owner has to exist.
+async fn seed_user(pool: &sqlx::PgPool, ws: WorkspaceId) -> UserId {
+    let user = User {
+        id: UserId::new(),
+        workspace_id: ws,
+        email: format!("owner-{}@example.com", Uuid::now_v7().simple()),
+        role: Role::Owner,
+        display_name: "Owner".into(),
+        created_at: time::OffsetDateTime::UNIX_EPOCH,
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::users::insert(pool, &user).await.unwrap();
+    user.id
+}
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+/// A claw with one template-bound, pinned skill. Returns its runtime alias.
+async fn seed_claw_with_pinned_skill(pool: &sqlx::PgPool, body: &str) -> (String, WorkspaceId) {
+    let ws = Workspace {
+        id: WorkspaceId::new(),
+        name: "Skill Delivery Test".into(),
+        plan: "team".into(),
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::workspaces::insert(pool, &ws).await.unwrap();
+
+    let user = seed_user(pool, ws.id).await;
+    let agent = Agent {
+        id: AgentId::new(),
+        workspace_id: ws.id,
+        name: "Scout".into(),
+        job_title: "researcher".into(),
+        system_prompt: String::new(),
+        avatar: String::new(),
+        accent: String::new(),
+        wallpaper: String::new(),
+        managed_by: user,
+        status: AgentStatus::Online,
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::agents::insert(pool, &agent, &cm_domain::AccessPolicy::default())
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    // A template with one role, and a skill pinned to it.
+    let template_id = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO team_templates (id, key, name, description, category, stack,
+                                     default_topology, risk_profile, mcp_bundles, version)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, 'Delivery Test', 'test', 'research', '{}',
+                 'pipeline', 'research_readonly', '{}', 1)",
+    )
+    .bind(template_id)
+    .bind(format!("delivery_test_{}", template_id.simple()))
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO template_roles (template_id, slot, order_idx, system_prompt)
+         VALUES ($1, 'researcher', 0, 'you research')",
+    )
+    .bind(template_id)
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+
+    let skill_id = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO skills
+           (id, workspace_id, name, title, author, description, when_to_use,
+            tags, source_kind, current_version, body)
+         VALUES ($1, NULL, $2, $2, 'system',
+                 'a procedure the agent must follow', 'always', '{}',
+                 'builtin', 1, $3)",
+    )
+    .bind(skill_id)
+    .bind(format!("delivery-test-skill-{}", skill_id.simple()))
+    .bind(body)
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO template_role_skills (template_id, slot, skill_id, pin_in_context, order_idx)
+         VALUES ($1, 'researcher', $2, true, 0)",
+    )
+    .bind(template_id)
+    .bind(skill_id)
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+
+    cm_db::repo::agent_template_link::upsert(
+        pool,
+        agent.id.as_uuid(),
+        template_id,
+        1,
+        "researcher",
+    )
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+
+    (
+        cm_api::runtime_provision::claw_alias(agent.id.as_uuid()),
+        ws.id,
+    )
+}
+
+fn executor(pool: &sqlx::PgPool, workspace_id: WorkspaceId) -> ZeroClawDriveExecutor {
+    ZeroClawDriveExecutor::new(
+        "http://127.0.0.1:1".into(),
+        "unused".into(),
+        HashMap::new(),
+        "default".into(),
+    )
+    .with_tap(MissionTap {
+        pool: pool.clone(),
+        workspace_id: workspace_id.as_uuid(),
+        mission_id: Uuid::now_v7(),
+        phase_id: None,
+        run_id: None,
+    })
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn a_pinned_skill_body_reaches_the_turn_prompt() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    const MARKER: &str = "Never review a paper from its title alone.";
+    let (alias, ws) = seed_claw_with_pinned_skill(&pool, MARKER).await;
+
+    let text = executor(&pool, ws)
+        .pinned_skills_text(&alias)
+        .await
+        .expect("a claw with a pinned template skill must produce skill text");
+
+    assert!(
+        text.contains(MARKER),
+        "the skill BODY must be present, not just its name — there is no \
+         `skills.read` tool on the mission path, so an index would name a \
+         procedure the agent has no way to fetch. Got:\n{text}"
+    );
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn an_agent_with_no_pinned_skills_adds_nothing() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let ws = Workspace {
+        id: WorkspaceId::new(),
+        name: "No Skills".into(),
+        plan: "team".into(),
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::workspaces::insert(&pool, &ws).await.unwrap();
+    let user = seed_user(&pool, ws.id).await;
+    let agent = Agent {
+        id: AgentId::new(),
+        workspace_id: ws.id,
+        name: "Bare".into(),
+        job_title: "researcher".into(),
+        system_prompt: String::new(),
+        avatar: String::new(),
+        accent: String::new(),
+        wallpaper: String::new(),
+        managed_by: user,
+        status: AgentStatus::Online,
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::agents::insert(&pool, &agent, &cm_domain::AccessPolicy::default())
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    let alias = cm_api::runtime_provision::claw_alias(agent.id.as_uuid());
+    assert!(
+        executor(&pool, ws.id)
+            .pinned_skills_text(&alias)
+            .await
+            .is_none(),
+        "an agent with no bound skills must add no section at all — an empty \
+         `# Your skills` heading tells the model it has skills and then shows \
+         it none"
+    );
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn the_composed_prompt_carries_the_skill_and_omits_the_heading_when_empty() {
+    let base = "You are the \"researcher\" agent.\n\nTask: read the papers";
+
+    let with = cm_api::topology_exec::compose_turn_prompt(base, Some("## arxiv-daily\nDo not re-search."));
+    assert!(with.contains("Task: read the papers"), "the base turn must survive");
+    assert!(with.contains("Do not re-search."), "the skill body must be in the prompt");
+    assert!(with.contains("# Your skills"), "the section needs a heading");
+
+    for empty in [None, Some(""), Some("   \n ")] {
+        let without = cm_api::topology_exec::compose_turn_prompt(base, empty);
+        assert_eq!(
+            without, base,
+            "with no skills the prompt must be byte-identical to the base — an \
+             empty heading announces skills the agent does not have"
+        );
+    }
+}
+
+// ── The other three tiers ───────────────────────────────────────────
+//
+// `topology_exec` injects per TURN and covers only the container tier. The
+// composed-microVM, solo-microVM and direct-session paths in `phase_runner`
+// share one task string built by `phase_task_text`, and until now that string
+// carried no skill at all — so a mission on any of those tiers ran with the
+// catalogue unreachable, exactly as the container tier did before e4942ce.
+
+/// Bind a claw to a mission's crew so `phase_skills_text` can find it.
+async fn seed_mission_with_crew(pool: &sqlx::PgPool, ws: WorkspaceId, agent: AgentId) -> Uuid {
+    let mission = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO missions (id, workspace_id, title, template_kind, status)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, 'skill delivery', 'research_only', 'running')",
+    )
+    .bind(mission)
+    .bind(ws.as_uuid())
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+
+    let team = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO teams (id, workspace_id, name, kind, lifecycle, graph)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, 'crew', 'pipeline', 'permanent', '{}'::jsonb)",
+    )
+    .bind(team)
+    .bind(ws.as_uuid())
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+    sqlx::query("INSERT INTO team_members (team_id, claw_id, node_id, role) VALUES ($1, $2, 'researcher', 'researcher')")
+        .bind(team)
+        .bind(agent.as_uuid())
+        .execute(pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    sqlx::query("INSERT INTO mission_teams (mission_id, team_id, purpose) VALUES ($1, $2, 'mission')")
+        .bind(mission)
+        .bind(team)
+        .execute(pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    mission
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn the_microvm_and_session_tiers_get_the_skill_in_their_task_text() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    const MARKER: &str = "Never review a paper from its title alone.";
+    let (alias, ws) = seed_claw_with_pinned_skill(&pool, MARKER).await;
+    let agent = AgentId::from(cm_api::runtime_provision::claw_from_alias(&alias).unwrap());
+    let mission = seed_mission_with_crew(&pool, ws, agent).await;
+
+    let skills = cm_api::phase_runner::phase_skills_text(&pool, mission)
+        .await
+        .expect("a mission whose crew holds a pinned skill must produce skill text");
+    assert!(
+        skills.contains(MARKER),
+        "the pinned BODY must reach the phase task — these tiers run one \
+         `claude -p` session with no per-turn injection, so this string is the \
+         agent's only route to the procedure. Got:\n{skills}"
+    );
+
+    // All three tiers share this composition, so testing it once covers them.
+    let composed = cm_api::topology_exec::compose_turn_prompt("Task: read the papers", Some(&skills));
+    assert!(composed.contains(MARKER));
+    assert!(composed.contains("Task: read the papers"));
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn a_mission_whose_crew_has_no_skills_adds_nothing() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let ws = Workspace {
+        id: WorkspaceId::new(),
+        name: "Bare Crew".into(),
+        plan: "team".into(),
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::workspaces::insert(&pool, &ws).await.unwrap();
+    let user = seed_user(&pool, ws.id).await;
+    let agent = Agent {
+        id: AgentId::new(),
+        workspace_id: ws.id,
+        name: "Bare".into(),
+        job_title: "researcher".into(),
+        system_prompt: String::new(),
+        avatar: String::new(),
+        accent: String::new(),
+        wallpaper: String::new(),
+        managed_by: user,
+        status: AgentStatus::Online,
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::agents::insert(&pool, &agent, &cm_domain::AccessPolicy::default())
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    let mission = seed_mission_with_crew(&pool, ws.id, agent.id).await;
+
+    assert!(
+        cm_api::phase_runner::phase_skills_text(&pool, mission)
+            .await
+            .is_none(),
+        "a crew with no pinned skills must add no section — the empty-heading \
+         rule has to hold on this path too"
+    );
+}

crates/cm-api/tests/provenance_record.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,174 @@
+//! What an agent received, and what it said it did, must survive the phase.
+//!
+//! `docs/PROVENANCE-ASSESSMENT.md` records "why did the agent say X?" as
+//! unanswerable. The first two things it needs are the prompt and the
+//! narrative. Before this, the prompt was never stored at all, and the
+//! narrative was stored and then read by nothing — both database readers in
+//! `routes/world.rs` filter to `tool.call`/`file.touch`, and the only other
+//! statement touching the table is the GC that deletes it.
+
+use cm_api::mission_events::{self, MissionEvent, PER_PHASE_CAP, PROMPT_COMPOSED, REASONING, TOOL_CALL};
+use cm_domain::{Workspace, WorkspaceId};
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+async fn seed_phase(pool: &sqlx::PgPool) -> (Uuid, Uuid) {
+    let ws = Workspace {
+        id: WorkspaceId::new(),
+        name: "Provenance Test".into(),
+        plan: "team".into(),
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::workspaces::insert(pool, &ws).await.unwrap();
+    let mission = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO missions (id, workspace_id, title, template_kind, status)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, 'provenance', 'research_only', 'running')",
+    )
+    .bind(mission)
+    .bind(ws.id.as_uuid())
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+    let phase = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO mission_phases (id, mission_id, kind, order_idx, status)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, 'research', 0, 'running')",
+    )
+    .bind(phase)
+    .bind(mission)
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+    (mission, phase)
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn the_prompt_and_the_narrative_are_both_readable_after_the_fact() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (mission, phase) = seed_phase(&pool).await;
+
+    let mut prompt = MissionEvent::new(mission, PROMPT_COMPOSED);
+    prompt.phase_id = Some(phase);
+    prompt.target = Some("researcher".into());
+    prompt.detail = serde_json::json!({ "text": "Task: read the papers\n## arxiv-daily\nDo not re-search." });
+    mission_events::record(&pool, prompt).await;
+
+    let mut said = MissionEvent::new(mission, REASONING);
+    said.phase_id = Some(phase);
+    said.detail = serde_json::json!({ "text": "I read the manifest and wrote analysis.md." });
+    mission_events::record(&pool, said).await;
+
+    let narrative = mission_events::narrative_for_mission(&pool, mission)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    let prompt_text = narrative
+        .iter()
+        .find(|(kind, ..)| kind == PROMPT_COMPOSED)
+        .map(|(.., text)| text.clone())
+        .expect("the prompt must be recoverable — re-deriving it later re-runs \
+                 the skill lookup against a catalogue that will have changed");
+    assert!(prompt_text.contains("Do not re-search."));
+    assert!(
+        prompt_text.contains("Task: read the papers"),
+        "the whole composed prompt, not just the skills half"
+    );
+
+    assert!(
+        narrative
+            .iter()
+            .any(|(kind, .., text)| kind == REASONING && text.contains("analysis.md")),
+        "the agent's own account must come back out of the database"
+    );
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn a_busy_phase_cannot_push_out_its_own_provenance() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (mission, phase) = seed_phase(&pool).await;
+
+    // Fill the phase past the cap with the kind the cap exists to bound.
+    for i in 0..(PER_PHASE_CAP + 20) {
+        let mut ev = MissionEvent::new(mission, TOOL_CALL);
+        ev.phase_id = Some(phase);
+        ev.target = Some(format!("tool_{i}"));
+        mission_events::record(&pool, ev).await;
+    }
+
+    let tool_rows: i64 = sqlx::query_scalar(
+        "SELECT count(*) FROM mission_events WHERE phase_id = $1 AND kind = $2",
+    )
+    .bind(phase)
+    .bind(TOOL_CALL)
+    .fetch_one(&pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(
+        tool_rows, PER_PHASE_CAP,
+        "the cap must still bound the kind it was written for"
+    );
+
+    // The prompt arrives AFTER the flood, which is the real ordering: a coding
+    // phase calls its tools and then the next turn is composed.
+    let mut prompt = MissionEvent::new(mission, PROMPT_COMPOSED);
+    prompt.phase_id = Some(phase);
+    prompt.detail = serde_json::json!({ "text": "the next turn's prompt" });
+    mission_events::record(&pool, prompt).await;
+
+    let narrative = mission_events::narrative_for_mission(&pool, mission)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    assert!(
+        narrative.iter().any(|(.., text)| text == "the next turn's prompt"),
+        "a phase that called {} tools dropped its own prompt — the cap counted \
+         provenance against a budget meant for the two unbounded kinds, so the \
+         busier the phase, the less of it is explainable",
+        PER_PHASE_CAP + 20
+    );
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn a_mission_under_measurement_keeps_its_events_past_the_window() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (kept, kept_phase) = seed_phase(&pool).await;
+    let (reaped, reaped_phase) = seed_phase(&pool).await;
+
+    // Only one of them is held.
+    sqlx::query("UPDATE missions SET retain_events_until = now() + interval '30 days' WHERE id = $1")
+        .bind(kept)
+        .execute(&pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    for (mission, phase) in [(kept, kept_phase), (reaped, reaped_phase)] {
+        let mut ev = MissionEvent::new(mission, PROMPT_COMPOSED);
+        ev.phase_id = Some(phase);
+        ev.detail = serde_json::json!({ "text": "the prompt" });
+        mission_events::record(&pool, ev).await;
+    }
+    // Age both beyond the global window.
+    sqlx::query("UPDATE mission_events SET created_at = now() - interval '90 days'")
+        .execute(&pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    let mut out = cm_api::mission_gc::Reclaimed::default();
+    cm_api::mission_gc::reap_mission_events(&pool, &mut out).await;
+
+    assert!(
+        !mission_events::narrative_for_mission(&pool, kept)
+            .await
+            .unwrap()
+            .is_empty(),
+        "a mission held for measurement lost its events — the evidence expires \
+         while the question is still open, and 'no events' reads exactly like \
+         'nothing happened'"
+    );
+    assert!(
+        mission_events::narrative_for_mission(&pool, reaped)
+            .await
+            .unwrap()
+            .is_empty(),
+        "an unheld mission must still be reaped — an exemption that applies to \
+         everything is not an exemption, it is a raised global bound"
+    );
+}

crates/cm-api/tests/security_scan_sweep.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+//! The guard on the security-scan sweep.
+//!
+//! `phase_runner::scan_finished_security_phases` fires `security_scan::run`
+//! for finished `security_scan` phases. The scan needs Docker; the part that
+//! decides whether it runs twice, once, or never is pure SQL, and it is the
+//! part that fails silently in both directions — rescanning forever, or never
+//! scanning at all and leaving a phase that looks identical to a clean repo.
+
+use cm_domain::{Workspace, WorkspaceId};
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+async fn seed_mission(pool: &sqlx::PgPool) -> Uuid {
+    let ws = Workspace {
+        id: WorkspaceId::new(),
+        name: "Security Sweep Test".into(),
+        plan: "team".into(),
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::workspaces::insert(pool, &ws).await.unwrap();
+    let id = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO missions (id, workspace_id, title, template_kind, status)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, 'security test', 'security_hardening', 'running')",
+    )
+    .bind(id)
+    .bind(ws.id.as_uuid())
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+    id
+}
+
+async fn seed_phase(
+    pool: &sqlx::PgPool,
+    mission_id: Uuid,
+    kind: &str,
+    status: &str,
+    order_idx: i32,
+) -> Uuid {
+    let id = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO mission_phases (id, mission_id, kind, order_idx, status, completed_at)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, now())",
+    )
+    .bind(id)
+    .bind(mission_id)
+    .bind(kind)
+    .bind(order_idx)
+    .bind(status)
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+    id
+}
+
+async fn mark_scanned(pool: &sqlx::PgPool, mission_id: Uuid, phase_id: Uuid) {
+    cm_db::repo::missions::upsert_task(
+        pool,
+        cm_db::repo::missions::UpsertTask {
+            mission_id,
+            phase_id,
+            external_id: cm_api::security_scan::SCAN_MARKER,
+            title: "security scan complete — ran [gitleaks], 0 finding(s)",
+            assigned_agent_id: None,
+            status: "created",
+            run_id: None,
+        },
+    )
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn a_finished_security_phase_is_selected_until_it_carries_a_scan_marker() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let mission = seed_mission(&pool).await;
+    let phase = seed_phase(&pool, mission, "security_scan", "completed", 0).await;
+
+    let selected = cm_api::phase_runner::unscanned_security_phases(&pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    assert!(
+        selected.iter().any(|(p, _)| *p == phase),
+        "a finished security_scan phase with no marker must be selected — \
+         otherwise the scan never runs and the phase reports completed having \
+         scanned nothing"
+    );
+
+    // A clean scan writes NO findings, so the marker is the only evidence the
+    // scan happened. This is the case that would otherwise rescan forever.
+    mark_scanned(&pool, mission, phase).await;
+
+    let selected = cm_api::phase_runner::unscanned_security_phases(&pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    assert!(
+        !selected.iter().any(|(p, _)| *p == phase),
+        "a phase carrying the scan marker must not be selected again, even \
+         though it has zero findings"
+    );
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn only_finished_security_phases_are_selected() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let mission = seed_mission(&pool).await;
+
+    let running = seed_phase(&pool, mission, "security_scan", "running", 0).await;
+    let coding = seed_phase(&pool, mission, "coding", "completed", 1).await;
+    let failed = seed_phase(&pool, mission, "security_scan", "failed", 2).await;
+
+    let selected: Vec<Uuid> = cm_api::phase_runner::unscanned_security_phases(&pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap()
+        .into_iter()
+        .map(|(p, _)| p)
+        .collect();
+
+    assert!(
+        !selected.contains(&running),
+        "scanning a phase still running would scan a half-written checkout"
+    );
+    assert!(!selected.contains(&coding), "only security_scan phases scan");
+    assert!(
+        selected.contains(&failed),
+        "a FAILED security phase is exactly the one worth scanning — the \
+         scanners are how we find out what state it left behind"
+    );
+}

crates/cm-api/tests/skill_bindings.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+//! Every skill a team template names must survive the trip through the
+//! database and come back out as a real binding.
+//!
+//! `team_template_loader`'s unit test checks names against the files in
+//! `skills/`. That is not the same question: bindings are resolved by
+//! `skills_catalog::get_by_name` against rows that `skills_loader` wrote, so a
+//! skill file that exists but fails to ingest (bad frontmatter, a name that
+//! does not match its filename) still leaves the role with an empty bundle —
+//! the exact silent-empty failure the loader's own comment describes.
+//!
+//! This runs both loaders in boot order and asserts the bindings landed.
+
+use std::collections::HashSet;
+
+fn repo_root() -> std::path::PathBuf {
+    std::path::Path::new(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR"))
+        .join("../..")
+        .canonicalize()
+        .expect("canonicalize repo root")
+}
+
+/// Every `skills = [...]` name in every team template, deduplicated per role
+/// the same way the loader binds them (slot + name).
+fn referenced_bindings() -> HashSet<(String, String, String)> {
+    let mut out = HashSet::new();
+    let dir = repo_root().join("templates/teams");
+    for entry in std::fs::read_dir(&dir).expect("read templates/teams") {
+        let path = entry.expect("dir entry").path();
+        if path.extension().and_then(|e| e.to_str()) != Some("toml") {
+            continue;
+        }
+        let key = path.file_stem().unwrap().to_string_lossy().to_string();
+        let body = std::fs::read_to_string(&path).expect("read template");
+        let mut slot = String::new();
+        for line in body.lines() {
+            let t = line.trim();
+            if let Some(rest) = t.strip_prefix("slot") {
+                if let Some(v) = rest.split('"').nth(1) {
+                    slot = v.to_string();
+                }
+            }
+            if t.starts_with("skills") {
+                if let Some(inner) = t.split_once('[').and_then(|(_, r)| r.rsplit_once(']')) {
+                    for name in inner.0.split(',') {
+                        let name = name.trim().trim_matches('"');
+                        if !name.is_empty() {
+                            out.insert((key.clone(), slot.clone(), name.to_string()));
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    out
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn every_template_role_skill_binds_through_the_database() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+
+    // Both loaders resolve their directory relative to the process cwd, which
+    // for an integration test is the crate, not the repo.
+    let root = repo_root();
+    std::env::set_var("CLAWMATES_SKILLS_DIR", root.join("skills"));
+    std::env::set_var("CLAWMATES_TEAM_TEMPLATES_DIR", root.join("templates/teams"));
+
+    // Boot order, from clawmates-server/src/main.rs: skills first, then the
+    // templates that reference them.
+    let n_skills = cm_api::skills_loader::load_builtins(&pool).await;
+    assert!(n_skills > 0, "skills_loader ingested nothing");
+    cm_api::team_template_loader::load_builtins(&pool).await;
+
+    let bound: HashSet<(String, String, String)> = sqlx::query_as::<_, (String, String, String)>(
+        "SELECT t.key, trs.slot, s.name \
+         FROM template_role_skills trs \
+         JOIN team_templates t ON t.id = trs.template_id \
+         JOIN skills s ON s.id = trs.skill_id",
+    )
+    .fetch_all(&pool)
+    .await
+    .expect("read template_role_skills")
+    .into_iter()
+    .collect();
+
+    let referenced = referenced_bindings();
+    let mut missing: Vec<String> = referenced
+        .difference(&bound)
+        .map(|(k, slot, name)| format!("{k}.{slot} → {name}"))
+        .collect();
+    missing.sort();
+
+    assert!(
+        missing.is_empty(),
+        "{} template role skill binding(s) named in TOML never reached the \
+         database — those roles run with a smaller context bundle than their \
+         prompt assumes:\n  {}",
+        missing.len(),
+        missing.join("\n  ")
+    );
+}

crates/cm-api/tests/skill_self_authoring.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,255 @@
+//! Agents author their own skills, with no human in the loop.
+//!
+//! The operator's decision. The machinery already existed — `level_up` has
+//! generated full skill drafts from a model since it shipped — and the only
+//! thing between propose and apply was an operator ticking a checkbox.
+//!
+//! What replaces that checkbox is not another gate but three properties, and
+//! these tests are what hold them: the write is workspace-scoped and can never
+//! take a hand-authored skill's name, every change appends a version so it can
+//! be read back and reverted, and a proposal applied with no human carries no
+//! human's name in its approval trail.
+
+use cm_domain::{Agent, AgentId, AgentStatus, Role, User, UserId, Workspace, WorkspaceId};
+use serde_json::json;
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+/// A workspace with one agent. `level_up_target_one` requires a proposal to
+/// name exactly one of agent_id / team_id, so the agent is not optional here.
+async fn seed_workspace(pool: &sqlx::PgPool) -> (WorkspaceId, AgentId) {
+    let ws = Workspace {
+        id: WorkspaceId::new(),
+        name: "Self Authoring".into(),
+        plan: "team".into(),
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::workspaces::insert(pool, &ws).await.unwrap();
+
+    let user = User {
+        id: UserId::new(),
+        workspace_id: ws.id,
+        email: format!("owner-{}@example.com", Uuid::now_v7().simple()),
+        role: Role::Owner,
+        display_name: "Owner".into(),
+        created_at: time::OffsetDateTime::UNIX_EPOCH,
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::users::insert(pool, &user).await.unwrap();
+
+    let agent = Agent {
+        id: AgentId::new(),
+        workspace_id: ws.id,
+        name: "Scribe".into(),
+        job_title: "researcher".into(),
+        system_prompt: String::new(),
+        avatar: String::new(),
+        accent: String::new(),
+        wallpaper: String::new(),
+        managed_by: user.id,
+        status: AgentStatus::Online,
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::agents::insert(pool, &agent, &cm_domain::AccessPolicy::default())
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    (ws.id, agent.id)
+}
+
+/// A pending proposal carrying one `skill_candidate` draft.
+async fn seed_proposal(
+    pool: &sqlx::PgPool,
+    ws: WorkspaceId,
+    agent: AgentId,
+    name: &str,
+    body: &str,
+) -> Uuid {
+    let payload = json!({
+        "suggested_items": [{
+            "id": "item-1",
+            "kind": "skill_candidate",
+            "draft": {
+                "name": name,
+                "description": "a procedure the agent wrote for itself",
+                "when_to_use": "when the situation arises",
+                "body": body,
+                "tags": ["self-authored"],
+            }
+        }]
+    });
+    cm_db::repo::level_up::insert(
+        pool,
+        cm_db::repo::level_up::NewProposal {
+            workspace_id: ws.as_uuid(),
+            agent_id: Some(agent.as_uuid()),
+            team_id: None,
+            payload: &payload,
+            model: Some("glm:glm-4.7"),
+            created_by: None,
+        },
+    )
+    .await
+    .unwrap()
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn an_agent_applies_its_own_skill_with_no_human_and_it_is_versioned() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (ws, agent) = seed_workspace(&pool).await;
+
+    let p1 = seed_proposal(&pool, ws, agent, "vault-note-shape", "First: write the date line.").await;
+    let applied = cm_api::level_up::apply_autonomous(&pool, ws, p1)
+        .await
+        .expect("autonomous apply must succeed");
+    assert_eq!(applied, vec!["item-1".to_string()]);
+
+    let (id, source_kind, workspace, version): (Uuid, String, Option<Uuid>, i32) = sqlx::query_as(
+        "SELECT id, source_kind, workspace_id, current_version FROM skills WHERE name = $1",
+    )
+    .bind("vault-note-shape")
+    .fetch_one(&pool)
+    .await
+    .expect("the skill must exist with no human approval");
+    assert_eq!(source_kind, "promoted_from_brain", "self-authored skills must stay distinguishable from builtins in one query");
+    assert_eq!(workspace, Some(ws.as_uuid()), "must be workspace-scoped, never global");
+    assert_eq!(version, 1);
+
+    // The approval trail must not name a human who did not approve.
+    let approved_by: Option<Uuid> =
+        sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT approved_by FROM level_up_proposals WHERE id = $1")
+            .bind(p1)
+            .fetch_one(&pool)
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
+    assert!(
+        approved_by.is_none(),
+        "an autonomously applied proposal must record NO approver — putting a \
+         user id here would attribute a decision to someone who never made it"
+    );
+
+    // A revision bumps the version and keeps the old body readable.
+    let p2 = seed_proposal(&pool, ws, agent, "vault-note-shape", "First: write the date line. Then the source.").await;
+    cm_api::level_up::apply_autonomous(&pool, ws, p2).await.unwrap();
+
+    let versions: Vec<(i32, String)> =
+        sqlx::query_as("SELECT version, body_md FROM skill_versions WHERE skill_id = $1 ORDER BY version")
+            .bind(id)
+            .fetch_all(&pool)
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(
+        versions.len(),
+        2,
+        "each self-authored revision must append a version — without history \
+         there is no revert, and no way to read back which text a past run was \
+         actually judged under"
+    );
+    assert_eq!(versions[0].1, "First: write the date line.");
+    assert!(versions[1].1.contains("Then the source."));
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn a_draft_cannot_take_a_hand_authored_skills_name() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (ws, agent) = seed_workspace(&pool).await;
+
+    // A builtin, as `skills_loader` writes them: global, workspace_id NULL.
+    let builtin = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO skills
+           (id, name, title, author, description, when_to_use, tags,
+            source_kind, workspace_id, current_version, body)
+         VALUES ($1,'arxiv-daily','arxiv-daily','system','the real one','always',
+                 '{}','builtin',NULL,1,'Do NOT re-search arXiv.')",
+    )
+    .bind(builtin)
+    .execute(&pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+
+    let p = seed_proposal(&pool, ws, agent, "arxiv-daily", "Actually, re-searching arXiv is fine.").await;
+    let applied = cm_api::level_up::apply_autonomous(&pool, ws, p).await.unwrap();
+    assert!(
+        applied.is_empty(),
+        "a draft taking a hand-authored name must be refused: two procedures \
+         under one name means nobody reading a transcript can tell which the \
+         agent followed — and this one inverts the rule it shadows"
+    );
+
+    let body: String = sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT body FROM skills WHERE id = $1")
+        .bind(builtin)
+        .fetch_one(&pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(
+        body, "Do NOT re-search arXiv.",
+        "the hand-authored skill must be untouched"
+    );
+    let n: i64 = sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT count(*) FROM skills WHERE name = 'arxiv-daily'")
+        .fetch_one(&pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(n, 1, "no second row may exist under that name");
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn autonomous_apply_leaves_identity_and_memory_items_for_a_human() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (ws, agent) = seed_workspace(&pool).await;
+
+    let payload = json!({
+        "suggested_items": [
+            { "id": "skill-1", "kind": "skill_candidate",
+              "draft": { "name": "commit-message-shape", "description": "d",
+                         "body": "Say what changed and why.", "tags": [] } },
+            { "id": "identity-1", "kind": "identity_refinement",
+              "new_system_prompt": "You are now a different agent." }
+        ]
+    });
+    let p = cm_db::repo::level_up::insert(
+        &pool,
+        cm_db::repo::level_up::NewProposal {
+            workspace_id: ws.as_uuid(),
+            agent_id: Some(agent.as_uuid()),
+            team_id: None,
+            payload: &payload,
+            model: Some("glm:glm-4.7"),
+            created_by: None,
+        },
+    )
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+
+    let applied = cm_api::level_up::apply_autonomous(&pool, ws, p).await.unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(
+        applied,
+        vec!["skill-1".to_string()],
+        "only skill_candidate items apply autonomously — an identity rewrite \
+         changes what the agent IS rather than adding a procedure it can \
+         consult, and that is a different bet than the one that was taken"
+    );
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn the_sweep_applies_pending_drafts_and_leaves_nothing_pending_twice() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (ws, agent) = seed_workspace(&pool).await;
+    seed_proposal(&pool, ws, agent, "swept-skill", "Say what changed and why.").await;
+
+    let n = cm_api::skill_self_authoring::sweep(&pool).await.unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(n, 1, "the sweep must apply the pending draft with no human");
+
+    let body: String = sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT body FROM skills WHERE name = 'swept-skill'")
+        .fetch_one(&pool)
+        .await
+        .expect("the swept draft must be in the catalogue");
+    assert_eq!(body, "Say what changed and why.");
+
+    // Idempotent: the proposal is no longer pending, so a second pass is a
+    // no-op rather than a duplicate apply or a version bump for no change.
+    let again = cm_api::skill_self_authoring::sweep(&pool).await.unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(again, 0, "a swept proposal must not be applied twice");
+
+    let versions: i64 =
+        sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT count(*) FROM skill_versions sv JOIN skills s ON s.id = sv.skill_id WHERE s.name = 'swept-skill'")
+            .fetch_one(&pool)
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(versions, 1, "an unchanged body must not append a version");
+}

crates/cm-api/tests/slack_inbound.rs

@@ -147,9 +147,19 @@ async fn mention_round_trip_verifies_runs_and_gates_the_reply() {
         "event": {"type": "app_mention", "text": "summarize [[scenario:mention]]"}
     })
     .to_string();
+    // A CURRENT timestamp. It used to be the literal "12345" — a 1970 date —
+    // which passed only because nothing checked freshness. The broker now
+    // enforces Slack's 5-minute replay window, so a fixture that never moves
+    // starts failing the moment the guard is real.
+    let now = std::time::SystemTime::now()
+        .duration_since(std::time::UNIX_EPOCH)
+        .unwrap()
+        .as_secs()
+        .to_string();
+
     let forged = client
         .post(format!("{base}/api/slack/events"))
-        .header("x-slack-request-timestamp", "12345")
+        .header("x-slack-request-timestamp", &now)
         .header("x-slack-signature", "v0=deadbeef")
         .body(body.clone())
         .send()
@@ -161,10 +171,10 @@ async fn mention_round_trip_verifies_runs_and_gates_the_reply() {
     let challenge_body = json!({"type": "url_verification", "challenge": "abc123"}).to_string();
     let challenge = client
         .post(format!("{base}/api/slack/events"))
-        .header("x-slack-request-timestamp", "12345")
+        .header("x-slack-request-timestamp", &now)
         .header(
             "x-slack-signature",
-            sign(signing_secret, "12345", &challenge_body),
+            sign(signing_secret, &now, &challenge_body),
         )
         .body(challenge_body.clone())
         .send()
@@ -176,12 +186,31 @@ async fn mention_round_trip_verifies_runs_and_gates_the_reply() {
         "abc123"
     );
 
+    // A correctly signed request from outside the window is refused. The
+    // signature is genuine — that is the point of a replay: an attacker holding
+    // one captured request must not be able to use it forever.
+    let stale_ts = (now.parse::<u64>().unwrap() - 3600).to_string();
+    let replayed = client
+        .post(format!("{base}/api/slack/events"))
+        .header("x-slack-request-timestamp", &stale_ts)
+        .header("x-slack-signature", sign(signing_secret, &stale_ts, &body))
+        .body(body.clone())
+        .send()
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(
+        replayed.status(),
+        401,
+        "a validly signed but hour-old request must be refused — otherwise one \
+         captured request authenticates forever"
+    );
+
     // A properly signed mention starts a run in the '💬 Slack' session and
     // the agent's reply is intercepted by the approval gate.
     let mention = client
         .post(format!("{base}/api/slack/events"))
-        .header("x-slack-request-timestamp", "12345")
+        .header("x-slack-request-timestamp", &now)
-        .header("x-slack-signature", sign(signing_secret, "12345", &body))
+        .header("x-slack-signature", sign(signing_secret, &now, &body))
         .body(body)
         .send()
         .await

crates/cm-billing/src/lib.rs

@@ -137,3 +137,44 @@ pub async fn usage_last_7_days(
     .await?;
     Ok((row.tokens_in, row.tokens_out, row.credits))
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod pricing_tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// Pricing is the one place a rounding slip bills a real person.
+    ///
+    /// Pure, cheap to test, and previously untested — the crate's four tests
+    /// all exercise the database path, so the arithmetic underneath them was
+    /// never checked directly.
+    #[test]
+    fn credits_round_up_and_never_charge_zero() {
+        // A run that used tokens always costs at least one credit; charging
+        // zero for real work is how usage silently stops being metered.
+        assert_eq!(credits_for_tokens(1), 1);
+        assert_eq!(credits_for_tokens(TOKENS_PER_CREDIT - 1), 1);
+        assert_eq!(credits_for_tokens(TOKENS_PER_CREDIT), 1);
+        // Round UP, not to nearest: one token into the next bracket is a
+        // whole credit, which is the documented contract.
+        assert_eq!(credits_for_tokens(TOKENS_PER_CREDIT + 1), 2);
+        assert_eq!(credits_for_tokens(TOKENS_PER_CREDIT * 3), 3);
+        assert_eq!(credits_for_tokens(TOKENS_PER_CREDIT * 3 + 1), 4);
+    }
+
+    /// Zero tokens is the odd case: the `.max(1)` floor means it still costs a
+    /// credit. That is deliberate, and worth pinning so a future "fix" to it
+    /// is a decision rather than an accident.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_zero_token_run_still_costs_one_credit() {
+        assert_eq!(credits_for_tokens(0), 1);
+    }
+
+    /// The cast to i64 must not wrap into a negative charge — a negative
+    /// credit is a refund, and a refund granted by an overflow is the worst
+    /// shape this bug could take.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_absurd_token_count_does_not_wrap_negative() {
+        assert!(credits_for_tokens(u64::MAX / 2) > 0);
+        assert!(credits_for_tokens(u64::MAX) > 0);
+    }
+}

crates/cm-db/src/repo/level_up.rs

@@ -122,6 +122,35 @@ pub async fn mark_applied(
     Ok(())
 }
 
+/// Mark a proposal applied with NO approving user.
+///
+/// `approved_by` stays NULL, which is the truthful record when a proposal was
+/// applied autonomously. Reusing `mark_applied` with some stand-in user id
+/// would put a human's name on a decision no human made — and the approval
+/// trail is one of the few things in this system that has to be exactly true.
+pub async fn mark_applied_autonomously(
+    pool: &PgPool,
+    id: Uuid,
+    workspace_id: Uuid,
+    applied_items: &[String],
+    partial: bool,
+) -> Result<(), DbError> {
+    let status = if partial { "partial" } else { "applied" };
+    sqlx::query(
+        "UPDATE level_up_proposals
+            SET status = $3, applied_items = $4, approved_by = NULL,
+                applied_at = now()
+          WHERE id = $1 AND workspace_id = $2 AND status = 'pending'",
+    )
+    .bind(id)
+    .bind(workspace_id)
+    .bind(status)
+    .bind(applied_items)
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await?;
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 pub async fn mark_rejected(
     pool: &PgPool,
     id: Uuid,

crates/cm-db/src/repo/missions.rs

@@ -515,7 +515,15 @@ pub async fn upsert_task(pool: &PgPool, t: UpsertTask<'_>) -> Result<Uuid, DbErr
             assigned_agent_id, status, run_id, completed_at)
          VALUES ($1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8,
                  CASE WHEN $9 THEN now() ELSE NULL END)
-         ON CONFLICT (phase_id, external_id)
+         -- The WHERE clause is REQUIRED, not decoration: the index it infers
+         -- (mission_tasks_external_uniq) is PARTIAL, and Postgres will not
+         -- match a partial index to an ON CONFLICT target unless the statement
+         -- repeats its predicate. Without it every call raised 42P10, no
+         -- unique or exclusion constraint matching the ON CONFLICT
+         -- specification, so both callers -- the task-card parser and the
+         -- security scanner -- failed on their first row and surfaced it as a
+         -- log line rather than as a broken feature.
+         ON CONFLICT (phase_id, external_id) WHERE external_id IS NOT NULL
          DO UPDATE SET
              title             = EXCLUDED.title,
              assigned_agent_id = COALESCE(EXCLUDED.assigned_agent_id, mission_tasks.assigned_agent_id),

crates/cm-db/tests/mission_tasks_upsert.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+//! `upsert_task` against the partial unique index it depends on.
+//!
+//! `mission_tasks_external_uniq` is declared `WHERE external_id IS NOT NULL`.
+//! Postgres will not match a partial index to an `ON CONFLICT` target unless
+//! the statement repeats that predicate, so the upsert raised 42P10 on its
+//! first row for every caller — the task-card parser (INT markers) and the
+//! security scanner. Both map the error to a string their caller logs, so the
+//! feature was broken and the platform stayed green.
+//!
+//! The insert half and the update half are tested separately because they fail
+//! differently: a missing conflict target breaks both, but a wrong DO UPDATE
+//! breaks only the second write, which is the one that happens on re-run.
+
+use cm_db::repo::missions::{upsert_task, UpsertTask};
+use cm_domain::{Workspace, WorkspaceId};
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+async fn seed_phase(pool: &sqlx::PgPool) -> (Uuid, Uuid) {
+    let ws = Workspace {
+        id: WorkspaceId::new(),
+        name: "Task Upsert Test".into(),
+        plan: "team".into(),
+    };
+    cm_db::repo::workspaces::insert(pool, &ws).await.unwrap();
+    let mission = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO missions (id, workspace_id, title, template_kind, status)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, 'upsert test', 'security_hardening', 'running')",
+    )
+    .bind(mission)
+    .bind(ws.id.as_uuid())
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+    let phase = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO mission_phases (id, mission_id, kind, order_idx, status)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, 'security_scan', 0, 'completed')",
+    )
+    .bind(phase)
+    .bind(mission)
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await
+    .unwrap();
+    (mission, phase)
+}
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn the_same_external_id_updates_in_place_instead_of_erroring() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (mission_id, phase_id) = seed_phase(&pool).await;
+
+    let first = upsert_task(
+        &pool,
+        UpsertTask {
+            mission_id,
+            phase_id,
+            external_id: "RUSTSEC-2026-0001",
+            title: "advisory: something",
+            assigned_agent_id: None,
+            status: "created",
+            run_id: None,
+        },
+    )
+    .await
+    .expect("first upsert must succeed — 42P10 here means the ON CONFLICT \
+             target no longer matches the partial unique index");
+
+    // The re-run. A scanner that finds the same advisory twice must not
+    // duplicate the row, and must not fail.
+    let second = upsert_task(
+        &pool,
+        UpsertTask {
+            mission_id,
+            phase_id,
+            external_id: "RUSTSEC-2026-0001",
+            title: "advisory: something (rescanned)",
+            assigned_agent_id: None,
+            status: "complete",
+            run_id: None,
+        },
+    )
+    .await
+    .expect("second upsert must succeed");
+
+    assert_eq!(first, second, "the same (phase_id, external_id) must be one row");
+
+    let (title, status, completed): (String, String, Option<time::OffsetDateTime>) =
+        sqlx::query_as("SELECT title, status, completed_at FROM mission_tasks WHERE id = $1")
+            .bind(first)
+            .fetch_one(&pool)
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(title, "advisory: something (rescanned)");
+    assert_eq!(status, "complete");
+    assert!(
+        completed.is_some(),
+        "a task upserted as `complete` must get its completed_at stamped"
+    );
+
+    let n: i64 = sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT count(*) FROM mission_tasks WHERE phase_id = $1")
+        .bind(phase_id)
+        .fetch_one(&pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(n, 1, "two upserts of one external_id left {n} rows");
+}

crates/cm-runtime/src/runtime.rs

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ const APPROVAL_TTL: time::Duration = time::Duration::hours(24);
 
 /// Model used for LLM-as-judge roles (the door governor and the topology
 /// comparison scorer). Judges use the strongest model — default
-/// `claude-opus-4-8` — while everything else runs on the configured default
+/// `claude-opus-5` — while everything else runs on the configured default
 /// model (`claude-sonnet-4-6`). Override with `CLAWMATES_JUDGE_MODEL`.
 pub fn judge_model() -> String {
     std::env::var("CLAWMATES_JUDGE_MODEL").unwrap_or_else(|_| "claude-opus-5".to_string())

crates/cm-secrets/src/server.rs

@@ -20,12 +20,58 @@ fn credential_field(secret: &str, field: &str) -> String {
 }
 
 /// Slack request signing: v0=hex(HMAC-SHA256(secret, "v0:{ts}:{body}")).
+/// How stale a Slack request may be before the broker refuses it.
+///
+/// Slack's documented replay window. Without it a signature stays valid
+/// forever: the timestamp is an input to the HMAC, so an old request's
+/// signature verifies exactly as well as a fresh one. Anyone who captured a
+/// single signed request — a proxy log, a mirrored packet, a leaked webhook
+/// body — could replay it indefinitely and every replay would authenticate.
+const SLACK_MAX_AGE_SECS: i64 = 5 * 60;
+
 pub(crate) fn slack_signature_valid(
     signing_secret: &str,
     timestamp: &str,
     body: &str,
     signature: &str,
 ) -> bool {
+    slack_signature_valid_at(
+        signing_secret,
+        timestamp,
+        body,
+        signature,
+        // std, not the `time` crate: `time` is a DEV-dependency here, so a
+        // reference to it compiles under `cargo test` and breaks the library
+        // build — which is exactly how this line shipped broken for one run.
+        std::time::SystemTime::now()
+            .duration_since(std::time::UNIX_EPOCH)
+            .map(|d| d.as_secs() as i64)
+            .unwrap_or(0),
+    )
+}
+
+/// [`slack_signature_valid`] with the clock injected, so freshness is testable
+/// without sleeping or mocking the process clock.
+pub(crate) fn slack_signature_valid_at(
+    signing_secret: &str,
+    timestamp: &str,
+    body: &str,
+    signature: &str,
+    now_unix: i64,
+) -> bool {
+    // Freshness FIRST, and in the broker rather than the caller: the broker
+    // does not trust its caller (§15), and a check the caller can forget to
+    // make is one that will eventually be forgotten.
+    let Ok(ts) = timestamp.trim().parse::<i64>() else {
+        return false;
+    };
+    // Symmetric window — a timestamp far in the FUTURE is equally suspect, and
+    // allowing it would let an attacker mint a request valid for as long as
+    // they chose.
+    if (now_unix - ts).abs() > SLACK_MAX_AGE_SECS {
+        return false;
+    }
+
     use hmac::{Hmac, Mac};
     let Ok(mut mac) = Hmac::<sha2::Sha256>::new_from_slice(signing_secret.as_bytes()) else {
         return false;
@@ -41,6 +87,110 @@ pub(crate) fn slack_signature_valid(
             == 0
 }
 
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod slack_signature_tests {
+    use super::*;
+    use hmac::{Hmac, Mac};
+
+    const SECRET: &str = "8f742231b10e8888abcd99yyyzzz85a5";
+    const BODY: &str = "token=xyz&team_id=T1&text=hello";
+    const NOW: i64 = 1_700_000_000;
+
+    fn sign(ts: i64, body: &str) -> String {
+        let mut mac = Hmac::<sha2::Sha256>::new_from_slice(SECRET.as_bytes()).unwrap();
+        mac.update(format!("v0:{ts}:{body}").as_bytes());
+        format!("v0={}", hex::encode(mac.finalize().into_bytes()))
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_correctly_signed_fresh_request_is_accepted() {
+        let sig = sign(NOW, BODY);
+        assert!(slack_signature_valid_at(
+            SECRET,
+            &NOW.to_string(),
+            BODY,
+            &sig,
+            NOW
+        ));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_tampered_body_is_rejected() {
+        let sig = sign(NOW, BODY);
+        assert!(!slack_signature_valid_at(
+            SECRET,
+            &NOW.to_string(),
+            "token=xyz&team_id=T1&text=goodbye",
+            &sig,
+            NOW
+        ));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_wrong_secret_is_rejected() {
+        let sig = sign(NOW, BODY);
+        assert!(!slack_signature_valid_at(
+            "not-the-signing-secret",
+            &NOW.to_string(),
+            BODY,
+            &sig,
+            NOW
+        ));
+    }
+
+    /// The replay this window exists to stop.
+    ///
+    /// The signature is still perfectly valid — that is the point. Anyone who
+    /// captured one signed request could otherwise replay it forever.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_correctly_signed_but_stale_request_is_rejected() {
+        let old = NOW - SLACK_MAX_AGE_SECS - 1;
+        let sig = sign(old, BODY);
+        assert!(
+            slack_signature_valid_at(SECRET, &old.to_string(), BODY, &sig, old),
+            "the signature itself is valid at its own time"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            !slack_signature_valid_at(SECRET, &old.to_string(), BODY, &sig, NOW),
+            "a validly signed request older than the window must still be refused"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A timestamp far in the future would otherwise mint a long-lived request.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_far_future_timestamp_is_rejected() {
+        let future = NOW + SLACK_MAX_AGE_SECS + 1;
+        let sig = sign(future, BODY);
+        assert!(!slack_signature_valid_at(
+            SECRET,
+            &future.to_string(),
+            BODY,
+            &sig,
+            NOW
+        ));
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn small_clock_skew_in_either_direction_is_tolerated() {
+        for delta in [-SLACK_MAX_AGE_SECS + 1, -30, 0, 30, SLACK_MAX_AGE_SECS - 1] {
+            let ts = NOW + delta;
+            let sig = sign(ts, BODY);
+            assert!(
+                slack_signature_valid_at(SECRET, &ts.to_string(), BODY, &sig, NOW),
+                "delta {delta}s must be inside the window — a strict clock would \
+                 reject legitimate traffic"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_non_numeric_timestamp_is_rejected_rather_than_defaulting() {
+        let sig = sign(NOW, BODY);
+        assert!(!slack_signature_valid_at(SECRET, "not-a-time", BODY, &sig, NOW));
+        assert!(!slack_signature_valid_at(SECRET, "", BODY, &sig, NOW));
+    }
+}
+
 /// The broker daemon: listens on a unix socket reachable only by the
 /// server process (never mounted into agent sandboxes).
 pub struct BrokerServer {

deploy/clawmates-runtime/agent.config.example.toml

@@ -204,6 +204,35 @@ headers = { Authorization = "Bearer REPLACE_WITH_DOOR_TOKEN" }
 [mcp_bundles.clawmates_door]
 servers = ["clawmates"]
 
+# The skills catalogue (cm-api::mcp_skills). Templates name this bundle and
+# `provision_claw` now honours what they name — but a bundle an agent is
+# assigned and this file does not define resolves to nothing, so the entry
+# below is what makes the assignment mean something.
+#
+# NOTE, and it is the important one: this channel only works for a provider
+# that can surface tool calls. Mission claws run on `claude_cli`, which is
+# TEXT-ONLY (see the note further down this file), so they cannot call an MCP
+# server at all. Their skills arrive as text in the turn prompt instead
+# (`topology_exec::pinned_skills_text`). This entry is for tool-capable agents
+# — and so that an agent assigned the bundle is not assigned a name that
+# resolves to nothing.
+[[mcp.servers]]
+name = "clawmates_skills"
+transport = "http"
+url = "http://clawmates_server_1:8080/mcp/skills"
+tool_timeout_secs = 60
+headers = { Authorization = "Bearer REPLACE_WITH_DOOR_TOKEN" }
+
+[mcp_bundles.clawmates_skills]
+servers = ["clawmates_skills"]
+
+# NOT DEFINED: `gitea_forge`. Six team templates name it and it resolves to
+# nothing here. Left undefined rather than invented — a plausible-looking
+# definition pointing at the wrong URL would turn a name that resolves to
+# nothing into a server that fails at call time, which is harder to notice, not
+# easier. Agents reach the forge through `git` over HTTPS with the ambient
+# GITEA_TOKEN (see cm-api::mission_workspace), which is why nothing broke.
+
 # ── A2A ingress (Phase 2) ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
 # ZeroClaw's Agent2Agent server. These props are set at RUNTIME by cm-api
 # (runtime_provision::enable_a2a_server / publish_claw) when a workspace opts in
@@ -228,9 +257,13 @@ servers = ["clawmates"]
 # public_base_url. Ingress throttle: CLAWMATES_A2A_POLICY=deny (kill switch),
 # CLAWMATES_A2A_RATE_LIMIT=<n>/hour.
 
-# NOTE: `claude_cli` is a TEXT-ONLY provider — `claude -p` doesn't surface
+# NOTE: `claude_cli` agents DO call tools — Claude Code's own — and they can
-# tool-calls back to ZeroClaw, so claude_cli agents reason but can't invoke the
+# invoke the door too, via `mcp_config` (see [providers.models.claude_cli.door]
-# door. An agent that ACTS through the door needs a tool-capable provider
+# above). What `--output-format json` does not do is surface those calls BACK to
+# ZeroClaw: it returns one final result object, so the provider reports no tool
+# calls even when the agent made several. `--output-format stream-json` emits
+# `tool_use`/`tool_result` blocks (verified on Claude Code 2.1.228).
+# See docs/TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md. An agent that ACTS through the door needs a tool-capable provider
 # (groq/anthropic/openai). Example actor agent (uncomment + provide groq creds
 # via env ZEROCLAW_providers__models__groq__default__{model,api_key}):
 # [providers.models.groq.default]

docs/CAPABILITY-REVIEW.md

@@ -0,0 +1,260 @@
+# ClawMates capability review
+
+*2026-08-19. What exists, what is wired, what was repaired in this pass, and
+what is deferred with reasons.*
+
+## Inventory
+
+| | |
+|---|---|
+| Crates | 19 libraries + 4 binaries (`clawmates-server`, `-broker`, `-node`, `fcagent`) |
+| HTTP | 181 routes / 207 method+handler pairs across 39 route modules |
+| Workers | 21 background loops, 2s (approval resume) to 24h (tool versions) |
+| Database | 79 migrations, ~90 tables |
+| Templates | 6 workflow recipes, 11 team templates, **53 authored skills** (was 30) |
+| Frontend | 6 tiers (VIZ · MISSIONS · AGENT · PODCAST · REPOS · INFRA), ~57 dashboard components |
+| Execution | 5 paths: container/ZeroClaw, microVM solo, composed microVM graph, local herdr, direct headless session |
+
+Dead-code hygiene is genuinely excellent: no `todo!`, no `unimplemented!`, no
+stray `TODO` in production paths. **Every defect found in this review was a
+wiring defect** — code that was correct, reachable by nothing, and reported as
+working.
+
+## Where skills come from
+
+Asked directly, and worth recording because it was not answerable from any
+document before now.
+
+- **All 53 catalogue skills are hand-authored markdown** committed to
+  `skills/**/*.md`, ingested at boot by `skills_loader` with
+  `source_kind='builtin'`, `workspace_id = NULL`. None are generated at runtime
+  and none are pulled from anywhere.
+- **An LLM-authoring path exists and is fully wired**: `level_up.rs:435` calls a
+  model (default `glm:glm-4.7`) whose prompt asks for `skill_candidate` items
+  carrying a complete `draft.body`. Nothing is written to `skills` at propose
+  time — the payload sits in `level_up_proposals` as `pending`.
+- **Application WAS gated on a human click**, and as of 2026-08-19 is not.
+  `apply()` still honours `approved_item_ids` for the manual path, but
+  `skill_self_authoring` now sweeps pending proposals every two minutes and
+  applies their `skill_candidate` items autonomously, by operator decision.
+  What replaces the gate is not another gate but four properties, each held by
+  a test in `tests/skill_self_authoring.rs`:
+  - the write is **workspace-scoped** (`workspace_id` set, never NULL), so it
+    can never modify a hand-authored skill;
+  - a draft **cannot take a hand-authored skill's name** — ids are scoped and
+    bindings resolve by `skill_id`, so it could not overwrite or shadow one
+    anyway, but two procedures under one name means nobody reading a transcript
+    can tell which the agent followed;
+  - every revision **appends a `skill_versions` row**, so a self-authored skill
+    can be reverted and a past run can be read back against the text it was
+    actually judged under;
+  - the proposal lands with **`approved_by = NULL`** — an agent's decision is
+    never attributed to a person who did not make it.
+
+  `identity_refinement` and `brain_consolidation` still wait for a human: they
+  change what an agent *is* rather than adding a procedure it can consult.
+  Disable with `CLAWMATES_SKILL_SELF_AUTHORING=0`; the state is announced at
+  boot either way.
+- **No external registry feeds the catalogue.** ClawBrainHub trades `.brain`
+  files and never touches the `skills` table. `cm_db::repo::skills::create` —
+  the only path that would produce `source_kind='hand_authored'` — has no
+  production caller.
+
+So the only way a skill enters the catalogue today is a committed markdown file
+or an operator approving an agent's draft.
+
+## The theme
+
+Everything below is one shape, the project's own "silent-success" class: a
+capability is built, a second layer does not connect to it, and every layer
+reports success. It is not carelessness. In four of the six cases the *belief*
+that the wire existed was written down in a doc comment, and no test asked.
+
+That is the actionable lesson: **a comment asserting a connection is not
+evidence of one.** Two of the audit's own findings that fed this plan were
+themselves wrong in the same way, and the registry whose job is to record which
+config keys are read was inaccurate in both directions.
+
+## What was repaired
+
+### 1. Skill bindings — 55 of 85 resolved to nothing
+
+Only 30 skills were authored; 10 of 11 templates referenced names that did not
+exist. Three roles bound **zero** skills while their prompts described
+procedures to follow.
+
+Invisible because both existing tests assert `authored ⊆ referenced` (30/30,
+green) and one explicitly declines to check the other direction.
+
+Fixed: 23 skills authored, renames onto real skills, 22 aspirational references
+deleted. Two tests now hold it — one against the files, one against the database
+(different questions: resolution goes through catalogue rows, so a file that
+exists but fails to ingest still leaves the role empty).
+
+### 2. Skills could not reach a mission agent at all
+
+The larger finding, and the reason #1 was never noticed. The catalogue's only
+delivery channel was the `clawmates_skills` MCP server, and a mission claw could
+not reach it for **three independent reasons**:
+
+- `provision_claw` wrote the constant `["clawmates_door"]`, ignoring the
+  template's `mcp_bundles` — which `mission_orchestrator` had already stored.
+- The runtime config defines no `clawmates_skills` bundle. (The live local
+  config defines **no bundles at all**, not even the door.)
+- Mission claws run on `claude_cli`, which the runtime's own config comments
+  document as text-only: it cannot surface a tool call, so no MCP server is
+  reachable from a mission turn regardless.
+
+And a mission turn's entire system context is two sentences synthesised from the
+role slot (`topology_exec::build_prompt`) — the template's role prose is not
+used either, which `mission_orchestrator` documents.
+
+So every skill authored for a mission role was unreachable prose, and the
+Skill-Use measurement this review planned could only ever have returned zero.
+
+Fixed **on the container/ZeroClaw tier only**: `provision_claw` now provisions
+the template's bundles (door always added), and the pinned skills are injected
+as **bodies** into the turn prompt — not an index, because there is no
+`skills.read` tool on this path and an index would advertise a capability that
+does not exist.
+
+The correction matters, because the first version of this document said
+"mission agents" without qualifying the tier. `compose_turn_prompt` /
+`pinned_skills_text` have exactly one production caller
+(`topology_exec.rs:745`), which `topology_worker` drives. `phase_runner`'s three
+other paths do not call it:
+
+| Path | Entry point | Skills reach the agent? |
+|---|---|---|
+| Container / ZeroClaw (the default) | `topology_worker` → `ZeroClawDriveExecutor` | **yes** |
+| Composed microVM | `phase_runner::launch_composed_microvm_phase` | not yet |
+| Solo microVM | `microvm_executor::run_phase_in_vm` | not yet |
+| Direct session | `phase_runner::launch_direct_session` | not yet |
+
+### 3. `upsert_task` raised 42P10 on every call
+
+`mission_tasks_external_uniq` is a **partial** unique index. Postgres will not
+match a partial index to an `ON CONFLICT` target unless the statement repeats
+the predicate. Both callers — the task-card parser that turns INT markers into
+tasks, and the security scanner — map the error to a string their caller logs.
+
+Two features were broken for as long as they have existed, and nothing was red.
+
+### 4. The security scan phase never scanned
+
+`security_scan::run` was reachable only from an operator button. So
+`security_hardening.toml` — a workflow whose entire first phase is a scan — ran
+an agent that was never told to scan, and never fired the scanner either. Now
+swept by `phase_runner`, mirroring the benchmark baseline sweep added earlier
+for the identical defect, guarded on a completion marker (a clean scan writes no
+findings, so a findings-guard would rescan forever).
+
+### 5. Two recipes could not fail
+
+`security_hardening.toml` and `benchmark.toml` carried no `task` and no
+`done_when` on any phase. Without `done_when` a phase never enters `evaluating`,
+is never judged, and reports `completed` whatever it did. Both now state the
+work and the condition.
+
+### 6. Smaller wiring
+
+- `CLAWMATES_JUDGE_MODEL` had two different defaults and a doc comment naming a
+  third; one source now.
+- `GITEA_TOKEN` absence is stated rather than degrading into the same message a
+  private repo produces.
+- `phase_config`'s registry corrected: `harness` and `tools` were listed NOT
+  IMPLEMENTED while fully read; `bench_name`/`cmd` added; `test_command`
+  deleted (no reader **and** no writer).
+
+## Verification
+
+- Full workspace suite green.
+- Every fix has a test, and **every test was negative-controlled**: the skills
+  test failed naming all 55; reverting the `ON CONFLICT` predicate reproduces
+  42P10 exactly; reverting one skill name fails naming that exact role.
+- Local stack boots; test-server path (`scripts/test-server.sh up`) is required
+  for the integration suite, otherwise `cm-testkit` falls back to a
+  testcontainer that times out.
+
+## Deferred, with reasons
+
+- ~~**`mission_plan` / `mission_roster` have no frontend.**~~ **Shipped
+  2026-08-19.** `MissionProposalDrawer` reaches both flows from a mission's
+  SETUP tab. Verified end to end against the live backend: a model proposed a
+  roster, approval flipped the mission to the `composed` engine, and approval on
+  a non-draft mission is refused.
+
+  Building it surfaced a defect in the backend it consumes: every refusal path
+  computed a precise reason, logged it to stderr, and returned a bare
+  `{"error":"bad request"}`. The person who needed the sentence was the one
+  clicking Approve. `ApiError::Refused(String)` now carries it — the same
+  argument `ApiError::Unavailable` was added for, one status code down.
+- **Skill-Use measurement (Trigger / Compliance / Boundary).** Deferred not for
+  cost but because it was **unmeasurable until this pass**: with no delivery
+  channel, trigger rate was structurally zero. It is now worth running, and it
+  is the natural next step.
+- **Provenance layer.** Assessed only, by decision — see
+  [PROVENANCE-ASSESSMENT.md](PROVENANCE-ASSESSMENT.md).
+- **Graph memory / `clawhdf5-agent`.** Declared in the workspace manifest, used
+  by no crate. The matched study (`MemoryLake on MemoryArena`) shows structured
+  memory winning modestly on low absolute numbers, and `Harness the Memory`
+  finds excessive retrieval actively harms agent decisions. Measure against a
+  baseline before migrating.
+- **Test coverage, re-examined.** The original entry ranked crates by raw test
+  count. That was a shallow metric and it was misleading: `cm-safety`'s seven
+  tests already cover the CAS on decide, grant double-consume, expiry, and the
+  approved/rejected split, and the `audit_log` immutability trigger is tested in
+  `cm-db`. Counting tests found the wrong crates.
+
+  Reading the API surface against the tests found the right ones:
+  - **`verify_slack_signature` had no replay protection** — fixed, see below.
+  - **`credits_for_tokens` was untested** — pure pricing arithmetic, now pinned
+    including the round-up contract and an overflow case.
+
+  Genuinely still thin: `cm-brain`, where 6 of 9 tests need live
+  `clawbrainhub.com` so the whole hub client is unexercised offline. Stubbing it
+  means reproducing an external registry protocol we have no spec for, which is
+  its own piece of work rather than a coverage chore.
+
+- **A Slack request could be replayed forever.** `slack_signature_valid`
+  verified the HMAC correctly and nothing anywhere checked the timestamp's age —
+  it was only an input to the basestring, so an old request's signature verified
+  exactly as well as a fresh one. Anyone holding one captured signed request
+  could replay it indefinitely. Slack's documented 5-minute window is now
+  enforced **in the broker**, not the caller, because the broker does not trust
+  its caller and a check the caller can forget will eventually be forgotten.
+  Symmetric, so a far-future timestamp cannot mint a long-lived request.
+
+- ~~**`ZEROCLAW_GATEWAY_URL` / `_TOKEN` fail at *first use*, not boot.**~~
+  **Fixed 2026-08-19.** `gateway_preflight` reports at startup, the third
+  sibling of `runtime_preflight` and `validator_preflight`. A report, not a
+  gate — every read path works without a gateway, and refusing to boot would
+  turn a degraded deployment into a dead one. The message names the
+  consequence ("container-tier missions cannot run") rather than just the
+  missing variable.
+- ~~**`gitea_forge` resolves to nothing.**~~ **Resolved 2026-08-19 by removing
+  the name.** It was harmless while `provision_claw` ignored the bundle list;
+  once the list was honoured, an undefined name became a capability an agent is
+  told it has and does not. Removed from seven team templates, one workflow
+  recipe, the auto-provision path and a user-selectable dropdown. `web_fetch`
+  went the same way — and a new test
+  (`team_template_loader::bundle_tests`) now asserts every bundle a template
+  names is defined in the runtime config, which is what found `web_fetch` in
+  two templates I had missed by hand. Agents reach the forge through `git` over
+  HTTPS with the ambient `GITEA_TOKEN`, which is why nothing ever broke.
+- **The deployed runtime config is not the example.** `[mcp_bundles.clawmates_skills]`
+  is now in `agent.config.example.toml`, but the live local config carries no
+  bundle definitions at all — a fresh deploy needs the example's blocks. The
+  prompt-injection path does not depend on this, which is why it was the fix
+  chosen for the mission tier.
+
+## The one process change worth making
+
+Every defect above was found by **checking a claim instead of reading it**. The
+existing `runtime_preflight` module is the pattern that works: it asks the
+running container what it actually has and says so at boot, because "the code is
+right and the machine is not" produced no error anywhere.
+
+The equivalent check for this pass — does a provisioned agent actually receive
+the bundles and skills its template names — does not exist yet, and is the
+cheapest guard against all of this recurring.

docs/NEXT-SESSION.md

@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+# Where this left off — 2026-08-20
+
+Read `CAPABILITY-REVIEW.md` for the system picture,
+`TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md` for the current investigation, and
+`SKILL-USE-BASELINE.md` for the measurement.
+
+## State of the tree
+
+**11 unpushed commits on `main`** (`origin/main` is 11 behind). Nothing has been
+pushed and nothing is deployed to gw-04. Full suite green: 106 test binaries,
+zero build errors, frontend builds.
+
+**1 unpushed commit in the fork** at `/Users/quantum/projects/zeroclaw`, branch
+`merge/upstream-v0.8.4`: `db1c50966 feat(claude_cli): stream-json …`.
+
+## The thing to do first
+
+**A runtime image with the `stream-json` fix is built and NOT deployed.**
+
+```
+clawmates-runtime:streamjson     # built 2026-08-19, never run
+```
+
+Nothing has yet confirmed end to end that real `tool.call` rows land in
+`mission_events` from a live mission. That confirmation is the whole point of
+the change and it is the one step not taken. Until it runs, treat the fix as
+plausible rather than proven — the parser is unit-tested against a captured
+real stream, but no mission has driven it.
+
+To do it: deploy the image as the mission runtime, launch a mission, then
+
+```sql
+SELECT kind, target, count(*) FROM mission_events
+ WHERE mission_id = '<id>' GROUP BY 1,2;
+```
+
+Expect `tool.call` rows on the container tier for the first time. If they do not
+appear, the next suspects are `topology_exec`'s frame parser and whether the
+gateway forwards the provider's `tool_calls` at all — neither has been exercised
+with a non-empty list.
+
+## Then, in order
+
+1. **Prove the PreToolUse gate in a real VM.** `vm_tool_gate` is unit-tested and
+   shell-tested on the host; it has never run in a guest. Four of its bugs were
+   found only by executing the generated script, and two of them (syntax error,
+   `IFS`) produce a gate that looks installed while being fully closed or fully
+   open. Check `/root/toolgate/denied.jsonl` after a mission that tries
+   something denied.
+
+2. **Give the direct-session tier a tap.** It is the one tier with no
+   observability at all — `session_executor::run_session` is a single
+   `container_exec::exec` returning a string. Same settings document, written
+   into a container instead of a VM.
+
+3. **Deploy the door we already built** (`docs/TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md` §3).
+   Create `/zeroclaw-data/clawmates-mcp.json`, add a door-shaped provider alias,
+   bind mission claws to it. This is config, not code — the provider feature is
+   ours and shipped. It would also make `clawmates_skills` genuinely reachable,
+   which is the precondition for moving skills from inlined bodies to
+   progressive disclosure and making Skill-Use **Trigger** measurable the way
+   the paper defines it.
+
+4. **Pull upstream's egress policy** — `0db7d999a feat(plugins): add shared
+   egress policy foundation (#9137)`. We are 218 commits behind; this is the one
+   item identified as worth taking, and it is defence for a problem we have not
+   solved.
+
+## Open decisions that are yours
+
+- **Self-authoring scope.** Agents now apply their own `skill_candidate` items
+  with no human click (`CLAWMATES_SKILL_SELF_AUTHORING=0` restores the gate).
+  `identity_refinement` and `brain_consolidation` still wait for a human,
+  because they change what an agent IS rather than adding a procedure it can
+  consult. Say if you want those autonomous too.
+- **Skill-Use Compliance coverage.** Most skills still score `not_applicable` —
+  we cannot tell whether they changed anything. `small-focused-commits` and
+  `tdd-red-green-refactor` are the next candidates and both need the repository
+  diff rather than the turn text.
+
+## Deliberately not done
+
+- **The mission executor swap** (running turns through `ProviderExecutor` or the
+  chat `Runtime`). The blockers are structural, not wiring: `cm-runtime`'s
+  `files` tool rejects absolute paths *by construction*, `shell` runs in a
+  per-agent sandbox with no mission mount, `ToolContext` carries no path or VM
+  handle, and approvals key on `(session_id, message_id)`. The cheap fixes
+  deliver what it was wanted for.
+- **`cm-brain` offline tests** — 6 of 9 need live `clawbrainhub.com`. Stubbing
+  means reproducing an external registry protocol we have no spec for.
+- **Graph memory / `clawhdf5-agent`** — in the workspace manifest, used by no
+  crate. Measure against a baseline before migrating.
+
+## Two corrections made this session, worth remembering
+
+- **"Missions can't call tools at all" was wrong.** They call `Bash` and `Write`
+  with permissions pre-accepted. The gap was observing and gating, not having.
+- **Raw test counts are a bad coverage metric.** They pointed at `cm-safety`,
+  whose seven tests already covered its critical paths, and missed a Slack
+  replay hole that let one captured request authenticate forever.
+
+The recurring shape, now seven times over: **a claim in a comment or a doc,
+believed and never checked.** Every significant finding this session came from
+running the thing rather than reading about it.

docs/PROVENANCE-ASSESSMENT.md

@@ -0,0 +1,166 @@
+# Provenance: what we can answer today, and what we cannot
+
+*Assessment only. No schema, no migration, nothing built. Written 2026-08-19.*
+
+The question this exists to answer is narrow and practical:
+
+> An agent said something. Where did it come from?
+
+That is the question a provenance layer has to make answerable. Everything
+below is measured against it.
+
+## The short answer
+
+We can reconstruct **what an agent did**, on both execution paths, for seven
+days. We cannot reconstruct **why it said what it said** on any path, at any
+retention, because no store links a statement to the evidence that produced it.
+There is no claim as a first-class object anywhere in the system.
+
+That is a design gap, not a bug. Nothing is broken; the edge was never built.
+
+## What each store actually holds
+
+### `mission_events` — the action record
+
+The main one. Structured rows for the mission path: tool calls, phase
+transitions, agent lifecycle.
+
+- **Retention: 7 days** (`EVENT_RETENTION_DAYS`, `mission_gc.rs`). This is the
+  single most consequential fact in this document. The richest signal we have
+  expires before most retrospectives happen, and a level-up proposal citing an
+  event id older than a week points at nothing.
+- `reasoning` rows **are written** (`topology_worker.rs`) and **are read by
+  nothing**. `routes/world.rs` explicitly excludes them, with a comment saying
+  so. The model's stated rationale is recorded and then discarded unread.
+- No foreign key to `run_id` — `0075` dropped it deliberately. Events reference
+  runs by convention, so nothing enforces that the reference resolves.
+
+### `steps` — the rich record, on the wrong path
+
+Structurally the best provenance we have: `kind`, `tool_name`, `input`,
+`output`, **and `taint[]`** — per tool call, with the taint sources carried
+through.
+
+It is **chat-path only**, and not by omission. `steps.message_id` references a
+chat message, and `runtime::record_step` is the sole writer. A mission phase
+has no message, so it cannot write a step even in principle.
+
+The consequence is worth stating plainly: the execution path that does the
+substantial work — missions — produces the *poorer* provenance record, and the
+path that produces the good one is the conversational one. Any real provenance
+work starts by resolving that asymmetry, and it is a schema change, not a call
+site.
+
+### `audit_log` — genuinely immutable, narrowly used
+
+A `BEFORE UPDATE OR DELETE` trigger (`0001_init.sql`) makes rows append-only for
+real, not by convention. It is the only tamper-evident store in the system.
+
+It is used mostly as a rate-limit counter. The mechanism we would want for
+provenance already exists here and holds almost none of the content we would
+want in it.
+
+### Approvals — the best-shaped record we have
+
+Approval rows carry `taint_sources[]` and the exact preview a human was shown.
+For the narrow slice of actions that pass a gate, we can answer "what was the
+human told, what did they decide, and what data influenced it" — completely.
+
+This is the shape to copy. It is also, currently, an island.
+
+### The `.brain` — memory, versioned, chat-only
+
+Full `.onion` revision history with `commit`/`revisions`/`rollback`, so a
+definition's evolution is fully recoverable. Memory is BM25 keyword recall and
+is written on the **chat** path; mission work writes none, so an agent that ran
+missions for a week has an empty memory section.
+
+`cm-brain/src/lib.rs:234-239` exposes `set_provenance` / `provenance` — a wired
+slot with **zero callers** in the entire workspace. It is a place to put this,
+already plumbed, already versioned, already per-agent.
+
+### `mission_phase_summaries` — prose, and overwritten
+
+A model's post-hoc narrative of a phase, **overwritten on retry**. A summary is
+a model's later account of its own behaviour, and the retry that changed the
+outcome erases the account of the attempt that failed — which is precisely the
+one worth reading.
+
+## The questions we cannot answer
+
+Concretely, with what breaks each:
+
+| Question | Why not |
+|---|---|
+| "Why did the agent claim X?" | No claim object; no edge from a statement to a tool result |
+| "Which tool output led to this file change?" | Mission path writes no `steps`, so no input/output pair exists |
+| "What did the agent believe when it decided?" | `reasoning` rows are written and read by nothing |
+| "Was this conclusion derived from tainted input?" | `taint[]` exists only on the chat path |
+| "What happened on the attempt that failed?" | Phase summaries are overwritten on retry |
+| "Why did this mission go wrong last month?" | 7-day retention |
+
+The recurring shape: **the pieces exist, individually, on the wrong path or
+unread.** This is not a system that lacks provenance primitives. It is one where
+they were never connected into something that answers a question.
+
+## Two candidate paths
+
+### A. Postgres claim/edge tables
+
+Add a claim as a first-class row, and edges from claim → evidence (tool call,
+file, event). Extend `steps` off the mission path so mission tool calls record
+input/output/taint the way chat ones do.
+
+- **For:** stays in the store we already query, back up and migrate; the
+  approvals record already proves the shape works here; no new dependency.
+- **Against:** a real schema addition on a 79-migration database; retention
+  policy must be decided deliberately (7 days makes the whole thing pointless);
+  graph queries in SQL get awkward exactly when they get interesting.
+
+### B. Adopt `clawhdf5-agent::knowledge` + `::provenance`
+
+Already in the dependency graph via the clawsync patch — declared in the
+workspace `Cargo.toml`, and **no crate depends on it**. Roughly 21k lines:
+typed entities, relations including `RelationType::Causal`, BFS and spreading
+activation; `provenance.rs` with `MemorySource` / `content_hash` /
+`session_id`.
+
+- **For:** the causal structure is the thing we lack, and it is written; it is
+  per-agent and per-file, matching the `.brain` model; `set_provenance` is
+  already the slot it would fill.
+- **Against:** 21k lines of unexercised code entering a critical path; it is
+  file-local, so cross-agent queries need a second mechanism; the `.brain` is
+  reaped with the agent, which is the wrong lifetime for an audit record.
+
+### What the research says about choosing
+
+`MemoryLake on MemoryArena` (2026-08-14) compared memory backends with the
+backend as the only changed component. Structured beat vector RAG and
+long-context — on success rates of 9/40, 12/20 and 4/20, with every system
+scoring zero somewhere. `Harness the Memory` (08-15) found no substrate
+dominates, and that *excessive* retrieval actively harms agent decision-making
+even while helping factual QA.
+
+Read together: a substrate swap is not where the win is, and adopting a graph
+memory because it is more sophisticated is not supported by the evidence. That
+argues for **A first** — make the record complete and correctly retained on the
+path that matters — and to treat B as a question to measure later, against a
+baseline captured beforehand.
+
+`D²ACCI` (08-18) is the sharper finding for us: "end-to-end evaluation reveals
+that an error occurred, but not which stage caused it", and its **DCR** metric
+grades whether failures stay *localizable*. That is this project's recurring
+defect class stated as a research problem, and localizability — not
+completeness — is the property a provenance layer here should be judged on.
+
+## The cheapest thing that would help, if we do nothing else
+
+1. **Read the `reasoning` rows we already write.** They exist. Nothing consumes
+   them. This is a query, not a schema.
+2. **Raise retention for a subset.** Seven days is right for volume, wrong for
+   audit. The distinction is which rows, not how long.
+3. **Stop overwriting phase summaries on retry.** The erased attempt is the
+   informative one.
+
+None of these is the provenance layer. All three are cheap, and each closes a
+question we currently cannot answer at all.

docs/RESEARCH-SWEEP.md

@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+# Research sweep — papers from the fortnight to 2026-08-19
+
+Scoped to what could change ClawMates: agent runtimes, sub-agent structure,
+memory substrates, agent performance measurement, and provenance.
+
+Each entry says what we did about it. "Nothing" is a legitimate outcome and is
+recorded as such — a sweep where every paper is actionable is a sweep that
+stopped judging.
+
+---
+
+## Skill-Use (2026-08-05) — *acted on*
+
+Benchmarks whether an agent actually **uses** a skill under progressive
+disclosure: it sees a name and description and must retrieve the procedure.
+Three scores:
+
+- **Trigger** — did it invoke the skill at all
+- **Compliance** — did it follow the procedure
+- **Boundary** — did it avoid what the skill forbids
+
+That is exactly our skills shape, and reading it is what prompted asking
+whether ours fire. The answer turned out to be structural rather than
+behavioural: **they could not**. 55 of 85 bindings resolved to nothing, and the
+catalogue had no delivery channel to a mission agent at all. Both are now fixed
+(see [CAPABILITY-REVIEW.md](CAPABILITY-REVIEW.md)).
+
+The measurement itself is now the obvious next piece of work, and it is worth
+doing on the paper's three axes rather than as a pass/fail — the useful output
+is *which* of our 53 skills are inert prose.
+
+## MemoryLake on MemoryArena (2026-08-14) — *held as a finding*
+
+A matched comparison: same framework, same model, same tasks, with the memory
+backend the only changed component. Structured memory beat vector RAG and
+long-context.
+
+The numbers are the point. Success rates were **9/40, 12/20 and 4/20**, and
+every system scored zero on some task category. A useful antidote to expecting
+a memory swap to be transformative.
+
+**What we did: nothing, deliberately.** It is the strongest argument against
+adopting graph memory on enthusiasm, and the strongest argument for capturing a
+baseline first.
+
+## Harness the Memory (2026-08-15) — *held as a finding*
+
+No memory substrate dominates. Broad retrieval helps factual QA, while
+**excessive retrieval actively harms agent decision-making**.
+
+Directly relevant to a decision we made this pass: mission prompts now carry
+pinned skill *bodies*. This paper is the reason that is bounded
+(`MAX_PINNED_SKILL_BYTES`) and restricted to pinned skills rather than "give the
+agent everything it might need".
+
+## D²ACCI (2026-08-18) — *the sharpest one for us*
+
+> "End-to-end evaluation reveals that an error occurred, but not which stage
+> caused it."
+
+That sentence is this project's recurring defect class stated as a research
+problem. The paper proposes **DCR**, a graded metric for whether failures stay
+*localizable*.
+
+This reframed the provenance assessment: the property to optimise is not
+completeness of the record but **localizability of failure**. A system that
+records everything and cannot tell you which stage broke has not solved the
+problem. See [PROVENANCE-ASSESSMENT.md](PROVENANCE-ASSESSMENT.md).
+
+---
+
+## On clawhdf5 as the provenance layer
+
+The specific question asked. `clawhdf5-agent` (~21k lines: typed entities,
+relations including `RelationType::Causal`, BFS and spreading activation;
+`provenance.rs` with `MemorySource` / `content_hash` / `session_id`) is
+**already in the workspace manifest and used by no crate**. `cm-brain` exposes
+`set_provenance` / `provenance` — a wired slot with **zero callers**.
+
+So the adoption cost is lower than it looks. The assessment still recommends
+against leading with it, for reasons that are about our system rather than its
+quality: the `.brain` is reaped with the agent, which is the wrong lifetime for
+an audit record, and it is file-local, so cross-agent questions need a second
+mechanism anyway.
+
+The honest sequencing is the one the memory papers argue for: make the record
+complete and correctly retained on the path that matters, capture a baseline,
+then measure whether the graph substrate earns its place.
+
+## Not found
+
+Nothing in the fortnight materially changes our **runtime** design (microVM
+boot, vsock RPC, per-backend egress) or the sub-agent/topology model. Recording
+that so the next sweep does not re-search the same ground.

docs/SKILL-USE-BASELINE.md

@@ -0,0 +1,174 @@
+# Skill-Use baseline
+
+*First measurement of whether ClawMates' skills change what agents do.
+2026-08-19.*
+
+Scored on the three axes from `Skill-Use` (arXiv, 2026-08-05): **Trigger** (did
+the agent reach for the skill), **Compliance** (did it follow the procedure),
+**Boundary** (did it avoid what the skill forbids).
+
+Read the method before the numbers. A measurement whose limits are not stated
+is worse than none, because it gets quoted without them.
+
+## Why there was no baseline before today
+
+Not because nobody ran it. Because **it could not have returned anything but
+zero**, for two structural reasons that had nothing to do with agent behaviour:
+
+1. 55 of 85 role skill bindings resolved to skills that were never authored.
+2. Even resolved skills had no delivery channel to a mission agent — the
+   catalogue's only route was an MCP server that mission claws cannot reach.
+
+Both were fixed in the two commits preceding this document. Anyone who had run
+this measurement in July would have concluded "our agents ignore their skills",
+which would have been false and expensive.
+
+## Method, and what it cannot see
+
+Scored by `cm_api::skill_use` from what the platform records: the
+`prompt.composed` event (the exact bytes an agent received) and the `reasoning`
+events (what it said it did). No re-derivation from the catalogue — the
+catalogue changes, and now that agents author their own skills it changes by
+itself.
+
+### Trigger is not observable here, and that is a finding
+
+The paper measures agents under **progressive disclosure**: the agent sees a
+name and description and must decide to retrieve the body. That retrieval is a
+tool call, which makes Trigger observable.
+
+We do not deliver skills that way. `pinned_skills_text` inlines full bodies into
+the prompt, because mission claws run on `claude_cli`, which cannot surface a
+tool call — there is nothing to retrieve *with*. The agent never reaches for a
+skill; it is simply holding one.
+
+So Trigger is reported as `not_observable` with the reason attached, **never as
+zero**. Scoring it zero would report a delivery-model property as an agent
+failure — the same confusion that kept 55 empty bindings invisible.
+
+### Compliance and Boundary are checked mechanically, or not at all
+
+Only skills whose procedure has a machine-checkable consequence are scored.
+Everything else returns `not_applicable` rather than a guess: a heuristic that
+scores prose by keyword overlap produces a number that looks like a measurement
+and is not one.
+
+Compliance for `int-xx-marker-protocol` is checked by running the **real**
+`task_card_parser`, not a copy of its rules — a second implementation would
+drift, and then the score would pass while the mission loop still stalled.
+
+## The runs
+
+Two missions on the container/ZeroClaw tier, local stack, `research_only`.
+
+| | run 1 | run 2 |
+|---|---|---|
+| distinct skills delivered | 3 | **9** |
+| total deliveries (per role prompt) | 3 | 14 |
+| phantom "skills" scored | **2** | 0 |
+
+Run 1's phantom entries are the finding of the run, described below.
+
+Run 2, per skill (all `source_kind=builtin`; no agent-authored skill has been
+delivered yet):
+
+| skill | deliveries | compliance | boundary |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| `int-xx-marker-protocol` | 1 | **pass** | n/a |
+| `small-focused-commits` | 4 | n/a | n/a |
+| `cargo-test-driven-development` | 2 | n/a | n/a |
+| `workspace-repo-commit-protocol` | 2 | n/a | n/a |
+| `decompose-int-items` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
+| `write-rust-current-edition` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
+| `code-review-checklist` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
+| `criterion-benchmarking` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
+| `tdd-red-green-refactor` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
+
+**n = 2 runs. No spread is reported because two runs cannot establish one.**
+This is a baseline in the sense of "the first honest number", not in the sense
+of `metrics-baseline-comparison.md`, which requires enough runs to see the noise
+floor before any change is judged against it. Do not compare a future number to
+this one without first establishing that floor.
+
+## What the measurement found
+
+Four defects, none of which any test or log would have surfaced.
+
+### 1. The prompt format made its own record unparseable
+
+Skills were introduced with `## <name>`, and skill bodies are markdown full of
+`##` headings. Run 1 duly scored **"Sizing heuristic"** and **"The output
+shape"** — both subheadings inside `decompose-int-items` — as skills with no
+catalogue row.
+
+Fixed with an unambiguous `--- SKILL: <name> ---` marker, and both writers now
+share one renderer so the reader cannot drift from the writer.
+
+### 2. A prompt was recorded that was never sent
+
+The phase prompt was recorded at the dispatch fork, before the tier was chosen.
+The container tier does not send that text — it sends the bare task and appends
+skills per turn. So every container mission logged a `solo` prompt that reached
+no agent.
+
+A provenance record of something that did not happen is worse than no record: it
+is the wrong answer, delivered confidently. Recording now happens inside each
+tier, and a test asserts every launcher records the prompt it actually sends.
+
+### 3. A pinned skill contradicted the platform in the same prompt
+
+`workspace-repo-commit-protocol` told agents that **`/workspace/repo`** was "the
+ONLY path where source-modifying edits belong". The platform mounts and
+advertises **`/mission/repo`** — 26 references in the code; `/workspace/repo`
+appears in none. The skill is bound on **29 role bindings** and was delivered
+twice in run 2, so agents received the real path in the tool preamble and a
+skill contradicting it a few hundred tokens later.
+
+It also instructed `file_read` / `file_write` / `shell` — ZeroClaw's tool names,
+the exact ones `phase_task_text` was fixed to stop advertising after five agents
+on one mission spent 7.4k tokens describing the mismatch instead of working.
+
+An agent that obeyed this skill wrote source into a directory nothing collects,
+and reached for tools its subprocess does not expose. Rewritten against what the
+code actually does, with two guards in `skills_loader::contradiction_tests`: no
+skill may name a repo path the platform does not mount, and none may instruct a
+tool the agent does not have. Both negative-controlled.
+
+This is the same shape as the finding below and it is worth stating as a class:
+**the skills were never checked against the platform they describe.** Nothing
+compared them, so a skill could contradict the prompt it ships inside and stay
+that way indefinitely.
+
+### 4. The skill documents a marker the platform never implemented
+
+`int-xx-marker-protocol` lists `PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-NN` in its ladder.
+`task_card_parser` has **no such kind** and never has. An agent following the
+skill exactly emits a marker that is silently ignored.
+
+Observed live: run 2's planner emitted `PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..02`, which is
+also the range form — on the kinds that *are* parsed, that yields the id
+`INT-01..02`, a task card for an item that does not exist while the two real
+items stay open.
+
+**This is a skill/implementation mismatch, not an agent failure**, and it is
+precisely what this measurement exists to find: the agent did what it was told,
+and what it was told was wrong. Both shapes are now scored as failures; the
+underlying reconciliation — implement `PLAN_COMPLETE` or remove it from the
+skill — is deliberately left as a decision rather than guessed at here.
+
+## Honest limits
+
+- **Two runs, one tier, one workflow.** Nothing here generalises to the microVM
+  or session tiers yet, and this document should not be read as if it does.
+- **Most skills score `not_applicable`** on both observable axes. That is not a
+  pass. It means we cannot currently tell whether those skills changed anything.
+  `workspace-repo-commit-protocol` now has a Boundary check (writing outside
+  `/mission/repo`); `small-focused-commits` and `tdd-red-green-refactor` remain
+  candidates, and both need the repository diff rather than the turn text.
+- **No agent-authored skill has been measured.** Self-authoring shipped in the
+  same pass; `source_kind` is carried through the scorer specifically so a
+  rising score on agent-authored skills is visible rather than averaged in.
+- **Evidence expires.** Mission events are reaped after 7 days unless
+  `retain_events_until` is set. Both runs here are held for 90 days. An empty
+  score means "no evidence", never "no compliance", and the API says so in its
+  payload rather than leaving the caller to infer it.

docs/TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md

@@ -0,0 +1,171 @@
+# Mission tool calls: what is actually true, and what to do
+
+*Research, 2026-08-19. Supersedes the claim "missions can't call tools at all",
+which I wrote and which is wrong.*
+
+## The claim was wrong, and the truth is worse
+
+Mission agents **do** call tools. Three of the four execution paths end in
+`claude -p` with Claude Code's own toolset and permissions pre-accepted:
+
+| Path | Command | Tools | Permission |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| Solo microVM | `microvm_executor.rs:341` | `Read Edit Write Bash Agent` | `--permission-mode acceptEdits` |
+| Composed microVM | same, per node | same | same |
+| Direct session | `session_executor.rs:118` | `Read Edit Write Bash` | `acceptEdits` |
+| Container / ZeroClaw | `claude -p --output-format json` | see below | n/a |
+
+So the real position is not "no tools". It is:
+
+> **Mission agents run `Bash` and `Write` with permissions pre-accepted, and
+> nothing in this platform can gate them.**
+
+That is a stronger finding than the one it replaces. "Can't call tools" sounds
+like a missing feature. "Calls tools freely, ungated, and mostly unobserved" is
+a security posture, and it is the one we have.
+
+## Observe versus gate — they are different, and both are partial
+
+| Path | Has tools | We observe | We gate |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| Solo microVM | yes | **yes** — `vm_tool_tap` | no |
+| Composed microVM | yes | **yes** — same tap | no |
+| Direct session | yes | **no mechanism at all** | no |
+| Container / ZeroClaw | yes (see below) | mechanism exists, receives nothing | no |
+
+`vm_tool_tap` installs a **`PostToolUse`** hook, which fires *after* the tool has
+already run, and `exit 0`s unconditionally because a non-zero `PostToolUse`
+talks back to the model. It is telemetry and says so. It is structurally
+incapable of gating.
+
+The §15 `GatePolicy` has exactly **one** enforcement site — `Runtime::drive`,
+the chat loop — and its approvals are keyed to `(session_id, message_id)`, which
+no mission phase can produce. A mission agent's `Bash` call is gated by nothing,
+anywhere.
+
+## Why the container tier looked tool-free
+
+`claude_cli` builds `claude -p … --output-format json`, which returns a single
+final result object, and the provider then hardcodes `tool_calls: Vec::new()`.
+The tool calls happen; the transport discards them.
+
+That is why `ToolTrace.calls` was empty on gw-04, and the comment in
+`topology_exec.rs` reads that emptiness as "§15 by construction: agents are
+provisioned tool-free". It is not by construction. It is the output format.
+
+**Proven, not assumed.** Against the live runtime (Claude Code 2.1.228):
+
+```
+claude -p "Run the bash command: echo hello" \
+  --output-format stream-json --verbose --allowedTools Bash
+```
+
+emits exactly what we need:
+
+```
+assistant block: tool_use  Bash
+user block:      tool_result
+assistant block: text
+event: result success
+```
+
+The calls are fully observable. We ask for the wrong output format.
+
+## The door already exists, and we never plugged it in
+
+`claude_cli.rs` is **ours** — upstream `zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw` has no such file.
+So is the feature that solves this, our own commit
+`88eef99d4 feat(providers): claude_cli --mcp-config + allow/disallow tools (act via door)`.
+
+The provider already accepts:
+
+- `mcp_config` → `claude -p --mcp-config <file> --strict-mcp-config`, so Claude
+  Code's **own** MCP client connects to our door;
+- `tools` → `--allowedTools`, auto-approving door tools;
+- `disallowed_tools` → `--disallowedTools`, locking out `Bash`, `Write`, `Edit`,
+  `Read`, … so **the gated door is the only actuator**.
+
+`deploy/clawmates-runtime/agent.config.example.toml` documents the whole shape
+as `[providers.models.claude_cli.door]`.
+
+And in the live runtime: `/zeroclaw-data/clawmates-mcp.json` **does not exist**,
+the config has no `[providers.*]` block at all, and every mission claw is bound
+to `claude_cli.default` — which sets none of the three fields.
+
+So my earlier conclusion that "`claude_cli` cannot reach MCP, therefore the
+skills server is unreachable" was wrong in its reasoning. The capability is
+built, documented by us, and simply never deployed.
+
+Related: we have been setting `agents.<alias>.mcp_bundles`, which configures
+**ZeroClaw's own** MCP client for its native agent loop. A `claude_cli` agent's
+actuator is the claude subprocess, which reads `mcp_config` on the **provider**.
+We were turning a knob connected to a loop that does not run.
+
+## Upstream: nothing that solves this, one thing worth taking
+
+We are **218 commits behind** `upstream/master`. Scanning for anything relevant:
+
+- **No upstream work on `claude_cli`** — the file is ours; upstream has none.
+- **ACP** (Agent Client Protocol) exists in the fork already
+  (`zeroclaw-gateway/src/acp.rs`, `zeroclaw-channels/src/acp_channel.rs`); the
+  three upstream commits since our merge are workspace-default and
+  tool-approval-localization fixes, not new capability. ACP *does* surface tool
+  calls natively and is a credible long-term transport, but it is a bigger move
+  than the two fixes below and buys the same observability.
+- **`feat(plugins): add shared egress policy foundation (#9137)`** — a network
+  guard in `zeroclaw-infra::net_guard` with DNS pinning, IPv4-mapped metadata
+  blocking, proxy-conflict surfacing. This is the one upstream item genuinely
+  worth pulling: it is defence for the egress problem we have not solved, and
+  it is hardening we would otherwise write ourselves.
+
+## What to do, cheapest first
+
+### 1. Observability — switch `claude_cli` to `stream-json` *(small, proven)*
+
+In our fork: `--output-format stream-json --verbose`, parse `tool_use` /
+`tool_result` blocks into `ChatResponse.tool_calls` instead of `Vec::new()`.
+
+Unblocks: real `tool.call` events on the container tier; `ToolTrace.calls`
+non-empty; Skill-Use **Trigger** becomes observable on that tier for the first
+time. Risk: the parser must handle a stream rather than one object, and
+`--verbose` is required alongside it.
+
+### 2. A real gate — use the `PreToolUse` hook *(small, mechanism already proven)*
+
+`vm_stop_gate.rs` records that `PreToolUse` **fires** under `claude -p` in our
+image, and it is used nowhere — one doc-comment mention, zero call sites. Same
+install pattern as the tap, but exit-2-to-deny instead of exit-0.
+
+This is the only pre-execution gate available to the microVM and direct-session
+paths, and it is the one thing that would let §15 mean something for missions.
+It must be added to `vm_tool_tap::guest_settings`, the single settings writer,
+or it will clobber `Stop` and `PostToolUse`.
+
+Also: give the direct-session path the tap at all. It is the same settings file,
+written into a container instead of a VM, and today that tier is completely dark.
+
+### 3. Deploy the door we already built *(config, not code)*
+
+Create `/zeroclaw-data/clawmates-mcp.json`, define a door-shaped provider alias,
+and bind mission claws to it. Gets the container tier a gated actuator and makes
+the `clawmates_skills` MCP server genuinely reachable — which would let skills
+move from inlined bodies to progressive disclosure, and make Trigger measurable
+the way the paper defines it.
+
+Sequencing note: (1) and (2) are independent of (3) and worth doing first,
+because they make the container tier legible before we change what it can do.
+
+### Not recommended yet
+
+Replacing the mission executor with `ProviderExecutor` or the chat `Runtime`.
+The blockers are real and structural, not wiring: `Runtime::send_message`
+requires a chat session row, an agent row, two message rows and an `agent_runs`
+row, and its approval key is `(session_id, message_id)`; `ToolContext` carries
+no path, checkout, container or VM handle; `cm-runtime`'s `files` tool is a blob
+store that **rejects absolute paths by construction**, and its `shell` tool
+executes in a per-agent sandbox with zero egress and no mission mount. Every
+mission-shaped concept would have to be invented first.
+
+The cheap fixes above deliver the observability and the gate. The executor swap
+is a different project, and it should be justified by something other than tool
+calls — which, it turns out, we already have.

frontend/src/components/dashboard/MissionCanvas.tsx

@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ import { MissionLiveEvents } from "./MissionLiveEvents";
 import { MissionLivePane } from "./MissionLivePane";
 import { MissionOutputReader } from "./MissionOutputReader";
 import { MissionTeamTab } from "./MissionTeamTab";
+import { MissionProposalDrawer } from "./MissionProposalDrawer";
 import { MissionWizard } from "./MissionWizard";
 import { PhaseGoalStrip } from "./PhaseGoalStrip";
 import { PhaseRunsList } from "./PhaseRunsList";
@@ -127,6 +128,9 @@ export function MissionCanvas({
   const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
   const [error, setError] = useState<string | null>(null);
   const [tab, setTab] = useState<Tab>("run");
+  // The propose→review→approve gate. Backend has been complete since it
+  // shipped; this is the first way for a human to reach the review step.
+  const [proposalsOpen, setProposalsOpen] = useState(false);
   const [runSub, setRunSub] = useState<RunSub>("phases");
   const [outputSub, setOutputSub] = useState<OutputSub>("documents");
   const [setupSub, setSetupSub] = useState<SetupSub>("overview");
@@ -977,11 +981,27 @@ export function MissionCanvas({
         )}
 
         {tab === "setup" && setupSub === "team" && (
-          <MissionTeamTab
+          <div style={{ display: "flex", flexDirection: "column", gap: 10 }}>
-            missionId={mission.id}
+            <div style={{ display: "flex", alignItems: "center", gap: 10 }}>
-            teamId={mission.team_id}
+              <button
-            onOpenClaw={onOpenClaw}
+                onClick={() => setProposalsOpen(true)}
-          />
+                style={secondaryBtn}
+                title="Review a model-proposed plan or roster before it is applied"
+              >
+                Review proposals
+              </button>
+              <span style={{ fontSize: 11, color: "#8b8b96" }}>
+                {mission.status === "draft"
+                  ? "a proposed plan or roster can be approved while this mission is a draft"
+                  : `approval applies to drafts only — this mission is ${mission.status}`}
+              </span>
+            </div>
+            <MissionTeamTab
+              missionId={mission.id}
+              teamId={mission.team_id}
+              onOpenClaw={onOpenClaw}
+            />
+          </div>
         )}
 
         {tab === "run" && runSub === "live" && (
@@ -1132,6 +1152,15 @@ export function MissionCanvas({
         )}
       </MissionTabScroller>
       )}
+
+      {proposalsOpen && (
+        <MissionProposalDrawer
+          missionId={mission.id}
+          missionStatus={mission.status}
+          onClose={() => setProposalsOpen(false)}
+          onChanged={onChanged}
+        />
+      )}
     </div>
   );
 }

frontend/src/components/dashboard/MissionProposalDrawer.tsx

@@ -0,0 +1,424 @@
+"use client";
+
+// MissionProposalDrawer — the human review step for a mission's proposed
+// PLAN (what phases will run) and ROSTER (who will run them).
+//
+// Both backends have been complete and reachable by curl since they
+// shipped; neither had any user interface. That matters more than a
+// missing screen usually would, because the decide step is not a
+// convenience — it IS the safety mechanism. Approving a plan replaces the
+// mission's phases; approving a roster flips it to the composed engine.
+// A gate nobody can reach is a gate that is always open or always shut.
+//
+// Modelled on LevelUpDrawer, which already does load → review → decide.
+
+import { useCallback, useEffect, useState } from "react";
+import {
+  decidePlanProposal,
+  decideRosterProposal,
+  listPlanProposals,
+  listRosterProposals,
+  suggestPlan,
+  suggestRoster,
+  type MissionPlanProposal,
+  type MissionTeamProposal,
+} from "@/lib/api/missions";
+
+const mono =
+  "ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, SF Mono, Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, monospace";
+
+export type ProposalTab = "plan" | "roster";
+
+const STATUS_COLOR: Record<string, string> = {
+  proposed: "#f0c264",
+  approved: "#7fd0a0",
+  rejected: "#ff8a7a",
+};
+
+export function MissionProposalDrawer({
+  missionId,
+  missionStatus,
+  onClose,
+  onChanged,
+}: {
+  missionId: string;
+  /** Approval only applies to a draft; the server returns 400 otherwise. */
+  missionStatus: string;
+  onClose: () => void;
+  onChanged?: () => void;
+}) {
+  const [tab, setTab] = useState<ProposalTab>("plan");
+  const [plans, setPlans] = useState<MissionPlanProposal[]>([]);
+  const [rosters, setRosters] = useState<MissionTeamProposal[]>([]);
+  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true);
+  const [busy, setBusy] = useState<string | null>(null);
+  const [error, setError] = useState<string | null>(null);
+  const [note, setNote] = useState("");
+
+  const isDraft = missionStatus === "draft";
+
+  const load = useCallback(async () => {
+    setLoading(true);
+    try {
+      const [p, r] = await Promise.all([
+        listPlanProposals(missionId),
+        listRosterProposals(missionId),
+      ]);
+      setPlans(p);
+      setRosters(r);
+      setError(null);
+    } catch (e) {
+      setError(e instanceof Error ? e.message : "load failed");
+    } finally {
+      setLoading(false);
+    }
+  }, [missionId]);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    void load();
+  }, [load]);
+
+  // `suggest` calls a model AND reads the repo tree from the forge, so it
+  // takes many seconds. Without a real pending state this reads as a hang.
+  const doSuggest = useCallback(async () => {
+    setBusy("suggest");
+    setError(null);
+    try {
+      if (tab === "plan") await suggestPlan(missionId);
+      else await suggestRoster(missionId);
+      await load();
+    } catch (e) {
+      setError(e instanceof Error ? e.message : "suggest failed");
+    } finally {
+      setBusy(null);
+    }
+  }, [tab, missionId, load]);
+
+  const doDecide = useCallback(
+    async (proposalId: string, status: "approved" | "rejected") => {
+      setBusy(proposalId);
+      setError(null);
+      try {
+        if (tab === "plan") {
+          await decidePlanProposal(missionId, proposalId, status, note || undefined);
+        } else {
+          await decideRosterProposal(missionId, proposalId, status, note || undefined);
+        }
+        setNote("");
+        await load();
+        onChanged?.();
+      } catch (e) {
+        // The server's refusal text is written for a human to read — it
+        // names which constraint failed and why. Replacing it with a
+        // generic message throws away the only useful part.
+        setError(e instanceof Error ? e.message : "decide failed");
+      } finally {
+        setBusy(null);
+      }
+    },
+    [tab, missionId, note, load, onChanged],
+  );
+
+  const proposals: (MissionPlanProposal | MissionTeamProposal)[] =
+    tab === "plan" ? plans : rosters;
+
+  return (
+    <div
+      role="dialog"
+      aria-modal
+      aria-label="Mission proposals"
+      onClick={onClose}
+      style={{
+        position: "fixed",
+        inset: 0,
+        background: "rgba(0,0,0,.55)",
+        display: "flex",
+        justifyContent: "flex-end",
+        zIndex: 1000,
+      }}
+    >
+      <div
+        onClick={(e) => e.stopPropagation()}
+        style={{
+          width: "min(620px, 100vw)",
+          height: "100vh",
+          background: "#141419",
+          borderLeft: "1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.08)",
+          display: "flex",
+          flexDirection: "column",
+        }}
+      >
+        <header
+          style={{
+            padding: "14px 18px",
+            borderBottom: "1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.06)",
+            display: "flex",
+            alignItems: "center",
+            gap: 12,
+          }}
+        >
+          <strong style={{ color: "#e8e8ee", fontSize: 14 }}>Review proposals</strong>
+          <div style={{ display: "flex", gap: 6, marginLeft: 8 }}>
+            {(["plan", "roster"] as ProposalTab[]).map((t) => (
+              <button
+                key={t}
+                onClick={() => setTab(t)}
+                style={{
+                  padding: "4px 10px",
+                  fontSize: 12,
+                  borderRadius: 6,
+                  cursor: "pointer",
+                  background: tab === t ? "rgba(255,255,255,.10)" : "transparent",
+                  color: tab === t ? "#e8e8ee" : "#8b8b96",
+                  border: "1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.10)",
+                }}
+              >
+                {t === "plan" ? "Plan" : "Roster"}
+              </button>
+            ))}
+          </div>
+          <button
+            onClick={onClose}
+            aria-label="Close"
+            style={{
+              marginLeft: "auto",
+              background: "transparent",
+              border: "none",
+              color: "#8b8b96",
+              cursor: "pointer",
+              fontSize: 18,
+            }}
+          >
+            ×
+          </button>
+        </header>
+
+        {!isDraft && (
+          <p
+            style={{
+              margin: 0,
+              padding: "10px 18px",
+              fontSize: 12,
+              color: "#f0c264",
+              background: "rgba(240,194,100,.08)",
+              borderBottom: "1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.06)",
+            }}
+          >
+            This mission is <strong>{missionStatus}</strong>. Proposals can only be
+            approved while it is a draft — approving now would be refused.
+          </p>
+        )}
+
+        <div style={{ flex: 1, overflowY: "auto", padding: "14px 18px" }}>
+          {error && (
+            <p
+              style={{
+                margin: "0 0 12px",
+                padding: "8px 10px",
+                borderRadius: 6,
+                fontSize: 12,
+                fontFamily: mono,
+                whiteSpace: "pre-wrap",
+                color: "#ff8a7a",
+                background: "rgba(255,138,122,.08)",
+              }}
+            >
+              {error}
+            </p>
+          )}
+
+          {loading ? (
+            <p style={{ color: "#8b8b96", fontSize: 13 }}>Loading…</p>
+          ) : proposals.length === 0 ? (
+            <p style={{ color: "#8b8b96", fontSize: 13 }}>
+              No {tab} proposals yet. Ask a model for one below — it reads the
+              repository first, so it takes a few seconds.
+            </p>
+          ) : (
+            proposals.map((p) => (
+              <article
+                key={p.id}
+                style={{
+                  marginBottom: 14,
+                  border: "1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.08)",
+                  borderRadius: 8,
+                  overflow: "hidden",
+                }}
+              >
+                <div
+                  style={{
+                    display: "flex",
+                    alignItems: "center",
+                    gap: 8,
+                    padding: "8px 12px",
+                    background: "rgba(255,255,255,.03)",
+                  }}
+                >
+                  <span
+                    style={{
+                      fontSize: 11,
+                      padding: "2px 8px",
+                      borderRadius: 999,
+                      color: "#141419",
+                      background: STATUS_COLOR[p.status] ?? "#8b8b96",
+                    }}
+                  >
+                    {p.status}
+                  </span>
+                  <span style={{ fontSize: 11, color: "#8b8b96", fontFamily: mono }}>
+                    {p.author_model ?? "unknown model"}
+                  </span>
+                </div>
+
+                <div style={{ padding: "10px 12px" }}>
+                  {"plan" in p ? (
+                    <PlanBody plan={p.plan} />
+                  ) : (
+                    <RosterBody roster={p.roster} />
+                  )}
+                  {p.note && (
+                    <p style={{ marginTop: 8, fontSize: 12, color: "#8b8b96" }}>
+                      Note: {p.note}
+                    </p>
+                  )}
+                </div>
+
+                {p.status === "proposed" && (
+                  <div
+                    style={{
+                      display: "flex",
+                      gap: 8,
+                      padding: "10px 12px",
+                      borderTop: "1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.06)",
+                    }}
+                  >
+                    <button
+                      disabled={busy !== null || !isDraft}
+                      onClick={() => doDecide(p.id, "approved")}
+                      style={btn("#7fd0a0", busy !== null || !isDraft)}
+                    >
+                      {busy === p.id ? "Working…" : "Approve"}
+                    </button>
+                    <button
+                      disabled={busy !== null}
+                      onClick={() => doDecide(p.id, "rejected")}
+                      style={btn("#ff8a7a", busy !== null)}
+                    >
+                      Reject
+                    </button>
+                  </div>
+                )}
+              </article>
+            ))
+          )}
+        </div>
+
+        <footer
+          style={{
+            padding: "12px 18px",
+            borderTop: "1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.06)",
+            display: "flex",
+            gap: 8,
+          }}
+        >
+          <input
+            value={note}
+            onChange={(e) => setNote(e.target.value)}
+            placeholder="Note for the decision (optional)"
+            aria-label="Decision note"
+            style={{
+              flex: 1,
+              padding: "7px 10px",
+              fontSize: 12,
+              borderRadius: 6,
+              background: "rgba(255,255,255,.04)",
+              border: "1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.10)",
+              color: "#e8e8ee",
+            }}
+          />
+          <button
+            disabled={busy !== null}
+            onClick={doSuggest}
+            style={btn("#7cd6e0", busy !== null)}
+          >
+            {busy === "suggest" ? "Asking a model…" : `Propose ${tab}`}
+          </button>
+        </footer>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+  );
+}
+
+function btn(color: string, disabled: boolean): React.CSSProperties {
+  return {
+    padding: "6px 14px",
+    fontSize: 12,
+    borderRadius: 6,
+    cursor: disabled ? "not-allowed" : "pointer",
+    opacity: disabled ? 0.5 : 1,
+    color: "#141419",
+    background: color,
+    border: "none",
+  };
+}
+
+function PlanBody({ plan }: { plan: { phases: PlanPhase[] } }) {
+  if (!plan?.phases?.length) {
+    return <p style={{ fontSize: 12, color: "#8b8b96" }}>No phases proposed.</p>;
+  }
+  return (
+    <ol style={{ margin: 0, paddingLeft: 18, display: "grid", gap: 10 }}>
+      {plan.phases.map((ph, i) => (
+        <li key={i} style={{ fontSize: 12, color: "#c9c9d4" }}>
+          <strong style={{ color: "#e8e8ee", fontFamily: mono }}>{ph.kind}</strong>
+          <p style={{ margin: "4px 0", whiteSpace: "pre-wrap" }}>{ph.task}</p>
+          {/* done_when is what makes a phase judgeable at all — a phase
+              without one reports completed whatever it did, so its absence
+              is worth showing rather than hiding. */}
+          {ph.done_when ? (
+            <p style={{ margin: 0, color: "#7fd0a0" }}>done when: {ph.done_when}</p>
+          ) : (
+            <p style={{ margin: 0, color: "#f0c264" }}>
+              no completion condition — this phase cannot fail
+            </p>
+          )}
+        </li>
+      ))}
+    </ol>
+  );
+}
+
+function RosterBody({ roster }: { roster: { topology_kind: string; members: RosterM[] } }) {
+  if (!roster?.members?.length) {
+    return <p style={{ fontSize: 12, color: "#8b8b96" }}>No members proposed.</p>;
+  }
+  return (
+    <div>
+      <p style={{ margin: "0 0 8px", fontSize: 12, color: "#8b8b96" }}>
+        topology: <span style={{ fontFamily: mono, color: "#e8e8ee" }}>{roster.topology_kind}</span>
+      </p>
+      <ul style={{ margin: 0, paddingLeft: 18, display: "grid", gap: 8 }}>
+        {roster.members.map((m, i) => (
+          <li key={i} style={{ fontSize: 12, color: "#c9c9d4" }}>
+            <strong style={{ color: "#e8e8ee", fontFamily: mono }}>{m.role}</strong>
+            {m.backend && (
+              <span style={{ color: "#8b8b96" }}> · {m.backend}</span>
+            )}
+            {m.rationale && <p style={{ margin: "3px 0 0" }}>{m.rationale}</p>}
+          </li>
+        ))}
+      </ul>
+    </div>
+  );
+}
+
+interface PlanPhase {
+  kind: string;
+  task: string;
+  done_when?: string | null;
+}
+interface RosterM {
+  role: string;
+  backend?: string | null;
+  rationale?: string | null;
+}

frontend/src/components/dashboard/TeamRunsModal.tsx

@@ -44,7 +44,9 @@ export function TeamRunsModal({ teamId, teamName, onClose }: { teamId: string; t
     { v: "research_web_readonly", label: "research_web_readonly — + web fetch" },
     { v: "coding_readwrite", label: "coding_readwrite — writes to /workspace/repo" },
   ];
-  const BUNDLE_OPTIONS = ["clawmates_door", "gitea_forge"];
+  // Only bundles the runtime actually defines. `gitea_forge` was selectable
+  // here and defined nowhere, so picking it granted nothing.
+  const BUNDLE_OPTIONS = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"];
 
   useEffect(() => {
     (async () => {

frontend/src/lib/api/missions.ts

@@ -569,3 +569,102 @@ export const recipeToPreset = (r: WorkflowRecipe): TemplatePreset => ({
     .map((p) => ({ kind: p.kind, order_idx: p.order_idx })),
   defaultTeamTemplate: r.default_team_template ?? null,
 });
+
+// ── Plan + roster proposals ─────────────────────────────────────────
+//
+// A model proposes; a human decides. The decide step IS the safety
+// mechanism for both flows — a plan approval replaces the mission's phases
+// and a roster approval flips it to the composed engine — and until now it
+// had no user interface at all, on a fully working backend.
+//
+// Both only apply while the mission is a DRAFT. Approving a running mission
+// returns 400, and the server's refusal text is written for a human, so it
+// is surfaced verbatim rather than replaced with "something went wrong".
+
+export type ProposalDecision = "approved" | "rejected";
+export type MissionProposalStatus = "proposed" | ProposalDecision;
+
+export interface PlannedPhase {
+  kind: string;
+  task: string;
+  done_when?: string | null;
+  done_when_check?: string | null;
+  allow_empty?: boolean | null;
+}
+
+export interface MissionPlan {
+  phases: PlannedPhase[];
+}
+
+export interface RosterMember {
+  role: string;
+  /** Which per-CLI rootfs this member boots. Validated against the fleet. */
+  backend?: string | null;
+  rationale?: string | null;
+}
+
+export interface MissionRoster {
+  topology_kind: string;
+  members: RosterMember[];
+}
+
+export interface MissionPlanProposal {
+  id: string;
+  mission_id: string;
+  plan: MissionPlan;
+  author_model: string | null;
+  status: MissionProposalStatus;
+  note?: string | null;
+  created_at?: string;
+  decided_at?: string | null;
+}
+
+export interface MissionTeamProposal {
+  id: string;
+  mission_id: string;
+  roster: MissionRoster;
+  author_model: string | null;
+  status: MissionProposalStatus;
+  note?: string | null;
+  created_at?: string;
+  decided_at?: string | null;
+}
+
+/** Ask a model for a plan. Slow: reads the repo tree from the forge. */
+export const suggestPlan = (missionId: string) =>
+  api<MissionPlanProposal>(`/api/missions/${missionId}/plan-proposals`, {
+    method: "POST",
+  });
+
+export const listPlanProposals = (missionId: string) =>
+  api<MissionPlanProposal[]>(`/api/missions/${missionId}/plan-proposals`);
+
+export const decidePlanProposal = (
+  missionId: string,
+  proposalId: string,
+  status: ProposalDecision,
+  note?: string,
+) =>
+  api<{ status: string; phases?: { kind: string; order_idx: number }[] }>(
+    `/api/missions/${missionId}/plan-proposals/${proposalId}/decide`,
+    { method: "POST", body: JSON.stringify({ status, note }) },
+  );
+
+export const suggestRoster = (missionId: string) =>
+  api<MissionTeamProposal>(`/api/missions/${missionId}/team-proposals`, {
+    method: "POST",
+  });
+
+export const listRosterProposals = (missionId: string) =>
+  api<MissionTeamProposal[]>(`/api/missions/${missionId}/team-proposals`);
+
+export const decideRosterProposal = (
+  missionId: string,
+  proposalId: string,
+  status: ProposalDecision,
+  note?: string,
+) =>
+  api<{ status: string; team_engine?: string; nodes?: number }>(
+    `/api/missions/${missionId}/team-proposals/${proposalId}/decide`,
+    { method: "POST", body: JSON.stringify({ status, note }) },
+  );

migrations/0080_mission_event_retention_hold.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+-- Keep a mission's events past the global retention window.
+--
+-- `mission_gc` deletes mission_events older than EVENT_RETENTION_DAYS (7). That
+-- bound is right for volume — a single busy coding phase adds hundreds of rows
+-- — and wrong for anything that needs to be re-read later: a Skill-Use
+-- measurement, a provenance question, an incident review. All three ask about a
+-- specific mission, so the exemption is per-mission rather than a raised global.
+--
+-- NULL (the default) means the mission obeys the global window, so this changes
+-- nothing for existing rows.
+ALTER TABLE missions
+    ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS retain_events_until TIMESTAMPTZ;
+
+COMMENT ON COLUMN missions.retain_events_until IS
+    'While in the future, mission_gc will not reap this mission''s events. Set when a mission is under measurement or investigation.';
+
+-- The sweep joins on this, and the vast majority of rows are NULL.
+CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS missions_retain_events_idx
+    ON missions (retain_events_until)
+    WHERE retain_events_until IS NOT NULL;

scripts/test-server.sh

@@ -23,7 +23,17 @@ case "${1:-up}" in
       exit 0
     fi
     docker rm -f "$CONTAINER" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+    # --shm-size: Docker defaults /dev/shm to 64MB. Postgres allocates parallel
+    # query segments there, and the suite runs many tests at once against many
+    # databases, so the default is exhausted mid-run — surfacing as
+    # `could not resize shared memory segment ... No space left on device`
+    # during MIGRATIONS, which reads like a schema fault and is not one.
+    #
+    # Space exhaustion has a second cause with the same symptom: cm-testkit
+    # creates a database per test and drops none, so they accumulate across
+    # runs (779 of them, once). `$0 clean` sweeps those.
     docker run -d --name "$CONTAINER" --restart unless-stopped \
+      --shm-size=1g \
       -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres \
       -e POSTGRES_DB=postgres \
       -p "${PORT}:5432" \

skills/analysis/ast-grep-repo-index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+---
+name: ast-grep-repo-index
+description: Building a structural map of an unfamiliar repository — entry points, module boundaries, and where the real logic lives.
+when_to_use: You are mapping a codebase you did not write, before changing anything in it.
+tags: [analysis, codebase]
+---
+
+# Map the shape before reading the code
+
+An unfamiliar repository is mostly scaffolding. The goal of a first pass is to
+find the small fraction that matters and ignore the rest deliberately.
+
+## Start at the edges, not the top
+
+```bash
+rg -l 'fn main\(|async fn main' --type rust        # entry points
+rg -n 'route\(|\.get\(|\.post\(' | head -50        # HTTP surface
+ls migrations/ | tail -20                          # what the data recently grew
+```
+
+Entry points, the request surface and the schema tell you what the system *does*
+in about ten minutes. Reading `lib.rs` top-down tells you how it is organised,
+which is a different and less useful question early on.
+
+## Size is a signal
+
+```bash
+find . -name '*.rs' -not -path './target/*' | xargs wc -l | sort -rn | head -20
+```
+
+The largest files are either the core logic or an accumulation nobody split.
+Both are worth knowing before you touch anything nearby.
+
+## Structural search beats text search for call graphs
+
+Text grep for a function name matches its definition, its calls, its doc
+comments and any string containing it. When you need call sites specifically,
+search the shape — `ast-grep --pattern 'foo($$$)'` — or at minimum anchor the
+text: `rg '\bfoo\('.
+
+## Follow one request end to end
+
+The single most valuable early exercise: pick one endpoint and trace it from
+route registration to database and back. It crosses every layer the codebase
+has, in the order the codebase thinks about them, and it tells you more than any
+architecture document. See `request-lifecycle-tracing`.
+
+## Write down the map
+
+A map that lives only in your head has to be rebuilt by the next person. Record
+entry points, the three or four modules with the real logic, and — most
+valuable — what you *expected* to find and did not. The gaps between a reasonable
+mental model and the actual structure are where future bugs live.

skills/analysis/git-log-forensics.md

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+---
+name: git-log-forensics
+description: Reading a repository's history to find when behaviour changed and why, rather than guessing from the current tree.
+when_to_use: You are investigating why code is the way it is, or when a behaviour was introduced.
+tags: [analysis, git]
+---
+
+# The history answers questions the tree cannot
+
+The current tree shows what is true. It does not show what was tried, what was
+reverted, or which line was load-bearing enough to be touched forty times.
+
+## The four commands that answer most questions
+
+```bash
+git log -S'<string>' --oneline -- <path>     # when did this string appear/vanish
+git log -L'<start>,<end>:<file>'             # every change to these lines
+git log --follow -- <file>                   # survives renames
+git bisect start <bad> <good>                # find the commit that changed it
+```
+
+`-S` (the "pickaxe") is the most under-used and the most powerful: it searches
+for commits where the *count* of a string changed, so it finds the commit that
+introduced a call, not every commit that mentions it. `-L` gives the biography
+of a specific function.
+
+## Churn marks risk
+
+```bash
+git log --format= --name-only | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20
+```
+
+Files at the top are either the project's core or its problem area, and the
+commit messages tell you which. A file changed in 200 commits by 15 authors is
+where the next bug will be, whatever the current code looks like.
+
+## Read the message, then distrust it
+
+A commit message states intent. The diff states what happened. When they
+disagree — "small refactor" touching thirty files, "fix typo" changing a
+condition — the diff is the truth, and the disagreement is itself a finding
+worth recording.
+
+## Blame points at the last toucher, not the author
+
+`git blame` shows who last modified a line, which after a reformat, a rename or
+a lint pass is whoever ran the tool. Use `-w` (ignore whitespace) and
+`-C` (detect moved code) before drawing any conclusion, and prefer `log -L` when
+you want the line's history rather than its current owner.
+
+## What to report
+
+A forensic finding is a commit hash, a date, and the reason the change was made
+if the message or its PR gives one. "This check was added in `a1b2c3d` after an
+incident" is actionable. "This code looks defensive" is not.

skills/analysis/request-lifecycle-tracing.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+---
+name: request-lifecycle-tracing
+description: Following one request from entry to storage and back, so a change can be reasoned about across layers.
+when_to_use: You need to understand how a specific operation works, or where to make a change that crosses layers.
+tags: [analysis, codebase]
+---
+
+# One request, every layer, in order
+
+Tracing a single path end to end is the fastest way to learn a system, and the
+only reliable way to know where a cross-cutting change must land.
+
+## The trace
+
+```
+route registration      which handler, which method, what middleware
+extractors / auth       what must be true before the handler body runs
+handler                 validation, then the call into real logic
+domain / service        the actual decision
+persistence             the query, the transaction boundary
+response                what is serialised, what is deliberately omitted
+side effects            events, jobs, background work
+```
+
+The last line is the one most often missed and the most likely to break: an
+operation that also enqueues a job, writes an event or invalidates a cache has
+consequences the response does not mention.
+
+## Follow the data, not the call stack
+
+Call stacks show structure; data flow shows behaviour. For each step ask what
+changed shape and what was dropped. A field silently discarded between the
+handler and the query is a bug that no test asserting the response will catch.
+
+## Find the transaction boundary explicitly
+
+Where does the transaction begin and commit? Anything outside it is not atomic
+with the write, and that is where "the row exists but the event never fired"
+comes from. Note it during the trace — reconstructing it later, mid-incident, is
+much harder.
+
+## Note what happens on failure
+
+Walk it a second time asking what happens when each step fails. Errors that are
+logged and swallowed are where silent failures live: the operation reports
+success while a step did nothing. If a step's failure produces no observable
+signal, that is a finding, not a detail.
+
+## Record the trace with file:line
+
+The output is a short document with a line per layer and the file and line for
+each. That is what makes the next change — or the next incident — cheap, and it
+is checkable by whoever reads it next.

skills/backend/openapi-contract-first.md

@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+---
+name: openapi-contract-first
+description: Designing an HTTP API as a written contract before the handler exists, and keeping the document true afterwards.
+when_to_use: You are the API designer adding or changing an endpoint.
+tags: [backend, api]
+---
+
+# The contract is the deliverable; the handler implements it
+
+Writing the schema first surfaces the disagreements while they are still cheap —
+what is optional, what the error shape is, what happens on conflict.
+
+## Decide these five before writing code
+
+1. **Resource and method.** `POST /missions` creates; `PATCH /missions/{id}`
+   partially updates. If you need a verb, the resource is probably wrong.
+2. **The error shape, once, for the whole API.** One envelope everywhere. A
+   client that must handle three error shapes will handle one and log the others.
+3. **Which fields are optional, and what absent means.** Absent, `null` and empty
+   are three different things and clients will discover the difference in
+   production.
+4. **The status codes you actually use.** 201 with a Location for creates, 409
+   for conflicts, 422 for validation. Returning 200 with `{"error": ...}` makes
+   every client parse the body to learn what happened.
+5. **Pagination, from the first endpoint.** Retrofitting it is a breaking
+   change — see `api-pagination-day-1`.
+
+## The document must stay true
+
+A stale spec is worse than none: clients trust it and are wrong. Generate it
+from the types where the framework allows, and where it is hand-written, make a
+test fail when handler and document disagree.
+
+The failure mode to design against is a field added to the response and never
+to the spec. That is invisible until an integrator asks why the documented shape
+does not match, which is much later and much more expensive.
+
+## Compatibility rules
+
+Additive is safe: new optional request fields, new response fields. Everything
+else is a breaking change, including narrowing an enum, making an optional field
+required, and changing a field's type — even `int` to `string` for an id.
+
+If a break is genuinely needed, version the path. Silently changing a shape and
+telling clients in a changelog is how integrations fail on a Friday.
+
+## Examples are part of the contract
+
+One realistic request and response per endpoint answers more questions than the
+schema does, and a wrong example is caught immediately by anyone who tries it.

skills/backend/postgres-explain-analyze.md

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+---
+name: postgres-explain-analyze
+description: Reading an EXPLAIN ANALYZE plan to find why a query is slow, rather than adding indexes hopefully.
+when_to_use: A query is slow, or you want to confirm an index is actually used.
+tags: [backend, postgres]
+---
+
+# Read the plan; do not guess at indexes
+
+An index added without a plan is as likely to be unused as to help, and each one
+costs write throughput forever.
+
+## Always ANALYZE, and usually BUFFERS
+
+```sql
+EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS, FORMAT TEXT) SELECT ...;
+```
+
+`EXPLAIN` alone shows the planner's *estimate*. `ANALYZE` executes and shows
+what happened, which is the only thing worth reading. `BUFFERS` shows whether
+the data came from cache or disk — a "slow" query that is entirely
+`shared read` is an I/O problem, not a plan problem.
+
+Note that `ANALYZE` actually runs the statement. Wrap a mutation in a
+transaction you roll back.
+
+## Read it inside out, and look for two things
+
+Plans nest; the innermost node runs first. Scan for:
+
+1. **The largest `actual time`,** not the largest estimate. That is where the
+   time went.
+2. **Estimate versus actual rows.** `rows=10` with `actual rows=48000` is the
+   planner being wrong, and a wrong estimate is usually the *cause* of a bad
+   plan — it picked a nested loop because it expected ten rows. Fix the
+   statistics (`ANALYZE <table>`, or raise the statistics target) before touching
+   the query.
+
+## What the node types tell you
+
+- **Seq Scan** on a large table with a selective filter → a missing index, or a
+  filter the index cannot serve (a function on the column, a leading wildcard).
+- **Nested Loop** with a large outer side → usually the wrong-estimate problem
+  above; correct rows would have produced a hash join.
+- **Sort** with `Sort Method: external merge Disk` → `work_mem` too small, or an
+  index could provide the order for free.
+- **Bitmap Heap Scan** with high `Rows Removed by Filter` → the index found
+  candidates the table had to reject; consider a composite or partial index.
+
+## Confirm the index is used, not just present
+
+After adding one, re-run the plan. An index that does not appear is dead weight:
+it slows every write and helps nothing. Common causes are a type mismatch, a
+function on the column, or a column order that does not match the predicate —
+see `postgres-index-selection`.
+
+## Test against realistic data volume
+
+Plans change with size. Every plan is a Seq Scan on a thousand rows, and the
+planner is right to choose it. Validate on production-shaped data or the
+exercise is theatre.

skills/backend/postgres-integration-testing.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+---
+name: postgres-integration-testing
+description: Testing against a real Postgres rather than a mock, with isolation that survives parallel runs.
+when_to_use: You are the tester covering code that issues SQL.
+tags: [backend, testing, postgres]
+---
+
+# Mock the network, never the database
+
+A mocked database agrees with whatever the code believed. Constraints, cascades,
+transaction visibility, type coercion and the SQL itself are exactly the things
+that break, and a mock asserts none of them.
+
+## Isolation is the whole problem
+
+Parallel tests sharing a database interfere in ways that look like flaky code.
+Three workable strategies:
+
+1. **A fresh migrated database per test.** Cleanest and slowest. Right when the
+   suite is small or the schema is the thing under test.
+2. **A transaction per test, rolled back.** Fast and well isolated, but the code
+   under test cannot manage its own transactions — which rules it out for
+   anything testing commit behaviour.
+3. **Unique keys per test.** Every row keyed by a per-test uuid, no cleanup.
+   Scales well, and the leftover rows are useful when something fails.
+
+Pick one per suite and say which. Mixing them produces the failures each was
+meant to prevent.
+
+## Test what only a real database can tell you
+
+- **Constraints fire.** A unique violation, a FK failure, a check constraint —
+  assert the error, not just the happy path.
+- **Cascades do what you think.** `ON DELETE CASCADE` reaching further than
+  intended is a data-loss bug that only a real delete reveals.
+- **The migration applies to a populated table.** A migration tested on an empty
+  database has not been tested. Insert rows first, then migrate.
+- **Concurrent claims are atomic.** For any `FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED` queue,
+  run two workers and assert the row was claimed once.
+
+## Assert on the database, not only the return value
+
+A handler can return 200 while writing nothing. Read the row back and check it.
+The class of bug where the code "succeeded" and the data did not change is
+invisible to a test that only inspects the response.
+
+## Keep it fast enough to run
+
+An integration suite nobody runs protects nothing. Share one container across
+the suite rather than per test, run in parallel with proper isolation, and keep
+fixtures small — realistic in shape, not in volume.

skills/foundation/workspace-repo-commit-protocol.md

@@ -1,54 +1,77 @@
 ---
 name: workspace-repo-commit-protocol
-description: How to interact with /workspace/repo — the mission's checked-out codebase — and how to commit + push meaningful changes back.
+description: How to work inside /mission/repo — the mission's checked-out codebase — and how to commit meaningful changes back.
 when_to_use: You are a coder, committer, or any role that edits code. Pin this at turn start so you never lose orientation.
 tags: [foundation, coding, git]
 ---
 
-# Workspace repo + commit protocol
+# Mission repo + commit protocol
 
-You are running inside a mission's team container. The clawhdf5/backend/whatever repository the mission targets is bind-mounted at **`/workspace/repo`**. That is the ONLY path where source-modifying edits belong.
+The repository this mission targets is checked out at **`/mission/repo`**. That
+is the only path where source-modifying edits belong.
 
 ## Ground rules
 
-1. **`cd /workspace/repo` at the start of every substantive turn.** If you `pwd` and it isn't `/workspace/repo`, cd there first — your default CWD is the ZeroClaw agent workspace (`~/workspace`), which is scratch storage, not the codebase.
+1. **`cd /mission/repo` at the start of every substantive turn.** If you `pwd`
-2. **All `file_read` / `file_write` / `shell` calls that touch source use paths under `/workspace/repo`.** Anything else is scratch — the mission will not persist it.
+   and it is somewhere else, cd there first.
-3. **Never write files outside `/workspace/repo` and expect them to survive** — the agent workspace resets, `/tmp` is per-container ephemeral.
+2. **Every read and write that touches source uses a path under
+   `/mission/repo`.** Anything else is scratch and will not be delivered.
+3. On a mission with **no** repository, `/mission/repo` still exists and is
+   writable — it is a scratch workspace, every file you leave there is
+   collected when the phase ends and published as a mission artifact, and there
+   is nothing to commit or push. Your task text says which kind of mission this
+   is; believe it over any assumption.
+
+## Use the tool names your prompt gives you
+
+Your turn runs through Claude Code, so the tools are `Read`, `Edit`, `Write`,
+`Bash`, `Glob`, `Grep`. Your prompt lists them explicitly — use those names.
+
+Do not reach for `file_read`, `file_write`, `content_search` or `shell`. Those
+are ZeroClaw's names, they are not what your subprocess exposes, and agents that
+tried them spent whole turns describing the mismatch instead of working.
 
 ## Commit protocol
 
-When (and only when) you have a meaningful, tested change:
+When, and only when, you have a meaningful, tested change:
 
 ```
-cd /workspace/repo
+cd /mission/repo
-git status                              # sanity-check what you touched
+git status                              # what did you actually touch
-git diff --stat                         # confirm scope matches the plan
+git diff --stat                         # does the scope match the plan
 git add -A
 git commit -m "<INT-NN> <one-line title>
 
-<one-paragraph rationale — WHY, not what>
+<one paragraph on WHY, not what>
 
 Refs: INT-NN
 "
-git push
 ```
 
-- **Commit message uses the mission's INT-XX marker** on the subject line — the mission's task-card parser (Slice 5) advances state on it.
+- **Put the INT-XX marker on the subject line.** The task-card parser advances
-- **One INT per commit** unless the change genuinely can't be split; split-when-in-doubt.
+  mission state on it.
-- **Never `--force`, never rewrite pushed history** without an explicit `HANDOFF: safe to force-push` from the reviewer.
+- **One INT per commit** unless the change genuinely cannot be split. Split when
+  in doubt: a commit covering three items cannot be reverted for one of them.
+- **Never `--force`, never rewrite pushed history** without an explicit
+  `HANDOFF: safe to force-push` from the reviewer.
+- Push only if your task says to. Many missions deliver by having the platform
+  diff your checkout, and a phase that pushes when it should not is harder to
+  undo than one that did not push.
 
 ## When NOT to commit
 
-- Tests failing → fix or revert; never commit red.
+- Tests failing. Fix or revert; never commit red.
-- Reviewer emitted `REVIEW_BLOCK: INT-NN — <reason>` for the current item.
+- The reviewer emitted `REVIEW_BLOCK: INT-NN` for the current item.
-- The change is a WIP or exploratory — that lives in the agent's scratch workspace, not the repo.
+- The change is exploratory. That is not what the mission branch is for.
 
 ## Emit the completion marker
 
-After a successful push, on a line by itself:
+After the work is genuinely done, on a line by itself:
 
 ```
 COMPLETED: INT-NN
 ```
 
-The mission loop advances on that marker. If you didn't push, don't emit it.
+Exactly one INT id, no bold, no code fence — the parser takes the literal line
+and rejects anything else. The mission loop advances on it, so emitting one you
+cannot back up desynchronizes the mission from the repository.

skills/frontend/a11y-checklist.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+---
+name: a11y-checklist
+description: The accessibility checks that catch most real failures, and the ones automated tools cannot make for you.
+when_to_use: You are designing or testing a UI component or screen.
+tags: [frontend, accessibility]
+---
+
+# Automated checks find about a third
+
+Run axe, then do the four manual checks it cannot do. A clean axe report on an
+unusable interface is the normal outcome, not a rare one.
+
+## The four manual checks
+
+1. **Tab through it.** Every interactive element reachable, in a sensible order,
+   with a visible focus ring. If focus disappears into an offscreen element or a
+   closed menu, the page is unusable by keyboard — the single most common real
+   failure.
+2. **Operate it without a mouse.** Open the menu, pick an item, close it with
+   Escape. Dialogs trap focus while open and return it to the trigger on close.
+3. **Zoom to 200%.** Text reflows, nothing is clipped, nothing overlaps. This is
+   also the fastest way to find fixed-height containers that will break on a
+   phone.
+4. **Read it with a screen reader once.** VoiceOver on macOS, NVDA on Windows.
+   Five minutes on the main flow finds unlabelled buttons and images whose alt
+   text reads as a filename.
+
+## What axe does catch
+
+Colour contrast, missing form labels, missing alt attributes, ARIA misuse,
+duplicate ids, heading-level jumps. Run it in CI — these regress constantly and
+are cheap to fix at the point of change.
+
+## The rules that prevent most issues
+
+- **A button is a `<button>`.** A clickable `<div>` needs role, tabindex and
+  key handlers to be equivalent, and will get at least one of them wrong.
+- **Every input has a `<label>`** with `for`, not just a placeholder. A
+  placeholder disappears on focus, which is when it was needed.
+- **Never remove the focus outline without replacing it.** `outline: none` with
+  no substitute makes keyboard use impossible. Style it instead.
+- **Icon-only buttons need an accessible name** — `aria-label`. Otherwise the
+  screen reader announces "button".
+- **Don't announce with colour alone.** A red border with no text says nothing
+  to a colourblind user or a screen reader.
+
+## Motion
+
+Honour `prefers-reduced-motion`. Vestibular disorders are common and large
+parallax or transform animations genuinely make people ill. One media query
+disables the offending animations.

skills/frontend/playwright-e2e-patterns.md

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+---
+name: playwright-e2e-patterns
+description: Writing end-to-end tests that fail only when the product is broken — selectors, waiting, and isolation.
+when_to_use: You are the tester on a frontend team writing or fixing browser tests.
+tags: [frontend, testing]
+---
+
+# A flaky E2E test is worse than no E2E test
+
+It trains the team to re-run rather than investigate, and the day it catches a
+real bug, nobody believes it. Everything below is about determinism.
+
+## Select by what the user sees
+
+```ts
+page.getByRole("button", { name: "Save" })     // best
+page.getByLabel("Email")
+page.getByTestId("mission-card")               // when semantics genuinely absent
+page.locator(".btn-primary > span:nth-child(2)")  // never
+```
+
+Role and label selectors survive restyling and break when the UI genuinely
+changes meaning — which is exactly the failure you want. CSS-path selectors
+break on every refactor and pass while the button is invisible.
+
+## Never sleep
+
+```ts
+await page.waitForTimeout(2000);                       // flaky, always
+await expect(page.getByText("Saved")).toBeVisible();   // waits for the condition
+```
+
+Playwright's assertions retry until timeout. A fixed sleep is either longer than
+needed (slow suite) or shorter than needed on a loaded CI box (flake). There is
+no correct constant.
+
+For network, wait on the response rather than a duration:
+```ts
+const done = page.waitForResponse(r => r.url().includes("/api/missions"));
+await page.getByRole("button", { name: "Create" }).click();
+await done;
+```
+
+## Each test creates what it needs
+
+Tests that share a fixture pass in isolation and fail in parallel — or worse,
+pass in the order you wrote them and fail when one is skipped. Create the data
+in the test, key it with a unique id, and let cleanup be optional.
+
+## Assert the user-visible outcome
+
+Assert the success message and the row in the table, not the POST that fired.
+A test asserting the request passes while the response is silently discarded —
+which is precisely the bug the test existed to catch.
+
+## When a test fails, look at the trace
+
+`--trace on` records DOM snapshots, network and console for every step. Reading
+the trace takes a minute and answers the question; re-running takes a minute and
+answers nothing.

skills/gpu/criterion-benchmarking.md

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+---
+name: criterion-benchmarking
+description: Writing benchmarks whose numbers mean something — warmup, distributions, and the changes that are noise.
+when_to_use: You are asked to benchmark a change, or to show a performance claim is real.
+tags: [gpu, rust, benchmarking]
+---
+
+# A benchmark is an experiment
+
+Most performance claims fail not because the code is slow but because the
+measurement cannot support the claim.
+
+## What criterion does for you
+
+`criterion` runs the routine many times, discards warmup, and reports a
+confidence interval rather than a single number. Take that seriously: if the
+intervals for before and after overlap, **you have not measured an improvement**,
+whatever the point estimates say.
+
+```rust
+fn bench_search(c: &mut Criterion) {
+    let index = build_index(10_000);          // setup OUTSIDE the timed closure
+    c.bench_function("search/10k", |b| {
+        b.iter(|| index.search(black_box(&query), 10))
+    });
+}
+```
+
+Two mistakes this shape avoids:
+- **Setup inside `iter`** measures the setup. If the setup must be per-iteration,
+  use `iter_batched` so it is excluded.
+- **A missing `black_box`** lets the optimiser delete the work entirely. A
+  benchmark that got 400× faster after a refactor usually got deleted, not
+  optimised.
+
+## Report the shape, not the headline
+
+"34.7% faster" invites a follow-up question the number cannot answer. Give the
+distribution, the input size, and the machine. A change that is 30% faster at
+10k elements and 5% slower at 10M is a trade-off, and only the sweep shows it.
+
+## What is noise
+
+On a laptop, expect 5-10% run-to-run variance from thermal state and other
+processes alone. Treat anything under that as unmeasured. If a change is
+genuinely small but real, prove it by increasing iterations rather than by
+asserting it — and if that is too expensive, say the change was too small to
+measure rather than reporting the point estimate as fact.
+
+## Benchmarks are also regression tests
+
+The value is in the baseline. Record it (`--save-baseline`), compare against it
+(`--baseline`), and keep the numbers with the commit that produced them.
+`benchmark_snapshots` exists for exactly this — a benchmark whose history is
+lost measures nothing the next time.

skills/gpu/gpu-kernel-authoring.md

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+---
+name: gpu-kernel-authoring
+description: Writing the same kernel across CUDA, Metal and ROCm without three divergent implementations, and the FFI boundary back into Rust.
+when_to_use: You are the kernel author on a GPU team, adding or changing a compute kernel.
+tags: [gpu, kernels]
+---
+
+# One kernel, three dialects
+
+The three targets differ less than they appear. Thread indexing, memory scopes
+and barriers all map onto each other; what differs is spelling and launch
+configuration. Write the algorithm once, then port the spelling.
+
+| Concept | CUDA | Metal | ROCm/HIP |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| thread id | `threadIdx.x` | `thread_position_in_threadgroup` | `hipThreadIdx_x` |
+| block id | `blockIdx.x` | `threadgroup_position_in_grid` | `hipBlockIdx_x` |
+| shared mem | `__shared__` | `threadgroup` | `__shared__` |
+| barrier | `__syncthreads()` | `threadgroup_barrier(mem_flags::mem_threadgroup)` | `__syncthreads()` |
+| warp/wave | 32 | 32 (SIMD-group) | **64** on CDNA, 32 on RDNA |
+
+**The wave-size difference is the one that silently produces wrong answers.**
+Any kernel that assumes 32 lanes — a warp-shuffle reduction, a ballot, an
+implicit intra-warp sync — is incorrect on CDNA. Query it (`warpSize`,
+`[[threads_per_simdgroup]]`) rather than hardcoding, and never rely on implicit
+lockstep: it was never guaranteed on CUDA either since Volta's independent
+thread scheduling.
+
+## Get it correct on one target first
+
+Write the scalar CPU reference, then the first GPU version, and diff the outputs
+before porting anywhere. A kernel ported three ways from an unverified original
+gives you three wrong answers and no baseline to find them with.
+
+Compare with a tolerance derived from the operation, not a guess: float addition
+is not associative, so a parallel reduction legitimately differs from a
+sequential one. `1e-6` on an accumulation over a million elements is a failing
+test that is not a bug.
+
+## The FFI boundary
+
+Kernels are reached from Rust through `extern "C"`. Three rules that prevent the
+majority of crashes at this seam:
+
+- **Own the allocation on one side.** Device memory allocated in C and freed in
+  Rust's `Drop` — or the reverse — is a lifetime nobody can read. Wrap the
+  device pointer in a Rust type whose `Drop` calls the same allocator's free.
+- **Every launch returns a status; check it.** A kernel launch failure is
+  asynchronous and surfaces on the *next* synchronising call, so an unchecked
+  launch reports its error somewhere unrelated. Check after launch AND after
+  synchronise.
+- **`#[repr(C)]` on every struct crossing the boundary.** Rust's default layout
+  is unspecified and does change.
+
+## What to write down
+
+A kernel's launch geometry is a decision, not a constant: record why the block
+size is what it is (occupancy target, shared-memory budget, register pressure)
+next to it. The next person to change the shared-memory allocation needs to know
+the block size was chosen against it.

skills/gpu/gpu-profiling-workflow.md

@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+---
+name: gpu-profiling-workflow
+description: Using Nsight, rocprof and Metal frame capture to find where a kernel actually spends time, instead of guessing.
+when_to_use: You are the bench engineer on a GPU team and need to explain or improve a kernel's runtime.
+tags: [gpu, profiling]
+---
+
+# Measure the machine, not your model of it
+
+GPU intuition is unusually unreliable: the bottleneck is far more often memory
+movement or occupancy than arithmetic. Profile before changing anything.
+
+## Order of questions
+
+1. **Is the GPU busy at all?** Kernel time versus wall time. A "slow kernel"
+   that occupies 8% of wall time is a host-side or transfer problem, and no
+   amount of kernel tuning will show up.
+2. **Memory or compute bound?** Achieved bandwidth against the device peak, and
+   achieved FLOPs against peak. See `roofline-model` — the roofline tells you
+   which ceiling you are under, and therefore which optimisations can possibly
+   help.
+3. **Occupancy?** Only after 1 and 2. Occupancy is a means, not a goal: a
+   kernel at 40% occupancy saturating bandwidth is finished, and raising
+   occupancy will not make it faster.
+
+## The tools
+
+- **Nsight Compute** (`ncu`) — per-kernel counters. Start with
+  `--set full` on ONE kernel invocation, not the whole run; it serialises and
+  replays kernels, so a full-application profile takes minutes and changes the
+  timing you were trying to measure.
+- **Nsight Systems** (`nsys`) — the timeline. This is where question 1 is
+  answered: gaps between kernels, host-device copies, stream serialisation.
+  Use it *first*; `ncu` optimises a kernel that `nsys` may show is irrelevant.
+- **rocprof** — the ROCm equivalent. `--stats` for the summary,
+  `--hip-trace`/`--hsa-trace` for the timeline.
+- **Metal frame capture** — Xcode's GPU capture. Per-encoder timings and the
+  shader profiler's per-line cost. It is a *frame* capture: for compute work,
+  bracket the dispatch in a capture scope explicitly or you get nothing.
+
+## Warm up, and say what you measured
+
+First-call timings include JIT compilation, allocator growth and page faults —
+routinely 10-100× the steady state. Discard warmup iterations and report a
+distribution, not a single number: a median with a spread tells the reader
+whether the change is real. See `criterion-benchmarking` for the statistics.
+
+Record the device, driver version and clock state alongside the number. GPUs
+throttle; a measurement without its conditions cannot be compared to the one
+you take next month.

skills/mobile/mobile-e2e-and-simulators.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+---
+name: mobile-e2e-and-simulators
+description: Running mobile tests that mean something — simulator versus device, and what only fails on real hardware.
+when_to_use: You are the tester on a mobile team setting up or debugging end-to-end runs.
+tags: [mobile, testing]
+---
+
+# The simulator is not the device
+
+Simulators are excellent for layout and flow, and actively misleading for
+anything touching hardware, permissions or performance. Know which question you
+are answering.
+
+## What the simulator answers honestly
+
+Layout across screen sizes, navigation flows, most business logic, accessibility
+labels, localisation. Run these in CI on simulators — they are fast, parallel and
+deterministic.
+
+## What only a real device answers
+
+- **Performance.** A simulator uses your host CPU and GPU. Frame rate, memory
+  pressure and battery there are meaningless.
+- **Permissions and their denial paths.** The interesting flow is "user said no",
+  and simulator permission behaviour differs.
+- **Camera, GPS, biometrics, push.** Approximated or absent.
+- **Network transitions.** Wi-Fi to cellular, offline, captive portals. This is
+  where the network layer's assumptions surface.
+- **Keyboard behaviour.** Third-party keyboards and predictive input change
+  layout in ways the simulator's keyboard does not.
+
+## Determinism in E2E
+
+The mobile equivalents of the browser rules: select by accessibility id rather
+than by position, wait on conditions rather than durations, and reset app state
+between tests. A test depending on the previous test's leftover state is the
+most common cause of a suite that passes locally and fails in CI.
+
+Cold start versus warm start matters more than on web: a test that only ever
+runs warm never exercises launch-path initialisation, which is where a
+surprising share of crashes live.
+
+## Keep the CI matrix honest
+
+Two simulators — the smallest supported and the newest — catch most layout
+regressions cheaply. Add one physical device for the release candidate, not for
+every commit; a device farm on every push is expensive and rarely finds what the
+simulator missed except on the axes listed above.
+
+## Record which it was
+
+A test result without its target is unactionable. "Passed on iPhone 15 simulator,
+iOS 18" and "passed on a physical Pixel 6" are different claims, and only the
+second one says anything about performance.

skills/mobile/mobile-platform-conventions.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+---
+name: mobile-platform-conventions
+description: Where iOS and Android genuinely differ in expected behaviour, and where a shared design is fine.
+when_to_use: You are designing a screen or flow that ships on both iOS and Android.
+tags: [mobile, design]
+---
+
+# Share the layout, respect the platform where it is muscle memory
+
+Most of a design ports unchanged. A small number of behaviours are so deeply
+learned that violating them reads as a bug rather than a style.
+
+## The differences that actually matter
+
+| | iOS | Android |
+|---|---|---|
+| Back | swipe from left edge; back button top-left | system back gesture/button — **must** work |
+| Primary nav | tab bar, bottom | bottom nav bar (or drawer) |
+| Destructive confirm | action sheet from bottom | dialog, centred |
+| Text input done | "Done" / return key | often the system back dismisses |
+| Sharing | share sheet | share intent |
+
+**System back is the one to get right.** On Android, back must always do
+something sensible: close the sheet, pop the screen, and at the root, exit.
+A screen that traps back is broken in a way users will not report — they will
+just leave.
+
+## Safe areas are not optional
+
+Notches, dynamic islands, home indicators and rounded corners all intrude.
+Anything within 16pt of an edge needs safe-area insets, not fixed padding. Test
+on a device with a notch and one without.
+
+## Touch targets
+
+44pt minimum on iOS, 48dp on Android. This is the most frequently violated rule
+in dense interfaces and the most frequently reported as "the app feels
+unreliable" rather than as a size problem.
+
+## What NOT to differentiate
+
+Content layout, spacing scale, typography hierarchy, colour and iconography can
+and should be shared. Building two visual designs doubles the work and the bugs
+for a difference users do not notice, and it is the usual reason a "platform
+conventions" pass runs over.
+
+## Test on the smallest supported device
+
+Layouts are usually designed on a large phone and break on a small one, not the
+reverse. The smallest supported screen at the largest system font size is the
+worst case, and it takes one simulator run to check.

skills/platform/brain-file-reading.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+---
+name: brain-file-reading
+description: What is actually inside a claw's .brain, which sections reach a prompt, and which are stored but never read.
+when_to_use: You are inspecting an agent's brain to judge whether its definition matches what it does.
+tags: [platform, brain]
+---
+
+# The brain is one HDF5 file, and most of it is not in the prompt
+
+A `.brain` is a key/value store (`cm-brain`) holding an agent's definition. The
+important thing to know before drawing conclusions from one: **stored is not the
+same as used**.
+
+## The sections
+
+| key | reaches the model? |
+|---|---|
+| `identity/system_prompt` | **yes** — the system prompt |
+| `identity/persona` | no |
+| `identity/agent_md` | no — "how I operate", stored only |
+| `identity/soul_md` | only as a fallback when `system_prompt` is empty |
+| `skills/<name>` | via the role's bound skills, not from here |
+| `tools/<name>` | state (`gated`/`blocked`), not prose |
+| `memory/<ts_nanos>` | **yes, on the chat path** — recalled by keyword |
+| `runtime/clawmates` | no — opaque JSON |
+| `provenance/clawmates` | no — **a wired slot with no callers** |
+
+`persona` and `agent_md` being stored-but-unused is deliberate and easy to
+misread: an agent whose `agent_md` describes careful behaviour it does not
+exhibit is not disobeying — it never saw it.
+
+## Memory is chat-only
+
+`remember`/`recall` are driven from the chat turn path. **Mission and phase work
+never touches the brain**, so an agent that did a week of mission work has an
+empty memory section. Do not conclude from that it did nothing.
+
+Recall is BM25 keyword, not semantic: a memory phrased differently from the
+query will not surface. "The agent forgot" is more often "the query did not
+share words with the memory".
+
+## Read the revisions, not just the current state
+
+The brain is versioned (`.onion` sidecar, `commit`/`revisions`/`rollback`). The
+history shows what was changed and by what — seeding, a level-up consolidation,
+a human edit. A brain whose only revision is the seed has never been improved,
+which is a finding about the loop, not about the agent.
+
+## What to report
+
+Whether the definition and the behaviour agree, and which section is responsible.
+"The system prompt says X, the agent did Y" is actionable. "The brain contains
+X" is not, until you have said whether X reaches the model at all.

skills/platform/level-up-proposal-shape.md

@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+---
+name: level-up-proposal-shape
+description: Writing an agent-improvement proposal that a human can accept or reject on the evidence, not on the prose.
+when_to_use: You are proposing a change to an agent's definition, skills or model.
+tags: [platform, brain]
+---
+
+# A proposal is an argument with evidence attached
+
+Level-up proposals go to a human review gate. The gate is the safety mechanism,
+so a proposal that cannot be judged quickly either gets rubber-stamped or
+ignored — both failures.
+
+## The shape
+
+```
+OBSERVATION   what the agent did, with a run or event to point at
+DIAGNOSIS     which part of the definition caused it
+CHANGE        the exact edit — the new text, not a description of it
+EXPECTED      what will differ next time, observably
+RISK          what this could make worse
+```
+
+`EXPECTED` is what makes the proposal checkable later. "Better research quality"
+cannot be verified; "will cite the file it changed, as `paper-to-project-relevance`
+requires" can.
+
+## Point at evidence that will still exist
+
+`mission_events` is retained for **seven days**. A proposal citing an event
+older than that points at nothing by the time anyone re-reads it. Quote the
+relevant text inline rather than referencing an id alone.
+
+## Prefer the smallest edit that could work
+
+A rewritten system prompt is unreviewable — a human cannot tell which of forty
+changed lines caused the next difference in behaviour. One change per proposal,
+so the outcome attributes to something.
+
+## Say which layer
+
+The same symptom has different fixes at different layers, and naming the wrong
+one wastes a review cycle:
+
+- **System prompt** — the agent's standing identity and constraints.
+- **Skill** — a procedure it should follow when a situation arises.
+- **Model** — capability, when the agent understood the task and could not do it.
+- **Nothing** — the task was ambiguous and the agent behaved reasonably.
+
+"Nothing" is a legitimate proposal outcome and should be written when it is true.
+
+## Reject-worthy proposals
+
+If you cannot name the observation, or the change is "be more careful", it is
+not a proposal. Vague instructions do not change behaviour, and they accumulate
+in the prompt where they crowd out the specific ones that do.

skills/platform/metrics-baseline-comparison.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+---
+name: metrics-baseline-comparison
+description: Judging whether an agent or system change actually improved anything, against a baseline that existed first.
+when_to_use: You are evaluating whether a change to an agent, prompt or model made things better.
+tags: [platform, evaluation]
+---
+
+# Without a baseline there is no comparison, only an anecdote
+
+The most common failure in agent evaluation is measuring after the change and
+comparing against a memory of before.
+
+## Record the baseline before changing anything
+
+Whatever the metric — task success, tokens per task, wall clock, human
+corrections — capture it on the current system first, over enough runs to see
+the spread. Agent runs are high variance: two runs of the same task on the same
+prompt can differ enormously, so a single before and a single after tells you
+nothing.
+
+## Compare like with like
+
+Hold constant everything you are not testing: the task set, the model, the
+runtime tier, the repository state. `MemoryLake on MemoryArena` is the shape to
+copy — same framework, same model alias, same task samples, same scoring code,
+with the memory backend the intentionally changed component.
+
+If two things changed, the result attributes to neither.
+
+## Variance first, effect second
+
+Run the *unchanged* system several times to learn the noise floor. An
+improvement smaller than the run-to-run spread has not been demonstrated,
+however good the story is. This one discipline invalidates most informal agent
+comparisons, including ones made in good faith.
+
+## Report the distribution and the n
+
+"9 of 40" is honest and comparable. "Significantly better" is neither. Give the
+count, the denominator and the spread, and say how many runs each side had.
+
+## Beware the metric becoming the target
+
+An agent optimised against a judge learns the judge. If the measure is a model's
+verdict, keep an independent check — a different provider family, or a
+deterministic assertion the agent cannot talk its way past. A rising score with
+flat real-world outcomes is the signal that this has happened.
+
+## A negative result is a result
+
+"No measurable difference" is worth recording and prevents the change being
+proposed again in three months. Most changes do not help; a process that only
+reports wins is not measuring.

skills/research/prior-art-search.md

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+---
+name: prior-art-search
+description: Establishing whether an idea is new, and finding the work that already did it before you build.
+when_to_use: You are checking novelty before proposing or building something.
+tags: [research, search]
+---
+
+# Assume it has been done, and go looking
+
+The default hypothesis for any idea is that someone published it. Searching to
+confirm novelty is a different activity from searching to find prior work, and
+only the second one is honest.
+
+## Search the mechanism, not your name for it
+
+Your framing is unlikely to match the literature's. Decompose into the
+mechanism and search that:
+
+> "agent memory that remembers what it already read"
+>   → deduplication, seen-set, incremental corpus, novelty detection,
+>     continual retrieval
+
+Three or four vocabularies, each searched separately. A single-phrase search
+returning nothing is evidence about your phrasing, not about the field.
+
+## Follow citations in both directions
+
+- **Backwards**: the related-work section of the closest paper you find is a
+  curated survey someone else already did.
+- **Forwards**: who cites it. This is where the field's response lives — a
+  strong result from two years ago that nobody cites was probably not
+  reproducible, and that is worth knowing before you build on it.
+
+Two hops in each direction from one well-chosen paper covers a field faster than
+any keyword sweep.
+
+## The negative result is the deliverable
+
+If the search finds it has been done, say so plainly and stop. That is a
+successful search that saved the build. The failure mode is a search that
+concludes "novel" because the searcher wanted to build it.
+
+## Record the search, not just the conclusion
+
+Which terms, which databases, which date range, and what was found. A novelty
+claim without its search is unfalsifiable, and six months later nobody can tell
+whether the field moved or the search was thin.

skills/research/scientific-writing-conventions.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+---
+name: scientific-writing-conventions
+description: Structure, hedging and claim discipline for a technical write-up that will be read by people who will check it.
+when_to_use: You are drafting a paper, a technical report, or any document making empirical claims.
+tags: [research, writing]
+---
+
+# Write so a sceptic can check you
+
+The reader's question is "is this true?" Every convention below exists to let
+them answer it without asking you.
+
+## Structure
+
+```
+ABSTRACT     problem, what you did, headline result WITH its number
+INTRO        why this matters, what was missing, contributions as a list
+METHOD       enough that a competent reader could reimplement it
+RESULTS      what happened, including what did not work
+DISCUSSION   what it means, what it does not, threats to validity
+```
+
+Contributions belong as an explicit list. If you cannot write three sentences
+each starting "we show that...", the work is not finished.
+
+## Hedge exactly as much as the evidence hedges
+
+Both directions are failures. "Our method improves retrieval" from one dataset
+overclaims; "may potentially suggest a possible improvement" for a result with
+tight confidence intervals underclaims and reads as though you do not trust your
+own experiment.
+
+Match the language to the strength:
+- measured, with intervals, replicated → *shows*, *demonstrates*
+- measured once, single configuration → *indicates on X*
+- consistent with, not directly tested → *is consistent with*
+
+## Every number carries its conditions
+
+A number without its dataset, configuration and variance is not a result. Put
+them in the sentence or the table, never in a paragraph three pages away.
+
+## Threats to validity is not a formality
+
+State the ways you could be wrong: one seed, one hardware target, a benchmark
+your method was tuned on, a baseline you implemented yourself. A reviewer will
+find these; a paper that names them first is far more credible than one that
+lets them be discovered.
+
+## Say what you did not do
+
+Scope limits are part of the contribution. "We do not evaluate on multilingual
+corpora" prevents a reader assuming you did and finding out later — which costs
+you far more credibility than the limitation itself.

skills/research/structured-paper-summary.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+---
+name: structured-paper-summary
+description: Reading a paper for what it demonstrates rather than what it claims, and writing the summary in a fixed shape.
+when_to_use: You are summarising a research paper for a digest, a brief, or a decision.
+tags: [research, reading]
+---
+
+# Summarise the evidence, not the abstract
+
+An abstract is the authors' pitch. The summary that is worth writing states what
+was actually demonstrated, on what, against what — and where those differ from
+the claim, that difference is the most valuable line in your summary.
+
+## The shape
+
+```
+CLAIM       what the authors say they show, one sentence
+METHOD      what they actually did — the experiment, not the framing
+EVIDENCE    dataset, baselines, headline numbers, and what was NOT tested
+STRENGTH    strong / suggestive / anecdotal, with the reason
+BEARING     which of our problems this touches, or none
+```
+
+`BEARING: none` is a complete and useful entry. Most papers do not apply.
+
+## Read these four things first
+
+1. **The baselines.** A method that beats a weak baseline has shown almost
+   nothing. Check whether the comparison is against the current standard or
+   against a version of it the authors implemented.
+2. **The dataset size and shape.** A result on a million short web snippets may
+   not survive on ten thousand long documents. Note the scale explicitly — it is
+   the most common reason a transferable-looking result does not transfer.
+3. **The ablations.** A paper with no ablation has not shown which part of its
+   contribution matters. If they claim four components and ablate none, treat
+   the mechanism as unproven even if the number is real.
+4. **What is missing.** No error bars, one seed, one hardware configuration, no
+   negative results — each weakens the claim, and none of them appear in the
+   abstract.
+
+## Numbers with their conditions or not at all
+
+"12% better recall" is unusable. "12% better recall at k=10 on SIFT1M against
+HNSW with M=16" can be checked, transferred or dismissed. If the conditions are
+not in the paper, that is itself the finding.
+
+## Say what would change your mind
+
+The most useful line for a reader deciding whether to act: what result would
+make this wrong, and did the authors test it? A summary that a reader can act on
+tells them where the risk is, not just what the number was.

skills/research/web-search-triage.md

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+---
+name: web-search-triage
+description: Deciding fast which search results are worth reading, and recognising the ones that are restating each other.
+when_to_use: You are sweeping the open web for signal on a topic rather than reading a known source.
+tags: [research, search]
+---
+
+# Most results restate a smaller number of sources
+
+The web's response to any technical development is a primary source and then
+many summaries of it. Triage is mostly about finding the primary source and
+recognising the rest as one item.
+
+## Rank by distance from the primary source
+
+```
+0   the paper, the spec, the commit, the release notes
+1   the author's own blog post or thread
+2   a technical write-up that adds analysis or reproduction
+3   a summary of (2)
+4   an aggregator restating (3)
+```
+
+Read 0 and 1. Read 2 only when it adds something the primary source did not — a
+reproduction, a benchmark, a counter-argument. Everything at 3 and below is the
+same item and should be recorded once, if at all.
+
+## Signals that a page is worth reading
+
+- It contains a number, a diff, or a reproduction someone else could run.
+- It disagrees with the primary source and says why.
+- It is dated, and the date is recent enough to be about the current version.
+
+## Signals to skip
+
+- No date, or a date that is silently the crawl date.
+- Contains "revolutionary", "game-changing", or a numbered list of tools.
+- Restates the abstract without adding a measurement.
+- The claim is entirely in the title and the body never returns to it.
+
+## Undated is a finding
+
+For fast-moving topics, a page without a date cannot be triaged at all — the
+same sentence can be current or two years stale. Treat undated as low priority
+regardless of quality, and say so, rather than reading it and being unable to
+place it.
+
+## Stop deliberately
+
+Sweeping has no natural end. Decide the budget first — "the top three primary
+sources per subtopic" — and stop there. An exhaustive sweep that never reports
+is worth less than a bounded one that does.

skills/threejs/scene-graph-planning.md

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+---
+name: scene-graph-planning
+description: Structuring a three.js scene graph so transforms, culling and disposal stay tractable as it grows.
+when_to_use: You are the scene designer laying out a three.js scene before objects are built.
+tags: [threejs, architecture]
+---
+
+# The graph decides what is cheap later
+
+Scene-graph shape determines transform cost, culling effectiveness and whether
+teardown is possible. All three are painful to change once content exists.
+
+## Group by what moves together, not by what looks similar
+
+Every `Object3D` with a dirty transform forces a matrix recomputation down its
+subtree. A graph grouped by *material* or by *asset file* means moving one
+object dirties unrelated branches. Grouped by motion, a static branch stays
+clean for the life of the scene.
+
+```
+world
+├── static        ← matrixAutoUpdate = false, set once
+│   ├── terrain
+│   └── props
+└── dynamic
+    ├── player
+    └── vehicles
+```
+
+`matrixAutoUpdate = false` on the static branch removes it from per-frame
+traversal entirely. This is usually the single largest CPU win in a scene with
+many objects, and it costs one line.
+
+## Frustum culling works on bounding volumes, not intent
+
+Culling is per-`Mesh` against its bounding sphere. Two consequences:
+
+- **A merged mesh cannot be partially culled.** Merging 500 props into one draw
+  call also means all 500 are drawn whenever any part is on screen. Merge by
+  spatial locality, not by material alone.
+- **A wrong bounding volume silently misbehaves.** After deforming geometry,
+  call `computeBoundingSphere()`, or the object pops out of view when its
+  stale sphere leaves the frustum.
+
+## Plan disposal with the graph
+
+WebGL resources are not garbage collected. Every geometry, material and texture
+needs an explicit `dispose()`. If ownership is not planned into the graph, a
+scene swap leaks GPU memory until the tab dies — see `threejs-perf-and-teardown`.
+
+The rule that makes this tractable: **one owner per resource**, recorded where
+it is created. A texture shared by twenty materials is disposed once, by the
+thing that loaded it, not by whichever material is torn down first.
+
+## Depth is not free
+
+Deep hierarchies cost traversal on every frame. Prefer a shallow graph with
+explicit groups over mirroring an asset's exported nesting, which is usually an
+artefact of how it was modelled rather than how it behaves.

skills/threejs/shader-authoring-glsl-wgsl.md

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+---
+name: shader-authoring-glsl-wgsl
+description: Writing GLSL and WGSL shaders that compile on both, and the precision and uniform traps that only appear on some hardware.
+when_to_use: You are the shader author on a three.js/WebGL team, writing or porting a shader.
+tags: [threejs, shaders]
+---
+
+# GLSL and WGSL are the same ideas, spelled differently
+
+WebGL2 takes GLSL ES 3.0; WebGPU takes WGSL. Porting is mostly mechanical, and
+the mechanical parts are not where the bugs are.
+
+| | GLSL ES 3.0 | WGSL |
+|---|---|---|
+| entry | `void main()` | `@fragment fn fs_main(...) -> @location(0) vec4f` |
+| varyings | `in`/`out` at global scope | struct fields with `@location(n)` |
+| uniforms | `uniform` block | `var<uniform>` in a bind group |
+| texture | `texture(sampler2D, uv)` | `textureSample(t, s, uv)` — texture and sampler are SEPARATE |
+| vec | `vec3` | `vec3f` (alias of `vec3<f32>`) |
+
+The separated texture/sampler split is the one that changes structure: WGSL
+binds them independently, so a GLSL shader using four samplers becomes four
+textures plus (often) one shared sampler.
+
+## Precision is not decoration
+
+`mediump` in a fragment shader means **at least** 10 bits of mantissa, and on
+mobile GPUs it means exactly that. A computation that is fine on a desktop
+where `mediump` is silently promoted to 32-bit will band, banding-clamp or
+NaN on a phone.
+
+Rules that avoid the whole class:
+- World-space positions and time accumulators are `highp`. Always. A `mediump`
+  time uniform visibly stutters within minutes of page load.
+- Normalise in `highp`, then downcast.
+- Test on a real mobile device or an emulator that honours precision. Desktop
+  Chrome will not show you this bug.
+
+## Uniforms are a budget
+
+Each uniform, varying and texture unit is a hardware-limited slot, and the
+limits are much lower than desktop defaults suggest (`MAX_VARYING_VECTORS` can
+be 8). Pack related scalars into a `vec4` rather than declaring four floats, and
+query the limits rather than assuming.
+
+## Shader compile errors are silent by default
+
+three.js logs a compile failure to the console and renders black. That is
+indistinguishable from a material bug, a camera bug or a culling bug. When
+something renders black, check the shader log FIRST — it is a two-second check
+that eliminates a large fraction of the search space.
+
+Keep a flat-colour fallback: a shader that fails to compile should show
+magenta, never black. Black is a colour the scene might legitimately be;
+magenta is not.

skills/threejs/webgl-frame-profiling.md

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+---
+name: webgl-frame-profiling
+description: Finding what actually costs a frame — draw calls, overdraw, shader cost — using Chrome DevTools and Spector.js.
+when_to_use: You are the performance engineer on a three.js/WebGL team and a scene is dropping frames.
+tags: [threejs, profiling]
+---
+
+# Find the frame's real cost before changing the scene
+
+A dropped frame has a small number of possible causes and they are
+distinguishable in minutes. Guessing usually leads to optimising geometry when
+the cost was overdraw, or the reverse.
+
+## The order
+
+1. **CPU or GPU?** Chrome DevTools Performance panel: record 5 seconds of the
+   stall. Long scripting bars mean the CPU is the problem (scene-graph
+   traversal, matrix updates, garbage). A near-idle main thread with dropped
+   frames means the GPU is.
+2. **How many draw calls?** `renderer.info.render.calls`. Anything in the
+   thousands is the answer on its own — instance, merge, or batch by material.
+   `renderer.info` is free and should be on screen during development.
+3. **Overdraw?** Spector.js captures a frame and lists every GL call in order.
+   Transparent objects drawn back-to-front over the whole viewport are the
+   usual culprit; the same scene with `transparent: false` running fast
+   confirms it in one test.
+4. **Shader cost?** Only now. Halve the canvas resolution: if the frame time
+   halves, you are fragment-bound and the shader (or overdraw) is the cost. If
+   it does not move, you are not.
+
+## The resolution test is the cheapest diagnostic
+
+`renderer.setPixelRatio(1)` versus `2` changes fragment work 4× and geometry
+work not at all. That one toggle separates vertex/CPU cost from fragment cost
+faster than any profiler, and it needs no tooling.
+
+## What Spector.js is for
+
+It is a *capture*, not a sampler: one frame, every call, with state at each
+step. Use it to answer "what is this frame actually doing" — unexpected state
+changes, redundant binds, a texture uploaded per frame — not to measure time.
+For time, use the DevTools timeline.
+
+## Measure the steady state
+
+The first seconds include shader compilation, texture upload and JIT warmup.
+three.js compiles a material's program on first use, so a stutter the first time
+an object becomes visible is a compile, not a leak. Pre-warm with
+`renderer.compile(scene, camera)` and profile after.
+
+Record the device and the pixel ratio with any number you report. A frame time
+without a resolution is not a measurement.

templates/teams/backend.toml

@@ -4,13 +4,13 @@ description      = "Rust backend teams — Postgres, DuckDB, graph databases, AP
 stack            = ["rust", "postgres", "duckdb", "graph", "api", "middleware"]
 default_topology = "pipeline"
 risk_profile     = "coding_readwrite"
-mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "gitea_forge"]
+mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
 version          = 1
 
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "api_designer"
 order_idx       = 0
-skills = ["decompose-int-items", "openapi_schema", "small-focused-commits", "api-pagination-day-1"]
+skills = ["decompose-int-items", "openapi-contract-first", "small-focused-commits", "api-pagination-day-1"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the API DESIGNER of a Backend team.
 
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ brain_seed      = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "db_engineer"
 order_idx       = 1
-skills = ["postgres-migrations-forward-only", "postgres-index-selection", "explain_analyze", "write-rust-current-edition", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
+skills = ["postgres-migrations-forward-only", "postgres-index-selection", "postgres-explain-analyze", "write-rust-current-edition", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the DB ENGINEER of a Backend team.
 
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ brain_seed      = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "coder"
 order_idx       = 2
-skills = ["write-rust-current-edition", "cargo_build", "cargo-test-driven-development", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker-protocol", "rust-error-handling", "rust-async-tokio-idioms"]
+skills = ["write-rust-current-edition", "cargo-test-driven-development", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker-protocol", "rust-error-handling", "rust-async-tokio-idioms"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the CODER of a Backend team.
 
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ brain_seed = ""
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "tester"
 order_idx       = 3
-skills = ["cargo-test-driven-development", "integration_tests_pg", "coverage_report", "tdd-red-green-refactor"]
+skills = ["cargo-test-driven-development", "postgres-integration-testing", "tdd-red-green-refactor"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the TESTER of a Backend team.
 

templates/teams/codebase_research.toml

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ stack            = ["research", "code-forensics", "obsidian", "documentation"]
 category         = "research"
 default_topology = "pipeline"
 risk_profile     = "research_readonly"
-mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills", "gitea_forge"]
+mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
 version          = 1
 
 [[roles]]
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ brain_seed      = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "architecture_mapper"
 order_idx       = 1
-skills = ["ast-grep-repo-index", "dependency-graph", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
+skills = ["ast-grep-repo-index", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the ARCHITECTURE MAPPER of a Codebase Research team.
 

templates/teams/continuous_improvement.toml

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ version          = 1
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "brain_inspector"
 order_idx       = 0
-skills = ["brain-file-reading", "role-purpose-audit", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
+skills = ["brain-file-reading", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the BRAIN INSPECTOR of a Continuous Improvement team.
 
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ brain_seed      = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "improvement_proposer"
 order_idx       = 1
-skills = ["level-up-proposal-shape", "brain-consolidation", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
+skills = ["level-up-proposal-shape", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the IMPROVEMENT PROPOSER of a Continuous Improvement team.
 

templates/teams/continuous_research.toml

@@ -5,11 +5,16 @@ stack            = ["research", "papers", "digest", "obsidian", "podcast"]
 category         = "research"
 default_topology = "pipeline"
 risk_profile     = "research_readonly"
-# `web_fetch` was declared here and is INERT: runtime_provision.rs binds every
+# This field IS now read. `runtime_provision::provision_claw` used to write the
-# mission claw to `mcp_bundles = ["clawmates_door"]` and never reads this field.
+# constant `["clawmates_door"]` and ignore it — which is how every skill in the
-# Agents reach a paper with `curl` through Bash instead, which the prompts say.
+# catalogue became unreachable from a mission, since the `clawmates_skills` MCP
-# Listing a bundle that does not arrive is how a role ends up instructed to use
+# server is their only delivery channel. It now provisions what is listed here,
-# a tool it does not have.
+# with the door always added.
+#
+# `web_fetch` was removed rather than kept: there is no such bundle to deliver,
+# and now that this list is honoured, naming one that does not exist is worse
+# than naming one that was ignored. Agents reach a paper with `curl` through
+# Bash, which the prompts say.
 mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
 version          = 2
 

templates/teams/frontend.toml

@@ -4,13 +4,13 @@ description      = "Latest React + TailwindCSS + ShadCN — component authoring,
 stack            = ["typescript", "react", "tailwindcss", "shadcn", "next"]
 default_topology = "pipeline"
 risk_profile     = "coding_readwrite"
-mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "gitea_forge"]
+mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
 version          = 1
 
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "designer"
 order_idx       = 0
-skills = ["decompose-int-items", "design_system_check", "a11y_checklist"]
+skills = ["decompose-int-items", "a11y-checklist"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the DESIGNER of a Frontend team.
 
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ brain_seed = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "coder"
 order_idx       = 1
-skills = ["write_typescript_react", "tailwind-v4-idioms", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker-protocol", "component-4-state-model", "react-19-server-components"]
+skills = ["tailwind-v4-idioms", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker-protocol", "component-4-state-model", "react-19-server-components"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the CODER of a Frontend team.
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ brain_seed = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "tester"
 order_idx       = 2
-skills = ["playwright_e2e", "vitest_unit", "a11y_axe", "tdd-red-green-refactor"]
+skills = ["playwright-e2e-patterns", "a11y-checklist", "tdd-red-green-refactor"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the TESTER of a Frontend team.
 

templates/teams/gpu.toml

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ description      = "CUDA, Metal, ROCm from Rust — low-level GPU application de
 stack            = ["rust", "cuda", "metal", "rocm", "gpu"]
 default_topology = "pipeline"
 risk_profile     = "coding_readwrite"
-mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "gitea_forge"]
+mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
 version          = 1
 
 [[roles]]
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ brain_seed = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "kernel_author"
 order_idx       = 1
-skills = ["write_cuda", "write_metal", "write_rocm", "write_rust_ffi", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
+skills = ["gpu-kernel-authoring", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the KERNEL AUTHOR of a GPU team.
 
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ brain_seed = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "bench_engineer"
 order_idx       = 2
-skills = ["nsight_profile", "metal_frame_capture", "rocprof", "criterion_bench"]
+skills = ["gpu-profiling-workflow", "criterion-benchmarking"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the BENCH ENGINEER of a GPU team.
 
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ brain_seed = ""
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "coder"
 order_idx       = 3
-skills = ["write-rust-current-edition", "cargo_build", "cargo-test-driven-development", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker-protocol"]
+skills = ["write-rust-current-edition", "cargo-test-driven-development", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the RUST-SIDE CODER. Integrate the kernel + FFI into the Rust
 library, add safe wrappers, and expose ergonomic APIs. Own the

templates/teams/insight_research.toml

@@ -5,13 +5,15 @@ stack            = ["research", "novelty", "publication", "obsidian", "citation-
 category         = "research"
 default_topology = "pipeline"
 risk_profile     = "research_readonly"
-mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills", "web_fetch"]
+# `web_fetch` removed: no such bundle is defined, and provision_claw now
+# honours this list — agents reach a page with `curl` through Bash.
+mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
 version          = 1
 
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "implementation_tracker"
 order_idx       = 0
-skills = ["git-log-forensics", "paper-citation-parsing", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
+skills = ["git-log-forensics", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the IMPLEMENTATION TRACKER of an Insight Research team.
 
@@ -85,7 +87,7 @@ brain_seed      = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "publication_drafter"
 order_idx       = 2
-skills = ["scientific-writing-conventions", "figure-planning", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "small-focused-commits"]
+skills = ["scientific-writing-conventions", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "small-focused-commits"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the PUBLICATION DRAFTER of an Insight Research team.
 

templates/teams/mobile.toml

@@ -4,13 +4,13 @@ description      = "Expo + React Native for iOS/Android — camera, comms, netwo
 stack            = ["typescript", "react-native", "expo", "ios", "android"]
 default_topology = "pipeline"
 risk_profile     = "coding_readwrite"
-mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "gitea_forge"]
+mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
 version          = 1
 
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "designer"
 order_idx       = 0
-skills = ["decompose-int-items", "ios_hig_check", "material_you_check"]
+skills = ["decompose-int-items", "mobile-platform-conventions"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the DESIGNER of a Mobile team.
 
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ brain_seed = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "coder"
 order_idx       = 1
-skills = ["write_typescript_react_native", "expo-managed-vs-bare", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker-protocol", "component-4-state-model", "rn-flashlist-perf"]
+skills = ["expo-managed-vs-bare", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker-protocol", "component-4-state-model", "rn-flashlist-perf"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the CODER of a Mobile team.
 
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ brain_seed = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "tester"
 order_idx       = 2
-skills = ["detox_e2e", "jest_unit", "ios_simulator_check", "android_emulator_check", "tdd-red-green-refactor"]
+skills = ["mobile-e2e-and-simulators", "tdd-red-green-refactor"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the TESTER of a Mobile team.
 

templates/teams/papers_research.toml

@@ -5,13 +5,15 @@ stack            = ["research", "papers", "arxiv", "obsidian", "library"]
 category         = "research"
 default_topology = "pipeline"
 risk_profile     = "research_web_readonly"
-mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills", "web_fetch"]
+# `web_fetch` removed: no such bundle is defined, and provision_claw now
+# honours this list — agents reach a page with `curl` through Bash.
+mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
 version          = 1
 
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "domain_scout"
 order_idx       = 0
-skills = ["arxiv-query", "semantic-scholar-query", "web-search-triage", "decompose-int-items"]
+skills = ["arxiv-daily", "web-search-triage", "decompose-int-items"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the DOMAIN SCOUT of a Papers & Online Research team.
 
@@ -47,7 +49,7 @@ brain_seed      = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "paper_reader"
 order_idx       = 1
-skills = ["structured-paper-summary", "pdf-text-extraction", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
+skills = ["structured-paper-summary", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the PAPER READER of a Papers & Online Research team.
 

templates/teams/rust_sdlc.toml

@@ -4,13 +4,13 @@ description      = "Full software lifecycle for Rust projects — planning, impl
 stack            = ["rust", "systems", "distributed", "backend"]
 default_topology = "pipeline"
 risk_profile     = "coding_readwrite"
-mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "gitea_forge"]
+mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
 version          = 1
 
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "planner"
 order_idx       = 0
-skills = ["read_roadmap", "decompose-int-items", "estimate_effort", "small-focused-commits"]
+skills = ["decompose-int-items", "small-focused-commits"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the PLANNER of a Rust SDLC team.
 
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ brain_seed      = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "coder"
 order_idx       = 1
-skills = ["write-rust-current-edition", "cargo_build", "cargo-test-driven-development", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "small-focused-commits", "int-xx-marker-protocol", "rust-error-handling", "rust-async-tokio-idioms", "react-19-server-components"]
+skills = ["write-rust-current-edition", "cargo-test-driven-development", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "small-focused-commits", "int-xx-marker-protocol", "rust-error-handling", "rust-async-tokio-idioms", "react-19-server-components"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the CODER of a Rust SDLC team.
 
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ brain_seed      = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "tester"
 order_idx       = 2
-skills = ["cargo-test-driven-development", "cargo_nextest", "coverage_report", "criterion_bench", "tdd-red-green-refactor"]
+skills = ["cargo-test-driven-development", "criterion-benchmarking", "tdd-red-green-refactor"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the TESTER of a Rust SDLC team.
 
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ brain_seed = ""
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "reviewer"
 order_idx       = 3
-skills = ["code-review-checklist", "read_diff", "small-focused-commits", "cargo-audit-workflow", "secret-scanning-gitleaks"]
+skills = ["code-review-checklist", "small-focused-commits", "cargo-audit-workflow", "secret-scanning-gitleaks"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the REVIEWER of a Rust SDLC team.
 

templates/teams/threejs.toml

@@ -4,13 +4,13 @@ description      = "Immersive graphics + game dev in the browser — 3D, isometr
 stack            = ["typescript", "threejs", "webgl", "webgpu", "gsap"]
 default_topology = "pipeline"
 risk_profile     = "coding_readwrite"
-mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "gitea_forge"]
+mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
 version          = 1
 
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "scene_designer"
 order_idx       = 0
-skills = ["decompose-int-items", "scene_graph_planning"]
+skills = ["decompose-int-items", "scene-graph-planning"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the SCENE DESIGNER of a three.js team.
 
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ brain_seed = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "coder"
 order_idx       = 1
-skills = ["write_typescript", "threejs-perf-and-teardown", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker-protocol"]
+skills = ["threejs-perf-and-teardown", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the CODER of a three.js team.
 
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ brain_seed = """
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "shader_author"
 order_idx       = 2
-skills = ["write_glsl", "write_wgsl", "write_typescript"]
+skills = ["shader-authoring-glsl-wgsl", "webgl-frame-profiling", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the SHADER AUTHOR. Author vertex/fragment shaders (GLSL for
 WebGL, WGSL for WebGPU). Comment mathematical steps. Provide a
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ brain_seed = ""
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "perf_engineer"
 order_idx       = 3
-skills = ["chrome_devtools_perf", "spector_js_capture", "webgl_frame_capture"]
+skills = ["webgl-frame-profiling", "threejs-perf-and-teardown", "shader-authoring-glsl-wgsl"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the PERF ENGINEER. Profile with SpectorJS or Chrome DevTools
 Performance panel. Report per-frame breakdown (JS / GPU / paint) and

templates/workflows/benchmark.toml

@@ -5,16 +5,59 @@ requires_repo = true
 
 default_team_template = "rust_sdlc"
 
+# ── What this recipe actually does ───────────────────────────────────
+#
+# `harness` is REAL and was mislabelled: `benchmark_runner::harness_from_config`
+# reads it, and `phase_runner`'s benchmark sweep runs a baseline through it
+# automatically, recording a `benchmark_snapshots` row. It was listed in
+# `phase_config.rs` as NOT IMPLEMENTED — now corrected there. `mode` genuinely
+# is inert.
+#
+# The real gap was that the phase carried no `task` and no `done_when` — so a
+# benchmark mission ran
+# one unjudged phase with a generic directive and reported `completed` whether
+# it wrote a benchmark or not. Since the entire point of this workflow is to
+# produce numbers a later refactor is measured against, a run that silently
+# produced none is worse than no run: the next mission compares against a
+# baseline that does not exist.
+#
+# The instructions therefore live in `task`/`done_when`, which ARE read, rather
+# than in `mode`/`harness`, which are not. `benchmark` is in PRODUCING_KINDS, so
+# the empty-delivery rule applies once there is something to deliver.
+
 [[phases]]
 kind      = "benchmark"
 order_idx = 0
 [phases.config]
-# Slice 7 runs the benchmark_snapshots baseline pass here. This
+produces      = ["md"]
-# workflow's job is to AUTHOR the benchmarks + establish the
+# NOTE: `mode` is INERT — no code selects behaviour from it.
-# baseline; subsequent refactor missions consume them.
 mode          = "author_and_baseline"
-# Which harness to use; per-stack defaults if unset:
+# READ by benchmark_runner. "auto" lets it detect the stack; naming a harness
-#   rust   → criterion / cargo bench
+# explicitly ("criterion" + `bench_name`, "cargo_bench", "vitest_bench",
-#   ts/js  → vitest --bench / mitata
+# "pytest_bench", or "shell" + `cmd`) pins it. The automatic baseline this
-#   py     → pytest-benchmark
+# drives is separate from, and a check on, the numbers the agent reports.
 harness       = "auto"
+task = """
+Author benchmarks for this repository and record a baseline that a later \
+refactor can be measured against.
+
+Pick the harness that matches the stack — criterion for Rust, `vitest --bench` \
+or mitata for TS/JS, pytest-benchmark for Python — and say in the report which \
+you chose and why.
+
+Benchmark what the project's own hot path is, not what is easy to measure. A \
+microbenchmark of a function nobody calls produces a number that will never \
+change and teaches a future refactor nothing. Read the code first and name the \
+operation you are measuring and why it is the one that matters.
+
+Record the baseline in BENCHMARKS.md: the machine, the command, the numbers, \
+AND the run-to-run spread from at least three runs. The spread is not optional \
+detail — without it, nobody can tell whether a later 5% "improvement" is real \
+or noise, which makes the entire baseline unusable for its only purpose.
+
+Commit the benchmark code itself, not just the results. The next mission has to \
+be able to re-run exactly what you ran.
+"""
+done_when = "BENCHMARKS.md exists and records, for each benchmark authored, the operation measured, the exact command to re-run it, the baseline numbers from at least three runs including the observed spread, and the machine they were taken on — and the benchmark source is committed to the repository"
+max_iterations = 2
+commit_policy = "always"

templates/workflows/security_hardening.toml

@@ -5,29 +5,120 @@ requires_repo = true
 
 default_team_template = "rust_sdlc"
 
+# ── What is real here, and what is decoration ────────────────────────
+#
+# The scanners themselves are REAL: `gitleaks`, `trivy`, `semgrep` and
+# `cargo-audit` are installed in the runtime image and `runtime_preflight`
+# probes for all four at boot, naming the consequence when one is absent. An
+# agent in a security_scan phase can run them from Bash today.
+#
+# `tools` is REAL too: `security_scan::run` reads it to pick which scanners to
+# run and upserts each finding as a mission_task. What was missing was anything
+# that FIRED it — it was reachable only from an operator button, so this
+# workflow's scan phase never scanned. `phase_runner::scan_finished_security_phases`
+# now runs it when the phase finishes, guarded on a completion marker so a
+# clean repo is not rescanned forever.
+#
+# What remains decoration is annotated inline below. And the part that actually
+# mattered: no phase carried a `task` or a `done_when`.
+# A phase with no `done_when` never enters `evaluating`, is never judged, and
+# reports `completed` whatever it did. So this recipe could run all three
+# phases, scan nothing, patch nothing, and go green. That is the same defect
+# `research_and_code.toml` was fixed for, and it is why the tasks below name
+# the scanners explicitly rather than trusting `tools` to deliver them.
+
 [[phases]]
 kind      = "security_scan"
 order_idx = 0
 [phases.config]
-# Slice 8 wires these tools as an MCP bundle. Each finding becomes
+# READ by `security_scan::run` — this list gates which scanners the platform
-# a mission_task with external_id = CVE/RUSTSEC/gitleaks fingerprint.
+# runs against the checkout after the phase finishes. The agent ALSO runs them
+# itself during the phase (see the task): the platform pass is the independent
+# record, the agent pass is what lets it write a report about what it found.
 tools = ["cargo_audit", "gitleaks", "trivy_fs", "semgrep"]
+produces = ["md"]
+task = """
+Scan this repository for security problems and write findings down.
+
+Run the scanners that are installed in your container — `cargo audit`, \
+`gitleaks detect`, `trivy fs .` and `semgrep --config auto` — from the repo \
+root. If one is missing or errors, say so explicitly in the report rather than \
+omitting it: a section absent because a tool failed reads identically to a \
+section absent because nothing was found, and those are opposite conclusions.
+
+Write SECURITY-FINDINGS.md with one entry per finding: the identifier \
+(CVE / RUSTSEC / rule id), the file and line, what an attacker could actually \
+do with it, and whether it is reachable in our code or sits in an unused \
+dependency path. Rank by exploitability, not by the scanner's severity field.
+
+A clean scan is a real and useful result. Say which tools ran, on what, and \
+that they found nothing — do not manufacture findings to fill the report.
+"""
+done_when = "SECURITY-FINDINGS.md exists and states, for each of the four scanners, whether it ran and what it found, with every reported finding carrying an identifier, a location, and a reachability judgement"
+max_iterations = 2
+commit_policy = "always"
 
 [[phases]]
 kind      = "research"
 order_idx = 1
 [phases.config]
-produces          = ["md", "pdf"]
+# `pdf` dropped: PDF rendering was removed from the delivery path (artifacts are
+# served as Markdown), so asking for it produced a format nothing generates.
+produces          = ["md"]
 default_topology  = "hub_spoke"
-# The research phase reads the security_scan phase's findings from
+# NOTE: `input_from_phase` is INERT — DECLARED_BUT_UNREAD. Phases do not receive
-# mission_tasks and produces a patch strategy per finding.
+# a structured hand-off from a named predecessor; the next phase reads the
+# previous phase's committed FILES out of the shared checkout. That is why the
+# task names SECURITY-FINDINGS.md by path.
 input_from_phase  = "security_scan"
+task = """
+Turn the scan findings into a patch strategy.
+
+Read SECURITY-FINDINGS.md from the repo root — that is the previous phase's \
+output, committed to this mission's branch. For each finding that is actually \
+reachable, write into SECURITY-PLAN.md: the fix, the specific file and \
+function it touches, what could break, and how the fix will be verified.
+
+Where the fix is a dependency bump, check what the new version changes — a \
+major bump presented as "update the version" is how a security patch becomes \
+an outage. Where a finding is not worth fixing, say so and say why; an \
+unreachable advisory in a dev-dependency is a legitimate "no action".
+"""
+done_when = "SECURITY-PLAN.md exists and gives, for every reachable finding in SECURITY-FINDINGS.md, either a named fix with the file it touches and how it will be verified, or an explicit justification for taking no action"
+max_iterations = 2
+commit_policy = "always"
 
 [[phases]]
 kind      = "coding"
 order_idx = 2
 [phases.config]
+# NOTE: `loop` is INERT — DECLARED_BUT_UNREAD ("phase iteration uses
+# max_iterations + done_when"). Kept so the intent stays visible beside the two
+# keys that actually drive the loop.
 loop            = "until_all_findings_closed"
+max_iterations  = 3
 # Security requires reviewer approval on top of green tests.
 commit_policy   = "on_reviewer_approval"
-mcp_bundles     = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills", "gitea_forge", "security_scan"]
+# NOTE: `mcp_bundles` is INERT AT PHASE LEVEL — bundles come from the TEAM
+# template (`mission_orchestrator` binds `template.mcp_bundles`). This phase
+# gets nothing from this line. `gitea_forge` and `security_scan` were removed
+# from it entirely: neither is defined anywhere, and now that provision_claw
+# HONOURS the team template's bundle list, naming a bundle that does not exist
+# stopped being harmlessly inert.
+mcp_bundles     = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
+task = """
+Apply the patch strategy and prove it worked.
+
+Work through SECURITY-PLAN.md. Make the smallest change that closes each \
+finding, and run the test suite after each one so a regression is attributable \
+to a single fix rather than to the batch.
+
+Then RE-RUN the scanner that produced each finding and record the new output in \
+SECURITY-FINDINGS.md under a "after remediation" heading. A fix that was not \
+re-scanned is a claim, not a result — and this phase's whole value is the \
+difference between those two.
+
+If a fix cannot be made safely, leave the finding open and say why. An open \
+finding that is documented is worth more than a closed one that is not true.
+"""
+done_when = "every finding in SECURITY-PLAN.md marked for fixing is either closed with a re-run of the scanner that found it recorded in SECURITY-FINDINGS.md, or left open with a stated reason, and the test suite passes"