diff --git a/references/briefs.md b/references/briefs.md
index 3775a8e..86a0d9b 100644
--- a/references/briefs.md
+++ b/references/briefs.md
@@ -73,9 +73,15 @@ Standing rulings: <short list>.
 - Delete before adding. No shims.
 
 Every rule the spec or the operator names gets a test that fails under its own
-mutation. Run the mutations against the final spelling of the code and restore
+mutation, and under two mutations, not one: a revert (delete the check) and a
+loosening that keeps the check in place and weakens it (`>=` for `==`, the
+first item only, the image without the batch, case-insensitive, off by one).
+The revert proves the test sees the rule; only the loosening proves it sees
+the rule's edge, and the loosening is what Soul would otherwise write on its
+second pass. Run both against the final spelling of the code and restore
 afterwards. In the report, define each mutation exactly (what line changed and
-how) so Soul can rerun it; a mutation named only "C3" cannot be checked.
+how) so Soul can rerun it; a mutation named only "C3" cannot be checked. A
+loosening that survives is reported, not hidden and not deleted.
 When a claim is "behaviour unchanged", a value captured from the new code is not
 evidence. Pin it with a value computed at the base commit.
 Detached scripts: confirm the log starts within 60 s; a script that dies on a
@@ -135,14 +141,17 @@ boundary with no half-deleted authority, and report what remains.
 
 Don't update the map.
 
-Report:
+Report, in this shape and nothing else:
 - commits (and which don't build)
-- verification output
-- mutation results
+- verification output, pasted, not summarised
+- mutation results: each entry, its exact edit, its killer or SURVIVED
 - spec discrepancies you fixed
 - forks
 - structural delta (lines, dependencies and formats removed or added)
 - what remains
+No narrative of the pass, no restating the brief, no reasoning about what you
+might have done. Self reads the three things above the discrepancies first
+and needs them in that order.
 ```
 
 ## Soul: falsify executed work
@@ -199,7 +208,15 @@ An inline harness typed for one run is not evidence, and it is where the one
 known fake kill came from.
 
 Report each finding as CONFIRMED or PLAUSIBLE, with file:line, a failure
-scenario and severity. Then give a short list of the promises that held.
+scenario and severity. Then the promises that held, one line of evidence
+each. Then the numbers: test counts, entries killed, path delta, script
+paths. Nothing else: no narrative of the pass, no reasoning about mutants
+that died. Rerun Hands' loosening mutations; design your own only where a
+rule has none or the loosening was weak.
+
+<For a second or later pass on the same cut:> scope is the fix batch's diff
+plus one rerun of the suite. Do not re-derive the whole cut unless an
+invariant moved. Say in one sentence whether the cut closes.
 ```
 
 ## Mind Steward: phase boundary
diff --git a/references/changelog.md b/references/changelog.md
index e573d2a..aac512c 100644
--- a/references/changelog.md
+++ b/references/changelog.md
@@ -2,6 +2,30 @@
 
 Record each change to the skill together with the evidence that motivated it.
 
+## 2026-09-16: the loop was burning tokens on gaps, not defects
+
+Evidence: one day of the Eureka pipeline-state and TypeScript QUIC campaigns,
+about thirty-five passes. The operator asked how much of the cost was process
+and how much the price of a second agent. Roughly half each. The falsifier
+earned its half: three High key defects, an unimplemented epoch gate, a
+replay regression, a byte-order mark divergence and a false "equivalent"
+claim, none of which a green report caught. The other half:
+
+- **Hands wrote revert mutations; Soul wrote loosenings.** Most second and
+  third Soul passes found not defects but rules the suite was blind to. The
+  Hands brief now requires both mutations per rule, and Soul reruns Hands'
+  loosenings before writing its own.
+- **Reports were narrative.** Soul passes ran two to three hundred thousand
+  tokens each. Both briefs now name the report shape and forbid the rest, and
+  a second pass on a cut is scoped to the fix batch's diff.
+- **Two harnesses re-learned each other's lessons.** Epiphany's PowerShell
+  harness and CultLib's JavaScript runner each hit the sidecar footgun, the
+  missing control and a control-byte scar on their own. One harness in this
+  repo is the next change; deferring it to a "skill wiring" cut cost three
+  rediscoveries in an afternoon.
+- **The map committed per event**, about forty times in a day. Per cut from
+  now on, rulings excepted, since agents read them mid-flight.
+
 ## 2026-09-16: agents must be told how to wait, not only to wait
 
 Evidence: Ghostlight L1, the stock lenses