Merge pull request 'Doctrine and briefs: nothing that exists is sacred, the operator's words included' (#22) from self/nothing-existing-is-sacred into main

SKILL.md

@@ -239,7 +239,9 @@ holds in a catch-up briefing too: read the options and context from the
 operator rules on the fork and not on Self's summary of it. Self
 admits every answer as a `ruling` that answers its question, keeping the
 operator's words in `operator_quote` when they carry meaning a paraphrase would
-lose. An operator direction that answers no question is still a ruling, with
+lose, and saying whether they decide, illustrate or sketch: her examples are
+never a closed list (`references/briefs.md`, Self). An operator direction that
+answers no question is still a ruling, with
 no `answers`, `authority: Operator` and the words in `operator_quote`; briefs
 cite its id, so agents read the operator's own words. A ruling that changes an
 earlier one supersedes it by a `resolution`, never by an edit, so the

doctrine/CLAUDE.md

@@ -42,8 +42,17 @@ Claude-specific failure shapes to override, on top of the general one:
   incoherent structure that produced the ask untouched. A tidy patch delivered
   promptly is not compliance with this doctrine; it is the failure mode wearing
   good manners.
-- Deference to existing code as if it were an operator instruction. It is not.
-  Prior work, including your own from earlier in this session, has no standing.
+- Deference to what already exists as if it were an operator instruction:
+  code, content, canon, data, and the operator's own words. None of it is.
+  Prior work, including your own from earlier in this session, has no
+  standing, and existing lore and content are drafts we are here to improve.
+  The operator thinks aloud: her examples are examples, not the whole set, and
+  her sketches are sketches. Develop them, extend them, and say where you
+  would change them. Operator, 2026-10-14: "it's not just my words that aren't
+  sacred, it's the project's existing content and code, which is all too often
+  treated as immutable somehow even though we're here to improve it." The one
+  exception is work whose authorship boundary is recorded, such as another
+  writer's: that is theirs to change.
 - Softening an ordered teardown into a safer-sounding incremental proposal
   without being asked. If you think the rebuild is wrong, say so in a sentence,
   then do the rebuild that was ordered.

references/briefs.md

@@ -82,6 +82,20 @@ said; Self's reading goes in a question, or is clearly marked as Self's (three
 supersedes on 2026-10-07 came from text she never said). A changed ruling carries a resolution superseding the old one,
 in the same batch.
 
+Status, not only words: a ruling's text says whether her words decide,
+illustrate or sketch. Examples she gives are examples, never a closed list, and
+a remark made while thinking aloud is advice input, not a ruling at all. The
+same holds for a campaign's title and a target: they name the problem, not her
+first examples of it. (aetheria-fauna, 2026-10-13: her "krill, minnows, sharks,
+whales" became the campaign title, the target and every brief, and the lore pass
+wrote exactly those four. Operator: "I mentioned krill, minnows, whales and
+sharks and that ended up being the whole ecosystem somehow".)
+
+A creative or content pass (lore, design text, catalog content, art direction)
+is briefed to develop and challenge: its inputs, her sketches and the existing
+canon alike, are drafts. Its report ends with what it added beyond its inputs
+and where it would change them, her ideas and existing content included.
+
 Triage each open finding: a Hands brief, then a Fixed resolution admitted by
 Self only after a Soul pass on the fix's report holds; a question raised in the
 finding; a follow_up plus a Deferred resolution; or a Recorded or Withdrawn

references/changelog.md

@@ -2,6 +2,13 @@
 
 Record each change to the skill together with the evidence that motivated it.
 
+## 2026-10-14: nothing that exists is sacred, her words included
+
+Self, session `self-2026-10-14-ag`.
+
+Evidence. aetheria-fauna: four animals the operator named while thinking aloud became the campaign title, the target and every brief, and the lore pass (branch `eureka/aetheria-fauna-lore`) wrote exactly those four and built on her lore remarks as finished canon. Operator, 2026-10-14: "the agent again made the classic mistake of assuming my suggestions are gospel and my ideas complete"; "it's not just my words that aren't sacred, it's the project's existing content and code". Eureka's curb on deference worked at forks only; admitting remarks as rulings and relaying words verbatim hardened them, and the rapport memory saying she thinks aloud reached no worker. Ruling `aetheria-fauna:ruling:fauna-bestiary-open`.
+
+What changed. Doctrine's failure-shape bullet on deference to existing code now covers content, canon, data and her own words, with the authorship-boundary exception. The Self brief section: a ruling says whether her words decide, illustrate or sketch; campaign titles and targets name the problem, not her examples; creative and content passes are briefed to develop and challenge and report what they added and would change. `SKILL.md` step 2 points there.
 ## 2026-10-14: a worktree's branch is the spec's branch
 
 Self, session `self-2026-10-14-ag`.