git:20260823.6f6c577 to git:20260911.1a9f16c

- **Bundled reference loading is fail-closed.** Resolve every bundled reference or script path named below from this skill's loaded `SKILL.md` directory, using the skill full path supplied by the harness; never glob the target repository to find a bundled file. Read a phase's owner when that phase is entered; a read made before that phase does not satisfy it, and an owner named for re-reading is read again at its step even when already in context. If the harness does not expose that directory or a required file cannot be read, stop before the action governed by it and report the missing reference instead of approximating the protocol or continuing natively.

- **Recovery activation comes first.** Before normal plan, path, blank-input, or bare-prompt classification, recognize semantic requests to resume, inspect, reap, or clean up an existing run. Recovery never dispatches a new worker, selects a new route, discovers another plan, reruns completed verification, or enters either shipping tail; a missing run id is requested, never guessed.

- Before any other input decision, read `references/input-triage.md`. A bare prompt that is Trivial — one or two files, no behavioral change — skips the task list and still passes the engine-before-write gate; a purely mechanical diff also ships without a post-PR watch. When that is uncertain, take the fuller route. A bare prompt this session's `ce-plan` already sized is executed, not re-planned; a decision the user would weigh surfaces as a question, never as a route back to `ce-plan` or `ce-brainstorm`. It owns source resolution, control grammar, recovery, read-only discovery, plan readiness, non-code routing, blank discovery, and bare-prompt intake. An unreadable owner stops triage rather than letting control data or a non-executable artifact fall through as code work.

- When triage enters Return-to-Caller Mode, immediately read `references/return-to-caller.md`. Record that tail owner for the run; if it cannot load, stop before mutation instead of reverting to standalone behavior.

- 1. **Establish the workspace.** Before a branch move, edit, dispatch, or commit, read `references/workspace-setup.md`. It owns writable-checkout selection, plan clarification, branch placement, pre-work inventory, collision handling, and task setup. Do not write without a writable canonical checkout or on the real default branch without the user's explicit same-session direction.

- **WIP/write gate.** Nothing the user did not offer may be committed or published. When a unit needs a file that was already dirty, standalone mode asks once whether to include or exclude it; Return-to-Caller Mode does not ask or edit it and returns blocked with the collision and recovery path. An unreadable workspace owner stops before the branch move or edit.

- 2. **Resolve the engine, then strategy.** After bounded plan intake and task derivation, but before selecting a unit for execution, writing, dispatching, or committing, read `references/execution-engines.md` and complete its route-resolution gate. It applies with or without a typed binding; native execution is eligible only when that owner selects it or exhausts an allowed fallback. Engine choice never changes the Phase 0 tail owner.

- If cross-model execution is selected, read `references/cross-model-execution.md` before content or authority crosses that route. It owns controller initialization, the post-init engine lock, bounded egress, transactions, recovery, and receipts; do not approximate it with native dispatch.

- Before choosing inline, serial, or parallel execution or dispatching a worker, read `references/execution-strategy.md`. It owns scheduling, isolation, unit packets, worker lifecycle, and integration. The host orchestrator keeps authoritative verification and canonical commits.

- Before the first implementation write — including a Trivial route — read `references/implementation-loop.md`. It owns evidence choice, implementation, verification, completion stops, incremental commits, pattern-following, continuous testing, simplification boundaries, UI work, progress tracking, and settled-decision handling.

- The kernel's write gate remains active: every implementation commit is path-limited to that unit's owned files; a bare commit can absorb the user's pre-existing index and is forbidden.

- After tasks and local verification complete, standalone mode must read `references/shipping-workflow.md` before quality checks or delivery. It owns simplify, review receipts and fallback mechanics, residuals, final validation, and delivery.

- **Code-review completion gate (standalone only).** The run is **not done** and must not call a commit or shipping skill, or report ship-complete, until `shipping-workflow.md` records either an actual completed `ce-code-review` receipt or one of its exact authorized skip states. Never substitute mental self-review or already-applied findings. This gate does not apply in Return-to-Caller Mode.

- Return-to-Caller Mode performs implementation and local verification only. It must not enter Phase 3-4 or run final simplify, code review, PR creation, CI watching, babysitting, or any other standalone shipping action; the caller owns those gates.

- Immediately before emitting the result, read `references/return-to-caller.md` again. It alone owns the full envelope, evidence completion gate, route and model receipts, recovery semantics, and `standalone_shipping_skipped: true`. Do not reconstruct a complete envelope from this kernel.

- If that required read fails after planning or implementation created state, preserve every changed file, commit, workspace, and controller receipt. Return the minimum blocked recovery result from this kernel: `status: blocked`, `plan_path`, `run_id` when known, `changed_state`, `blockers` naming the missing owner, and `recovery_path`. Do not erase partial state, report success, or fall into the standalone tail.