docs: correct the route ladder, refusal wording and verifier count

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -221,6 +221,7 @@ Written against the real runtime rather than assumed from documentation:
   altered what the worker is told, so position is checked by counting the `"""`
   delimiters that precede it.
 - `wire_api` accepts only `responses` on Codex CLI 0.153.0. `chat` returns "is no longer
-  supported" and `openai` returns "unknown variant". The published config schema still
-  advertises all three; the binary is the authority. An endpoint that speaks only
-  chat-completions cannot serve a Codex lane on this version.
+  supported" and `openai` returns "unknown variant". The published config schema agrees
+  rather than conflicting: its `WireApi` is a `oneOf` carrying the single variant
+  `responses`. An endpoint that speaks only chat-completions cannot serve a Codex lane on
+  this version.

README.md

@@ -134,6 +134,26 @@ Then invoke `$fablewright` and let it post the call sheet before it calls anyone
 Installing lane profiles is deliberately a separate step: installing a plugin registers
 skills, not user-owned agent profiles.
 
+### One-minute smoke test
+
+Four commands. None of them calls a model, spends a token, or writes outside a temporary
+directory, so it is safe to run before you trust anything here.
+
+```sh
+sh scripts/verify.sh                                  # the repo checks itself
+sh tests/run-tests.sh                                 # 143 offline cases
+sh scripts/install-agents.sh --host codex --dry-run   # what WOULD be written, nothing is
+sh scripts/cast-call.sh --lane terra --check          # is this lane real and runnable?
+```
+
+Expect `VERIFY PASSED`, `ALL TESTS PASSED`, six `Would install:` lines, and then either a
+lane that validates or a named reason it cannot. `--check` resolving a lane is the point
+where an install stops being a claim.
+
+The verifier's count moves with your environment even though its verdict does not: **154**
+on a machine with neither CLI installed — the floor CI asserts — and 155 when the Claude
+CLI is present and the optional manifest validator can also run.
+
 ---
 
 ## The call sheet

docs/WALKTHROUGH.md

@@ -219,10 +219,16 @@ passed: 143   failed: 0
 ALL TESTS PASSED
 
 $ sh scripts/verify.sh
-verify 1.0.0: passed 155, failed 0
+verify 1.0.0: passed 154, failed 0
 VERIFY PASSED
 ```
 
+The verifier's **count is environment-dependent; its verdict is not.** 154 is the
+invariant floor — what a machine with neither CLI installed runs, and what CI asserts.
+With the Claude CLI on `PATH` the optional `claude plugin validate --strict` manifest
+check also runs and the total is 155. Quote 154 when you need a number that holds
+everywhere.
+
 Both call no model and write nothing outside a temporary directory. The test suite uses
 synthetic session fixtures under `tests/fixtures/`, plus a stub runtime that lets the
 whole routing-verification path — including a lane that drops below its pinned effort —

skills/fablewright/SKILL.md

@@ -60,17 +60,26 @@ risk: <concise, task-specific rationale>
 ~~~
 
 No task tool call may precede it. `solo` is the default and needs a reason to leave, not
-a reason to keep. A later call sheet may only **escalate**, only on newly observed risk,
-and only with that evidence recorded. Never silently downgrade, and never add a lane
-that the posted sheet did not call.
+a reason to keep. A later call sheet may **escalate** on newly observed risk, with that
+evidence recorded, and may never add a lane the posted sheet did not call.
+
+Reducing rigour is the constrained direction, not a forbidden one. Dropping a reader,
+widening a sandbox, or standing a lane down needs the same written evidence an
+escalation does — what is banned is doing it *silently*. One reduction is planned rather
+than reactive: when `ensemble` cannot meet its disjoint-ownership or single-family
+requirements, the plan becomes sequential `full` runs and the risk line records why
+(`references/role-contracts.md`). That is a change of structure, not a loss of rigour.
 
 ## Routes
 
+Listed in the order the decision ladder in `references/call-sheet.md` works down.
+Stop at the first match; do not shop for a route further down the table.
+
 | route | implements | wright verifies | reader | use when |
 |---|---|---|---|---|
 | `solo` | wright | n/a | none | bounded, low-risk, reversible, cheap to redo |
-| `delegate` | one cast lane | yes | none | bounded and fully specifiable, and worth the wright's context |
 | `audit` | wright | yes | one | the wright is the fastest author but the risk earns an independent read |
+| `delegate` | one cast lane | yes | none | bounded and fully specifiable, and worth the wright's context |
 | `full` | one cast lane | yes | one | judgment-heavy, high-risk, or wide blast radius |
 | `ensemble` | 2+ cast lanes | yes | one | genuinely parallel work over **provably disjoint** file ownership |