docs(specs): the house form — corpus-wide spec compression and the word-budget ratchet

AGENTS.md

@@ -72,9 +72,11 @@ When updating code covered by a spec, update the spec to match. When the two spe
 
 Rationale entries are keyed by the spec's own headings: each `## X` in `<foo>.rationale.md` is a heading that exists in `<foo>.md`. In the spec, a rule whose evidence moved gets a trailing `(rationale)` marker — a hint, not a link; the pairing is by heading. Rationale files are informative, not normative: no `## Future`, no `Reserved:`, no `Source of truth:` obligations, and measurements should be dated (`measured in Safari 26.5, 2026-08`) so later pruning is safe. Within spec paragraphs, the normative statement leads and any remaining inline why follows — rule first, rationale after (applied opportunistically, not as a corpus rewrite).
 
+**House form for rules.** A rule leads with a bolded imperative — **Never …**, **Must …**, **May …** — and at most one clause of why; the bold carries the emphasis, so scaffolding words ("deliberately", "note that", "it is worth stating") are deleted rather than kept. A section that is really a rule list, precedence ladder, or flow renders as invariant bullets or a table, not narrative prose; number rules only where another spec cites them. Mechanism that constrains a single module lives as a comment at that code, with the spec keeping the one-line rule and a `Source of truth:` pointer; mechanism that constrains editors of *other* files stays in the spec. Consolidate `Source of truth:` pointers at the end of a section rather than per paragraph.
+
 When editing specs, keep them concise but do not replace invariants or edge cases with only a code pointer. Use `Source of truth:` for implementation references, and include direction/scope for protocols, command orchestration, and cross-package boundaries. For docs-only compression, spot-check referenced symbols, message directions, and root-vs-package script ownership against code before committing.
 
-Every spec that uses Session / Pane / Door / baseboard / passthrough vocabulary leads with a `> See \`docs/specs/glossary.md\` for ...` blockquote (see `layout.md`, `alert.md`, `terminal-state.md`). When introducing glossary vocabulary into a spec that lacks the callout, add it in the same edit.
+Every spec that uses Session / Pane / Door / baseboard / passthrough vocabulary leads with a `> See \`docs/specs/glossary.md\` for ...` blockquote (see `layout.md`, `alert.md`, `terminal-state.md`). When introducing glossary vocabulary into a spec that lacks the callout, add it in the same edit. The callout licenses using glossary terms bare — do not re-explain them locally. A spec's opening blockquotes are its front-matter: the callout plus, where useful, one line each for what the spec owns, what it defers and to whom, and what to read first; ownership is stated there once, not re-disclaimed per section.
 
 ### Spec lifecycle
 
@@ -86,7 +88,7 @@ Specs are written ahead of the code on purpose: a new component's spec starts as
 - **Reservations.** When unbuilt design constrains present code — a reserved wire field, a reserved ref grammar, an additive-evolution guarantee — state that constraint in the body, marked `Reserved:`, pointing at the `## Future` item it serves. Test: if deleting the sentence would let someone break future compatibility today, it belongs in the body.
 - **Promotion is part of done.** Implementing a staged item is not finished until its text moves above the fold — rewritten from "will" to "is", with `Source of truth:` added — and the built portion is deleted from `## Future`. Never leave completed plan text (build orders, phase lists) below the fold; delete it — git history keeps the record.
 
-The mechanically checkable parts of these conventions are enforced by `scripts/spec-lint.mjs` (`pnpm lint:specs`, also the first step of the root `pnpm test`): every spec indexed here, `## Future` last, relative links/anchors resolving, backticked repo paths existing on disk, the leading glossary callout wherever its vocabulary is used, scopes defined exactly once with references resolving, `Reserved:` paragraphs naming `## Future` or a scope, and every `*.rationale.md` pairing with its spec, keyed by that spec's headings, with no `## Future`. `SELF_HOST.md` — the one spec living outside `docs/specs/` — rides the same checks.
+The mechanically checkable parts of these conventions are enforced by `scripts/spec-lint.mjs` (`pnpm lint:specs`, also the first step of the root `pnpm test`): every spec indexed here, `## Future` last, relative links/anchors resolving, backticked repo paths existing on disk, the leading glossary callout wherever its vocabulary is used, scopes defined exactly once with references resolving, `Reserved:` paragraphs naming `## Future` or a scope, and every `*.rationale.md` pairing with its spec, keyed by that spec's headings, with no `## Future`. It also ratchets file size: every spec, rationale file, and this file carries a word budget in `scripts/spec-word-budgets.json`, and growth past it fails the lint — cut, or raise the budget deliberately in the same PR. `SELF_HOST.md` — the one spec living outside `docs/specs/` — rides the same checks.
 
 Three sibling lints run alongside it in `pnpm test`, each enforcing one invariant a spec states in prose: `scripts/xterm-lint.mjs` (`pnpm lint:xterm`) for the `@xterm/*` version lockstep in `docs/specs/webgl-text.md`; `scripts/loopback-lint.mjs` (`pnpm lint:loopback`) for the rule in `SECURITY.md` -> "Loopback Listeners" that a loopback bind is not an access control — a new listener must reference a guard module or be allowlisted with a reason; and `scripts/deploy-lint.mjs` (`pnpm lint:deploy`) for the installer controls in `SECURITY.md` -> "Credentials at rest" and "Network posture (self-hosted)", which bind all three of `deploy/local/install-{macos,windows,linux}` and were previously enforced by nothing. Its companion `scripts/deploy-lint-selftest.mjs` proves each rule is load-bearing by deleting the control — and, for exact-count rules, adding a copy — and requiring the lint to fail.