30 - AGENTS.md says each thing once, and the ask protocol has a heading

AGENTS.md

@@ -77,10 +77,9 @@ deliberate re-pin, exceptions re-derived by hand beside it. Atlassian's ADF JSON
 vendored the same way, at `spec/adf-schema/`, rather than as the `@atlaskit/adf-schema` dev
 dependency — CommonJS-only, some fifty packages with React among them, and a release most days for
 Renovate to automerge — re-pinned by hand when a payload or a report shows the need.
-`devDependencies`: few, each earning its keep; they never reach a consumer. `fast-check` earns its
+`devDependencies`: `fast-check` earns its place shrinking a failing generated document to the nodes
-place shrinking a failing generated document to the nodes that break it, `oxlint` measuring §10's
+that break it, `oxlint` measuring §10's size ratchet — TypeScript 7 is a native compiler publishing
-size ratchet — TypeScript 7 is a native compiler publishing no in-process parser, only the
+no in-process parser, only the `unstable/` AST surface an out-of-process handshake reaches.
-`unstable/` AST surface an out-of-process handshake reaches.
 
 ## 6. The package contract
 
@@ -383,7 +382,6 @@ Applies everywhere: comments, every markdown file in this repo (this one include
 - Default is no comment. One earns its single line only by naming an invariant, footgun or
   external constraint the code cannot show — never restatement, history, absence or arrangement.
   A second line belongs in the commit message or a decision entry here.
-- Every prose comment in a diff is a review question; the default answer is delete.
 - A doc paragraph says what the repo cannot say for itself, or it goes. The fix for a redundant
   one is deletion, not trimming. A false claim in any doc is a bug, fixed where found.
 - Published text — npm README, error messages, API docs — never references internal systems,
@@ -406,7 +404,10 @@ figure is promised. A CLI is a later goal (`todo.md`), not a non-goal.
 
 One unchecked `todo.md` item per session, in the smallest PR-able chunk — split a big milestone
 into sub-items in `todo.md` before starting it. A chunk running a little over or under that is not
-worth deliberating; what matters is that nothing is left undone in the end. Per chunk:
+worth deliberating; what matters is that nothing is left undone in the end. The session stops there
+whatever it was asked to finish: a release is a chain of sessions, and `todo.md`'s "Next session" is
+the handover, so an instruction to work until a release is checked names the chain, not the session.
+Per chunk:
 
 1. Fresh worktree off updated `origin/main`; implement tests-first (§10).
 2. Run the larv-review flow until it passes and CI is green. A reviewer launch states the latest
@@ -415,11 +416,16 @@ worth deliberating; what matters is that nothing is left undone in the end. Per
    it (docs-only) — re-run only what its own findings or fixes invalidate.
 3. Merge the PR (standing authorization, this repo only, granted through the `0.2.0` release —
    the maintainer, 2026-09-13), check the box in `todo.md` and move the item's text to
-   `todo-history.md`, leaving its title behind, report, stop. The next chunk gets a fresh session.
+   `todo-history.md`, leaving its title behind, report, stop.
 
-Ask, don't guess: any choice where what the maintainer would pick is not near-certain gets asked,
+Reserved for the maintainer whatever any rule here says: changing `version` in `package.json` (a
-and the answer lands as a decision in this file. The confidence bar is very high — asking too
+bump on `main` publishes, §9 — every release is the maintainer's) and the `NPM_TOKEN` secret.
-often is the accepted cost, guessing wrong is not.
+
+### Ask, don't guess
+
+Any choice where what the maintainer would pick is not near-certain gets asked, and the answer
+lands as a decision in this file. The confidence bar is very high — asking too often is the
+accepted cost, guessing wrong is not.
 
 An ask is a gap in this file, and its answer is the rule that closes the gap, never the instance
 alone. Before asking, name the class the question belongs to and the earlier `(the maintainer, …)`
@@ -428,29 +434,23 @@ reads two ways on this input, that reading is the ask. Never ask "A or B?": stat
 earlier asks of its class, the nearest text here, a candidate rule in this file's voice and section,
 and the instance it yields, and ask for the rule. The maintainer answers the rule, the rule lands
 here, and the instance follows from it in the chunk. A rule that keeps collecting instances is
-wrong: rewrite it rather than append to it. `version` and `NPM_TOKEN` stay the maintainer's
+wrong: rewrite it rather than append to it.
-whatever any rule says.
 
-Rules the loop has settled (the maintainer, 2026-09-18):
+### Rules the loop has settled (the maintainer, 2026-09-18)
 
 - A finding inside the chunk's item is fixed in the chunk. Outside it, a new `todo.md` item, always
   in a release, weighed against every item on that release by the personas and §1–§3 — an item it
   outweighs moves later. A weighing no rule decides is asked as a gap.
-- A stated number — 500 levels, the gate's seconds, the branch floor — is kept; a chunk that cannot
+- A stated number — 500 levels, the branch floor — is kept; a chunk that cannot keep it asks,
-  keep it asks, naming the number it can reach. A number the code needs and no rule states is a gap.
+  naming the number it can reach. A number the code needs and no rule states is a gap.
 - Where the shipping order names no release for the next unchecked item, the chunk is planning that
   release: every unscheduled item weighed as above, the order written in `todo.md`, and the
   maintainer's approval taken before any code.
-- A session works one chunk and stops, whatever it was asked to finish. A release is a chain of
-  sessions, and `todo.md`'s "Next session" is the handover; an instruction to work until a release
-  is checked names the chain, not the session.
 
-Reserved for the maintainer, never the agent: changing `version` in `package.json` (a bump on
+### The continuous loop
-`main` publishes, §9 — every release is the maintainer's) and the `NPM_TOKEN` secret.
 
-A continuous loop session (`/loop`) counts as a chain of sessions: one chunk per iteration, each
+A `/loop` session counts as a chain of sessions, each iteration starting by re-reading `AGENTS.md`
-iteration starting by re-reading `AGENTS.md` and `todo.md` and trusting them over anything
+and `todo.md` and trusting them over anything remembered from earlier iterations. The loop session
-remembered from earlier iterations. The loop session is a thin driver: each chunk's work runs in
+is a thin driver: each chunk's work runs in a fresh-context subagent holding this file as its
-a fresh-context subagent holding this file as its charter, and the driver only relays maintainer
+charter, and the driver only relays maintainer questions, runs the review flow, merges, and cleans
-questions, runs the review flow, merges, and cleans up. The loop stops when only
+up. The loop stops when only maintainer-reserved acts remain.
-maintainer-reserved acts remain.

todo-history.md

@@ -943,6 +943,22 @@ The done `todo.md` items in full, as they were written. `todo.md` keeps a one-li
       listing them, the standalone raw-HTML guarantee goes, and the `0.2.0` guarantee says
       markdown's raw HTML reads the same set. That guarantee's "never a silent drop" went with it:
       6 settled that `<script>` and `<style>` drop whole, so the claim does not survive 7.
+- [x] **30 — AGENTS.md says each thing once (`0.2.0`).** §15's ask protocol — name the class, cite
+      the earlier asks of it, never "A or B?" — is the rule reviewers cite most and has no heading,
+      two thirds down a 50-line section in a file with no index. Give it one. §15 also offers "the
+      gate's seconds" as a stated number that is kept, and no such number is stated anywhere, §14
+      forbidding the category outright; drop the example. Then the restatements: §15 repeats the
+      one-chunk rule three times and `version`/`NPM_TOKEN` twice, §12 says the default is delete
+      twice, and §5's "few, each earning its keep; they never reach a consumer" is npm's own
+      definition of the field. Cut to one copy each, the one carrying the why.
+      **Done** (2026-09-20): §15 gains three sub-headings — Ask, don't guess; Rules the loop has
+      settled; The continuous loop — so the protocol is one of four entries rather than a
+      paragraph two thirds down. The one-chunk rule keeps the head paragraph, which now carries
+      the chain-of-sessions why the settled bullet held; `version`/`NPM_TOKEN` keeps the reserved
+      paragraph, which carries §9's publish-on-bump why, and moves up beside the chunk steps.
+      §12's "every prose comment in a diff is a review question" and §5's devDependencies clause
+      go whole. The gate's seconds is confirmed stated nowhere: `docker-runner.sh` measures each
+      leg's elapsed time and no number bounds it.
 
 ## 5 — Ship `0.1.0`
 

todo.md

@@ -9,8 +9,10 @@ Start a session with: `Read AGENTS.md and todo.md, then do what todo.md's "Next
 
 1. `git fetch origin` first and read this file at `origin/main`, then branch off it, not the
    worktree left behind: a checkout behind the remote reads a merged item as unchecked.
-2. The first unchecked item in shipping order, per AGENTS.md §15 — or, where that item has no
+2. The first unchecked item in shipping order, per AGENTS.md §15 — the order the Milestones line
-   release, the planning chunk §15 describes.
+   states, which wins over where an item's bullet sits: a newly filed item is written beside the
+   one it came in with, not at its own place in the order. Where that item has no release, the
+   planning chunk §15 describes.
 3. In flight: nothing.
 4. Before stopping, rewrite this section: the in-flight line, and the prompt itself wherever the
    session found it wrong or short.
@@ -40,14 +42,6 @@ panel says the next reader pays for.
 29 and 30 come from 17's prose pass (2026-09-20). 29 reads first because every goal is what a later
 ask is settled against, 19's included; 30 sits beside 25, the other chunk rereading AGENTS.md.
 
-- [ ] **30 — AGENTS.md says each thing once (`0.2.0`).** §15's ask protocol — name the class, cite
-      the earlier asks of it, never "A or B?" — is the rule reviewers cite most and has no heading,
-      two thirds down a 50-line section in a file with no index. Give it one. §15 also offers "the
-      gate's seconds" as a stated number that is kept, and no such number is stated anywhere, §14
-      forbidding the category outright; drop the example. Then the restatements: §15 repeats the
-      one-chunk rule three times and `version`/`NPM_TOKEN` twice, §12 says the default is delete
-      twice, and §5's "few, each earning its keep; they never reach a consumer" is npm's own
-      definition of the field. Cut to one copy each, the one carrying the why.
 - [ ] **19 — A home for what both formats read (`0.2.0`).** Settle where a construct both formats
       need lives, and say so in AGENTS.md §11. Today `adf/` may hold no format knowledge and each
       format directory holds its own shared layer, so there is no third place; the first ADF-shaped
@@ -293,6 +287,7 @@ ask is settled against, 19's included; 30 sits beside 25, the other chunk reread
 - [x] **18 — The subtree the directive spelling asks about (`0.2.0`).**
 - [x] **28 — `emitLine`'s retry loop cannot spin (`0.2.0`).**
 - [x] **29 — The README reads raw HTML as refused for good (`0.2.0`).**
+- [x] **30 — AGENTS.md says each thing once (`0.2.0`).**
 
 ## The ADF inventory to cover