ADR-0149 - Skills state rules directly

Context

Skills install independently. ADR-0145 required artifact writers to copy a named, byte-identical Disrespec spine. That kept one sentence synchronized but exposed catalog machinery to the model, made a local instruction look dependent on another skill, and tested textual identity instead of behavior.

Decision

1. Every skill is complete alone. A skill may use only its own body, bundled files, the target, and project-native instructions. It does not require, invoke, or assume another skill.
2. Instructions state the rule, not its implementation. Skill bodies contain no spine names, marker comments, parity labels, gate names, catalog topology, or internal ADR references.
3. Economy remains local. A skill that writes Markdown states its own concise writing and file-only handoff rule in ordinary command language. Disrespec remains a separate, deeper editing procedure and must earn its activation through output quality.
4. Isolation replaces textual parity. Maintainer checks reject missing bundled files and external skill dependencies. Behavior evaluations install one skill at a time and judge its output. No byte-identical instruction marker is required.

Narrowed decisions

• ADR-0145: attention economy and file-only handoff stand; the named byte-identical spine and its drift gate retire.
• ADR-0016 and ADR-0134: standalone operation stands and now forbids even optional sibling-skill dependencies.

Consequences

• Installing one skill never leaves a missing method dependency.
• Models see direct commands instead of repository maintenance vocabulary.
• Similar local rules may differ in wording when their jobs differ; behavior, not copied bytes, is the invariant.

Status

Accepted (2026-07-12).