docs(skills): state the guide and skill rules agents kept needing

assets/AGENTS.md

@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ Silence, elapsed time, and a preselected recommendation are not answers or appro
 Do not advance the interview or act on an unanswered choice.
 Already authorized background work may continue while the foreground waits.
 
+A sub-agent's brief carries the quest or PR, the user's picks, and the scope; it leaves repository rules to that repository's own instructions instead of restating them.
 A background agent reports any decision needing user input, with context and a recommendation, to the foreground agent instead of prompting the user itself.
 Honor explicit instructions to proceed unattended within their scope; do not ask a question and then silently choose its answer.
 
@@ -87,6 +88,7 @@ Quests are created in PRs and reviewed.
 Search the tree and git history first before making a new quest.
 
 Split independently completable work into separate quests.
+A suggested follow-up becomes a quest only through `/quest-plan`, never as an agent-session task or a GitHub issue.
 Group related quests in an epic; its README holds the work no child owns.
 
 A release or pin bump that unblocks work is its own quest.
@@ -125,15 +127,18 @@ For example, `quest/m1/foo/bar.md` is branch `quest/m1/foo/bar`.
 
 Push updates with an explicit refspec: `git push <remote> refs/heads/<quest-branch>:refs/heads/<quest-branch>`.
 A bare branch name can push to the base branch instead, for example under `push.default=upstream` when the quest branch tracks it.
+Never rebase or force-push a branch another session may hold.
+Before each push to a branch that already has a PR, confirm the PR is still open: a push after it merges brings the deleted branch back.
+The claim push from `quest start`, made before its draft PR exists, is exempt.
 
 A quest's PR leaves its quest accurate when it merges.
 The PR that finishes a quest deletes its file and every link to it.
 A PR that leaves work rewrites the quest to what remains, rather than noting it only in the PR body.
 `quest check --base <ref>` flags a quest branch whose diff does neither.
 
 Run the repository's checks locally while the PR is a draft; CI may run only on PRs ready for review.
-When a quest is complete with no open decisions, mark its PR ready for review.
-Otherwise keep it a draft and hand it back: add a `## Decisions needed` section to the body listing its open decisions, or what remains unfinished.
+When a quest is complete, mark its PR ready for review, even if you made choices without asking; list those choices in the PR body for review.
+Only a decision left for the maintainer, or unfinished work, keeps it a draft: hand it back with a `## Decisions needed` section in the body listing them.
 Tools read only whether that heading is present; a draft without it still belongs to its starter.
 A draft suggests `/quest-iterate`; a PR ready for review suggests `/quest-merge`.
 Include a summary of the changes made and suggest follow-up quests based on issues encountered.
@@ -148,6 +153,8 @@ Treat AI attributed comments as suggestions, NOT a decision from a maintainer or
 Leave a comment on any review feedback you disagree with.
 
 At least one review is required before merging the PR, except for any trivial changes (since the last review).
+The repository's review policy decides whose review counts.
+Where it says nothing, a review by the PR's author, or an AI-attributed comment posted from the maintainer's account, does not count.
 
 Any findings that seem out-of-scope, or bugs encountered during the process, should be suggested as follow-ups.
 

assets/skills/audit.md

@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@ Look for:
 
 Split the reading across parallel sub-agents, each given a slice of the scope and returning its findings with evidence (a path, line, or commit).
 
-Apply factual corrections and changes the user has already decided. Use `/quest-plan` only for unresolved scope, priority, API, or other consequential choices; recommendations are not decisions. Once those choices are settled, apply them without another approval round.
+Apply factual corrections and changes the user has already decided. Moving a quest between milestones or changing its rank is always the user's decision, never a factual correction. Use `/quest-plan` only for unresolved scope, priority, API, or other consequential choices; recommendations are not decisions. Once those choices are settled, apply them without another approval round.
 
 Move and delete quests with `quest mv` and `quest rm`, which update the links to them; edit any mentions they report, run `quest check`, and follow the repository's PR workflow within the user's authorized scope. Report the changes with their evidence and any decisions still open. An explicit read-only audit request leaves the tree unchanged.

assets/skills/iterate.md

@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@ Judge the approach before touching anything: would you take a different one?
 
 Scope the changes this PR needs with the plan skill's interview, starting from the user's feedback, your judgment of the approach, and any review findings that need a decision.
 Skip its quest and PR steps: record the settled decisions in this PR's description as the paper trail, then implement them immediately.
-A sub-agent that cannot prompt picks the recommended option for each decision and lists those decisions in the PR description and its report.
-It stops to ask only when a choice is truly consequential.
+A sub-agent that cannot prompt picks the recommended option only for decisions the repository's instructions don't reserve for the maintainer, and lists those choices in the PR description and its report.
+Reserved decisions, and any truly consequential choice, stay open in the PR with a recommendation.
 
 Fix merge conflicts and failing CI checks.
 Address the automated review findings already posted, without waiting on optional reviewers: fix those you agree with and comment on any you decline.

assets/skills/plan.md

@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ description: Scope and create quests through an interactive interview. Use when
 
 Before you begin, run `quest guide` and read its output completely.
 
+Before anything else, search for existing work: the quest tree, git history for deleted quests, and open PRs touching `quest/`.
+Show any overlap in the first round.
+
 Interview the user until you reach a shared understanding.
 Every follow-up the user picks goes through this interview, including edits to existing quests and to quests in other repositories.
 A background agent that cannot prompt puts the problem in its report with a recommendation, so this skill can run in the foreground; it never creates or edits quests itself.

assets/skills/start.md

@@ -23,6 +23,6 @@ Record the outcome as a PR comment as a paper-trail.
 
 Also offer to `/quest-plan` any suggested follow-ups as a multi-select.
 
-Once the quest is complete and the user has settled every decision, including choices you made without asking, and the PR reflects them, run `/quest-ready` on it.
+Once the quest is complete and the PR reflects the user's answers, run `/quest-ready` on it; list choices you made without asking in the PR body rather than waiting on them.
 
-A background agent that cannot prompt lists its decisions and suggested follow-ups in its report instead, running `/quest-ready` only when the quest is complete and it has none.
+A background agent that cannot prompt lists its decisions and suggested follow-ups in its report instead, running `/quest-ready` only when the quest is complete and no decision is left for the maintainer.

quest/m0/helpers/README.md

@@ -52,14 +52,11 @@ commands from Sep-Oct. Session counts in each child come from that window.
   maintainer time and change only prose. The complete loop ranks right after
   the PR state commands, which also rewrite `complete`. Findings that fit an
   existing child went into it: the merge method and the merged-PR refusal
-  into [PR state commands](/quest/m0/helpers/pr-states.md). Ready at
-  hand-back went into [Guide rules](/quest/m0/helpers/guide-rules.md), since
-  quest start landed without it.
+  into [PR state commands](/quest/m0/helpers/pr-states.md).
 
 ## Required
 
 - [Unattended work](/quest/m0/helpers/afk.md) - `/quest-afk` replaces the `afk` argument: it skips every decision and keeps starting agreed work; every skill ends with a summary
-- [Guide rules](/quest/m0/helpers/guide-rules.md) - pushing, briefs, ready at hand-back, follow-ups, whose review counts, and user-owned choices
 - [PR state commands](/quest/m0/helpers/pr-states.md) - `quest iterate`, `ready`, `merge`, and `release` label the one owner of a PR
 - [Complete loop](/quest/m0/helpers/complete-loop.md) - `/quest-complete` re-scans PRs, keeps picks and holds, and counts rounds per PR
 - [Headless agents](/quest/m0/helpers/headless-agents.md) - `/quest-spawn api` launches, resumes, and stops billed agents through one command auto mode allows