fix(protocol): decide a moot claim from the record, not the label

.gitattributes

@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 * text=auto
 
-# Shell scripts and git hooks must keep LF endings — CRLF breaks bash heredoc
-# delimiters and exact-match line checks silently on Windows checkouts.
+# Shell scripts must keep LF endings — CRLF breaks bash heredoc delimiters and
+# exact-match line checks silently on Windows checkouts.
 *.sh          text eol=lf
 *.py          text eol=lf
-.githooks/*   text eol=lf
 tests/gh-stub/gh text eol=lf

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -62,15 +62,6 @@ It uses your logged-in Claude Code subscription (no paid API key) and self-skips
 cleanly when it can't run for real (no `claude` on PATH, a spend/rate limit, or
 the stub can't be reached).
 
-A lighter **semantic** review still runs locally via the pre-push hook
-(`.githooks/pre-push`): when a push touches `skills/**` or `README.md`, it asks
-your logged-in `claude` CLI to review the diff against the skill invariants. It
-costs no API bill. Enable it once per clone with:
-
-```bash
-git config core.hooksPath .githooks
-```
-
 ## Pull request conventions
 
 These are the conventions the history already follows — match them:

HISTORY.md

@@ -50,10 +50,26 @@ review console read a delivery URL out of one. Both readers now go to the record
 and the claim is the ref CAS, the state is the record, and a comment decides
 nothing — which is the sentence protocol/4 wrote and protocol/9 finally earns.
 
-The requests balance out negative. `refs/kraken/state/` is paginated by the same
-`matching-refs/kraken/` read that already fetched the claim refs, and against that
-one enlarged read stand the whole comment-hydration pass and a paginated comment
-read per `awaiting-merge` task in the console.
+The requests balance out negative **on the read**, which is the side that runs
+hot. `refs/kraken/state/` is paginated by the same `matching-refs/kraken/` read
+that already fetched the claim refs, and against that one enlarged read stand the
+whole comment-hydration pass and a paginated comment read per `awaiting-merge`
+task in the console. A queue walk — the poll every watcher runs once a minute,
+per worker — got cheaper, and a 200-task queue stopped shipping comment bodies
+to answer a question about a handful of them.
+
+The **write** side got more expensive, and deliberately. Every terminal
+transition now reads the comment count back after its own comment lands (§3.1),
+reads the previous record to carry `expiries` and `pr` forward, and writes a
+commit plus a ref — on the order of five requests that protocol/8 did not make.
+That is the right trade because of where each cost falls: a transition runs
+**once per task**, at human pace, at the end of work that took minutes; the queue
+walk runs once a minute forever, times every worker in the fleet. Paying on the
+rare path to make the hot path cheaper and exact is the whole shape of this
+revision. It is also why the ordering in §3.1 is a MUST rather than an
+optimisation — those reads are what make `comments` an anchor nobody has to
+guess, and skipping them to save a call would put the derivation back into the
+business of inferring what it could have read.
 
 This is a backward-incompatible change — a protocol/8 reader derives the requeue by
 classifying a comment window and never looks at a record; a protocol/9 reader stops

scripts/lint-skills.sh

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 #   label drift across files, protocol-version drift, orphan "step N"
 #   references, task-template field drift, broken relative links/images, and
 #   invalid shell/YAML/JSON snippets.
-# Runs as a CI gate (.github/workflows/lint.yml) and locally (e.g. a pre-push hook).
+# Runs as a CI gate (.github/workflows/lint.yml) and locally via `make lint`.
 set -uo pipefail
 
 ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)"
@@ -26,10 +26,12 @@ PKG="skills/unleash/kraken"
 WATCHER="$PKG/watch.py"
 LISTER="$PKG/queue.py"
 CLAIM="$PKG/claim.py"
-RELEASE="$PKG/claim.py"
-ESCALATE="$PKG/claim.py"
-DELIVER="$PKG/claim.py"
 HEARTBEAT="$PKG/claim.py"
+# The three ways a turn ENDS live in terminal.py, not claim.py — see that
+# module's docstring for why the two halves are siblings.
+RELEASE="$PKG/terminal.py"
+ESCALATE="$PKG/terminal.py"
+DELIVER="$PKG/terminal.py"
 
 fail=0
 err() { printf '  \033[31mx\033[0m %s\n' "$1"; fail=$((fail+1)); }

skills/unleash/kraken/__init__.py

@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@
     queue        the Task object, the batched walk, the startable filter
     render       report objects to text
     reconcile    the §6 repair pass
-    claim        the contended claim sequence and the terminal transitions
+    claim        taking a task and holding it: the CAS, the guard, the drain
+    terminal     how a turn ends: escalate, deliver, release (§7-§9)
     next_action  the driver loop as one envelope
     watch        the zero-token ambush
     status       the read-only console
@@ -55,7 +56,7 @@
 from .comments import (
     DISCLAIMER, MARKER_PREFIX, MARKER_RE, MARKER_SUFFIX, MARKER_TYPES,
     TASK_TRAILER, compose_comment, compose_note, disclaimer, make_marker,
-    parse_marker, task_trailer
+    parse_marker, read_body_file, task_trailer
 )
 from .transport import (
     Api, DEFAULT_API_URL, GRAPHQL_ALIAS_CHUNK, HTTP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS, PER_PAGE,
@@ -91,11 +92,13 @@
     project_reconcile, reconcile_pass, reconcile_plan, stale_claim_body
 )
 from .claim import (
-    ClaimAttempt, DELIVER, ESCALATE, RELEASE, Terminal, TerminalTransition,
-    acquire_next, claim_is_moot, cmd_claim, cmd_claim_next, cmd_deliver,
-    cmd_escalate, cmd_heartbeat, cmd_note, cmd_release, lease_expired_body,
-    open_claim_of, probe_lease_state, read_body_file, refuse_second_claim,
-    refused_line
+    ClaimAttempt, acquire_next, claim_is_moot, cmd_claim, cmd_claim_next,
+    cmd_heartbeat, cmd_note, lease_expired_body, open_claim_of,
+    probe_lease_state, refuse_second_claim, refused_line
+)
+from .terminal import (
+    DELIVER, ESCALATE, RELEASE, Terminal, TerminalTransition, cmd_deliver,
+    cmd_escalate, cmd_release
 )
 from .next_action import (
     NEXT_ACTIONS, NEXT_ACTION_EXIT, NextAction, NextActionEnvelope,