From 76b215d016c081591a7fc12834f58d98ce49c7e8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Daniel=20S=C3=A4nger?=
 <20968534+dsnger@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:14:25 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Add a context canary to the root CLAUDE.md
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Address the user as "Daniel" at the start of every conversational response,
so a missing address signals that CLAUDE.md has fallen out of context.

Scoped to conversational responses only: never in file contents, commit
messages, code, or gate artifacts — §5's findings file admits no line that
is not a finding or the terminator, so a canary reaching into artifacts
would produce malformed passes.

Root CLAUDE.md only. AGENTS.md is untouched and nothing under plugins/
changes, so no version bump and no propagation into scaffolded templates.

Gate B: skipped — behaviourally trivial. One prose subsection in this
repo's own discipline file; it changes no hook, checker, skill, command or
template, and ships nothing. Unprofiled story (none cited), judgement call
per §5, authorized by the user in the request.
Battery green: shellcheck (6 files), hook tests, invariant tests + check
(123 assertions), version-bump tests + check (36 assertions), and
`claude plugin validate . --strict` — all pass.
---
 CLAUDE.md | 14 ++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)

diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index 74691a9..a2675b9 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -401,6 +401,20 @@ like the rest of §5; the detection is a reader comparing the pass against the s
   any other pass. Counter and workspace state persist in `.context/`; the *pass* does
   not.
 
+## 6. Context Canary
+
+Begin every response to the user by addressing him as "Daniel."
+
+**Why:** it is a context canary. These guidelines are only in force while this file is in
+context, and nothing signals when it falls out. The address is a per-response marker: if
+it disappears, CLAUDE.md is gone from context and the user knows to reload rather than
+discovering it through work that quietly stopped following §1–§5.
+
+**Scope: conversational responses only.** Never in file contents, commit messages, code,
+or gate artifacts. §5's findings file admits no line that is not a finding line or the
+terminator, and its reply is exactly one line per branch — a greeting there is a malformed
+pass, so a canary that reached into artifacts would break the protocol it sits beside.
+
 ---
 
 **These guidelines are working if:** fewer unnecessary changes in diffs, fewer rewrites due to overcomplication, and clarifying questions come before implementation rather than after mistakes.