@@ -130,6 +130,33 @@ part the kit would actually need: reading its own bundled files through `useVfs`
 v26.9.0 and carrying a weaker "Stability: 1.0 — Early development". Revisit when that
 reaches 1.1, or if artifact download proves too awkward in practice.
 
+> **Amendment, 2026-09-21 — the paragraph above rests on a false premise.**
+> Evidence: `docs/decisions/2026-09-21-sea-assets/research/BRIEF.md`.
+>
+> The stability reading is right. The word **"need"** is wrong, and it is the load-bearing
+> word. The kit does not require `useVfs` to read its own bundled files: the `assets`
+> configuration key bundles them at build time and `sea.getAsset()`, `getAssetAsBlob()`,
+> `getRawAsset()` and `getAssetKeys()` read them back. That API predates the VFS — a v20.19.2
+> copy of the same page documents it in full with no VFS section at all — and carries **no
+> separate stability marker**, so it sits at the feature's own 1.1. On the current page,
+> `1.0 - Early development` appears exactly once, under `Virtual file system (VFS) for
+> assets`. `useVfs` is a convenience that lets existing `node:fs` calls keep working
+> unchanged; it is not the only route to the assets.
+>
+> **So the trigger was waiting on a condition this decision never depended on.** It is
+> withdrawn. What remains is not a stability objection but a scope one, and a cheaper one to
+> state honestly: taking the 1.1 route means adding an asset-aware branch to the three
+> modules that read non-JavaScript files at runtime (`lib/scaffold.mjs`, `lib/decompose.mjs`,
+> `lib/artifact-validator.mjs`), and nobody has yet said the `.exe` is still wanted now that
+> `bin/collect-remote.mjs` and the MCP server reach the collector without one.
+>
+> **How the error happened is the part worth keeping.** The original text was written from
+> the delivery-architecture corpus, in which the SEA page was one capture closing one unknown
+> about platform limits. It read a stability marker correctly off that page and then inferred
+> which API the kit would use — an inference no row in that corpus supported, sitting in a
+> sentence that looks like a citation. `corroboration` could not have caught it; the claim
+> was not under-sourced, it was unsourced and adjacent to a sourced one.
+
 **Hybrid first.** The strongest long-term shape and the most work, and it needs the
 collector anyway. It is what the collector grows into, not an alternative to building it.
 
 
@@ -97,6 +97,39 @@ corpus existed, and the corpus was used to make two architecture decisions in th
   verdict passing, and now isolates the claim. That proxy only ever worked while nothing
   else in the policy set fired.
 
+## Amendment, 2026-09-21 — a mirror is the case where `independent` is actively worse
+
+The closing section below says `independent` means only "this check found no reason to flag
+the support". Hours later a collection found a concrete failure mode sharper than that hedge,
+and it deserves naming rather than being covered by a general disclaimer.
+
+Collecting on Node's single-executable API returned `nodejs.org` **and**
+`lira.epac.to/DOCS/nodejs/api/single-executable-applications.html`. Two hosts. Cite both for
+one unknown and this check reports `independent` — its best grade.
+
+They are **the same document**, and the mirror is six major versions stale: v20.19.2 against
+the v26.9.0 nodejs.org serves. It predates the entire section that the current page's only
+`Stability: 1.0` marker sits under. A reader corroborating against it would have their
+reading of an *older* edition confirmed by an *older* edition, and the gate would call it
+independent support.
+
+**So the host heuristic does not merely fail to notice a mirror — it inverts on one.** A
+mirror scores better than the honest `one-voice` that two genuine pages from one vendor get,
+while carrying strictly less information than either. The failure is not that two hosts can
+be one witness; ADR-0036 already said that. It is that two hosts can be one witness *plus a
+staleness the freshness check cannot see*, because `freshness` grades when the page was
+**fetched** and this one was fetched today.
+
+**No code changes.** Detecting mirrors means comparing document content or parsing version
+strings out of vendor pages, and a check that guessed at either would be the reasoning-grader
+ADR-0013 refused. What changes is what a reviewer is told to do: **`independent` is a prompt
+to check that the sources are different documents, not a certificate that they are.**
+
+Recorded live rather than reasoned about: the corpus that found it
+(`docs/decisions/2026-09-21-sea-assets/`) keeps the mirror as an uncited row and accepts two
+`single-source` warnings instead — the correct trade, and the one the check's grades
+currently push against.
+
 ## What this ADR does not claim
 
 That two hosts make a claim true. Two vendors can repeat one another, and a specification
 
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# The corpus's line endings are integrity, not style.
+#
+# A capture's body hash is taken over the LF bytes the collector fetched. git's smudge
+# filter rewrites every text file on a default Windows checkout (core.autocrlf=true), so
+# without this file the whole corpus fails `body-unmodified` on arrival with nothing
+# actually wrong with it. This file outranks a reader's core.autocrlf. See ADR-0020.
+
+research/raw/* text eol=lf
+*.jsonl text eol=lf
+research/*.md text eol=lf
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+node_modules/
+.DS_Store
+
+# Credentials never belong in a research project (AGENTS.md Rule 6). Note that
+# `firecrawl env` writes the key into .env, which is why the rule says never to run it
+# inside a repository.
+.env
+.env.*
+*.pem
+*.key
+
+# The Firecrawl CLI saves scrape output into .firecrawl/ in whatever directory it runs
+# from. That is a vendor cache, not evidence - the kit's own captures live in
+# research/raw/ with a ledger entry behind each one.
+.firecrawl/
+
+# The kit's local review logs are not evidence.
+research/raw/.usage.jsonl
+research/raw/.failures.jsonl
+research/raw/.diagnostics.jsonl
+research/raw/.fetches.lock
+
+# The chain IS evidence and must travel. The explicit negation is here so a broader
+# dotfile rule added later cannot silently exclude it - this repository lost its ledger
+# exactly that way once.
+!research/raw/.fetches.jsonl
+!research/overrides.log
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+# Research-first project bootstrap
+
+Agent instructions for this project. Read this before planning, designing, or building
+anything here.
+
+## How this project works: two phases, two roles
+
+**Phase 1 - research (this kit).** Close every blocking unknown with fetched primary
+sources, then pass the gate. The output is a briefing, not code: `research/DISCOVERY.md`
+(the contract), `research/EVIDENCE.md` (claims with cached pages behind them), and
+`research/BRIEF.md` (the handoff). Phase 1 never writes product code.
+
+**Phase 2 - build (someone else's job).** A builder - another agent, a different model, or
+a human - takes `research/BRIEF.md` plus `research/` and implements. They should not need
+to re-research anything: if they do, phase 1 was incomplete, and the fix is to collect the
+missing fact rather than to let the builder guess it.
+
+The gate is the handoff point. Before it passes, phase 2 does not start.
+
+## Two machines, two roles
+
+The role is machine config - `role: "collector" | "builder"` in
+`~/.agents/research-kit.config.json`, default `collector`; declare it with
+`node ~/.agents/research-kit/bin/install-hooks.mjs --role builder`.
+
+| | **collector** (the operator's PC) | **builder** (a sandbox, a CI box, a laptop) |
+|---|---|---|
+| holds | the Firecrawl key | no key, no Firecrawl egress |
+| runs | `decompose.mjs`, `research.mjs` | `handoff.mjs`, `preflight.mjs`, the build |
+| a missing key is | a **FAIL** | **informational** |
+| must | push `research/raw/` including its dotfiles | **not collect** - the collection CLIs refuse (exit 2) |
+
+**If you are on a builder machine and there is no brief: you do not collect.** A page
+fetched by hand is not evidence in this kit, and a builder that "re-collects" a missing
+page forges a corpus instead of reporting a gap. Name the missing fact instead.
+
+A builder's first command is:
+
+```
+node ~/.agents/research-kit/bin/handoff.mjs
+```
+
+The remedy depends on the cause, and the command says which: something that did not
+travel is the collector's to push (`git add -f research/raw/`, dotfiles included);
+a corpus that travelled whole and was rewritten on checkout here is fixed **here**, with
+`.gitattributes`, and costs no credits.
+
+## Starting in the wrong place: ask which project, do not hunt for it
+
+The project is the **current working directory**. The kit takes no project argument and
+never will. If the cwd is not the project the operator means - the kit's own repo, a
+parent folder, an unrelated checkout - **ask which project**, and wait. Do not search the
+filesystem, do not infer it from a name, do not look it up on a remote. Searching a
+person's disk to guess his intent reads directories nobody authorised, and the question
+it replaces takes one line.
+
+Signals: no `AGENTS.md`, no `research/` directory, or a `research/` corpus plainly about
+something else. An existing corpus about another topic is the signal doing its job.
+
+## Resuming after an interruption: resume, do not restart
+
+The gate is a pure function of repository state, so orient from disk before touching
+anything. `doctor.mjs` and preflight answer *where this project is*; the last commit
+report and `docs/ARCHITECTURE.md` say *what was happening and why*; `git status` answers
+what is unfinished, and its uncommitted changes are the interrupted task - partial and
+unverified, work in progress, never state to trust. The corpus is already collected and
+spent credits are not spent again.
+
+## Rule 1 - research first, then build
+
+The sequence is decompose -> contract -> collect -> gate -> brief.
+
+0. **Decompose** (collector machine): `node ~/.agents/research-kit/bin/decompose.mjs --topic "<topic>"`
+   drafts `research/MAP.md` seeded with the universal checklist. The tool contains no
+   judgment. Mark every row COVERED (citing U-## rows), DISMISSED (reason required), or
+   GAP.
+1. **Write the intent** in `research/DISCOVERY.md` under `## Build intent`, and enumerate
+   the blocking unknowns FROM the map.
+2. **Collect**: `node ~/.agents/research-kit/bin/research.mjs --plan research/plan.json`. Prefer the page
+   that *owns* the fact over any write-up about it.
+3. **Rewrite** each auto-extracted `Finding` cell into a real claim, keeping the `Raw`
+   cell pointing at the cached page.
+4. **Gate**: `node ~/.agents/research-kit/bin/preflight.mjs`. **Do not start building until it prints
+   PASS.** Evidence must be *fetched*, not typed, and by a named transport.
+5. **Hand off**: write `research/BRIEF.md`.
+
+There are exactly three overrides - `git commit --no-verify`, a deliberate
+`research/GATE_OFF`, and a repository-local `core.hooksPath` - and all three are recorded
+in `research/overrides.log`. If you take one, say so in your reply.
+
+## Rule 2 - questions are for intent, never for facts
+
+At most **3** questions, once, up front, and only about things no document can answer. If
+a question's answer is in public documentation, it is a research task. **Never answer
+"insufficient info" and stop.**
+
+## Rule 3 - known unknowns are allowed, silence is not
+
+Mark a genuinely unreachable fact `KNOWN-UNKNOWN` and write the day-one verification step
+in the `Evidence` cell. An unlabeled gap is the failure mode this project exists to
+prevent.
+
+## Rule 4 - source quality
+
+`P` primary/official carries the design. `S` secondary is context. `L` lead-only is a
+hint, never proof. Never invent a citation. Flag contradictions instead of averaging them.
+
+## Rule 5 - cost discipline
+
+Every scrape spends credits. Plan the queries in `research/plan.json` first, reuse the
+cache (`--refresh-days`), and check the budget with `node ~/.agents/research-kit/bin/research.mjs --status`.
+
+## Rule 6 - secrets
+
+The key lives in the CLI config or the environment. Never write it into this repository.
+
+## The standing protocol
+
+Five rules for how work here is committed and recorded. Documentation, not enforcement:
+no check judges prose, because a gate that judges prose is a gate that will be wrong.
+
+1. **Architecture map current in the same commit.** A commit touching a declared code
+   path (`research/kit.json`) stages `docs/ARCHITECTURE.md` with it. Enforced - and a
+   prompt, not a proof: the gate checks the map was *staged*, not that it is *current*.
+2. **Commit report: five named parts** - what changed / why / what it touched / what you
+   verified / what you got wrong and fixed. The got-wrong line is not optional; if
+   nothing was gotten wrong it is written as "nothing to report".
+3. **An ADR for any choice with a rejected alternative**, dated, with the reason a future
+   explorer would need to avoid re-suggesting it.
+4. **One commit per task - the revert test.** `git revert <sha>` undoes it alone.
+5. **A red suite stops work**, reported immediately and alone, **with the cwd recorded**.
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+# Start here
+
+A **decision project** (ADR-0030). Read `research/BRIEF.md`; everything else is what it
+rests on.
+
+**The question:** ADR-0031 deferred the local Windows `.exe` with a dated trigger - revisit
+when `useVfs` reaches Stability 1.1. Is that trigger the right one?
+
+## Why it exists
+
+It is not. The trigger was checked and the **premise under it turned out to be false**: the
+kit does not need `useVfs` to read its own bundled files. The `assets` configuration key and
+the `sea.getAsset()` family do that, they predate the VFS by years, and they sit at the
+feature's own Stability 1.1. The `1.0 - Early development` marker ADR-0031 cited is real and
+attaches only to the VFS section - a convenience the kit can decline.
+
+So the `.exe` was waiting on a condition it never depended on. ADR-0031 carries an amendment
+saying so.
+
+## How it was collected
+
+Dispatched through `bin/collect-remote.mjs` - the agent path - as run
+[35623502540](https://github.com/StepenkoAnatoli/Research-Kit/actions/runs/35623502540),
+depth `quick`. Three pages, all graded `full`. One is authoritative and current, one is a
+stale mirror of it, and one rendered no content at all.
+
+**That one-in-three hit rate is the second finding, and it is deliberately not hidden.**
+`EVIDENCE.md` keeps all three rows and cites one. The mirror also found a real limitation in
+this repository's own `corroboration` check, recorded in ADR-0036.
+
+## Verifying it
+
+From **this** directory:
+
+```
+cd docs/decisions/2026-09-21-sea-assets
+node ..\..\..\research-kit\bin\preflight.mjs
+node ..\..\..\research-kit\bin\handoff.mjs
+```
+
+As of 2026-09-21: `PASS  0 blocking, 2 warning(s), 12 passing` and `handoff OK - 3 ledger
+entries, chain verifies`.
+
+**Under `--strict` this corpus fails**, 2 blocking, and that is expected. Both warnings are
+`corroboration/single-source` on U-1 and U-2, both accepted on the record rather than
+cleared - the only available second source was the stale mirror, and citing it would have
+made the corpus read stronger while making it weaker. `research/BRIEF.md` argues it.
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+# ARCHITECTURE - the map of the code
+
+What each module owns, the seams between them, and which decision governs each. This is
+a map of the **code**, not of the research: `research/MAP.md` is the topic map - a
+different artifact with a different job, judged by a different check.
+
+The rule this map lives by: a commit touching a **declared code path** (declared in
+`research/kit.json`, defaulting to `src` / `lib` / `bin` / `scripts` / `app`) carries
+this file's update in the **same commit**. The commit gate refuses such commits without
+it.
+
+What the rule proves is deliberately modest: the gate checks this file was **staged**
+with the code, not that it is current - a whitespace edit satisfies it. That makes a
+stale map a deliberate act rather than mere forgetting. A prompt, not a proof.
+
+## The one picture
+
+```
+_Replace this with the shape of the thing you build: the entry points, the modules
+they reach, and the seams between them._
+```
+
+## Modules - what each one owns
+
+| Module | Owns | Governed by |
+|---|---|---|
+| _module_ | _the one concept it is responsible for_ | _ADR or decision_ |
+
+## The seams
+
+_Where modules touch, what is injectable, and why testing can stay offline._
+
+## Current shape, for the record
+
+_Counts and invariants a reader can check against the code: how many checks, how many
+adapters, which defaults._