playbooks: repo-sweep has no rule for instruction files synced from another repository

[kyle-sexton]

Problem

Catalog entries that apply edits (for example prompt-audit at catalogs/hygiene.md line 143, "Apply deletes and rewrites only", and the entry at line 167 with the same wording) carry no rule for files synced from another repository. A local edit to such a file is overwritten on the next sync, so the fix belongs upstream. The gap is sweep-wide, not specific to one entry.

Evidence

melodic-software/.github#153, step prompt-audit: .claude/rules/pr-body-contract.md is authored by melodic-standards-sync[bot] (git blame), and the repo's README.md lines 51 and 66 document it as synced from standards. The step had no findings, so no edit was lost this time.

Related: #4530 (the same gap inside audit-comment-residue).

Fix

Add one scope question to next.md step 3.4: before applying a fix, detect synced files (from the repo's own file inventory, or a sync-bot author in git blame) and route those fixes to the source repository instead of editing them here. Optionally add it to SKILL.md Gotchas.

[kyle-sexton]

This was generated by AI during triage.

Triage: verified, briefed

Category: enhancement (a missing rule in the repo-sweep playbook), type Feature, priority: medium (assessed default; blocks nothing, and no edit has been lost yet).

Verified. On main, the repo-sweep step runner's "Run the step" phase asks the scope questions the findings raise and then applies the agreed fixes. It has no rule for files synced in from another repository. The hygiene catalog entries that apply edits (prompt-audit, audit-instructions, claude-memory, which say "Apply deletes and rewrites only") also have no such rule. A grep for sync and upstream across the skill's SKILL.md, reference, and catalog finds nothing. The report's claim holds.

Redundancy check. Searched the repo-sweep skill body, its step-runner, plan, and review references, and the hygiene catalog. The behavior does not exist. The rejected-concept ledger does not apply, because this repo has no docs/out-of-scope/.

Related, not a cluster: #4530 names the same sync-managed-files gap inside code-tidying:audit-comment-residue. That is a separate surface with a separate fix, and there is no shared open decision.

Brief

Goal. When a repo-sweep step is about to apply a fix, it recognizes files that another repository syncs into the target repo. It routes those fixes to the source repository and does not edit them locally.

Behavior contract.

• Before any fix is applied, the step-runner's scope-question phase checks every file the fix would touch. A file counts as synced when either (a) the target repo's own file inventory or README declares it synced from another repository, or (b) git blame attributes it to a sync bot (for example an author login ending in -sync[bot]).
• A synced file's findings are listed separately. The step's chat question offers to route them upstream (name the source repo; draft an issue there, never file it unasked). The step never edits the synced file locally.
• The step records this in the step commit's Scope decisions: section.
• Optional: add a one-line Gotcha to the repo-sweep skill body stating the same rule.

Acceptance.

• The step-runner reference carries the synced-file scope question before "apply the agreed fixes".
• A reader running a sweep over a repo with a sync-bot-authored rule file is told to route that file's findings upstream.
• Skill-body conventions in this repo hold (the verification record for any volatile specific, and ## Next if the skill body is touched).

Out of scope. The same gap in audit-comment-residue (#4530).