Distinguish draft contracts, guides, and design notes

BRIEFING.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Briefing contract
 
-**Status:** Draft protocol contract. This is the protocol's main output.
+**Status:** Normative draft. This is the protocol's main output.
 
 The reason `me.md` exists is to help a person keep up with agents. The briefing is how. It turns everything that moved into a person-shaped read: **what moved, where the pull is, what is missing, and what to do next.**
 

EXPERIMENTS.md

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # Experiments
 
+**Status:** Process. Non-normative.
+
 `me.md` is being developed through small, reversible experiments.
 
 The goal is not to turn the first useful interface into a standard. It is to learn which human capabilities matter, which boundaries must hold, and which technical choices can remain replaceable.

HOST.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Host contract
 
-**Status:** Draft protocol contract. Normative for conforming hosts.
+**Status:** Normative draft. A host that claims conformance must follow it.
 
 A *host* is anything that reads or writes a person's context on their behalf: a desktop agent, a CLI, an IDE assistant, a chat harness, a background daemon, a script. The protocol does not care which. This document defines what any of them must do to call itself conforming.
 

PROTOCOL.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # The protocol shape
 
-**Status:** Draft. This page is the smallest complete statement of the protocol.
+**Status:** Guide. This page summarizes the store and loop. [HOST.md](./HOST.md) defines host conformance.
 
 `me.md` works with any AI harness or platform. If a tool can read and write files, it can serve a person's store. This page gives the full engagement in one shape. [HOST.md](./HOST.md) gives the full conformance rules.
 

PROVENANCE.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-# Provenance contract
+# Provenance
 
-**Status:** Working protocol hypothesis. Non-normative.
+**Status:** Working protocol hypothesis. Non-normative. The required provenance rules are in [HOST.md §4](./HOST.md#4-provenance). This document explains them and records what is still under test.
 
 Provenance explains how durable context came to exist and why a change was allowed.
 

README.md

@@ -54,12 +54,28 @@ It is not a transcript, not a hidden profile, not a productivity score, not empl
 
 ## Documents
 
-- [PROTOCOL.md](./PROTOCOL.md) — the smallest complete statement: the store, the loop, and a paste-in block for any harness
-- [SETUP.md](./SETUP.md) — the setup instruction for the person, ready to copy
+Every protocol document listed below starts with a status line. There are three kinds.
+
+**Draft contracts.** HOST.md defines host conformance, SOVEREIGNTY.md states the commitments to the person, and BRIEFING.md defines a conforming briefing. These drafts may change.
+
 - [HOST.md](./HOST.md) — full conformance rules for implementers, with black-box tests
 - [BRIEFING.md](./BRIEFING.md) — the main output: the person-shaped read
 - [SOVEREIGNTY.md](./SOVEREIGNTY.md) — the commitments to the person
-- [CONTEXT.md](./CONTEXT.md), [EXPRESSION.md](./EXPRESSION.md), [PROVENANCE.md](./PROVENANCE.md), [REVOCATION.md](./REVOCATION.md), [SYSTEM.md](./SYSTEM.md), [EXTENSIONS.md](./EXTENSIONS.md), [EXPERIMENTS.md](./EXPERIMENTS.md) — the deeper contracts
+
+**Guides.** Setup and an overview of the rules.
+
+- [PROTOCOL.md](./PROTOCOL.md) — the store, the loop, and a paste-in block for a harness
+
+- [SETUP.md](./SETUP.md) — the setup instruction, ready to copy
+
+**Non-normative.** Design notes, vocabulary, and open questions. They explain the rules. They do not add to them.
+
+- [CONTEXT.md](./CONTEXT.md) — shared vocabulary
+- [PROVENANCE.md](./PROVENANCE.md) and [REVOCATION.md](./REVOCATION.md) — the reasons behind HOST.md §4 and §5
+- [EXPRESSION.md](./EXPRESSION.md) — how context is put into words and admitted
+- [SYSTEM.md](./SYSTEM.md) — the conceptual system map
+- [EXTENSIONS.md](./EXTENSIONS.md) — the open-source boundary and candidate extensions
+- [EXPERIMENTS.md](./EXPERIMENTS.md) — how the protocol is tested
 
 ## Status
 

REVOCATION.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-# Revocation and deletion contract
+# Revocation and deletion
 
-**Status:** Working protocol hypothesis. Non-normative.
+**Status:** Working protocol hypothesis. Non-normative. The required revocation rules are in [HOST.md §5](./HOST.md#5-revocation). This document explains them and records what is still under test.
 
 A person’s control is not complete if context can be added but cannot be reliably stopped, forgotten, or removed.
 

SETUP.md

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # Set up me.md with any agent
 
+**Status:** Guide for the person. It adds no rules. The rules are in [PROTOCOL.md](./PROTOCOL.md) and [HOST.md](./HOST.md).
+
 `me.md` is a new protocol for working with agents. It preserves human sovereignty: you own what agents know about you, you decide what they remember, and you can take it all with you. The purpose is not memory for its own sake. The purpose is to let you act on the things that matter most to you, with agents that know you well enough to help.
 
 You do not install the protocol. You give one instruction to any agent that can write a file.

SOVEREIGNTY.md

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # The me.md sovereignty contract
 
+**Status:** Normative draft. Every other document must keep these commitments. The open questions are in [What remains under test](#what-remains-under-test).
+
 `me.md` is experimental. Its storage layout, APIs, and implementation details will change as we learn.
 
 These commitments are different. They are the conditions under which a personal context system remains meaningfully user-owned. An implementation should be able to explain how it preserves them before claiming compatibility with `me.md`.