diff --git a/.claude/skills/t27f/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/t27f/SKILL.md
index 5ac07b4b35..4e149ae66d 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/t27f/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/t27f/SKILL.md
@@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ Read the spec through the t27 MCP server, which is already installed in Claude C
   gHashTag/t27 checkout instead. Say which one you used.
 
 From the source, take: `LENS_NAMES`, `LENS_QUESTIONS`, `STAGE_NAMES`, the four `*_WORDS`
-vocabularies, the five `*_BEES` lists, `MAX_ACTIVE_BEES`, and the functions `intake_verdict`,
-`map_verdict`, `initial_status`, `route`, `dispatch_allowed`, `required_evidence`,
-`evidence_accepted`, `verify`, `counts_as_progress`, `needs_human_approval`, `action_allowed`,
-`after_action`. Evaluate them as written; they are small and total.
+vocabularies and `KEYWORD_MATCH`, the five `*_BEES` lists, `MAX_ACTIVE_BEES`, `GAP_BEE`, and the
+functions `intake_verdict`, `map_verdict`, `initial_status`, `ground`, `route`, `dispatch_allowed`,
+`bee_target`, `required_evidence`, `evidence_accepted`, `verify`, `counts_as_progress`,
+`needs_human_approval`, `action_allowed`, `after_action`. Evaluate them as written; they are small and total.
 
 Everything in `DETERMINISTIC_STEPS` is decided by those functions, never by your judgement.
 You write only what `LLM_WRITES` names.
@@ -49,8 +49,8 @@ Apply `intake_verdict(has_topic, source_count)`:
 
 ## 2. Route
 
-Count whole-word, case-insensitive hits of the brief against each `*_WORDS` list. Show the four
-counts, then apply `route(content, engineering, research, sales)`. Name the domain and the Bee list
+Count the brief's hits against each `*_WORDS` list exactly as `KEYWORD_MATCH` says. Show the four
+counts and the words that hit, then apply `route(content, engineering, research, sales)`. Name the domain and the Bee list
 it allows. Do not override the result; if it looks wrong, the vocabulary in the spec is what needs a
 PR.
 
@@ -64,14 +64,21 @@ the sources. A claim with no source is not written; it becomes a gap.
 Print a table of 27 rows, lens-major (`step_lens`, `step_stage`): step, lens, stage, lesson title,
 source, status.
 
-- For each lesson, `grounded` means at least one source supports it.
-- Status from `initial_status(grounded, first_grounded)`. A GAP row says **GAP: needs a source on
-  <what>** and nothing else. Never invent filler to make the map look complete.
+- For each lesson, `grounded` means at least one source from intake supports it. Sources you find
+  yourself are not intake; they arrive through the Bee task in step 5 and `ground`.
+- A GAP row keeps its lesson title (titles are in `LLM_WRITES`); its source cell is empty.
+- Status from `initial_status(grounded, first_grounded)`; `first_grounded` is the grounded lesson
+  with the lowest step. A GAP row's status cell says **GAP: needs a source on <what>** and nothing
+  else. Never invent filler to make the map look complete.
 - Count grounded lessons per lens and report `map_verdict(...)`.
 
 ## 5. One Bee task
 
-Pick the first OPEN lesson. Check `dispatch_allowed(active_bees)`. Choose one capability from the
+Apply `bee_target(open_lessons)`. `TARGET_OPEN_LESSON`: take the first OPEN lesson.
+`TARGET_FIRST_GAP` (nothing is OPEN, as when intake was `INTAKE_NO_SOURCES`): take the first GAP, the
+capability is `GAP_BEE`, and the task is to find a source for it; once one is attached, apply
+`ground`. `active_bees` counts the Bees of this journey still working; at the start it is 0. Check
+`dispatch_allowed(active_bees)`. Choose one capability from the
 domain's Bee list and write one task for it:
 
 - goal (one sentence), input (the lesson and its sources), output (the artifact),
@@ -97,7 +104,9 @@ approved)`.
 
 - Publish, send to a client, any payment, anything destructive: ask the user in chat and wait for a
   clear yes. A yes covers that one action only.
-- Publishing or sending needs a VERIFIED item. A draft is never published.
+- Publishing needs a VERIFIED item. A draft is never published. Sending to a client also takes a
+  DRAFT, because a client approval is the only evidence that verifies a sales or content DELIVER
+  lesson; the draft stays a DRAFT (`after_action`) until that approval comes back.
 
 ## 8. Keep the three layers apart
 
diff --git a/specs/t27f/topic_engine.t27 b/specs/t27f/topic_engine.t27
index 3e0a85f0ca..0dac0e6a25 100644
--- a/specs/t27f/topic_engine.t27
+++ b/specs/t27f/topic_engine.t27
@@ -63,7 +63,9 @@ pub const DOMAIN_SALES : u8 = 4;
 pub const DOMAIN_NAMES : str = "general,content,engineering,research,sales";
 
 /// Keyword vocabularies, comma separated. The host counts how many words of the brief appear in each
-/// list (whole words, case-insensitive) and passes the four counts to route().
+/// list and passes the four counts to route(). How a word is matched is KEYWORD_MATCH, not a guess:
+/// "List a villa" does not hit "listing", and "sea-view" is the two tokens "sea" and "view".
+pub const KEYWORD_MATCH : str = "lowercase the brief; split it on every character that is not a-z or 0-9; a token is a hit when it equals a list word exactly; no stems, no plurals; a word repeated in the brief counts each time";
 pub const CONTENT_WORDS : str = "blog,post,campaign,reel,video,channel,audience,content,newsletter";
 pub const ENGINEERING_WORDS : str = "fpga,rtl,verilog,compiler,spec,code,bug,test,firmware,api";
 pub const RESEARCH_WORDS : str = "paper,research,experiment,dataset,proof,preprint,result,benchmark,gf16";
@@ -80,6 +82,13 @@ pub const SALES_BEES : str = "researcher,copywriter,listing-builder";
 pub const MAX_ACTIVE_BEES : u8 = 3;
 pub const BEES_PER_STEP : u8 = 1;
 
+/// What the one Bee works on. While a lesson is OPEN, that lesson. When none is (every lesson is a
+/// GAP, as with a brief that brought no source), the first GAP, and the task is to find a source for
+/// it: GAP_BEE, which every *_BEES list above carries, judged by required_evidence(STAGE_LEARN, ...).
+pub const TARGET_OPEN_LESSON : u8 = 0;
+pub const TARGET_FIRST_GAP : u8 = 1;
+pub const GAP_BEE : str = "researcher";
+
 /// Evidence kinds a Bee or a person can attach to a draft.
 pub const EVIDENCE_NONE : u8 = 0;
 pub const EVIDENCE_SOURCE_LINK : u8 = 1;
@@ -161,7 +170,8 @@ pub fn map_verdict(grounded_structure: u8, grounded_process: u8, grounded_value:
     return MAP_PARTIAL;
 }
 
-/// The status a lesson starts in. Only the first grounded lesson of the map is open.
+/// The status a lesson starts in. Only the first grounded lesson of the map is open: the grounded
+/// lesson with the lowest step, in the lens-major order of step_lens.
 pub fn initial_status(grounded: bool, first_grounded: bool) -> u8 {
     if (grounded == false) {
         return STATUS_GAP;
@@ -201,6 +211,22 @@ pub fn dispatch_allowed(active_bees: u8) -> bool {
     return active_bees < MAX_ACTIVE_BEES;
 }
 
+/// Where the one Bee task goes, from how many lessons are OPEN right now.
+pub fn bee_target(open_lessons: u8) -> u8 {
+    if (open_lessons == 0) {
+        return TARGET_FIRST_GAP;
+    }
+    return TARGET_OPEN_LESSON;
+}
+
+/// A GAP that has gained a source starts over as a grounded lesson; every other status stays.
+pub fn ground(status: u8, first_grounded: bool) -> u8 {
+    if (status == STATUS_GAP) {
+        return initial_status(true, first_grounded);
+    }
+    return status;
+}
+
 /// The evidence a stage asks for first, per domain.
 pub fn required_evidence(stage: u8, domain: u8) -> u8 {
     if (stage == STAGE_LEARN) {
@@ -276,8 +302,10 @@ pub fn needs_human_approval(action: u8) -> bool {
     return action >= ACTION_PUBLISH;
 }
 
-/// Whether an action may run now. High-impact actions need approval; publishing and sending to a
-/// client need a VERIFIED item as well.
+/// Whether an action may run now. High-impact actions need approval. Publishing needs a VERIFIED
+/// item. Sending to a client takes a VERIFIED item, or a DRAFT sent so the client can approve it:
+/// for sales and content, DELIVER is verified only by EVIDENCE_CLIENT_APPROVAL, and a client cannot
+/// approve what never reached them.
 pub fn action_allowed(status: u8, action: u8, approved: bool) -> bool {
     if (action == ACTION_DRAFT_ONLY) {
         return status >= STATUS_OPEN && status <= STATUS_PUBLISHED;
@@ -288,15 +316,19 @@ pub fn action_allowed(status: u8, action: u8, approved: bool) -> bool {
     if (approved == false) {
         return false;
     }
-    if (action == ACTION_PUBLISH || action == ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT) {
+    if (action == ACTION_PUBLISH) {
         return status == STATUS_VERIFIED;
     }
+    if (action == ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT) {
+        return status == STATUS_DRAFT || status == STATUS_VERIFIED;
+    }
     return action <= ACTION_DESTRUCTIVE;
 }
 
-/// The status after an action: a VERIFIED item that is published or sent becomes PUBLISHED.
+/// The status after an action: a VERIFIED item that is published or sent becomes PUBLISHED. A DRAFT
+/// sent for the client's approval stays a DRAFT until that approval comes back as evidence.
 pub fn after_action(status: u8, action: u8, approved: bool) -> u8 {
-    if (action_allowed(status, action, approved)) {
+    if (action_allowed(status, action, approved) && status == STATUS_VERIFIED) {
         if (action == ACTION_PUBLISH || action == ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT) {
             return STATUS_PUBLISHED;
         }
@@ -353,9 +385,9 @@ test dispatch_is_capped {
 }
 
 test demo_villa_sale_brief {
-    // "List a sea-view villa for a client and draft the sale post": villa, client, sale, listing -> 4
-    // sales hits; post -> 1 content hit
-    var domain : u8 = route(1, 0, 0, 4);
+    // "List a sea-view villa for a client and draft the sale post", counted by KEYWORD_MATCH: villa,
+    // client, sale -> 3 sales hits ("list" is not "listing"); post -> 1 content hit
+    var domain : u8 = route(1, 0, 0, 3);
     assert domain == DOMAIN_SALES;
     assert required_evidence(STAGE_LEARN, domain) == EVIDENCE_SOURCE_LINK;
     assert required_evidence(STAGE_PRACTICE, domain) == EVIDENCE_REVIEW;
@@ -366,6 +398,40 @@ test demo_villa_sale_brief {
     // sending to the client still needs a human approval at send time
     assert action_allowed(STATUS_VERIFIED, ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT, false) == false;
     assert after_action(STATUS_VERIFIED, ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT, true) == STATUS_PUBLISHED;
+    // the brief brought no source: all 27 lessons are GAPs, nothing is OPEN, so the one Bee task is
+    // to find a source for the first GAP, at LEARN
+    assert intake_verdict(true, 0) == INTAKE_NO_SOURCES;
+    assert initial_status(false, true) == STATUS_GAP;
+    assert map_verdict(0, 0, 0) == MAP_NEED_SOURCES;
+    assert bee_target(0) == TARGET_FIRST_GAP;
+    assert step_stage(0) == STAGE_LEARN;
+    assert required_evidence(step_stage(0), domain) == EVIDENCE_SOURCE_LINK;
+}
+
+test client_approves_a_draft_it_was_sent {
+    // the sale post is a DELIVER draft; only the client's yes verifies it, so it must be sendable
+    // as a draft, with the user's approval, and stay a draft until that yes comes back
+    var domain : u8 = DOMAIN_SALES;
+    assert action_allowed(STATUS_DRAFT, ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT, false) == false;
+    assert action_allowed(STATUS_DRAFT, ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT, true);
+    assert after_action(STATUS_DRAFT, ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT, true) == STATUS_DRAFT;
+    assert verify(STATUS_DRAFT, STAGE_DELIVER, domain, EVIDENCE_CLIENT_APPROVAL) == STATUS_VERIFIED;
+    // a draft is still never published, and nothing below a draft is sent
+    assert action_allowed(STATUS_DRAFT, ACTION_PUBLISH, true) == false;
+    assert action_allowed(STATUS_OPEN, ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT, true) == false;
+    assert action_allowed(STATUS_GAP, ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT, true) == false;
+    assert action_allowed(STATUS_PUBLISHED, ACTION_SEND_TO_CLIENT, true) == false;
+}
+
+test bee_goes_to_the_open_lesson_or_the_first_gap {
+    assert bee_target(0) == TARGET_FIRST_GAP;
+    assert bee_target(1) == TARGET_OPEN_LESSON;
+    assert bee_target(LESSON_COUNT) == TARGET_OPEN_LESSON;
+    // a gap that gains a source becomes a grounded lesson: OPEN if it is the first, else LOCKED
+    assert ground(STATUS_GAP, true) == STATUS_OPEN;
+    assert ground(STATUS_GAP, false) == STATUS_LOCKED;
+    assert ground(STATUS_DRAFT, true) == STATUS_DRAFT;
+    assert ground(STATUS_VERIFIED, false) == STATUS_VERIFIED;
 }
 
 test demo_gf16_research_topic {