context-audit, Token Hygiene for the Always-Loaded Context Stack

Convention: see conventions/brain-first.md , before running a fresh audit, check the brain for prior audit reports (gbrain recall "context audit report") so you can compute token DRIFT since the last run and avoid re-flagging findings the user already declined.

Convention: see conventions/quality.md, > every finding cites its file and evidence; no unsourced claims.

What this is

Every file that loads on every turn is a per-turn tax: tokens, latency, and, past a point, instruction-following quality. Always-loaded files accrete (append-only release notes, promoted memory blocks nobody re-reads, rules restated in three files that drift into contradiction). This skill audits the whole always-loaded stack at once and returns a ranked, evidence-cited action list sorted by token savings.

It is an auditor, not a surgeon. It measures, finds, ranks, and recommends. The user (or a skill the user explicitly invokes afterward) applies changes.

Scope: what counts as "always-loaded"

Enumerate what THIS harness actually loads every turn, do not assume a fixed list. Typical stack:

File	Role	Fix belongs in
project CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md	orientation, routing, invariants	the file itself (source-editable)
user-global CLAUDE.md	cross-project instructions	the file itself (source-editable)
auto-memory MEMORY.md	promoted memory blocks	the memory store (demote/expire)
SOUL.md, USER.md, ACCESS_POLICY.md, HEARTBEAT.md, rendered AGENTS.md	bootstrap-rendered identity files	the interview answer bank / templates, NEVER the rendered file
harness system-prompt fragments (identity/tools files)	per-harness	wherever that harness sources them