fix(board): one spec for next-cost, and it is the rubric's

The board line's cost field had two specifications and one of them was this
script. `--help` prescribed a versionless `sonnet/xhigh`; the global model
rubric it points at spells the model `Sonnet 5 / xhigh`. A session following
either was correct by its own source, so the field drifted with nobody making
a mistake. Measured across a real 44-repo tree: 14 board lines carrying eight
distinct strings, and not one of them the form documented here - the only
spelling nobody used was ours.

The help now prescribes the rubric's, which is also what most lines already
carry. The parser is untouched and stays lenient: it reads to `;` or `-->` so
the rubric's spacing survives, and the fixtures still vary the spelling on
purpose to pin that. Read-side leniency was never the defect; it is what makes
a documentation-only fix sufficient.

No normalization at read, deliberately. Board lines are rewritten every session
by convention, so an unambiguous spec self-heals the existing lines in about one
session per active repo - mapping variants would be permanent code migrating
data that migrates itself. Nothing compares the field mechanically today either:
KOST is a display column and the board sorts on a numeric bucket key, so the
defect was real but latent. Two checks (28 -> 30) pin the documented form,
red first, because cleaning the data cannot fix a spec that regenerates the
divergence every session. Validation at write has no write path to attach to:
nothing in this repo emits a board line outside the fixtures.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01U6EixQo6hpoRCVtiAXdnFs

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -5,6 +5,34 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/),
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
+## [Unreleased]
+
+### Fixed
+
+- **The board line's `next-cost` field had two specs, and one of them was
+  ours.** `board.sh --help` prescribed a versionless `sonnet/xhigh` while the
+  global model rubric it points at spells the model `Sonnet 5 / xhigh`. Neither
+  a session following the help nor one following the rubric was doing anything
+  wrong, so the field drifted: measured across a real 44-repo tree, the 14
+  existing board lines carried **eight** distinct strings — and not one used the
+  form documented here. The help now prescribes the rubric's spelling
+  (`Sonnet 5/xhigh`), which is also the one most lines already use.
+
+  **The parser is unchanged and stays lenient.** It still reads to `;` or
+  `-->` rather than stopping at the first non-lowercase character, precisely so
+  the rubric's spacing survives; the selftest fixtures still vary the spelling
+  on purpose to pin that. Leniency on the read side was never the defect — it
+  is what makes a documentation-only fix sufficient.
+
+  **No normalization was added, deliberately.** Board lines are rewritten every
+  session by convention, so an unambiguous spec self-heals the existing lines
+  within about one session per active repo. Mapping variants at read time would
+  be permanent code migrating data that migrates itself, and nothing compares
+  the field mechanically today: `KOST` is a display column, and the board sorts
+  on a numeric bucket key. Two new `board-selftest.sh` checks (30 total) pin the
+  documented form, because a spec that contradicts the rubric regenerates the
+  divergence no matter how often the data is cleaned up.
+
 ## [0.9.0] - 2026-07-28
 
 ### Added

CLAUDE.md

@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ marketplace plugin. Three components, one boundary:
 - **Board (`scripts/board.sh`):** cross-repo attention board. Reads STATE.md
   next-step blocks + board lines, `git status`, and mailbox pending counts, and
   prints one line per repo. Read-only by construction: it writes to no repo, no
-  STATE.md and no mailbox. Pinned by `board-selftest.sh` (28 checks).
+  STATE.md and no mailbox. Pinned by `board-selftest.sh` (30 checks).
 
   **It lives here because the mailbox is one of its three inputs, and it carries
   the same axis distinction the mailbox does.** A pending count means *others
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ halves together for exactly that reason.
   builtins only in hook and tests.
 - TDD: no behavior change without a failing selftest check first.
   `bash scripts/coord-selftest.sh` must exit 0 (136/136) and
-  `bash scripts/board-selftest.sh` must exit 0 (28/28).
+  `bash scripts/board-selftest.sh` must exit 0 (30/30).
 - English for all code, docs, and commit messages (public repo). Norwegian
   trigger aliases in the skill description are deliberate.
 - Conventional Commits: `type(scope): description`.

README.md

@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ Note that raising the inbox's priority (Rule 7) deliberately does **not** widen
 ## Development
 
     bash scripts/coord-selftest.sh    # 136 checks against a throwaway mailbox
-    bash scripts/board-selftest.sh    # 28 checks against a throwaway repo tree
+    bash scripts/board-selftest.sh    # 30 checks against a throwaway repo tree
     npm test                          # both selftests via node --test
 
 TDD is the house rule: every behavior change lands with a failing selftest check first.

scripts/board-selftest.sh

@@ -213,6 +213,23 @@ mkrepo "$ROOT/repo-f"
 # Unreadable root is a no-op, not a crash.
 "$BOARD" --roots "$ROOT/does-not-exist" >/dev/null 2>&1; check "missing root is a clean no-op" $?
 
+# --- 8. The documented next-cost form IS the convention --------------------
+# The cost field is free text on purpose: the parser reads to ';' or '-->' so
+# the rubric's spacing survives, and the fixtures above deliberately vary the
+# spelling to pin that leniency. But leniency on the read side means the ONLY
+# thing holding the field uniform is what --help prescribes, and --help once
+# prescribed a versionless `sonnet/xhigh` while the global rubric spelled
+# `Sonnet 5 / xhigh`. Two specs for one field: measured across the real tree,
+# not one board line used ours, and eight distinct strings were in circulation.
+# Pinned here because cleaning the DATA cannot fix that - a spec that
+# contradicts the rubric regenerates the divergence every session.
+HELP="$("$BOARD" --help 2>/dev/null)"
+printf '%s' "$HELP" | grep -q 'next-cost=Sonnet 5/xhigh'
+check "--help prescribes the canonical next-cost form" $?
+# The versionless form is what the rubric does NOT use; no example may show it.
+if printf '%s' "$HELP" | grep -qE '(sonnet|opus|fable)/(high|xhigh)'; then rc=1; else rc=0; fi
+check "--help shows no versionless model example" "$rc"
+
 echo ""
 echo "board-selftest: $PASS passed, $FAIL failed"
 [ "$FAIL" -eq 0 ] || exit 1

scripts/board.sh

@@ -18,11 +18,15 @@
 #
 # Board line (optional, one per STATE.md, directly under the NESTE heading):
 #
-#   <!-- board: status=in-progress; blocked-on=-; next-cost=sonnet/xhigh -->
+#   <!-- board: status=in-progress; blocked-on=-; next-cost=Sonnet 5/xhigh -->
 #
 #   status     planned | in-progress | blocked | deferred | done
 #   blocked-on <repo-name> or - (only meaningful with status=blocked)
-#   next-cost  <model>/<effort> from the global model rubric, e.g. opus/xhigh
+#   next-cost  <model>/<effort>, the model spelled EXACTLY as the global rubric
+#              spells it: Sonnet 5/xhigh, Opus 5/high. The parser below accepts
+#              any spelling, but this field is compared across repos by eye, so
+#              one form is the whole point - and a second spelling documented
+#              here is how a field with no write path drifts.
 #
 # ATTENTION AXIS, NOT A TOPIC AXIS. This status vocabulary is deliberately NOT
 # the vocabulary a cross-repo TOPIC register uses. A topic register answers