Re-vendor the murderboard to 81a0927: the stale copy had nothing to say about cost

.claude/skills/murderboard/SKILL.md

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-<!-- vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 3a6a8fb — canonical source; do NOT edit here, update upstream and re-copy -->
+<!-- vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 81a0927 — canonical source; do NOT edit here, update upstream and re-copy -->
 # canonical: syncytium2/murderboard skills/murderboard/SKILL.md
 # When vendoring, INSERT a line just below the --- above: vendored from https://github.com/syncytium2/murderboard @ <short-sha> — do NOT edit here; update by re-copying. (murderboard_revendor.py does this, and keeps it in the right place.)
 name: murderboard
@@ -19,6 +19,43 @@ in `doc_review_process.md`, which you will load in step 2 and follow.
 > outcomes looked exactly like success. The steps below are the parts that must not depend on
 > anyone remembering them.
 
+## Preflight — what this costs, before it costs it
+
+**Deliberately before step 0**, and unnumbered, because it gates whether the run happens at
+all rather than how it is done. A murderboard is a fan-out: one subagent per role, every role,
+always. **Known good: Claude Opus 5**; other current models are likely fine. On a model you
+cannot afford to exhaust you get **no review and the full bill** — which is what happened on
+2026-09-07 under Fable.
+
+**A `PreToolUse` hook should already have handled this** — `murderboard_model_gate.sh`, wired
+in the plugin and in consumers that vendored it. It blocks a run on a blocked model, and it
+**asks the human before every run**, because the other way this wastes money is being fired
+too early, at a draft that was not ready. If you are reading this line it either allowed the
+call or is not installed here; do not assume the second case means no policy:
+
+```bash
+GATE=; for p in tools/murderboard_model_gate.sh murderboard_model_gate.sh \
+                "${MB:-/nonexistent}/murderboard_model_gate.sh"; do
+  [ -r "$p" ] && GATE="$p" && break
+done
+[ -n "$GATE" ] && bash "$GATE" --why || echo "no model gate present — check the model yourself"
+```
+
+**If the gate is absent, say which model you are running on and confirm the human wants to
+spend it here** before spawning anything. One line before the fan-out, rather than an apology
+after it.
+
+**If you are blocked or the human declines, that is the end of it.** Do not re-invoke, do not
+reach for the hand-run path through the process file, and do not trim the roster to fit a
+budget — a report missing roles is indistinguishable from a clean one, which is the failure
+this entire skill exists to prevent. Their options are to switch model or to set
+`MURDERBOARD_ALLOW_EXPENSIVE_MODEL=1`; both are theirs to pick, not yours.
+
+**Be straight about whose bill it is.** No cost incurred running the murderboard is ever the
+responsibility of its authors, and the gate is a safeguard, **not a spending cap** — never
+imply it protects anyone from a bill.
+<https://github.com/syncytium2/murderboard/blob/main/TERMS.md>
+
 ## 0. Resolve the paths — do not assume a layout
 
 There are two ways these files get onto a machine, and they land in different places:

docs/doc_review_process.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<!-- vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 3a6a8fb — canonical source; do NOT edit here, update upstream and re-copy -->
+<!-- vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 81a0927 — canonical source; do NOT edit here, update upstream and re-copy -->
 # The murderboard — critical review process for document deliverables (anti-slop)
 
 A standing, project-neutral review process. Its purpose is to stop **slop** — unsourced
@@ -91,6 +91,32 @@ No fabricated or approximate citation. No internal contradiction. No filler.
 > still works and is the fallback for a consumer without the skill installed; it is simply the mode
 > in which each of those four steps can be silently skipped.
 
+> **Cost — what to run this on.** This process is a **fan-out**: every role runs on every
+> deliverable, and what scales to stakes is how you run them, never which ones — so there is
+> no cheap murderboard. **Known good: Claude Opus 5**; other current models are likely fine.
+> **Do not start a run on a model you cannot afford to exhaust.** On **2026-09-07** a run under
+> **Fable** spent a two-day usage limit and produced no review at all. That is the shape of
+> this failure: you do not get a partial review for a partial price, you get no review and the
+> full bill.
+>
+> **This is a gate, not advice.** `murderboard_model_gate.sh` is a `PreToolUse` hook that reads
+> the running model and blocks the call-up before the fan-out starts; it ships wired in the
+> plugin and vendoring consumers should wire it too. It **also asks the human before every
+> run**, because the other way this wastes money is being fired too early — at a draft that was
+> not ready, by a session that decided on its own that something was a deliverable.
+> `--why` prints what it is currently stopping; the file itself explains why it fails closed
+> and why the blocklist carries a review-by date.
+>
+> **If you are blocked or declined, stop.** Do not re-invoke, do not run the roles by hand to
+> route around a refusal, and never economise by running fewer roles — a review missing roles
+> is indistinguishable in the report from a clean one, which is the defect this whole apparatus
+> exists to prevent. Tell the human and let them choose.
+>
+> **The bill is theirs, not ours.** No cost incurred running this process is ever the
+> responsibility of its authors, and the gate is a safeguard, **not a spending cap** — it knows
+> nothing about anyone's plan, balance, or prices. Full terms:
+> <https://github.com/syncytium2/murderboard/blob/main/TERMS.md>
+
 0. **Preflight — confirm the process itself is current.** This file is usually **vendored** into a
    consumer repo, where it drifts behind its canonical source. Before running, verify THIS copy is up
    to date with upstream — compare its vendored stamp/commit against the canonical repo's HEAD (search

tools/murderboard_agents.py

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
-# vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 3a6a8fb — do NOT edit here; update upstream and re-copy.
+# vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 81a0927 — do NOT edit here; update upstream and re-copy.
 """murderboard_agents.py — compile `doc_review_process.md` into one agent file per role.
 
 THE GAP THIS CLOSES. The review team is eleven specialists, and until now they existed only

tools/murderboard_freshness.sh

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
-# vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 3a6a8fb — do NOT edit here; update upstream and re-copy.
+# vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 81a0927 — do NOT edit here; update upstream and re-copy.
 # instrument: propagation
 # murderboard_freshness.sh — is this repo's VENDORED murderboard current with upstream?
 #

tools/murderboard_revendor.py

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
-# vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 3a6a8fb — do NOT edit here; update upstream and re-copy.
+# vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 81a0927 — do NOT edit here; update upstream and re-copy.
 # instrument: propagation
 """murderboard_revendor — re-copy vendored files and bump their stamps, surgically.
 

tools/murderboard_roster.sh

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
-# vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 3a6a8fb — do NOT edit here; update upstream and re-copy.
+# vendored from syncytium2/murderboard @ 81a0927 — do NOT edit here; update upstream and re-copy.
 # instrument: verification
 # murderboard_roster.sh — derive the review-team roster FROM the process file, and check
 # that a review report actually accounts for every role.