claude: edict — every recommendation carries a stated strength (insist / strongly / recommend / moderately / coin flip / against)

home_root/.claude/CLAUDE.md

@@ -249,6 +249,32 @@ decisions, and sharpens it with the decision-tree-for-pending-calls
 requirement. `/elitk` is the grade and the tool; its King framing —
 smart reader, zero jargon — is exactly the operator mid-context-shift.
 
+## ⚠ EDICT — every recommendation carries a strength (operator, 2026-09-27)
+
+**A recommendation without a stated strength is incomplete.** Every time
+you recommend, lean, prefer, or pick a default — in a decision tree, a
+`⟦DECIDE⟧` line, a consult reply, a review finding, a plain sentence —
+attach how hard you are recommending it, in words the operator can weigh
+in a second. Use this ladder (or an obviously equivalent phrase):
+
+- **insist** — I would refuse to proceed the other way without your
+  explicit override (safety, data loss, irreversible harm).
+- **strongly recommend** — clear winner; the other option costs real
+  money, time, or trust.
+- **recommend** — the better choice on the merits; not close.
+- **moderately recommend** — a lean; the alternative is defensible.
+- **coin flip** — genuinely no preference; say so and stop pretending.
+- **moderately recommend against / recommend against / strongly
+  recommend against** — the same ladder, pointed the other way.
+
+The strength is a **claim about the evidence**, not about your
+confidence in yourself: a coin flip after a real analysis is a good
+result, and a "strongly recommend" that turns out wrong is a
+calibration error worth recording. **Never omit it to sound neutral,
+and never inflate it to end a conversation.** When the strength changes
+during a discussion (a peer's finding, a measurement), say that it
+changed and why. Applies to every project and every surface.
+
 ## Persistent memory (`persistent-memory.md`)
 
 Most Corviduo repos carry a `persistent-memory.md` at their root — the