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 *.pid
 
 # Local hygiene notes (not for commit)
-CLAUDE.md
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+# AGENTS.md — Repo hygiene
+
+Scope: this file covers *repo hygiene* — branching, remotes, CI, cleanup. It is not project documentation.
+
+This repo follows the branch/release workflow documented in `CONTRIBUTING.md`
+— read and follow it for any git, branch, or release work here (the
+single-trunk model, `feature/x`/`fix/x` branch naming, how RC tags work,
+etc). Don't improvise a different workflow. The short version: there is one
+long-lived branch, `main` — no `dev` or `beta` branch exists. `main`
+auto-publishes a dev-track build on every push. "Beta" and "stable" are both
+just tags, not branches: push a `vX.Y.Z-rc.N` tag to publish a beta-track
+build, push a plain `vX.Y.Z` tag to cut the signed stable release.
+"Freezing" for stabilization means pausing pushes to `main`, not moving a
+branch. This replaced an earlier three-branch (`dev`/`beta`/`main`) model
+after `main` was found to have silently rotted out of sync with `dev`/`beta`
+across most repos in this ecosystem — a manual "merge beta into main
+monthly" step nobody reliably did across a dozen-plus repos. Collapsing to
+one branch removes the class of bug; there's nothing left that can fall out
+of sync.
+
+## Remotes
+- `origin` — Forgejo (`git.breadway.dev` via Hestia, SSH) — authoritative.
+- `github` — GitHub mirror. Push both when publishing.
+
+## CI
+- `check.yml` — clippy + test on `feature/**` and `fix/**` (fast-fail before
+  a change reaches `main`).
+- `dev-release.yml` triggers on `push: branches: ['main']`.
+- `rc-release.yml` triggers on `push: tags: ['v*']` gated to *only* run for
+  `-rc.` tags.
+- `release.yml` triggers on `push: tags: ['v*']` gated to skip any tag
+  containing `-rc.` — that's the signed stable release.
+- No build/lint/test CI runs on ordinary commits or PRs to `main` beyond the
+  dev-track workflow above. See bread-ecosystem's `docs/release-channels.md`
+  for the full track (stable/beta/dev) policy.
+
+## Don't
+- Don't embed credentials in remote URLs — SSH or a credential helper only.
+- Don't merge this repo with `bread-screenshots` (the crate in
+  `bread-ecosystem`). Different jobs: breadshot is the user-facing
+  grim/slurp/wl-copy orchestrator; `bread-screenshots` is the capture
+  harness used by `bread-capture` to screenshot sibling apps in CI. They
+  share a grim backend and nothing else.