docs: 3.12.1 — one positioning line, ICP first

.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

@@ -5,13 +5,13 @@
     "url": "https://github.com/suboss87"
   },
   "metadata": {
-    "description": "Engagement memory for AI coding agents - one @fde skill, phase methods, and local .fde/ client memory."
+    "description": "Forward deployed engineering skills with memory - one @fde skill, phase methods, and local .fde/ client memory."
   },
   "plugins": [
     {
       "name": "fdeops",
       "source": "./",
-      "description": "Engagement memory for AI coding agents. One entry point that routes by situation (land, discover, build, rescue, ship, close), does the phase work, and keeps per-client memory - sponsor, promise, decision, acceptance, dated - in local .fde/ files. For Forward Deployed Engineers running several clients at once; healthcare, fintech, and government overlays included."
+      "description": "Forward deployed engineering skills with memory, for AI coding agents. One entry point that routes by situation (land, discover, build, rescue, ship, close), does the phase work, and keeps per-client memory - sponsor, promise, decision, acceptance, dated - in local .fde/ files. For Forward Deployed Engineers running several clients at once; healthcare, fintech, and government overlays included."
     }
   ]
 }

.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "fdeops",
-  "description": "Engagement memory for AI coding agents. One @fde skill routes the client work - land, discover, plan, build, ship, close - and the record of it (sponsor, promise, decision, acceptance, dated) lands in local .fde/ files as you confirm judgment. For Forward Deployed Engineers running several clients at once.",
-  "version": "3.12.0",
+  "description": "Forward deployed engineering skills with memory, for AI coding agents. One @fde skill routes the client work - land, discover, plan, build, ship, close - and the record of it (sponsor, promise, decision, acceptance, dated) lands in local .fde/ files as you confirm judgment. For Forward Deployed Engineers running several clients at once.",
+  "version": "3.12.1",
   "category": "productivity",
   "tags": [
     "community-managed"

AGENTS.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # AGENTS.md - working in the fdeops repository
 
-This repository **is** fdeops - the second brain for Forward Deployed Engineers. One `@fde` skill routes an entire client engagement across six domains, the `fde` CLI does the deterministic work, and per-customer memory lands in `.fde/` files as a side effect of the work (you still confirm judgment).
+This repository **is** fdeops - forward deployed engineering skills with memory, for AI coding agents. One `@fde` skill routes an entire client engagement across six domains, the `fde` CLI does the deterministic work, and per-customer memory lands in `.fde/` files as a side effect of the work (you still confirm judgment).
 
 ## If you are helping use fdeops in an engagement
 

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,14 +1,21 @@
 # Changelog
 
-## 3.12.0 — 2026-08-27
+## 3.12.1 — 2026-08-27
+
+One line, everywhere. 3.12.0 was tagged but never reached the registry, so this is the first release carrying the vocabulary work.
+
+### Changed
+- **"Forward deployed engineering skills with memory, for AI coding agents"** is now the single positioning line - README, npm, plugin and marketplace manifests. It names the ICP in the first three words, so an FDE self-identifies before reading anything else, and it stops us competing in the crowded "agent skills" category on breadth we do not have. The last "second brain" phrasings went with it.
+
+## 3.12.0 — 2026-08-27 (tagged, unpublished)
 
 Vocabulary: standard words on the outside, so nothing has to be learned before it works.
 
 ### Changed
 - **The skill fires on client work, not on a password.** The frontmatter `description` - the only text a host reads before loading a skill - triggered on `@fde` plus a list of our own nouns ("hygiene", "receipts"), so an FDE who simply talked about their client got no memory. It now names the intents in the standard `Use when …` form: mentioning a client or sponsor, debriefing a meeting, asking what was agreed, prepping a readout, opening a session in a client workspace. `@fde` remains, as one trigger among several rather than the gate.
 - **`fde tidy` is the verb; `fde garden` still works.** "Garden" was a metaphor only we used. Nothing is removed - the old name routes to the same code, and the alias is covered by a test.
 - **`capture` and `preserve` left the human help.** Only hooks call them; listing them invited an FDE to run a snapshot by hand.
-- **"Engagement memory for AI coding agents"** replaces "second brain" in the npm, plugin and marketplace descriptions - the phrase someone would actually search, and an accurate one.
+- **"Second brain" is gone from the npm, plugin and marketplace descriptions** - vague, and taken. Superseded by the 3.12.1 line above.
 
 ### Added
 - **One glossary.** The six words that carry the method (fieldbook, brief vs reality, terrain, trust signal, receipts, vault) are defined once in the README instead of being met scattered and guessed. A gate keeps it in place, and a second gate keeps the description triggering on intent.

README.md

@@ -1,15 +1,15 @@
 # FDEOps
 
-**Your AI coding agent forgets your client every morning. FDEOps remembers.**
+**Forward deployed engineering skills with memory, for AI coding agents.**
 
 [![npm version](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/fdeops.svg)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/fdeops)
 [![CI](https://github.com/suboss87/fdeops/actions/workflows/validate.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/suboss87/fdeops/actions)
 [![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-blue.svg)](LICENSE)
 [![Node](https://img.shields.io/badge/node-%3E%3D18-brightgreen)](https://nodejs.org)
 
-**Engagement memory for AI coding agents.** Skill packs teach your agent how to *build*. None of them remember who the client is, what you promised, or who agreed it was delivered - close the window and it is gone. FDEOps adds that missing layer: a private record per client (`.fde/`), a field methodology from land to close, and one skill that routes it.
+Your agent forgets the client every morning - the sponsor, what you promised, who agreed it was delivered. Skill packs teach it how to *build*; none of them remember who you are building for. FDEOps adds the missing layer: a private record per client (`.fde/`), a field method from land to close, and one skill that routes it.
 
-Built for Forward Deployed Engineers and anyone embedded in client work - consultants, agency developers, solutions architects, fractional CTOs. Not notes: a defensible record - dated, sourced, on your laptop.
+For Forward Deployed Engineers and anyone embedded in client work - consultants, agency developers, solutions architects, fractional CTOs - running several engagements at once. Not notes: a defensible record, dated and sourced, on your laptop.
 
 ```
   land      discover      plan      build      ship      close

docs/skills-reference.md

@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ The 10 phases most engagements actually run through, with what gets written wher
 
 ---
 
-## The memory contract (what makes it a second brain)
+## The memory contract (what makes it memory, not a chat window)
 
 1. On entry the agent reads a bounded view of `context.md` (via `fde resume`) - nothing else until the phase needs it.
 2. **Deliverable = memory:** every phase's output IS a `.fde/` file; nothing is maintained by hand.

mcp/fdeops-ingest/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "fdeops-ingest-mcp",
-  "version": "3.12.0",
+  "version": "3.12.1",
   "private": true,
   "description": "Thin stdio MCP sink for FDEOps ingest (stage → propose → apply). Zero runtime dependencies.",
   "bin": {

package.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "fdeops",
-  "version": "3.12.0",
-  "description": "Engagement memory for AI coding agents. Your agent forgets the client every morning - the sponsor, the promise, who signed off. FDEOps keeps that as dated markdown on your laptop: one @fde skill routing land-to-close methodology, a deterministic local CLI, and hooks that make it automatic. Claude Code plugin and any agent that loads skills.",
+  "version": "3.12.1",
+  "description": "Forward deployed engineering skills with memory, for AI coding agents. Your agent forgets the client every morning - the sponsor, the promise, who signed off. FDEOps keeps that as dated markdown on your laptop: one @fde skill routing land-to-close method, a deterministic local CLI, and hooks that make it automatic. Claude Code plugin and any agent that loads skills.",
   "bin": {
     "fdeops": "bin/install.js",
     "fde": "bin/fde.js"

plugin.json

@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 {
   "$schema": "https://agent-plugins.org/schemas/1.0.0/plugin.schema.json",
   "name": "fdeops",
-  "version": "3.12.0",
-  "description": "Engagement memory for AI coding agents: per-client memory in local .fde/ files, one @fde skill, land to close methodology. Local-only, no network.",
+  "version": "3.12.1",
+  "description": "Forward deployed engineering skills with memory, for AI coding agents: per-client memory in local .fde/ files, one @fde skill, land to close method. Local-only, no network.",
   "author": {
     "name": "Subash Natarajan",
     "url": "https://github.com/suboss87"

skills/fde/SKILL.md

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ You are not an advisor reading tips aloud. Every skill produces a concrete artif
 
 ## The memory contract (non-negotiable)
 
-This is what makes fdeops a second brain instead of a chat window.
+This is what makes fdeops memory instead of a chat window.
 
 1. **On entry:** resolve the engagement path and read `context.md` via `fde resume` (a bounded view - current state + recent activity). Nothing else until the routed phase needs it; pull other `.fde/` files only when the phase calls for them.
 2. **Deliverable = memory.** The output of every phase IS a `.fde/` file. You never ask the FDE to "update their notes" - producing the work and writing the memory are one action. The phase reference tells you which file.