diff --git a/STANDARDS.md b/STANDARDS.md
index fdbcfc4..e580a2e 100644
--- a/STANDARDS.md
+++ b/STANDARDS.md
@@ -192,18 +192,18 @@ first impression, not last word. Treat it accordingly.
   ASCII diagram of the data flow / architecture is a satisfying
   substitute. A wall of text is not.
 - **One quick example**, 5–15 lines, that a reader can run right
-  after install. Don't catalogue every variant. *(Not applicable to
-  research lines — see
-  [`project-type/RESEARCH-LINE.md`](project-type/RESEARCH-LINE.md) §2;
-  they carry `## Run it` plus a captured trace instead.)*
+  after install. Don't catalogue every variant. *(Suspended for repos
+  under [`overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md`](overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md)
+  §2 — they carry `## Run it` plus a captured trace instead.)*
 - **Capability bullets**, not API tables. README lists *what you can
   do*; `docs/API.md` lists *every public symbol*.
 - **Deflect to `docs/`** for depth — API reference, recipes,
   migration, architecture. Each link gets a one-line description.
 - **Family table** (sibling Codechu packages) so visitors find the
-  ecosystem. *(Not applicable to research lines — they are not
-  published to a registry; name the sibling relationship in a sentence
-  and link the repository.)*
+  ecosystem. *(Suspended under
+  [`overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md`](overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md) §2 —
+  the sibling is often not published at all; name the relationship in a
+  sentence and link the repository.)*
 - **License + credits** at the bottom.
 
 **Explicit prohibitions in README:**
@@ -232,9 +232,9 @@ assets/
 By v0.1.0 the README must not be text-only. Either inline a Mermaid
 block or reference an `assets/` file. The per-project-type docs
 ([`project-type/LIBRARY.md`](project-type/LIBRARY.md),
-[`APPLICATION.md`](project-type/APPLICATION.md),
-[`RESEARCH-LINE.md`](project-type/RESEARCH-LINE.md)) restate this rule
-with type-specific skeletons.
+[`TOOL.md`](project-type/TOOL.md),
+[`APPLICATION.md`](project-type/APPLICATION.md)) restate this rule with
+type-specific skeletons.
 
 **Rendering rules (measured, not assumed).** Each of these was found by
 rendering a README through `gh api /markdown` and looking at the page;
@@ -253,9 +253,17 @@ none of them are visible while reading the markdown source.
 - **Every badge is a link.** A badge pointing nowhere is decoration
   wearing the costume of a signal. *Incident: three of four badges in
   one README were dead images.*
-- **Command lines must fit the column** — under ~60 characters. GitHub
-  does not wrap inside a code fence; it clips. *Incident: the first
-  command a reader saw rendered as `# 80 tests, no networ`.*
+- **A code fence clips; it does not wrap.** A line past the column edge
+  is cut silently, and the reader never learns what was there.
+  *Measured by rendering a ruler of increasing line lengths — pandoc
+  plus github-markdown-css, screenshotted in headless Chrome at a fixed
+  window width: the desktop column fits ~100 characters, a 390 px phone
+  ~42. An earlier revision of this rule said "under ~60 characters", on
+  the strength of a single 58-character line reported as clipped. That
+  observation does not reproduce at any width our readers use, and ~60
+  was measured against nothing: it clips on a phone and is pointless on
+  a desktop. Budget the column your readers are actually on, and
+  measure it before quoting a number.*
 - **Fence every typable thing with a language tag.** An indented
   four-space block renders as a bare `<pre>` with no highlighting;
   reserve indentation for non-typable ASCII.
@@ -458,10 +466,12 @@ layers extend it:
 
 | Layer | Path | Scope |
 |---|---|---|
-| Project type | [`project-type/`](project-type/) | Library, application, or research line; any language |
+| Project type | [`project-type/`](project-type/) | Library, tool, or application; any language |
 | Language | [`lang/<name>/`](lang/) | Per-language extensions (Python today) |
+| Overlay | [`overlay/`](overlay/) | Disciplines any type may adopt; they add rather than narrow |
 
-Read in order: STANDARDS → project-type → lang.
+Read in order: STANDARDS → project-type → lang, then any overlay the
+repository adopts.
 
 ## 14. Active repositories
 
diff --git a/STANDARDS.tr.md b/STANDARDS.tr.md
index 13e180d..aeb1db5 100644
--- a/STANDARDS.tr.md
+++ b/STANDARDS.tr.md
@@ -195,17 +195,19 @@ gördüğü ilk şey — son söz değil, ilk izlenim. Buna göre davran.
   ASCII diyagram doyurucu bir alternatiftir. Düz metin duvarı kabul
   edilemez.
 - **Tek hızlı örnek**, 5–15 satır, kurulumdan hemen sonra
-  çalıştırılabilir olsun. Her varyantı sıralama. *(Araştırma hatları
-  için geçersiz —
-  [`project-type/RESEARCH-LINE.md`](project-type/RESEARCH-LINE.md) §2;
-  onun yerine `## Run it` + gerçek yakalanmış iz gelir.)*
+  çalıştırılabilir olsun. Her varyantı sıralama. *(
+  [`overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md`](overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md) §2
+  altındaki depolar için ASKIDA — onun yerine `## Run it` + gerçek
+  yakalanmış iz gelir.)*
 - **Yetenek bullet'ları**, API tabloları değil. README *yapabildiklerini*
   listeler; `docs/API.md` *her public sembolü* listeler.
 - **`docs/`'a yönlendir** — API referansı, recipe'ler, migration,
   mimari için. Her link tek satır açıklama ile gelsin.
 - **Family tablosu** (kardeş Codechu paketleri) — ziyaretçi
-  ekosistemi bulabilsin. *(Araştırma hatları için geçersiz — registry'ye
-  yayımlanmıyorlar; kardeşlik tek cümleyle söylenir ve repo linklenir.)*
+  ekosistemi bulabilsin. *(
+  [`overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md`](overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md) §2
+  altında ASKIDA — kardeş çoğu zaman hiç yayımlanmamıştır; ilişki tek
+  cümleyle söylenir ve repo linklenir.)*
 - **Lisans + credits** en altta.
 
 **README'de açık yasaklar:**
@@ -234,8 +236,8 @@ assets/
 v0.1.0 itibarıyla README sadece-metin olamaz. Ya inline bir Mermaid
 bloğu ya da `assets/` referansı şart. Proje-tipi rehberleri
 ([`project-type/LIBRARY.md`](project-type/LIBRARY.md),
-[`APPLICATION.md`](project-type/APPLICATION.md),
-[`RESEARCH-LINE.md`](project-type/RESEARCH-LINE.md)) bu kuralı
+[`TOOL.md`](project-type/TOOL.md),
+[`APPLICATION.md`](project-type/APPLICATION.md)) bu kuralı
 tip-spesifik iskeletlerle yeniden ifade eder.
 
 **Render kuralları (ölçüldü, varsayılmadı).** Aşağıdakilerin hepsi bir
@@ -254,9 +256,16 @@ hiçbiri markdown kaynağı okunurken görünmüyor.
 - **Her badge link olmalı.** Hiçbir yere gitmeyen badge, sinyal
   kostümü giymiş süstür. *Vaka: bir README'de dört badge'in üçü ölü
   görseldi.*
-- **Komut satırları sütuna sığmalı** — ~60 karakterin altında. GitHub
-  code fence içinde sarmaz, keser. *Vaka: okurun gördüğü ilk komut
-  `# 80 tests, no networ` olarak render oldu.*
+- **Code fence keser, sarmaz.** Sütun kenarını geçen satır sessizce
+  kesilir ve okur orada ne yazdığını hiç öğrenemez. *Artan uzunlukta bir
+  cetvel render edilerek ölçüldü — pandoc + github-markdown-css, sabit
+  pencere genişliğinde headless Chrome: masaüstü sütunu ~100 karakter
+  alıyor, 390 px telefon ~42. Bu kuralın önceki hâli "~60 karakterin
+  altında" diyordu; dayanağı, kesildiği bildirilen tek bir 58 karakterlik
+  satırdı. O gözlem okurlarımızın kullandığı hiçbir genişlikte
+  tekrarlanmıyor ve ~60 hiçbir şeye karşı ölçülmemişti: telefonda keser,
+  masaüstünde gereksizdir. Okurlarınızın fiilen bulunduğu sütunu
+  bütçeleyin, ve bir sayı yazmadan önce ölçün.*
 - **Yazılabilir her şey dil etiketli fence içinde.** Dört boşlukla
   girintilenmiş blok çıplak `<pre>` olarak render olur, highlight almaz;
   girintiyi yalnız yazılamayan ASCII için sakla.
diff --git a/project-type/RESEARCH-LINE.md b/overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md
similarity index 79%
rename from project-type/RESEARCH-LINE.md
rename to overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md
index 6b2890e..725aba3 100644
--- a/project-type/RESEARCH-LINE.md
+++ b/overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md
@@ -1,45 +1,47 @@
-# Research-Line Conventions (language-agnostic)
+# Published-Verdict Overlay (any project type)
 
-Rules that apply to any Codechu **research line**: a method, the
-pipeline that runs it, and an honest verdict about whether it works.
-Language-specific extensions live under
-[`lang/<name>/`](../lang/).
+An **overlay**, not a project type: rules a repository adopts *on top
+of* being a [library](../project-type/LIBRARY.md),
+[tool](../project-type/TOOL.md) or
+[application](../project-type/APPLICATION.md). Project types narrow;
+overlays add.
 
-Read first: [`STANDARDS.md`](../STANDARDS.md).
+Read first: [`STANDARDS.md`](../STANDARDS.md), then your project type.
 
-## 1. What makes a repository this type
+## 1. When this overlay applies
 
-A research line is a repository whose product is a **finding**. The
-code exists to make the finding reproducible, and the honest status of
-the finding is a first-class deliverable rather than a caveat at the
-bottom.
+Adopt it when the repository's product is a **claim** — a finding, a
+score, a verdict — rather than only the software that produces it. The
+code exists to make the claim reproducible, and the honest status of
+the claim is a deliverable rather than a caveat at the bottom.
 
-Three questions place a repo here — all three must be yes:
+One question decides it: **could the verdict this repo publishes come
+out negative, and would you publish it anyway?** If yes, the overlay
+applies. If the repo only ships software and makes no claim about the
+world, it does not.
 
-| Question | Research line |
-|---|---|
-| Is there something to install and call from other software? | No |
-| Does a human open it as a product? | No |
-| Does it publish a verdict that could come out negative? | **Yes** |
+The overlay was first written for a benchmark and a production line —
+both of them tools by type. It does not replace the type's rules; it
+adds obligations the type has no opinion about, and suspends two
+vitrine bullets that assume a package.
 
-Anything that answers yes to the first is a [library](LIBRARY.md);
-yes to the second, an [application](APPLICATION.md).
-
-## 2. Two §7.1 rules do not apply here
+## 2. Two §7.1 rules do not apply under this overlay
 
 [STANDARDS §7.1](../STANDARDS.md#71-readme-is-the-vitrine) is written
 for things that ship as packages. Two of its bullets have no referent
-in a research line, and forcing them produces a dishonest README:
+when the product is a claim, and forcing them produces a dishonest
+README:
 
 - **"One quick example, 5–15 lines, that a reader can run right after
-  install."** There is nothing to install, and a line whose product is
-  a verdict cannot honestly promise that five lines produce a result.
+  install."** A repository whose product is a verdict cannot honestly
+  promise that five lines produce a result — the result is the point,
+  and it takes a run.
   Replace it with **§4's `## Run it`**: one command that runs today,
   offline, followed by a real captured trace.
 - **"Family table (sibling Codechu packages)."** What ties siblings
-  here is a shared method and identity, not a registry namespace. A
-  package table would list nothing. Say the relationship in a sentence
-  and link the sibling repository.
+  here is a shared method and identity, not a registry namespace — and
+  the sibling is often not published at all. Say the relationship in a
+  sentence and link the repository.
 
 Every other §7.1 rule and every §7.1 prohibition still holds.
 
@@ -58,7 +60,7 @@ justification is only legible once the reader knows what is being
 justified. **Every doctrinal passage follows the concrete thing it
 defends.**
 
-## 4. README is the vitrine — research-line skeleton
+## 4. README is the vitrine — verdict skeleton
 
 ```markdown
 [hero image — ONE, <p align="center">]
@@ -90,7 +92,7 @@ defends.**
 ```
 
 **Maximum nine `##` sections.** Above nine, GitHub's outline menu
-becomes a wall. *Incident: a research-line README carried thirteen,
+becomes a wall. *Incident: one such README carried thirteen,
 six of them beginning with the word "What" — unnavigable in a sidebar
 that truncates.*
 
@@ -128,9 +130,10 @@ bare `<pre>`; a fenced block renders as
 `<div class="highlight highlight-source-shell">`.* Indented blocks get
 no syntax highlighting — reserve them for non-typable ASCII.
 
-**Commands must fit the column.** *Incident: `# 80 tests, no network`
-rendered as `# 80 tests, no networ` — the first command a reader sees,
-cut off.* Keep command lines under ~60 characters.
+**A code fence clips; it does not wrap.** Budget the column your
+readers are on, and see [STANDARDS §7.1](../STANDARDS.md#71-readme-is-the-vitrine)
+before quoting a number — the one this document used to quote was
+retracted for having been measured against nothing.
 
 **Two blockquote lines in one paragraph collapse into one.**
 *Incident: the best sentence in a README had been rendering as a single
@@ -183,7 +186,7 @@ limitation.
 
 ## 8. Every number carries its record
 
-A research line is believed on its numbers, so a number without an
+A repository under this overlay is believed on its numbers, so a number without an
 openable record is worse than no number.
 
 - A number printed in the README, the changelog, or any durable
@@ -213,7 +216,7 @@ when a cross-reference dies.
 - [ ] Badge row on one source line, every badge linked
 - [ ] Lede names the runtime ("Python", "stdlib-only") — grep for it
 - [ ] Status stamp above the fold, full `## Status` in the lower third
-- [ ] `## Run it` present, fenced, language-tagged, offline, ≤60-char lines
+- [ ] `## Run it` present, fenced, language-tagged, and offline
 - [ ] A real captured trace, literal, with a test binding it
 - [ ] ≤9 `##` sections, no two starting with the same word
 - [ ] Documentation as a table with a "when you need it" column
diff --git a/overlay/README.md b/overlay/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..16a617f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/overlay/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# Overlays
+
+An **overlay** is a discipline a repository adopts *in addition to* its
+project type. Project types narrow (a library is a kind of repository);
+overlays add (a library may or may not publish verdicts).
+
+| Overlay | Adopt it when | Rules |
+|---|---|---|
+| **Published verdict** | The repo's product is a claim — a finding, a score, a verdict — that could come out negative | [PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md](PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md) |
+
+Read in order: [`STANDARDS.md`](../STANDARDS.md) →
+[`project-type/`](../project-type/) → [`lang/`](../lang/) → overlays.
+An overlay may suspend a specific rule from an earlier layer, but it
+must say which rule and why; silence means the earlier layer stands.
diff --git a/project-type/README.md b/project-type/README.md
index c1f6337..ed399ec 100644
--- a/project-type/README.md
+++ b/project-type/README.md
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ Language-specific extensions live in [`lang/`](../lang/).
 |---|---|---|
 | **Library** | Reusable component published to a package registry, consumed by other software | [LIBRARY.md](LIBRARY.md) |
 | **Application** | End-user product installed and run by a human | [APPLICATION.md](APPLICATION.md) |
-| **Research line** | A method, the pipeline that runs it, and an honest verdict about whether it works | [RESEARCH-LINE.md](RESEARCH-LINE.md) |
+| **Tool** | Software a developer installs and runs by hand to produce an artefact | [TOOL.md](TOOL.md) |
 | **Proprietary library** | Closed-source / source-available library sold to customers | [PROPRIETARY-LIBRARY.md](PROPRIETARY-LIBRARY.md) |
 | **Proprietary application** | Closed-source / source-available end-user application | [PROPRIETARY-APPLICATION.md](PROPRIETARY-APPLICATION.md) |
 
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ codechu-org/
 ├── project-type/
 │   ├── LIBRARY.md                     # any library (OSS-friendly)
 │   ├── APPLICATION.md                 # any app (OSS-friendly)
-│   ├── RESEARCH-LINE.md               # method + pipeline + verdict
+│   ├── TOOL.md                        # developer runs it, gets an artefact
 │   ├── PROPRIETARY-LIBRARY.md         # closed-source library extras
 │   └── PROPRIETARY-APPLICATION.md     # closed-source app extras
 └── lang/
@@ -37,3 +37,6 @@ codechu-org/
 ```
 
 Read in order: STANDARDS → project-type → lang. Each layer narrows.
+Disciplines that *add* rather than narrow — a repository whose product
+is a claim, for instance — live in [`overlay/`](../overlay/) and are
+adopted on top of a type.
diff --git a/project-type/TOOL.md b/project-type/TOOL.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e4314c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/project-type/TOOL.md
@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+# Tool Conventions (language-agnostic)
+
+Rules that apply to any Codechu **tool**: software a developer installs
+and runs by hand to produce an artefact — a report, a conversion, a
+measurement — rather than software another program imports, or a
+product a consumer opens. Language-specific extensions live under
+[`lang/<name>/`](../lang/).
+
+Read first: [`STANDARDS.md`](../STANDARDS.md).
+
+## 1. What makes a repository this type
+
+| Question | Tool |
+|---|---|
+| Does other software import it and call its API? | No — that is a [library](LIBRARY.md) |
+| Does a non-technical user open it as a product? | No — that is an [application](APPLICATION.md) |
+| Does a developer install it and invoke it to get an artefact? | **Yes** |
+
+The boundary matters because `APPLICATION.md` assumes a consumer
+product: distribution channels, an update mechanism, a telemetry
+policy, a first-run experience, settings state, localisation. A tool
+has none of those and should not be made to pretend it does. What it
+has instead is a command-line contract and an obligation to be
+provable offline.
+
+## 2. The CLI surface is the public API
+
+Flags, subcommand names, exit codes and the shape of what is printed
+are the contract. SemVer applies to all four.
+
+- **Renaming or removing a flag is a breaking change.** So is changing
+  what an exit code means, or the schema of a machine-readable output.
+- **Exit codes must separate three outcomes**: it ran and the answer is
+  yes; it ran and the answer is no; it did not run. A tool that returns
+  0 for "could not measure" turns an absence into a result, and the
+  caller cannot tell. *Incident: a gate returned `COMPLETE` with exit 0
+  on a run that had never been measured.*
+- **Machine-readable output carries a schema version**, and a reader of
+  an older version is told to upgrade rather than handed a silent
+  misparse.
+
+## 3. It must be provable with nothing
+
+Ship one command that exercises the whole pipeline with **no network,
+no credentials, no model, no configuration** — and make it the first
+command in the README. It is the only claim a reader can check before
+deciding to trust the tool with anything real.
+
+A tool that can only be demonstrated against a paid endpoint cannot be
+evaluated by the person deciding whether to adopt it.
+
+## 4. It refuses rather than guesses
+
+When an input is missing or malformed, stop and name what is missing.
+Do not infer, default, or produce a plausible artefact — a wrong
+artefact that looks right costs more than no artefact.
+
+- A stop names *what* is missing and *what would unblock it*.
+- A stop is not an exception traceback. *Incident: four module entry
+  points answered a wrong path with a raw traceback — the opposite of
+  what the tool claimed about itself everywhere else.*
+
+## 5. Every artefact carries its provenance
+
+Anything the tool writes that could later be quoted — a report, a
+score, a converted file — carries the tool version, the inputs, and
+whatever seeds or settings would be needed to produce it again.
+
+**The version stamp must come from one place.** *Incident: a release
+bumped the version in the packaging metadata and left three other
+records behind, so reports produced by that release were stamped with a
+version that did not produce them.* Where a version is recorded more
+than once, a test asserts the records agree.
+
+## 6. Long runs are watchable
+
+A run that takes minutes prints progress as it goes — unbuffered, to a
+stream the operator can follow, with a measured estimate rather than a
+guessed one. Output that appears only at the end is indistinguishable
+from a hang, and the operator's only recourse is to kill it.
+
+Do not swallow output in a buffer for tidiness. If filtering is needed,
+filter line-by-line.
+
+## 7. Distribution
+
+- Publish to the language's package index; recommend the isolated
+  installer (`pipx` and equivalents) first, because a tool goes on the
+  PATH rather than into a project's dependency tree.
+- The import/command name and the published package name may differ —
+  say so in the README, once, where the install command is.
+- No update mechanism, no telemetry, no first-run wizard. If a tool
+  wants any of those, ask first whether it is really an application.
+
+## 8. README is the vitrine — tool skeleton
+
+The vitrine principle from
+[STANDARDS §7.1](../STANDARDS.md#71-readme-is-the-vitrine) applies with
+a tool-flavoured skeleton:
+
+```markdown
+[hero: a terminal cast or a screenshot of real output]
+
+# tool-name
+
+[badge row — one source line, every badge linked]
+
+*[tagline — one italic sentence]*
+
+[lede: what goes in, what comes out, what runtime it needs]
+
+## Install & run     the offline proof first, then the real invocation
+## What you get      the artefact itself, captured, not described
+## Commands          a table; the heading must not carry a count
+## How it works      the mechanism, briefly
+## Limitations       what it cannot do, and what would change that
+## Documentation     table with a "when you need it" column
+---
+[footer: Contributing · Changelog · License]
+```
+
+A tool whose product is a claim about the world — a benchmark, a
+grader, a measurement line — additionally adopts
+[`overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md`](../overlay/PUBLISHED-VERDICT.md).
+
+The prohibition list from §7.1 still holds: no full options reference
+(that is `docs/CLI.md`), no recipes cookbook, no architecture deep
+dive.