Step-number rule: state it where a Protocol is defined, and cite it from the catalog

meta/resources/workflow-canonical.md

@@ -52,8 +52,9 @@ Failure handling lives **inline in the protocol step that triggers it**.
 `## Protocol` is a **single ordered list of steps**. It may be a flat
 numbered/bulleted list, or `### N. Title` blocks each holding an ordered list. The
 server treats it as one ordered sequence and assigns step numbers at load time.
-**Do not write absolute intra-protocol step-number references** ("go to step 3") —
-composition and renumbering shift them; refer to steps descriptively.
+A step number is therefore a position the loader assigns, not an address:
+**do not write absolute intra-protocol step-number references** ("go to step 3").
+Refer to steps descriptively.
 
 ## Base-contract inheritance
 

section-framing-triage.json

@@ -45,6 +45,11 @@
       "verdict": "harmless",
       "rationale": "orientation-only"
     },
+    {
+      "site": "meta/resources/workflow-canonical.md",
+      "verdict": "harmless",
+      "rationale": "orientation-only"
+    },
     {
       "site": "meta/resources/writing-register.md",
       "verdict": "harmless",

workflow-design/resources/anti-patterns.md

@@ -1787,7 +1787,7 @@ Protocol restates a tool parameter's shape, which the tool's own schema already
 
 A durable reference identifies a Protocol phase by its position, so it keeps resolving after a renumber and points at work it no longer names.
 
-**Detect:** A rule, I/O description, Capability, resource body, README, or another technique's Protocol cites a phase of some `## Protocol` by ordinal — "step N", "phase N", "the Nth step" — rather than by the technique or op that owns it. An ordinal is not a symbol: it survives insertion, deletion and reordering by silently addressing whichever phase now holds that index, so the claim goes false with nothing failing. Test: insert one phase above the cited one and re-read the citing sentence; if it now names the wrong work, flag it.
+**Detect:** A rule, I/O description, Capability, resource body, README, or another technique's Protocol cites a phase of some `## Protocol` by ordinal — "step N", "phase N", "the Nth step" — rather than by the technique or op that owns it. Step numbering belongs to the loader, per [workflow-canonical](../../meta/resources/workflow-canonical.md#protocol), so the citation survives insertion, deletion and reordering by silently addressing whichever phase now holds that index and goes false with nothing failing. Test: insert one phase above the cited one and re-read the citing sentence; if it now names the wrong work, flag it.
 
 **Do not flag:** Ordinals inside the same `## Protocol` that owns the numbering, where the phases and the reference move in one edit. A link to the phase's heading anchor, which fails a guard rather than drifting when the heading changes. Rules cited by dotted address — a rule name is not a position (`dotted-rule-address`). An ordinal that is part of a declared id, heading text, or quoted output rather than a citation.