diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ff1af9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# CLAUDE.md — interscript-py
+
+The official Python runtime: deterministic transliteration over the
+ISC map corpus, parsing the map DSL directly. Project purpose and
+direction: `interscript-models` README.
+
+## Facts that bite
+
+- The engine parses `.imp`/`.isc` directly — no precompiled map
+  modules, no monorepo bootstrap in the runtime path.
+- Release = push `v*` tag → PyPI trusted publishing. The publisher is
+  currently registered against the archived `secryst/secryst-py` and
+  must be re-registered by the owner to this repo before any release
+  can exchange credentials (the 0.2.1 blocker).
+- Maps that need vocalized input dispatch to a crystal through the
+  optional phonological layer (`secryst` stdlib function); an engine
+  without it cannot execute maps that declare a vocalization step.
+- Measured coverage is stated against maps' own embedded tests — keep
+  that table honest; document gaps in the suite, not in prose.
+
+## Laws
+
+- PRs only, never commit to main. Versions are owner decisions.
+- No unconditional sibling-repo paths: dependencies resolve from the
+  registry; local paths are conditional fallbacks only.
+- Package immutability at runtime: no writes into the installed
+  package.
diff --git a/README.adoc b/README.adoc
index adc4dc7..73bc066 100644
--- a/README.adoc
+++ b/README.adoc
@@ -10,6 +10,13 @@ This version (0.2.0) parses the `.imp` map DSL *directly* — no
 pre-compiled Python map modules or monorepo bootstrap required. Point
 it at the map corpus and go.
 
+Interscript turns transliteration standards from paper tables into
+executable, verifiable software: authority schemes encoded once in the
+ISC language, every runtime producing provably identical output, and
+neural models (diacritization, G2P) published under the same proof
+regime — pinned artifacts, sha256 verification, frozen conformance
+vectors.
+
 Maps that need vocalized input (undiacritized Arabic, nikud-less Hebrew,
 unsegmented Thai) dispatch to a
 https://www.secryst.org[secryst crystal] through the optional phonological
@@ -80,6 +87,16 @@ remaining gaps are documented in the test suite:
 - npm: `npm install interscript` (https://www.npmjs.com/package/interscript)
 - This: `pip install interscript`
 
+== Direction
+
+Per-language SOTA rows land through the config-driven training spine in
+https://github.com/interscript/interscript-models[interscript-models]
+(a language is two YAML files; gates are machine-checkable). The
+implementable contracts are the ISC map language and the IMF v1 model
+format with frozen conformance vectors. See the
+https://github.com/interscript/interscript-models#direction-audit-2026-10[project
+direction].
+
 == License
 
 BSD-2-Clause. See link:LICENSE.adoc[LICENSE.adoc].