Every agent session opens with a tick (knowledge/tick.md): find one violation, contradiction, question, bug, or insecurity in the constitution-vs-code relationship and act on it. Contradictions and directional questions become Tangled issues via the tang CLI (@markbennett/tang, installed globally); violations, bugs, and insecurities are fixed directly. Every behavior-changing commit now carries a Defense: paragraph citing the constitutional clause that justifies it. Wired into AGENT.md, the constitution rule, the working loop, and a tick skill shim. Ticks are the heartbeat: the spec grows more precise with every one.