The status notes on busy spec pages had become dated changelogs - machine-work 159 lines, digital-read 139, context-menu 129 - burying the current state under past amendments (two even had duplicated paragraphs). Codified the rule in meta.md (a status note is current state in a handful of lines; the amendment history lives in the dated logs) and applied it to the five worst pages. 614 lines removed, 156 added; no decision lost - every trimmed amendment already has its dated log entry, verified before cutting, and the docs gate confirms all Design anchors still resolve. Defense: wiki/process/meta.md status-note rule (amended here) and the plain-English rule (2026-07-16). Knowledge and process only; no law or behavior changed.