diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8cda980..4564dfa 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1119,24 +1119,29 @@ dotnet test --filter "Category=Unit"  # Unit tests only
 | Python art pipeline, model backends, its Dockerfiles | `spikersoft-artpipe` |
 | Native mobile apps | `spikersoft-ios` / `spikersoft-android` |
 | Godot client | `spikersoft-games-godot` |
-| **Cross-repo epics only** | `spikersoft-issues` |
+
+**There is no central tracker.** `spikerj/spikersoft-issues` was retired on 2026-08-07 and
+now holds this README only — do not file there.
 
 The reason is mechanical: Gitea auto-closes an issue when a merged PR says `fixes #N`
 **only within the same repo**. A ticket filed in a central tracker can never close itself,
 so completed work silently accumulates as an open backlog. That is exactly what happened —
-the umbrella tracker reached 234 open issues, a large share of which were already shipped.
+the umbrella tracker reached 234 open issues before it was broken up.
 
 Rules that follow from this:
 
 - A ticket must be **closeable by merging in one repo**. If it isn't, it's really several
   tickets.
-- Work spanning repos becomes **one narrowly-scoped issue per repo**, cross-linked to its
-  siblings by full reference (`spikerj/spikersoft-backend#12`) and pointing at its epic.
-- **Epics live in [`spikerj/spikersoft-issues`](https://git.spikersoft.com/spikerj/spikersoft-issues)**
-  and hold no implementation work of their own — only a checklist of per-repo children.
-  They are the one thing that legitimately closes by hand.
+- Work spanning repos becomes **one narrowly-scoped issue per repo**. There is no epic
+  parent — a unit is held together by two things instead:
+  1. a **shared title prefix**, e.g. `[Scheduling] Backend: recurrence expansion`, so the
+     whole unit is one search away; and
+  2. a **sibling cross-link block** in every issue body listing the unit by full reference.
 - Reference issues across repos with the **full `owner/repo#N` form**. A bare `#N` resolves
   against the repo you're writing in, which silently points at an unrelated ticket.
+- When an epic-sized idea has genuinely undecided design, file a **decision issue** stating
+  the concrete options and what must be settled. That is a real, closeable deliverable; a
+  vague "implement X" stub is not.
 
 ### QA: Gitea issues and the AI agent (MCP)