diff --git a/00-META/process/04-build-handoff.md b/00-META/process/04-build-handoff.md
index 864c6438..95932097 100644
--- a/00-META/process/04-build-handoff.md
+++ b/00-META/process/04-build-handoff.md
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ A design becomes **milestones**, and each milestone becomes **issues**:
 4. **Break it into milestones.** Write them into the design, in a section *Milestones*: for each, its number,
    its one-sentence outcome, the acceptance tests of the design it proves, the repositories it touches, and
    what it depends on. Order them so each is usable as soon as it is delivered, the smallest useful one
-   first.
+   first. A milestone is named by what it lets someone do; how it ships is shaped by the plan its changes would
+   have, asked through `mesh-delivery.what-if`: the modules it moves and their fan-out (ADR 0401 §6).
 5. **Ask the operator to confirm the milestones**, in a short table: number, outcome, the acceptance tests it
    proves, repositories, the parts each repository builds. Change what they change.
 6. **Open the issues.** For each confirmed milestone, `issue-tracker.open` one issue per repository part, its
diff --git a/00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md b/00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md
index 1e5a09d2..e2c767ad 100644
--- a/00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md
+++ b/00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md
@@ -140,12 +140,15 @@ never into the running one, unless it blocks the running one.
 5. **The reviewer marks each pull request ready as soon as the acceptance is shown** with
    `mesh-delivery.mark-ready` (the delivery of the head it approved, who reviewed it and why), which writes the
    label `mesh/ready` and then `ready at <full sha>`, the order the forge counts (issue 913); mesh-delivery merges it when its checks pass
-   (ADR 0364). The operator's word is waited for only when the step changes what the operator sees, removes
+   and the operator approved the merge into main on Telegram or at the terminal (ADR 0364, ADR 0398 §3). Beyond that
+   Approve, the operator's word is waited for only when the step changes what the operator sees, removes
    data, or needs a step only the operator's terminal can take; the lead says which before the step starts.
 
 **One exception: a catalogue change that uses a new manifest word.** The catalogue's merge check reads
 manifests with the controller the mesh runs, so the controller's pull request is merged and delivered first;
 then `mesh-delivery.recheck` the catalogue's and merge it on the new verdict. Plan such a feature as two steps.
+The exception ends when milestone 3 of design 47 is delivered (issue 977, ADR 0402, ADR 0403): the group's composed
+check, judged by the group's controller, is then each member's gate, and the feature is one group.
 
 ## Phase 4 — Deliver