diff --git a/docs/changes/unreleased/1504-transcript-keeps-your-words.md b/docs/changes/unreleased/1504-transcript-keeps-your-words.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d372115f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changes/unreleased/1504-transcript-keeps-your-words.md
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+kind: fixed
+title: a message that carries skills shows your words, not the skills' description sheet
+pr: 1504
+surface: [chat]
+invalidates:
+  - "A message whose words matched skills on the shelf printed a `Skills suited to this message:` block as part of the person's own message in every transcript: the block was chosen for the model and said nothing the person typed. The block still reaches the model — the turn reasons from it exactly as before — and the transcript keeps the person's words; the dim `skills carried` line under the message is the one thing a surface draws about what the turn carried."
+---
+
+The skills a turn carries are chosen from that message's words, so they belong
+to the turn and not to the conversation's record. The person's own row keeps
+its own words: what the model reads grows by the block, what every surface
+replays is what was typed, and the carried skills are named once, in the dim
+line the transcript already had.
diff --git a/internal/manual/chat/skills-a-turn-used.md b/internal/manual/chat/skills-a-turn-used.md
index 116ac2742..247c2f5ff 100644
--- a/internal/manual/chat/skills-a-turn-used.md
+++ b/internal/manual/chat/skills-a-turn-used.md
@@ -17,6 +17,11 @@ Those names come from the turn's skill list, not by taking apart the words in th
 line. The row is a record of what that turn carried with it. It is not a warning,
 a question or work waiting for you, so it has no attention mark, count or action.
 
+The message in the transcript is your words and nothing else. What a turn
+carries for the model — the skill bodies it reads with your sentence — rides the
+copy the model reads, and no surface prints it: the row above is the one thing
+you are shown.
+
 ## Did it use my skill?
 
 If your skill's name is in that line, the turn carried it. The line belongs to that
diff --git a/internal/session/lanenews_test.go b/internal/session/lanenews_test.go
index 4e2595b94..980ab918e 100644
--- a/internal/session/lanenews_test.go
+++ b/internal/session/lanenews_test.go
@@ -23,6 +23,16 @@ func hears(t *testing.T) func() []LaneNews {
 	t.Helper()
 	var mu sync.Mutex
 	var heard []LaneNews
+	// A SIGHTING LEFT OVER FROM AN EARLIER TEST IS NOT THIS TEST'S NEWS. The
+	// desk holds the last landed sighting for the surface that registers late
+	// ([laneNewsHeld]), and a whole-package run walks that held one into the
+	// first reader the next test registers — two posts for one answer, want one
+	// (full-package run, 2026-09-25). A test registers to hear ITS answer, so
+	// the held one is dropped on the way in; the replay test asserts the holding
+	// itself, on [OnLaneNews] directly.
+	laneNewsMu.Lock()
+	laneNewsHeld = nil
+	laneNewsMu.Unlock()
 	previous := OnLaneNews(func(news LaneNews) {
 		mu.Lock()
 		heard = append(heard, news)
diff --git a/internal/session/programfolder_ignored_receipt_test.go b/internal/session/programfolder_ignored_receipt_test.go
index dd59c9205..9be1be982 100644
--- a/internal/session/programfolder_ignored_receipt_test.go
+++ b/internal/session/programfolder_ignored_receipt_test.go
@@ -29,7 +29,12 @@ func TestIgnoredFolderStartReceiptNamesWhyItHasNoBranch(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 	defer folder.Finish("")
 	receipt := delegateFolderReceipt(ignored, program, nil)
-	if strings.Contains(receipt, "holds your home folder") || !strings.Contains(receipt, "git ignores this folder inside "+repo) {
+	// THE REPOSITORY IS NAMED IN THE RECEIPT'S OWN SPELLING, the canonical one
+	// the home-folder receipt wants too: on macOS the temporary folder the test
+	// named says /var/folders and the system reads /private/var/folders, and a
+	// receipt that answered one with the other read as two places. The receipt
+	// prints what the system resolves, so the want is resolved beside it.
+	if strings.Contains(receipt, "holds your home folder") || !strings.Contains(receipt, "git ignores this folder inside "+canonicalPath(repo)) {
 		t.Fatalf("ignored folder start receipt = %q", receipt)
 	}
 }
diff --git a/internal/session/skillturn_display_test.go b/internal/session/skillturn_display_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4b0786ee9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/session/skillturn_display_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+package session
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/Agent-Field/agentfield/sdk/go/ai"
+)
+
+// THE TRANSCRIPT SHOWS ONLY WHAT THE PERSON TYPED. The skills a turn carries
+// are model context, chosen for one message ([attachTurnSkillsLocked]); the
+// block rides the copy the model reads, and the dim `skills carried` notice is
+// the one channel a surface draws. The owner, 2026-09-25, #1504: the block was
+// printed as part of the person's message, so every surface that renders the
+// conversation printed a list nobody asked for.
+//
+// This is the END-TO-END reading of that law: through the real chat door, with
+// an active shelf and a message that matches one of its skills, the record the
+// surface draws — the store thread the replay reads — keeps the person's words
+// and nothing else.
+func TestTheTranscriptKeepsThePersonsWordsWholeWhenSkillsRide(t *testing.T) {
+	brain := openTestBrain(t)
+	activeSkill(t, brain, "tool:lint", "checks the lint rules for this repo", "/shelf/lint")
+
+	completer := &scriptedCompleter{steps: []step{
+		func(_ context.Context, _ []ai.Message) (*ai.Response, error) {
+			return textResponse("run the lint check"), nil
+		},
+	}}
+	agent, _ := newTestAgent(t, completer, func(config *Config) {
+		config.Memory = brain
+	})
+
+	words := "how should I lint this repo?"
+	events, err := agent.Submit(context.Background(), words)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("submit: %v", err)
+	}
+	drainSkillsNotice(t, events)
+
+	// The model's copy carries the block; the record the surface draws does not.
+	sent := userTextIn(completer.request(0))
+	if !strings.Contains(sent, "Skills suited to this message:") {
+		t.Fatalf("the model's copy lost the block:\n%s", sent)
+	}
+	// The transcript is written through a batching writer (chatlog.go), so the
+	// events closing does not mean the store has the words yet — close settles
+	// the queue into the store first, the way chatlog_test reads its thread back.
+	agent.chatlog.close()
+	messages, err := brain.Messages(agent.threadID(), 0, 0)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("read the transcript back: %v", err)
+	}
+	said := false
+	for _, message := range messages {
+		if message.Role == "user" && strings.Contains(message.Body, words) {
+			said = true
+		}
+		if strings.Contains(message.Body, "Skills suited to this message:") {
+			t.Fatalf("the transcript printed the skills block:\n%s", message.Body)
+		}
+		if message.Role == "user" && strings.Contains(message.Body, words) {
+			if !strings.HasPrefix(message.Body, words) {
+				t.Fatalf("the transcript's copy of the message does not start with the person's words:\n%s", message.Body)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	if !said {
+		t.Fatalf("the transcript never carried the person's message; thread has %d line(s)", len(messages))
+	}
+}