diff --git a/docs/DOC_TRUST_MAP.md b/docs/DOC_TRUST_MAP.md
index 28c03bc..bfda332 100644
--- a/docs/DOC_TRUST_MAP.md
+++ b/docs/DOC_TRUST_MAP.md
@@ -80,7 +80,12 @@ written. The tracker is describing now.
 
 ## The status header
 
-Every document in this tree opens with one, immediately after its H1:
+Every document in this tree opens with one, immediately after its H1 — and so
+do the documents at the repository root, which `scripts/doc-triggers.py` reads
+alongside this tree. The root is read one level deep only, so a vendored copy
+of this template cannot enrol its documents as governing the project holding
+it.
+
 
 ```
 Status: Current | Draft | Superseded | Archived
@@ -93,7 +98,12 @@ Fires on: <optional — added, deleted, moved, changed>
 
 **Exactly those four status words.** They are not a suggestion: a checker reads
 them, and a document whose status falls outside the list is reported as having
-an unknown one rather than being quietly accepted. `Historical` is the word this
+an unknown one rather than being quietly accepted. It is also what separates a
+document from a *template for* one: `project-readme-template.md` carries
+`Status: <Current | Draft | Superseded | Archived>` and a `Governs:` describing
+the README of whichever project copies it, so `doc-triggers.py` does not treat it
+as governing anything here — and says so when it would otherwise have fired,
+rather than dropping it quietly. `Historical` is the word this
 convention used to have and deliberately dropped — `Archived` covers it, and a
 vocabulary a script enforces beats one described in prose, which drifts the
 moment somebody writes something adjacent to it. `Draft` earns its place by
diff --git a/docs/architecture/README.md b/docs/architecture/README.md
index 9d9ee54..70b7cb7 100644
--- a/docs/architecture/README.md
+++ b/docs/architecture/README.md
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ can stop you, and where to start in a fresh clone.
 | `scripts/controls.sh` | which operational controls this project actually has, each row saying **how** it is known: measured, declared, n/a, or unknown. An unknown is never rendered as absent — "I could not tell" and "it is not there" send people to different places. |
 | `scripts/dev.sh` | bring the local stack up |
 | `scripts/scaffold.sh` | lay out a new project in this shape |
-| `scripts/doc-triggers.py` | which documents a **pending** change fires, read from their `Governs:` headers and narrowed by the optional `Fires on:` — the kinds of change (added, deleted, moved, changed) a document's trigger actually names, so one governing `docs/**` for existence changes alone does not fire on every edit. The `Review trigger` on each document names the change that should send somebody back to it; this is the check that asks before the commit rather than after |
+| `scripts/doc-triggers.py` | which documents a **pending** change fires, read from the `Governs:` headers of everything under `docs/` and of the documents at the repository root, narrowed by the optional `Fires on:` — the kinds of change (added, deleted, moved, changed) a document's trigger actually names, so one governing `docs/**` for existence changes alone does not fire on every edit. The `Review trigger` on each document names the change that should send somebody back to it; this is the check that asks before the commit rather than after |
 | `scripts/prove-guard.sh` | breaks the thing a guard protects, requires the guard to go red, restores the file from a trap. `GUARDS.md` §1 written out as a command, including the count — one failing test reported on six lines is not six failures |
 | `scripts/commit-mine.sh` | commits only the paths you name, by pathspec, after the secret scan. For a tree something else is also writing: what anyone else has staged is reported and left exactly as it was |
 | `scripts/doc-claims.sh` | every file a document names must exist, and (`--covers`) every file that exists is named — the second is the one that catches a list missing rows |
diff --git a/docs/architecture/scripts/doc-triggers.py b/docs/architecture/scripts/doc-triggers.py
index fa9e70a..29443d1 100755
--- a/docs/architecture/scripts/doc-triggers.py
+++ b/docs/architecture/scripts/doc-triggers.py
@@ -142,6 +142,33 @@ def header_of(doc: pathlib.Path) -> dict[str, str]:
     return fields
 
 
+# `Status` must be one of these four. `DOC_TRUST_MAP.md` states it as a rule with
+# a checker behind it, and it is the one field that distinguishes a document from
+# a template for one: `project-readme-template.md` carries
+# `Status: <Current | Draft | Superseded | Archived>`, and its `Governs` describes
+# the README of the project that copies it, not anything in this repository.
+STATUS_WORDS = {"Current", "Draft", "Superseded", "Archived"}
+
+
+def governing_documents() -> list[pathlib.Path]:
+    """Every document that can fire, root ones included.
+
+    The walk used to start at `docs/`, so the documents at the repository root
+    were not read at all — `README.md` and the two `START-HERE-*.md` carry a full
+    status header, govern real paths, and fired nothing ever, while the output
+    said "No document's Governs matched these paths". True of the tool and false
+    of the repository, which is the same shape as the gloss bug one level out.
+
+    The root is read **non-recursively**: `ROOT.glob`, not `rglob`. A vendored
+    copy of this template, a scratch checkout, or somebody's directory of notes
+    would otherwise enrol its documents as governing this repository.
+    """
+    docs = sorted(ROOT.glob("*.md"))
+    if DOCS.is_dir():
+        docs += sorted(DOCS.rglob("*.md"))
+    return docs
+
+
 def looks_like_path(glob: str) -> bool:
     """Whether a `Governs:` entry is a path pattern rather than a subject.
 
@@ -346,21 +373,25 @@ def main() -> int:
     fired: list[tuple[str, list[tuple[str, str]], str]] = []
     subject_only: list[str] = []
     wrong_kind: list[tuple[str, str]] = []
+    unfilled: list[tuple[str, str]] = []
 
-    for doc in sorted(DOCS.rglob("*.md")):
+    for doc in governing_documents():
         rel = str(doc.relative_to(ROOT))
         header = header_of(doc)
         governs = header.get("Governs", "")
         if not governs:
             continue
 
+        filled = header.get("Status", "") in STATUS_WORDS
+
         entries = [g.strip() for g in governs.split(",") if g.strip()]
         # Classification reads the whole entry and extraction reads inside it:
         # deciding "path or subject?" on a token would move documents between the
         # two lists as a side effect of this fix.
         path_globs = [g for e in entries if looks_like_path(e) for g in globs_in(e)]
         if not path_globs:
-            subject_only.append(rel)
+            if filled:
+                subject_only.append(rel)
             continue
 
         letters, unknown = fires_on(header)
@@ -372,6 +403,16 @@ def main() -> int:
             )
 
         matched = {(s, p) for s, p in paths for g in path_globs if matches(p, g)}
+
+        if not filled:
+            # A template for a document rather than a document. Named only when it
+            # would otherwise have fired: a line on every run, about a file that is
+            # supposed to look like this, is the noise this tool keeps being fixed
+            # for.
+            if matched:
+                unfilled.append((rel, header.get("Status", "") or "(none)"))
+            continue
+
         hits = sorted({(s, p) for s, p in matched if s in letters}, key=lambda x: x[1])
         if hits:
             fired.append((rel, hits, header.get("Review trigger", "(none stated)")))
@@ -393,12 +434,12 @@ def main() -> int:
         print(f"{len(fired)} document(s) govern something in this change.")
         print("Read each trigger and decide — the rule is to update them in the")
         print("SAME commit as the code, not afterwards.")
-    elif wrong_kind:
+    elif wrong_kind or unfilled:
         # Distinct from matching nothing, and worth separating: a path here *is*
-        # governed, and the reason nothing fired is a declaration somebody wrote,
-        # not an area no document claims.
-        print("Nothing fired. The paths in this change are governed, but only by")
-        print("documents whose Fires on declaration excludes this kind of change.")
+        # governed, and the reason nothing fired is a declaration somebody wrote
+        # or a header nobody filled in, not an area no document claims.
+        print("Nothing fired, but these paths are governed — see below for which")
+        print("documents matched them and why each was not raised.")
     else:
         print("No document's Governs matched these paths. Worth a second look if")
         print("this change added a module, a migration, or a new boundary — an")
@@ -410,6 +451,12 @@ def main() -> int:
         for rel, declared in wrong_kind:
             print(f"    {rel} — fires on {declared}")
 
+    if unfilled:
+        print("\nGovern a path in this change but their status header is still a")
+        print("template, so they are not treated as documents of this repository:")
+        for rel, status in unfilled:
+            print(f"    {rel} — Status: {status}")
+
     if subject_only:
         print("\nNot checked here — these govern a subject rather than paths, so")
         print("no change can fire them mechanically. Judge them yourself:")