diff --git a/.claude/skills/board-ops/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/board-ops/SKILL.md
index 903d303d..47054420 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/board-ops/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/board-ops/SKILL.md
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ Safe alternatives, in order of preference:
    `ProjectV2SingleSelectFieldOptionInput.id` is an optional `String`, so a mixed
    list works. Verify afterward that no card lost its value — snapshot
    `gh project item-list … --format json` before and after and diff; don't just
-   spot-check.
+   spot-check. Send those dumps to `$BOARD_TMP` too, for the reason above.
 
 Both the `Incoming` Status option and the Urgent/High/Medium/Low Priority
 options were added this way (#1891), with the before/after diff confirming all
@@ -213,8 +213,16 @@ card's value and never touch the field schema.
 One command, and it is the difference between a five-minute restore and
 reconstructing statuses by inference:
 
+⚠️ **Write it outside the repo.** [The boards are private](../issue-triage/SKILL.md),
+so a snapshot is a full dump of item IDs and every card's Status and Priority.
+Left in the working tree it is one `git add -A` away from being published in a
+PR (Copilot).
+
 ```sh
-gh project item-list 28 --owner modelcontextprotocol --format json --limit 600 > board-snapshot.json
+BOARD_TMP=$(mktemp -d)
+gh project item-list 28 --owner modelcontextprotocol --format json --limit 600 \
+  > "$BOARD_TMP/board-snapshot.json"
+echo "snapshot: $BOARD_TMP/board-snapshot.json"   # note the path; you need it to recover
 ```
 
 ### Recovering from a deleted option
@@ -230,18 +238,24 @@ each single-select field under its lowercased name, so both keys are present),
 and pass the Priority field id `PVTSSF_lADOCt2Azc4BJVxtzg5iJE4`.
 
 ```sh
+# 0. Same temp dir the snapshot went to — keep every dump out of the worktree.
+BOARD_TMP=${BOARD_TMP:-$(mktemp -d)}
+
 # 1. Which cards lost their value, and what did they hold?
-gh project item-list 28 --owner modelcontextprotocol --format json --limit 600 > board-broken.json
-jq -r '[.items[]|select(.status==null)|.id]' board-broken.json > lost-ids.json
-jq -r --slurpfile L lost-ids.json '($L[0]) as $lost
+gh project item-list 28 --owner modelcontextprotocol --format json --limit 600 \
+  > "$BOARD_TMP/board-broken.json"
+jq -r '[.items[]|select(.status==null)|.id]' "$BOARD_TMP/board-broken.json" \
+  > "$BOARD_TMP/lost-ids.json"
+jq -r --slurpfile L "$BOARD_TMP/lost-ids.json" '($L[0]) as $lost
   | [.items[] | select(.id as $i | $lost|index($i)) | .status // "(none)"]
-  | group_by(.) | map({s:.[0],c:length}) | .[] | "was \(.s): \(.c)"' board-snapshot.json
+  | group_by(.) | map({s:.[0],c:length}) | .[] | "was \(.s): \(.c)"' \
+  "$BOARD_TMP/board-snapshot.json"
 
 # 2. Recreate the option, echoing every surviving option's id (see above).
 #    NOTE: the recreated option gets a NEW id — the deleted one never comes back.
 
 # 3. Re-apply it to the orphaned cards.
-for id in $(jq -r '.[]' lost-ids.json); do
+for id in $(jq -r '.[]' "$BOARD_TMP/lost-ids.json"); do
   gh project item-edit --project-id PVT_kwDOCt2Azc4BJVxt --id "$id" \
     --field-id PVTSSF_lADOCt2Azc4BJVxtzg5iI8c --single-select-option-id <NEW_OPTION_ID>
   sleep 0.4
diff --git a/.claude/skills/release/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/release/SKILL.md
index 518c9f26..3b0f475e 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/release/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/release/SKILL.md
@@ -33,13 +33,21 @@ The bump is part of the milestone's work, so it belongs on the develop branch
 and flows into `main` with everything else.
 
 ```sh
-# The branch name carries the version you are bumping TO, so read it first.
+# Branch from the REMOTE ref, and read the version only once you are on it.
+# A default clone has just `main` checked out, so a local `v2/main` may not
+# exist and `package.json` here is `main`'s — the released version, not the one
+# you are bumping from (Copilot).
+git fetch origin v2/main
+git checkout -b v2/chore/<ISSUE>-bump-<X-Y-Z> origin/v2/main
 node -p "require('./package.json').version"          # what is on v2/main now
-git checkout -b v2/chore/<ISSUE>-bump-<X-Y-Z> v2/main
 npm version minor --no-git-tag-version   # or major / patch; bump only, no tag
 node -p "require('./package.json').version"          # confirm, then PR → v2/main
 ```
 
+The branch name carries the version you are bumping **to**, so it is named after
+that second reading. If you want it before branching:
+`git show origin/v2/main:package.json | node -p "JSON.parse(require('fs').readFileSync(0)).version"`.
+
 ⚠️ **Never copy a version out of this file.** It would be a version that has
 already shipped by the time you read it, and following it would cut a release
 branch named for the wrong release (Copilot).