diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index bbf2511..9ee2059 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -593,7 +593,7 @@ checksum = "673aac59facbab8a9007c7f6108d11f63b603f7cabff99fabf650fea5c32b861"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "uphold"
-version = "1.6.0"
+version = "1.7.0"
 dependencies = [
  "encoding_rs",
  "globset",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 18ccd78..625e830 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "uphold"
-version = "1.6.0"
+version = "1.7.0"
 edition = "2021"
 # 1.88, not 1.85: the ripgrep stack this crate embeds -- globset 0.4.20 and
 # ignore 0.4.33 in Cargo.lock -- refuses anything older. The 1.85 that stood here
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ae4b1c0..1022ae5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ bootstraps).
 default_install_hook_types: [pre-commit, commit-msg, pre-merge-commit, pre-push]
 repos:
   - repo: https://github.com/HackingGate/uphold
-    rev: v1.6.0
+    rev: v1.7.0
     hooks:
       - id: uphold-check            # the claims still hold
       - id: uphold-scan             # the content policy
@@ -48,13 +48,13 @@ the binary must be on PATH.
 # lefthook.yml
 remotes:
   - git_url: https://github.com/HackingGate/uphold
-    ref: v1.6.0
+    ref: v1.7.0
     configs:
       - hooks/lefthook.yml
 ```
 
 ```sh
-cargo install --git https://github.com/HackingGate/uphold --tag v1.6.0
+cargo install --git https://github.com/HackingGate/uphold --tag v1.7.0
 ```
 
 That `ref:` is the one version a lefthook consumer pins, and **Dependabot does
diff --git a/docs/REFERENCE.md b/docs/REFERENCE.md
index c8267ea..103ca66 100644
--- a/docs/REFERENCE.md
+++ b/docs/REFERENCE.md
@@ -72,6 +72,46 @@ every git hook, and a repository whose own prose cites its issues would have
 every one of those citations refused — so the seam it belongs at is the command
 that publishes text to a forge, and only that one.
 
+### A rule may not be about its own declaration
+
+A policy file is a tracked file, so a rule's `regexp` and `require_regexp` are
+inside the corpus that rule scans. An unanchored literal therefore matches the
+line it is written on, and both fields reach the same accident from opposite
+directions:
+
+| field | must find | a self-match is |
+|---|---|---|
+| `regexp` | nothing | a finding that is always there, naming the rule instead of the tree |
+| `require_regexp` | something | a pass that is always there, exempting the policy file forever |
+
+**A rule that matches its own declaration *and* selects the file that
+declaration is in is refused at load.** Both halves are required. Most rules
+never select the policy file — an `include` of `["cmd", "internal"]` with a
+`glob` of `["*.go"]` cannot reach `policy/` — and a pattern matching its own
+text under such a rule is harmless, so the scope test comes first.
+
+Three cures, and the refusal names all of them:
+
+```toml
+[rule.no-yubikey-mentions]
+regexp = '\bYubiKey\b'
+[rule.no-yubikey-mentions.files]
+include = ["."]
+exclude = ["policy/**"]     # 1. exclude the policy file
+```
+
+2. narrow `files.include` to what the rule is actually about;
+3. anchor the pattern, so it cannot match the key it is written under.
+
+The third is worth knowing before reaching for the first. `^Status:` does not
+match `regexp = '^Status:...'`, because that line begins with `regexp` — so an
+anchored pattern needs nothing, and a one-character class written to dodge a
+self-match it never had (`^Sta[t]us:`) is a defensive edit that can be deleted.
+
+Own rules only. A bundled set's rule is declared inside the binary and an
+`inherit.paths` rule in a file the rule may not select; neither has a
+declaration in this policy file to match.
+
 Exit codes: `0` clean, `1` violations, `2` the check could not be made.
 
 There is no fourth. A reader that closes a pipe — `uphold scan | head` — is a
diff --git a/hooks/lefthook.yml b/hooks/lefthook.yml
index 0abdbe0..ad6de32 100644
--- a/hooks/lefthook.yml
+++ b/hooks/lefthook.yml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 #   # lefthook.yml, in the consuming repository
 #   remotes:
 #     - git_url: https://github.com/HackingGate/uphold
-#       ref: v1.6.0
+#       ref: v1.7.0
 #       configs:
 #         - hooks/lefthook.yml
 #
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 # their manifest contract; lefthook runs commands and has no such contract, so
 # `uphold` must be on PATH:
 #
-#   cargo install --git https://github.com/HackingGate/uphold --tag v1.6.0
+#   cargo install --git https://github.com/HackingGate/uphold --tag v1.7.0
 #
 # The names below are prefixed `uphold-` on purpose. A remote config is
 # merged into the consumer's own, and two commands sharing a name under one hook