diff --git a/0-AI-MANIFEST.a2ml b/0-AI-MANIFEST.a2ml
index d737334a..d2bc3341 100644
--- a/0-AI-MANIFEST.a2ml
+++ b/0-AI-MANIFEST.a2ml
@@ -108,3 +108,20 @@
     (last-updated "2026-03-24")
     (maintained-by "Jonathan D.A. Jewell / hyperpolymath")
     (protocol "https://github.com/hyperpolymath/0-ai-gatekeeper-protocol")))
+
+<!-- BEGIN requires-initialisation -->
+
+## PRIORITY ACTION — this repository is not fully initialised
+
+2 substitution token(s) still have no value. **Read
+`REQUIRES_INITIALISATION.md` in the repository root before doing anything
+else here** — it lists every outstanding token, what it means, and which
+files it belongs in.
+
+Do not fabricate values for them, and do not delete the sections that
+contain them to quiet a gate. They are unfilled because they need a
+decision, not because they were overlooked. Resolve what you legitimately
+can, leave the rest, and delete `REQUIRES_INITIALISATION.md` only when
+nothing outstanding remains.
+
+<!-- END requires-initialisation -->
diff --git a/REQUIRES_INITIALISATION.md b/REQUIRES_INITIALISATION.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ffb538e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/REQUIRES_INITIALISATION.md
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0 -->
+
+# REQUIRES INITIALISATION
+
+**This repository is not finished being set up.** 2 substitution token(s) across 2 file(s) still have no value.
+
+## Why this is not already done
+
+This repo was created from `hyperpolymath/rsr-template-repo`. The mint
+(`just repo-init`) fills every token that has a single mechanical answer —
+owner, repo, author, dates, licence, branch — and it has done so here.
+
+The tokens below are the ones it *deliberately cannot* answer. They need a
+decision or a fact that exists only in your head: what this project is for,
+what command builds it, which port the service listens on, whether a PGP key
+is held at all. The template's own token vocabulary says as much — you cannot
+sensibly answer "required invariants" in a thirty-second bootstrap.
+
+They were left **visibly unfilled on purpose**. The alternatives were both
+worse: inventing plausible values would put confident falsehoods into a
+security policy and an architecture document, and silently deleting the
+sections would hide the fact that a decision is owed. A visible gap is
+honest; a fabricated answer is not.
+
+## Do not delete this file until every item below is resolved
+
+This file is the only marker that the work is outstanding. Deleting it early
+does not finish the setup, it just conceals it — and the next person or agent
+to arrive will reasonably assume the repo is complete.
+
+- **If you are a person:** delete this file yourself once the last item is done.
+- **If you are an agent:** resolve what you legitimately can, leave the rest,
+  and delete this file only when no token below remains anywhere in the tree.
+  Do not delete it to make a gate go green.
+
+Re-running the estate top-up tool will remove this file automatically once
+nothing is outstanding, so the safest way to finish is to fix the tokens and
+let the check confirm it.
+
+## What is needed, and where it goes
+
+### `{{API_KEY}}`
+
+Appears in:
+
+- `docs/specification/cartridge-tools/README.md`
+
+### `{{PROJECT_UNIQUE_STRENGTH}}`
+
+What this does that its alternatives do not.
+
+Appears in:
+
+- `.machine_readable/agent_instructions/methodology.a2ml`
+
+---
+
+Generated by the estate top-up pass. Rationale and the governing rulings are
+in `hyperpolymath/standards`; the token vocabulary is
+`.machine_readable/ai/PLACEHOLDERS.adoc` in `rsr-template-repo`.