diff --git a/plugins/compound-engineering/skills/ce-plan/SKILL.md b/plugins/compound-engineering/skills/ce-plan/SKILL.md
index 2fefc95..9f5c7bb 100644
--- a/plugins/compound-engineering/skills/ce-plan/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugins/compound-engineering/skills/ce-plan/SKILL.md
@@ -900,7 +900,7 @@ When presenting findings from multiple agents targeting the same section, presen
 
 After all agents have been reviewed, carry only the accepted findings forward to 5.3.7.
 
-If the user accepted no findings, report "No findings accepted — plan unchanged." If artifact-backed mode was used, clean up the scratch directory before continuing. Then proceed directly to Phase 5.4 (skip document-review and synthesis — the plan was not modified).
+If the user accepted no findings, report "No findings accepted — plan unchanged." If artifact-backed mode was used, clean up the scratch directory before continuing. Then proceed directly to Phase 5.4 (skip document-review and synthesis — the plan was not modified). This interactive-mode-only skip does not apply in auto mode; auto mode always proceeds through 5.3.7 and 5.3.8.
 
 If findings were accepted and the plan was modified, proceed through 5.3.7 and 5.3.8 as normal — document-review acts as a quality gate on the changes.
 
@@ -935,7 +935,7 @@ If research reveals a product-level ambiguity that should change behavior or sco
 
 ##### 5.3.8 Document Review
 
-After the confidence check (and any deepening), run the `document-review` skill on the plan file. Pass the plan path as the argument.
+After the confidence check (and any deepening), run the `document-review` skill on the plan file. Pass the plan path as the argument. When this step is reached, it is mandatory — do not skip it because the confidence check already ran. The two tools catch different classes of issues.
 
 The confidence check and document-review are complementary:
 - The confidence check strengthens rationale, sequencing, risk treatment, and grounding