diff --git a/corpus/skills/cat-mode/SKILL.md b/corpus/skills/cat-mode/SKILL.md
index 25db6e54..fbb47033 100644
--- a/corpus/skills/cat-mode/SKILL.md
+++ b/corpus/skills/cat-mode/SKILL.md
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ disable-model-invocation: true
 
 # cat-mode
 
-Personal conventions, not a task-specific skill. Response shape and brevity live in `diu` (always-on); nothing here duplicates it. Applied by default when `CATSTACK_CAT_MODE_DEFAULT=1` via the `cat-mode-default` hook.
+Personal conventions, not a task-specific skill. Response shape and brevity live in `diu` (always-on); nothing here duplicates it. Applied by default when `CATSTACK_CAT_MODE_DEFAULT=on` via the `cat-mode-default` hook.
 
 ## Autonomy
 
diff --git a/tests/test_cat_mode.py b/tests/test_cat_mode.py
index dce6845a..292a4a70 100644
--- a/tests/test_cat_mode.py
+++ b/tests/test_cat_mode.py
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ def test_description_is_a_real_trigger_not_a_placeholder(self):
 class TestCatModeDefaultHookPointer(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_body_names_the_default_hook_and_flag(self):
         text = normalized_skill_text()
-        self.assertIn("Applied by default when `CATSTACK_CAT_MODE_DEFAULT=1` via the `cat-mode-default` hook", text)
+        self.assertIn("Applied by default when `CATSTACK_CAT_MODE_DEFAULT=on` via the `cat-mode-default` hook", text)
         self.assertTrue(os.path.isdir(os.path.join(REPO_ROOT, "engine", "hooks", "cat-mode-default")))
         self.assertEqual(parse_frontmatter(read_skill_text())["disable-model-invocation"], "true")