diff --git a/.story_kit/work/4_merge/262_story_bot_error_notifications_for_story_failures.md b/.story_kit/work/4_merge/262_story_bot_error_notifications_for_story_failures.md
index bdc1f1d..ce6fcf4 100644
--- a/.story_kit/work/4_merge/262_story_bot_error_notifications_for_story_failures.md
+++ b/.story_kit/work/4_merge/262_story_bot_error_notifications_for_story_failures.md
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 ---
-name: "Bot error notifications for story failures"
-merge_failure: "Squash-merge resulted in an empty diff — the feature branch has no code changes beyond master. The coder agent may not have committed any implementation work to the feature branch."
+name: "Bot error notifications for story failures (with shared messaging)"
 ---
 
 # Story 262: Bot error notifications for story failures
@@ -9,12 +8,17 @@ merge_failure: "Squash-merge resulted in an empty diff — the feature branch ha
 
 As a user, I want to receive bot notifications with an error icon in the channel whenever a story errors out (e.g. merge failure), so that I'm immediately aware of problems.
 
+## Design Constraint
+
+Story 261 adds stage-transition notifications using the same Matrix messaging path. Extract a shared utility/module for sending Matrix messages so that both error notifications (this story) and stage-transition notifications (261) use the same code path. Do not duplicate Matrix message-sending logic.
+
 ## Acceptance Criteria
 
 - [ ] Bot sends an error notification to the channel when a story encounters a failure (e.g. merge failure)
 - [ ] Notification includes an error icon to distinguish it from normal stage-transition notifications
 - [ ] Notification includes the story number, name, and a description of the error
+- [ ] Matrix message-sending logic is in a shared module usable by both error and stage-transition notifications
 
 ## Out of Scope
 
-- TBD
+- Stage-transition notifications (covered by story 261)