Mirrored verbatim from utopia-models/knowledge _process/floor/lifecycle.md by the allowlisted publish pipeline. Edit it there, not here.

audience: [architect]
load: floor

Floor 1 — the plan lifecycle

One principle: no stored copies of state · no resident process for what already announces itself · docs are the config. Anything that can drift is deleted, not monitored; anything unattended announces itself on the board, so silence cannot pass for health. A resident process only watches an external system that emits no signal (an always-on-agent) and announces its own liveness.

Words and steps

PLAN (one thinking session, PLAN-N) → Feature (shippable body, ordered sub-issues) → issue (one dispatchable unit, run to a merged PR). "Task" is not one of the three; a PLAN references Features.

1 BRIEF · 2 LOOP⟳ ‖ 3 FILE · 4 DISPATCHED · 5 DONE — planning is step < 3. Every step is DERIVED, never reported: 3–5 from the board, 1–2 from event refs. A merged PR advances a step by closing its issue. Step 4 is DISPATCHED or EXECUTING (interactive), never "blocked". Step files: _process/steps/, read by /plan-start and /execution-start. 🔴 Planning-shaped work loads the frame — the work is the trigger, not a typed command: before the first research subagent or specs/ write, load plan-start and read 1-brief.md in full. 🔴 The plan exists before the work does — a PLAN-N before the first research subagent, filing, or a review document (_rules/the-plan-exists-before-the-work-does.md).

Modes (ADR-7781)

Exactly two: dispatch (masters execute; my involvement ends at dispatch unless the bound subprocess says monitor: yes — READ that frontmatter, never ask) and interactive (Tyler and I run it in-session; that is not "blocked"). interactive is the whole name — never needs-tyler/manual. /plan-start writes it to ~/.claude/state/plan-issue/<session-id> and the Plan issue's Mode field. Subprocesses live in <project>/subprocesses/<mode>/<id>.md. 🔴 Read the injected [session] … mode=… line first: on dispatch the loop ends at dispatch; on interactive I execute it myself (_rules/dispatch-is-the-end-of-my-involvement.md).

The plan document (step 2 builds it)

Sections in order: Current State (first; gates the rest) → After State (once Tyler settles 1) → a custom section ONLY if Tyler names it → The phases (LAST, empty until 1–2 are verified) → Session Record (written continuously). 🔴 A section he did not ask for is work he must find and cut. Declare his words on the tag: data-requested="…", data-verified="yes". 🔴 A closed fork rewrites every artifact that stated the old answer before the next section is written (_rules/a-closed-fork-rewrites-what-it-invalidated.md). 🔴 UI work: the artifact IS the interface, built and iterated to sign-off before dispatch; the mockup ships in the first publish (_rules/ui-work-is-reviewed-in-the-artifact-before-dispatch.md).

Filing

Thick tasks only: <project>/work/specs/<issue#>-<slug>/spec.md (objective · acceptance · scope · grounding)

• plan.md, whose checkboxes ARE the work state. The issue body carries the literal spec path. ADRs only when the choice is expensive to reverse or will be re-litigated (wi/work/specs/DECISION-TEMPLATE.md); superseding one edits the old record's Superseded-by in the same commit. 🔴 Every blocker is resolved at planning time — a master is never blocked; on --chain/--wave read each phase's file list and ask WHICH REPO, then check push access (_rules/resolve-blockers-at-planning-time.md).

Execution and done

dispatch.sh → task-runner.sh posts ▶ and ✔/✘ + PR. Finish = a PR with Closes #N, MERGED; armed auto-merge is not finished. 🔴 THE MERGE RULE (stated once, here): nothing gates main (branch protection and rulesets 403). A red or missing check is information. Blocked → read the real error → gh pr merge <n> --squash --admin; conflicted → rebase. Never ask Tyler to merge, approve or deploy ("I am never responsible for merging PRs. A block = FIND THE PATH.") — _rules/verified-work-goes-to-main-and-i-never-ask.md. Only the secret scan (guard.yml) stops a merge; a real build failure is fixed, never overridden. 🔴 A mechanism closes on its population: name the command that shows it running on every box it claims (_infra/scripts/mechanism-liveness.sh <basename>); present is not wired, wired is not run (#6449). 🔴 Done is a claim about the ARTIFACT, never the build: exercise it, look at visuals, never relay a script's or subagent's self-report; deliver the media type asked for (a video ask gets playable files); a site passes the site-audit in WebKit at phone + desktop with every CTA clicked (_rules/done-means-the-artifact-was-exercised.md). 🔴 Status is derived and residue is deleted: set fields at filing, post the close-out, answer "where are we" from the board, never let a write fail quietly; a verification report goes on the ISSUE, never a file (_rules/status-is-derived-and-residue-is-deleted.md). A blocking gate guards a stable invariant; conventions get linters; a banned-word check is never the fix (_rules/gates-are-for-invariants-conventions-get-linters.md).