BUILDER.md

@@ -297,6 +297,40 @@ CONTRIBUTING; the shared flow lives here and is not restated there.)
    is one kind of human-owned decision; use the ruling ask below
    ([#50 D11](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony/issues/50)).
 
+**A fix round may ride a draft.** An engine may convert a PR back to draft
+when a round closes, and crew#139's does: the 15-minute cadence makes a
+builder's fix-round pushes *saves* rather than proposals, and 41 of 106
+commits across crew's last 25 PRs — 39% — were fired at CI as if they were
+proposals. Ceremony implements no such conversion and this passage specifies
+none; it is written down because a builder or a reviewer who meets a mid-round
+draft has to find a state the doctrine describes. What it means is what a
+draft already meant during the build, extended and not changed: the draft
+phase is yours, the panel cannot see it, and the checkpoint discipline
+(Building, above) runs through the round unaltered. Whose ball it is does not
+change either — the round outranks the draft flag, which is what
+[LABELS.md](LABELS.md)'s `state:building` row already says in the machine's
+voice: a draft carrying a standing non-approving verdict is a fix round and
+reads `state:addressing` (#205).
+
+**Ready-for-review is the act that ends the round, and it is the builder's
+alone.** No engine marks a PR ready. The flip asserts that the round was
+answered whole, and that assertion is the one judgement about a round its
+author cannot delegate to a machine: an engine may draft a PR, and crew#139's
+does, but only the builder undrafts it.
+
+**Where a draft suppressed the checks, green is proven at the flip and the
+request still follows it.** Step 1's precondition is the whole rule and this
+adds no second one — it says only *when* the head answers: marking ready is
+what runs the checks the draft held back, so the order is flip, let the head
+answer, then request, and the argued exception stays the only way past a red
+one. Waiting there is compliance, not a stall, and the machine reads it that
+way too: `blocker:unrequested` does not fire while a head's checks are pending
+or red, because the one blocker that demands an act has to know when the act
+is permitted (#236 — crew#318 carried it at ~12:44Z on 2026-08-03 while its
+head's run was still in progress, which is the label flagging a builder for
+obeying this section). A head with no checks configured has nothing to wait
+for and is requested straight away, the same reading that sweep gives it.
+
 ## The ruling ask
 
 Set `needs-ruling` whenever a decision belongs to a human: org policy,

REVIEWER.md

@@ -141,6 +141,11 @@ saw Y" outranks one that says "this looks like it might".
 - The builder answers rounds whole and re-requests you; until re-requested,
   the ball is not yours (`state:addressing` is the builder working — pile-on
   reviews mid-address just churn the target).
+- A **draft carrying `state:addressing` is a fix round in progress**, not
+  abandonment: an engine may convert a PR back to draft at round close so the
+  builder's checkpoint pushes stop firing CI, and the flip back to ready is
+  the builder's own act announcing the round is answered
+  ([BUILDER.md](BUILDER.md#the-review-round)).
 - Convergence = every panel verdict approves the current head, no
   `blocker:*` standing. Then the builder hands off (`state:needs-human`) and
   the panel's job is done.

changelog.d/258.md

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+### Added
+
+- BUILDER.md now describes a fix round that rides a draft: the draft phase
+  stays the builder's, ready-for-review is the builder's own act, and where a
+  draft suppressed the checks green is proven at the flip (#258).
+- REVIEWER.md now reads a draft carrying `state:addressing` as a fix round in
+  progress rather than abandonment (#258).