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 # AGENTS.md — start here
 You are an agent working in a repo governed by
 [heavy-duty/ceremony](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony). This file is
 the router: find your role below, read its file, then act. The role files
 sit beside this one — in ceremony itself at the repo root, in a governed
 repo under `.ceremony/` (a machine-managed mirror; never edit those files
 in place — they are changed in heavy-duty/ceremony, through its own flow).
 ## Your role
 You were told your role when you were pointed at this repo ("you are a
 reviewer here"). That one word is your whole onboarding:
 | you are the… | read | your job in one line |
 |---|---|---|
 | **triage** agent | [TRIAGE.md](TRIAGE.md) | turn discussions into buildable issues — or refuse well; you are the only door issues come through |
 | **builder** agent | [BUILDER.md](BUILDER.md) | turn one `ready` issue into one PR that meets its acceptance criteria |
 | **reviewer** agent | [REVIEWER.md](REVIEWER.md) | verdicts on PRs — approve or request-changes, converge, hand to the human |
 Everyone, whatever the role, also reads [LABELS.md](LABELS.md) — the labels
 are the shared state machine, and misusing one lies to every other agent on
 the board.
 **Not told a role?** Infer it from the task: asked to review a PR → reviewer;
 asked to implement an issue → builder; asked to process discussions or the
 backlog → triage. Still ambiguous → ask before acting. Do not free-lance
 across roles in one session: a builder reviewing its own PR, or a reviewer
 pushing fixes, breaks the separation the pipeline depends on.
 ## The pipeline you are part of
 ```
 discussion ──▶ triage ──▶ issue ──▶ build ──▶ review ──▶ human merge ──▶ release
 (anyone)     (agent)   (queue)    (agent)   (agents)     (human)      (ceremony)
 ```
 Two rules bind every role:
 - **Only triage mints issues.** Found work? Open or extend a discussion.
 - **Only humans merge.** Convergence ends at `state:needs-human`, never at
  a merge button.
 ## Repo specifics
 What is true only of *this* repo — the review panel roster, the `scope:*`
 label set, what a drill means, code conventions — lives in the repo's own
 `CONTRIBUTING.md`. Read it after your role file; where it and the role file
 disagree on a repo-specific fact, the repo's CONTRIBUTING wins.
--- a/.ceremony/BUILDER.md
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 # BUILDER.md — the builder role
 You turn one issue into one PR. The issue is your contract: triage wrote it
 so you can succeed without asking anyone anything — if you can't, that is a
 triage bug, and the move is to say so on the issue, not to guess.
 ## Picking
 - Pick from issues labeled **`ready`** — never `blocked`, `claimed`, or an
  `epic` (epics organize; their children are the work). Inside an epic take
  the earliest unblocked unclaimed child, otherwise the issue that unblocks
  the most work; where a repo adopts version epics,
  [RELEASES.md](RELEASES.md) governs among window members.
 - **Your own red head outranks a new claim**: repair a failing check at your
  PR's head before claiming another issue (#163). Red and green here are the
  review round's ruled terms: cancelled, stale, or unreported — every entry
  at the head cancelled — is not green; skipped or neutral is. Record the
  check and its failure class; rerun a clearly retryable infrastructure
  failure unchanged; treat a branch failure as an ordinary fix round,
  worklog and all; leave evidence where a rerun cannot start or the cause is
  unclear; never rerun a deterministic failure without a corrective commit;
  hand off once green with current-head approvals. Such a PR is **never
  parked**, whatever the verdict state says; how the engine detects a red
  head is crew's to describe.
 - **One build at a time**: one issue on which you are writing or revising a
  deliverable, finished or released before you start more. The rule counts
  work in flight, not claims — a **parked** claim, whose next move is
  someone else's, does not hold the slot. Five shapes park:
  1. `needs-ruling` is set, the escalation names a decider, and its
     `Blocked:` line stops the rest;
  2. a **live** review round holds it, every outstanding verdict someone
     else's — awaiting first verdicts, or answered whole with the owed
     re-requests posted, by head and not by verdict (steps 1–2). A red check
     at the head takes it out of this shape: the next move is yours;
  3. every remaining acceptance criterion is operator-owned, stated so by
     triage on the issue;
  4. it is **handed off** — round passed, no `blocker:*` standing,
     `state:needs-human` set per Handoff, the merge the human's. Shapes 2
     and 4 are sequential and never overlap;
  5. the claim is **held by directive** — triage or the operator stopped the
     work, named what the hold waits on, and only they end it. A hold ends
     as it started, **on the labels**: where labels and prose disagree, the
     most recent queue-label event by the hold's owner governs, and an
     operator may lift by label alone (#149, #151). So read the label events
     (`gh api /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{n}/timeline`), not just the
     comments, before standing down *or* up, and say in the claim which you
     read, their timestamps and their actor. Where they do not resolve the
     contradiction, say so and take the next `ready` issue; refusing is no
     resting place.
  Not parked: waiting on yourself, on CI (a red head is yours; a pending one
  resolves without you), or for a good moment. An issue you stopped working
  on is abandoned — unassign and restore `ready`. Parked claims are held
  beside the one active build (#15, #16, #73).
 ## Claiming
 - Assign yourself, swap `ready` → `claimed`, and comment that you are
  starting. The claim promises a draft PR soon: a claim with no PR and no
  activity is what the staleness sweep reclaims, unless `offsite` records
  that its PR lives in another repo.
 - **A park is declared, never inferred.** Comment naming what the claim
  waits on and who owns the next move — no new label; the comment is the
  activity the reclaim clock reads, as for `needs-ruling` (#52) and
  `offsite` (#68). Shape 4 is exempt: the handoff comment and
  `state:needs-human` already say both.
 - **A declaration stands until the park's facts change**, so a resumption
  finding nothing changed posts nothing (#177). Each change owes one comment
  — the wait resolves or changes hands, the shape changes, the claim
  unparks. A parked claim with **no open PR** still feeds the 48-hour
  reclaim clock, so refresh the declaration before it closes; that is a
  park's only repeat.
 - **Pick up `attention` before anything else**: post a short pickup comment
  and remove the label, which is the ack. A demand on a parked claim is
  usually its unpark, so take the slot back — unless the demand *is* the
  park, the pickup comment then doubling as the declaration.
 - **A directed hold keeps its bookkeeping visible.** The PR carries
  `blocked` with a comment naming what it waits on; the issue stays
  `claimed` and carries `attention` until the builder acks. Nobody unassigns
  it, and the 48-hour reclaim does not fire while the claim has an open PR.
 - **Unparking is a claim like any other** and takes the slot: if you are
  active elsewhere, finish or release that work first and say which on both
  issues. No machinery counts claims per builder, and none should be built
  expecting this section to have specified one.
 - **Abandoning is fine; ghosting is not.** Say where you got to, push the
  branch if it holds anything useful, unassign, restore `ready`.
 ## Building
 - Branch per issue; open the PR **as a draft early**, `Closes #N` in the
  body. Drafts are invisible to the panel on purpose: that phase is yours.
 - **`Closes #N` does not cross repos.** A PR in a different repo from its
  issue says `Part of <owner>/<repo>#N`, sets `offsite`, and comments the
  draft link on that issue in the same step; triage closes that issue by
  hand once its criteria are met, the builder reporting there whether the PR
  merged or closed and clearing `offsite` in the same comment. The
  cross-repo merge never closes the authorizing issue (#13, #16).
 - **`Closes #N` does not survive a post-merge criterion.** Where the issue
  body says a criterion can only be checked after the merge — a workflow
  trigger proved live, a released artifact, anything whose subject does not
  exist until the change is on the base branch — the same-repo PR says
  `Refs #N`; the issue goes `post-merge` at the merge, the builder walks
  away, and triage owns verification and closure on the evidence, returning
  the issue to `ready` or minting a fresh one where corrective work is
  needed — claimable by any builder from current `main`, the original having
  no special standing. The issue body says so — you never judge which
  qualify — and absent it `Closes #N` is the default (#151).
 - On a `Refs #N` PR, never put a closing keyword (`close`, `closes`,
  `closed`, `fix`, `fixes`, `fixed`, `resolve`, `resolves`, `resolved`)
  immediately before `#N` anywhere in the body, including the sentence
  explaining why the PR does not close it: GitHub reads the body by
  adjacency, not intent, and a code span does not protect the phrase (#200,
  #218). Put the number first (`#N is closed by hand`) or omit it.
 - **The issue's acceptance criteria are your definition of done**: reproduce
  them as a checklist in the PR body and check them honestly. One that turns
  out wrong or unreachable goes back to triage to be amended, never silently
  shipped short.
 - **Every behavior change writes one fragment**, `changelog.d/<issue>.md`
  named for the authorizing issue (`<repo>-<issue>.md` cross-repo): the
  prose to be published and nothing else — `- ` bullets, plus in a grouped
  repo `### Added` / `### Changed` / `### Fixed` headings, a rarer kind only
  where a change genuinely is one. An entry is at most 300 characters, so a
  long change ships several short ones (wrapping over continuation lines is
  free), and it **ends with its issue citation**: a parenthesised group of
  `#N`, `repo#N` or `owner/repo#N` separated by `, `, then the final `.` and
  nothing after — `(#262).`, `(#236, #250).` — which need not name the
  fragment's own issue, the filename carrying it. The guard reds a long
  entry (#167) and an uncited one (#262). Never edit `CHANGELOG.md`: the
  release PR assembles the section from fragments (#112), and the monotonic
  guard refuses anything deleting a shipped heading.
 - Follow the repo's conventions file and match the code you touch. Tests are
  not optional: the issue's test plan is the floor, not the ceiling.
 - **A write-capable job gets a repo-owned script, not a third-party
  action.** Where the token can write (`packages: write`, `contents: write`,
  `id-token: write`, deploy secrets), default to a script a test can drive;
  a third-party action there needs an established publisher and a
  full-commit-SHA pin, and read-only jobs still SHA-pin. The full rule and
  its red-flag profile are in REVIEWER.md §What you review against, item 2
  (#216).
 - **Scope discipline: the PR does the issue — whole, and nothing else.**
  Adjacent problems go to a discussion, or a comment on the relevant issue;
  you do not mint issues — nobody but triage does — and you do not fix
  drive-by findings in the same PR.
 ## The review round
 (In a governed repo this file is `.ceremony/BUILDER.md`: repo-specific facts
 such as the panel roster live in that repo's own CONTRIBUTING.)
 1. Mark ready-for-review; request **the whole panel**: the PR repo's
   `panel[<your-login>]=` line if it defines one, else its `panel=` line,
   minus the author (#224) — never the roster of the repo the issue is in.
   That repo's `.github/labels.conf` governs over its CONTRIBUTING roster,
   being what the state machine reads; where it names no roster, ask triage
   on the authorizing issue rather than guess. An off-panel reviewer may be
   requested, said to be advisory and not required.
   **A review request requires a green check at the head**, whether or not
   an engine enforces it: a red check is the author's own signal, so fix it
   and push, then request. The one exception is a failure genuinely outside
   the PR — a runner outage, a flaky dependency, a failure already on the
   default branch — and only where the request says so and names the
   evidence ("the same job fails identically on `origin/main` at `<sha>`");
   silence about a red check is what is prohibited, and an argued exception
   shifts the burden to the author.
   *Green* is a ruled term (operator, 2026-07-27), read in two steps.
   **First take the check's word at this head**: its newest entry by start
   time — not completion, a cancelled run outliving its replacement's start
   — and never a `CANCELLED` entry while the same check has a non-cancelled
   one there. A check whose entries at the head are all cancelled has not
   reported at all and is not green — a collapse, not a new class, and the
   gate partitions alike, dropping a cancelled entry only where a
   non-cancelled survivor remains and leaving an all-cancelled context
   blocking (#139, #276). **Then classify that entry by `conclusion`, never
   `status`**, which can disagree with it (#259). No conclusion is not
   green: a configured run in progress is waited on, and waiting is
   compliance, not a stall. Cancelled or stale is not green, *stale* being a
   superseded head's check, which a head-scoped rollup never shows. Skipped
   or neutral is green, those being deliberate "passed / not applicable"
   conclusions. No checks configured is green — the third ruled case, not an
   argued exception, so the request goes out at once with no evidence owed;
   that never covers nothing-answered-yet, and the machine partitions alike,
   admitting the ask on `SUCCESS` and `NONE` (#236). The costs behind the
   line are asymmetric: a false green spends a three-reviewer round, a false
   red one author session. What the machine drops from the rollup before
   grading is crew's to describe.
 2. **Wait for every verdict, then answer the round whole** — one reply
   covering every point, stating what changed and what was verified. That
   reply is the written record: the engine mirrors it under the PR body's
   **Round log**, newest last and marked with the round's head, which makes
   a retry a no-op; you owe the reply and no body edit, and a round answered
   without one is recorded as such and never blocks handoff. Then push the
   fixes and re-request **by head, not by verdict**. A push makes every
   approval stale — an approval is of a specific tree, and the handoff
   predicate counts only approvals at the current head — so **every panelist
   is re-requested, approvers included**; one left un-re-requested can never
   approve the tree you shipped (#26, #39). Only where the head did not move
   — answered with argument or evidence, nothing pushed — do you re-request
   just the non-approvers; the engine absorbs a re-request at an unchanged
   head, and its mechanism is crew's to describe (#94). **The re-request
   carries the same green-check-at-head precondition**, argued exception
   included: a fix push whose check comes up red is your next fix, not the
   panel's. Prefer verification over argument — add the test that settles
   the doubt.
 3. Never dismiss a review, never merge, never mark your own work as passed.
   A blocking point you disagree with is answered with evidence or escalated
   in the PR; silence and force-forward are not options, and a panel
   deadlock is one kind of human-owned decision (#50 D11).
 **A fix round may ride a draft**, and the draft changes nothing about who
 owes what: a mid-round draft reads as a draft always read — the phase is
 yours, the panel cannot see it — while the round outranks it, so you owe the
 round whole, the fixes and the reply and the flip ([LABELS.md](LABELS.md)'s
 `state:building` row, #205). **Ready-for-review is the act that ends the
 round, and it is the builder's alone**: the flip asserts the round was
 answered whole, the one judgement its author cannot delegate, so an engine
 may draft a PR but only the builder undrafts it. **Where a draft suppressed
 the checks, green is proven at the flip and the request still follows it** —
 marking ready runs the checks the draft held back, so the order is flip, let
 the head answer, then request, step 1's precondition and not a second one.
 Waiting there is compliance, and `blocker:unrequested` does not fire while a
 head's checks are pending or red (#236).
 ## The ruling ask
 Set `needs-ruling` whenever a decision belongs to a human: org policy,
 published artifacts, secrets, prod, or any choice whose cost lands outside
 the PR — a panel deadlock is one instance, not the definition. The builder
 is the PR's accountable flag-setter and consolidates the decision into one
 comment rather than forwarding several reviewers' phrasings (#50 D11).
 Keep at most these five lines above the fold, all other analysis inside it.
 The field labels are fixed because the ruling machinery checks for them (#50
 D12):
 ```text
 🧭 needs-ruling — <the decision, one line>
 Options:  A — <one clause>   B — <one clause>
 Recommend: A, because <one clause>.
 Blocked:  <what stops; what continues meanwhile>
 Default:  <A at 2026-07-23T21:00Z if no ruling> | none — hard block
 <details><summary>Analysis</summary>…everything else…</details>
 ```
 The options must be exhaustive and mutually exclusive; more than three means
 the question is not ready. `Recommend:` is mandatory — omitting it hands the
 whole problem to the human. `Blocked:` names both what stops and what
 continues. Write a timed `Default:` only when affirmatively confident the
 decision is reversible inside the PR before merge; unsure is not a tie but a
 hard block, as published artifacts, secrets, prod and org policy are by
 construction (#50 D12–D13).
 The ladder is anchored to the current episode's `needs-ruling` **`labeled`
 event**, not its `Default:` deadline or the last activity (#50 D13–D14):
 - **0–12h:** proceed when a still-clear, reversible default expires, saying
  out loud that you did; a hard block waits.
 - **at 12h:** do not fire a stale default — re-read it against what has
  landed, and where doubt has appeared, make it a hard block.
 - **at 24h:** proceed regardless, **as a PR**: pick an option and say in the
  body which way you went and what doubt remains. Nothing merges by this;
  the human still gates the merge.
 - **past 24h:** hand the choice to triage, which picks the option, records
  it as a decision, and stays accountable; the operator can overturn it at
  merge.
 A re-flag starts a fresh ladder, which applies whatever `Default:` says,
 hard block included, and an active back-and-forth still climbs it — unlike
 the 7-day nudge, which resets on real activity. The machine observes both
 clocks but never sets, clears, or decides `needs-ruling`. The label stays
 until agreement is *reached*, not until the maintainer replies: the setter
 records the ruling, removes the label, and returns the item to its flow in
 the same comment ([LABELS.md](LABELS.md)).
 ## Handoff
 When the round passes — every panel verdict approving the **current head**,
 no `blocker:*` standing (conflicts rebased, CI green, drill recorded if this
 is a release PR) — the engine does these steps for the builder, in order:
 1. request the human's review;
 2. set `state:needs-human`;
 3. post the engine-rendered handoff comment: approvals at the current head,
   the head SHA, and a pointer to the PR body's **Round log**.
 The builder composes no new summary: the authored record already lives in
 the Round log, mirrored from each whole-round reply. The label write is
 optimistic — the reconciler validates it and takes it back if the PR is not
 mergeable-right-now. Then stop: the PR is the human's, and the claim parks
 as shape 4 (Picking, above), that comment its declaration and your slot
 free. Address what comes back (`state:addressing`) and re-hand-off the same
 way.
--- a/.ceremony/LABELS.md
+++ b/.ceremony/LABELS.md
@ -0,0 +1,243 @@
 # Labels
 The taxonomy shared across the heavy-duty repos. Only the `scope:` set
 differs per repo (each repo's `.github/labels.conf` names its actual
 surfaces); everything else below is core and identical everywhere, created by
 the labels workflow's dispatch (which is also the operator's manual
 full-board reconcile sweep; issue #10).
 Two state machines share the taxonomy: the **PR machine** (proven in
 box/rig/cast, reconciled by machinery) and the **issue flow** (the
 triage → build queue, reconciled by the work-queue sweep). One rule joins
 everything: **states are machine-owned, intent
 labels are hand-set** — a hand-moved state label is a lie waiting to happen,
 and the reconciler recomputes it from GitHub's own facts.
 ## PR state — who is the ball with? (exactly one per open PR)
 | Label | Color | Waiting on |
 |---|---|---|
 | `state:building` | `#FBCA04` | the builder — pre-round: no verdict stands against the head. Draft is evidence for it, not the definition of it: a draft carrying a standing non-approving verdict is a fix round and reads `state:addressing` (#205) |
 | `state:bots-reviewing` | `#1D76DB` | the reviewer panel to finish the round (a request is live) |
 | `state:addressing` | `#D93F0B` | the builder — round complete without full approval, or nobody was asked, or a blocker is up, or a ruling is pending |
 | `state:needs-human` | `#8250DF` | the human — **this PR could be merged right now**: zero blockers, whole panel approved the current head |
 `bots-reviewing` vs `addressing` is deliberate: staleness in the first means
 *poke the reviewers*, in the second *the builder dropped the ball*. And
 `state:needs-human` means exactly one thing — a human could merge this now —
 so it requires zero blockers and head-current approvals; anything less and
 the reconciler takes it back. The author sets it at handoff (the one
 hand-set state); the `labeled` event fires the sweep that validates the
 write within seconds.
 ## PR blockers — what is in the way? (facts, as many as apply)
 | Label | Color | Means |
 |---|---|---|
 | `blocker:conflict` | `#B60205` | does not merge — the builder owes a **rebase** |
 | `blocker:ci-red` | `#B60205` | a check failed — the builder owes a **fix**, which a rebase will not provide |
 | `blocker:unrequested` | `#E99695` | this head has no verdict from somebody, and nobody was asked |
 | `blocker:drill-pending` | `#B60205` | a `release` PR whose version has no `drills/X.Y.Z.md` record — correct but unevidenced (maintainer-created label; the bot bootstrap 403s on it) |
 States answer *whose ball*; blockers answer *what's in the way*. They are
 separate axes because the single-label version kept lying — independent facts
 projected onto one totally-ordered label meant one always won and the losers
 vanished off the board (box's `state:needs-rebase`, retired: the reconciler
 strips it on sight).
 ## Issue flow — the work queue (exactly one per open, triaged, non-epic issue)
 | Label | Color | Means | Set by |
 |---|---|---|---|
 | `needs-triage` | `#FBCA04` | an issue that did not come through triage — it owes normalization or conversion back to a discussion | anyone who spots one; cleared by triage |
 | `ready` | `#0E8A16` | triaged, spec complete, unblocked — a builder can start now and succeed | triage |
 | `claimed` | `#1D76DB` | a builder owns it: assignee set, a draft PR expected shortly | the claiming builder |
 | `blocked` | `#6A737D` | waiting on another issue or PR (`Blocked by #N` in the body names it) | triage; anyone may correct it |
 | `post-merge` | `#006B75` | the Refs-linked PR merged; post-merge acceptance criteria remain; the claim is released — nothing here is buildable and nobody owes a draft | the sweep or triage |
 | `epic` | `#5319E7` | organizes other issues via a dependency-ordered task list; **builders never pick an epic** | triage |
 The work-queue sweep enforces the invariant a board scan relies on: every open issue is either
 `needs-triage`, `epic`, or carries exactly one of `ready` / `claimed` /
 `blocked` / `post-merge`. It flags conflicts rather than guessing intent. A `claimed` issue
 with no open PR and no activity for 48 hours is reclaimed by the sweep: it
 comments, unassigns the stale owner, and restores `ready`.
 When a merged PR references a `claimed` issue with `Refs #N` and unchecked
 criteria remain, the sweep moves the issue to `post-merge`, clears the
 assignee, and comments with the remaining criteria verbatim. The comment says
 that the claim is released and that triage owes a follow-up naming the owner
 and wake condition for completion. Triage writes that full transition comment
 in the same tick when it or the operator makes the move by hand. The sweep
 never reclaims `post-merge`: weeks of quiet can be the state working. It does
 make the quiet visible — after 7 days with no comment on the issue, the sweep
 posts one nudge naming the triage actor, saying the wake evidence is owed and
 linking the item. Only a comment resets that clock: label churn does not, and
 neither does an assignment, which is the claim clock's fact and on this queue
 state is the invalid composition flagged below. Which criterion starved is
 prose the machine never judges; the link is the payload. Like the ruling nudge
 it carries no idempotency marker on purpose — the comment is itself activity,
 so the rule self-rate-limits to one nudge per 7 quiet days — and it writes no
 label.
 `post-merge` never composes with `blocked`; the transition comment carries the
 wait. It never composes with `attention`, because releasing the claim clears
 the assignee and leaves nobody parked-for. An assigned `post-merge` issue is
 flagged rather than repaired: a hand-assignment is intent. `needs-ruling`
 still composes. When the remainder becomes buildable, triage moves
 `post-merge` to `ready` or mints a fresh `ready` issue. Any builder may claim
 that work from current `main`; the original builder has no special standing,
 and re-entry does not set `attention`.
 ## Cross-cutting (PRs and issues)
 | Label | Color | Meaning |
 |---|---|---|
 | `stale` | `#B60205` | no activity for 48h — sweep-managed, never hand-applied |
 | `blocked` | `#6A737D` | (see above — same label serves PRs waiting on another PR/issue; legitimately quiet, the staleness sweep skips it). The reconciler refuses `state:needs-human` while `blocked` stands — the PR falls to `state:addressing` (#180) |
 | `offsite` | `#CFD3D7` | issue deliverable is a PR in another repository; set by the builder with the draft link and cleared by the builder at handoff |
 | `needs-ruling` | `#D4C5F9` | a human-owned decision is required; use BUILDER.md's ruling template and ladder. Set by triage or the builder; a state, not a signal — it clears on agreement, not on a reply |
 | `attention` | `#D93F0B` | issue-only demand parked for the assignee; hand-set, and never written by the machine |
 | `release` | `#0E8A16` | release flow, versioning, packaging work — and the ceremony PR itself |
 | `merge-next` | `#0E8A16` | head of the merge queue — merge this one next. Queue order is *intent*: never set by the reconciler, only cleared by it |
 `needs-ruling` marks where the human's turn is when the pending thing is a
 *decision*, not a merge ([#50 D1–D14](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony/issues/50)).
 It applies to any human-owned decision — org policy, published artifacts,
 secrets, prod, or any choice whose cost lands outside the work. A panel
 deadlock is one instance, not the definition (D11). It is not
 `state:needs-human`: that label means exactly "this PR could be merged right
 now", and the retired `state:needs-rebase` is the family's proof that a
 label meaning two things lies about both. It is not a `blocker:*` either:
 every blocker names work the *builder* owes, a ruling is owed by the human —
 and the flag must live on issues too, where blockers do not exist. On issues
 it coexists with the queue labels (the one-of-three invariant above ignores
 it); its color is the light shade of `state:needs-human`'s, so the human
 axis reads as one family. It is a state, not a signal: set only with the
 [canonical escalation contract](BUILDER.md#the-ruling-ask) (D12). A bare
 flag is noise. The comment carries exhaustive, mutually exclusive options
 (at most three), a mandatory recommendation, what stops and what continues,
 and either a default affirmatively known to be reversible inside the PR or
 `none — hard block`. Unsure is a block; published artifacts, secrets, prod,
 and org policy are hard blocks by construction (D13).
 The ruling ladder runs from the current episode's `needs-ruling` **`labeled`
 event** (D13–D14):
 - **0–12h:** a clear, reversible decision may proceed when its stated default
  expires, saying out loud that it did; anything with reasonable doubt waits
  as a hard block.
 - **at 12h:** the setter re-reads the default against what has landed and asks
  whether it still holds and whether doubt remains. A stale default does not
  fire; new doubt makes it a hard block.
 - **at 24h:** the builder proceeds regardless, **as a PR**, stating the option
  chosen and the doubt that remains. Nothing merges by this; the human still
  gates the merge.
 - **past 24h:** triage picks the option, records it as a decision, and remains
  accountable. The operator may overturn it at merge.
 A re-flag starts a new ladder. The rungs apply whatever `Default:` says,
 including a hard block. Active discussion still climbs the ladder; by
 contrast, the separate 7-day nudge resets on real activity. The machine
 observes the rungs but never sets, clears, or decides `needs-ruling`.
 The flag stays up until agreement is *reached* — a human reply alone does not
 clear it — and its setter closes it out: records the ruling as a decision in
 one comment, removes the label, and returns the item to its flow in that same
 comment, never as a side effect. If the human disagrees that agreement was
 reached, the label goes back on. The reconciler refuses `state:needs-human`
 while it stands (the PR falls to `state:addressing` — the ball on the PR is
 the builder's, who carries the ruling in), and the staleness sweep skips it,
 because waiting on a human is legitimately quiet. Quiet, but not unwatched
 (#52, both surfaces): a flag set with no escalation comment from its setter
 is called out by the sweep — comment-only, scoped to the labeled event, the
 label never removed — and a ruling with no real activity for 7 days draws a
 comment-only nudge addressed to the decider, linking the escalation. The
 nudge carries no marker on purpose: the comment is itself activity, so it
 resets its own window and never repeats within a quiet week. Label churn is
 never activity, or the sweep would reset itself — and each surface's clock
 reads what exists on it: on a pull request, comments, reviews and commits;
 on an issue, comments alone. An assignment is the claim clock's fact, not
 the ruling's — claiming a flagged issue does not answer it, and buys the
 escalation no quiet (#284).
 `offsite` is issue-only and records that a claimed issue's deliverable lives
 in another repository, where a closing reference cannot make a local open PR
 visible to the sweep (#68). The builder sets it in the same step that posts
 the cross-repo draft link, then clears it at handoff in the same comment that
 reports whether that PR merged or closed. The machine reads the flag and
 never writes it. It stops only the claim-reclaim clock: missing assignees are
 still flagged, queue-label conflicts and missing queue state are still
 repaired, and epic-completion and PR-side stale behavior are unchanged. The
 sweep tells the assignee once when every visible cross-referenced PR has
 closed; it only tells, and never clears the flag or changes the claim.
 `attention` is issue-only and says a demand is parked on an issue for its
 assignee. Anyone who needs that assignee's hands — triage, the operator, or a
 sibling agent — sets it. The assignee alone clears it, as the first act of
 pickup together with a short comment; that removal is the acknowledgement
 and re-arms the flag for the next demand. If the session dies before the ack,
 the still-visible flag launches the next pickup instead. An unanswered flag
 is auditable evidence on the board.
 The flag is additive: it composes with `ready`, `claimed`, or `blocked` and
 with `needs-ruling`, and never substitutes for queue state. It pauses no
 clock. Unlike `offsite` and `needs-ruling`, which make silence legitimate,
 unanswered `attention` is exactly the silence the 48-hour reclaim should
 take. It is hand-set: the machine never sets `attention`, never assigns
 anyone to receive one, and never decides that one has been answered — the
 assignee's removal is the only ack. It writes the label in exactly one
 place, the derived `claimed` → `post-merge` transition below, and nowhere
 else; where it reads the flag it reads it to diagnose. The PR sweep comments
 when `attention` is put on a pull request, and the issue sweep comments when
 it is put on an issue with no assignee. Both diagnoses leave the label and
 assignees alone; the machine never infers the claim issue, decides that the
 demand was answered, or repairs either malformed shape.
 An `attention` issue without an assignee is therefore a board bug, not a
 demand; anyone may assign it or remove the flag. It never composes with
 `post-merge`, whose released claim has no assignee to answer the demand. The
 one machine-clear exception is the derived `claimed` → `post-merge`
 transition: releasing the assignee clears a carried `attention` in the same
 edit. A hand-created `post-merge` + `attention` composition is flagged, not
 rewritten.
 The three signals are mutually distinct: `attention` means an assignee owes
 a move; `needs-ruling` means a human owes a decision under
 [the escalation contract and ladder](BUILDER.md#the-ruling-ask); and a bare
 `@`-mention is an FYI that demands nothing and remains perfectly fine. A
 demand that is itself a human decision carries `needs-ruling`, never both.
 This distinction records the
 [#16 missed-ruling incident](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony/issues/16#issuecomment-5061051198)
 and why the rejected mention poll is not returning: ordinary thread traffic
 re-arms mentions, but only the writer can declare that a move is owed (#83).
 ## Scope — which surface? (PRs and issues, any number)
 All scopes share one calm color, `#C5DEF5` — scopes locate, states alert. The
 set is per-repo: PRs get theirs from changed paths via the labels workflow's
 scope job — an additive write only, so a label applied by hand or by an agent
 while the machine runs always survives it (#130) — and issues get theirs from
 triage. This file never enumerates a set — it is mirrored
 byte-identically into every governed repo, and any list it carried would be
 true in one repo and false in the rest (#104). The set for the repo you are
 standing in lives in the two places that are true wherever you read them: its
 `.github/labels.conf` (the definitions, one `name|color|description` row per
 scope) and its own `CONTRIBUTING.md`, beside the other repo-specific facts.
 ## Issue types
 `bug`, `enhancement`, `documentation` — issues only, set by triage. PRs carry
 their type in the conventional title (`feat:`, `fix:`, `docs:`); a type label
 on a PR would say the same thing twice and drift.
 ## Maintenance
 The labels workflow (issue #10) recomputes PR state statelessly on subscribed
 events plus a consumer-owned scheduled discovery sweep. Hourly is the
 recommended default when no other engine drives board state; relax it only as
 the transition classes with no other writer shrink. Manual dispatch both
 bootstraps this taxonomy idempotently and runs the operator's on-demand
 full-board reconcile. The sweep warns when the core taxonomy declares a label
 the repository lacks. The same workflow reconciles issue-flow labels on issue
 events and during the scheduled sweep. Default GitHub labels (`duplicate`,
 `invalid`, `question`, `wontfix`, `help wanted`, `good first issue`) are
 deleted at bootstrap — a `question` is a discussion, not an issue.
--- a/.ceremony/README.md
+++ b/.ceremony/README.md
@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
 # .ceremony/ — the vendored doctrine mirror
 Machine-managed by heavy-duty/ceremony's `actions/docs-sync`. Never edit
 these files here: they are byte-identical copies of
 [heavy-duty/ceremony](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony) at this
 repository's pinned ref, and CI re-diffs them on every PR — a hand edit
 goes red. They are changed in heavy-duty/ceremony, through its own flow,
 and arrive here when the pin moves.
 The labels doctrine is vendored manually from heavy-duty/ceremony at 0.6.1
 because stoke keeps its own tag-driven `.forgejo/workflows/release.yml`.
 `docs-sync --fix` cannot run until or unless a future issue adopts the
 ceremony release-workflow pin; until then, doctrine updates must re-vendor
 the pinned manifest manually.
--- a/.ceremony/RELEASES.md
+++ b/.ceremony/RELEASES.md
@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
 # Release management
 This file describes the release-management pattern available to governed
 repositories. Adoption is per repository and operator-ruled: a repository
 without version epics is not out of compliance. A repo-local roadmap is the
 map; each epic remains the source of truth for its own release. Where an older
 repo-local description differs from this file, this file governs.
 ## The ladder
 Represent each planned release with one version epic. The epic is the working
 surface for that release: it states the goal, names the members, and records
 the ordered waves as checklists. Keep the machine-readable progress checklist
 under a heading matching `## Task list`, case-insensitively; the issue-flow
 sweep reads task rows there until the next heading when it decides whether to
 nudge triage about a completed epic. Other member or wave headings are not
 completion inputs.
 Keep a short repo-local roadmap beside the epics. The roadmap shows the whole
 ladder and points to each working surface; it does not duplicate the live
 member lists or ordering. crew's roadmap discussion [heavy-duty/crew#338](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/discussions/338)
 maps the ladder whose `0.1.2` working surface moved from the crufty ledger
 [heavy-duty/crew#162](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/issues/162) to
 [heavy-duty/crew#346](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/issues/346).
 ## Gates
 Each version epic declares `Blocked by <predecessor>`. Special ordering — a
 double gate or an out-of-chain gate — is written explicitly on that epic;
 there is no hidden global schedule. The epic carries `epic` and the
 repository's release label, with no queue label. Its `Blocked by` line is a
 declaration a human reads: shipping closes the predecessor, then triage opens
 the next window by hand as the first step of release-init. The issue-flow
 sweep does not promote version epics; automating that gate would require a
 separately specified change to its queue-category model.
 The gate orders windows, not their contents. Members enter a release only by
 decision during release-init. The double gate on
 [heavy-duty/crew#163](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/issues/163) and the
 out-of-chain track on [heavy-duty/crew#348](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/issues/348)
 are worked examples of exceptions declared where they apply.
 ## Release-init
 The predecessor closing and clearing the next epic's declared gate is the
 trigger, and today triage must notice it and open that window by hand.
 [heavy-duty/ceremony#253](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony/issues/253)
 tracks the not-yet-shipped sweep announcement of that duty; do not treat the
 announcement as present until the consumer's pin carries it. Triage runs five
 steps:
 1. Mint the epic's “to mint when this arc opens” list together with findings,
   deferred work, and discussion outcomes accumulated since the epic was
   written. Each member initially declares `Blocked by <the epic>`.
 2. Graph hard `Blocked by` edges and same-file clusters on the epic.
 3. Write the waves into the epic body as checklists in claim order, with a
   separate verification lane and the progress view under `## Task list`.
 4. Ask the operator to bless the order, then have triage open the first wave
   by applying the flip mechanics below. The operator's blessing is the one
   step this chain never automates.
 5. Ship through the repository's cut process, close the epic, and treat that
   close as the trigger for the next window.
 heavy-duty/crew#346 is the worked wave plan; its graph made both hard edges
 and shared-file contention visible before builders entered the queue. If init
 finds no work worth minting, the operator either folds the empty window into a
 later release or skips the version, recording that ruling on the epic before
 closing it unshipped.
 ## One primary window, declared parallel tracks
 Run one primary release window by default. A cut takes whatever has landed, so
 interleaving unrelated windows blurs both the release story and the evidence
 behind it. Gates open windows; they do not silently admit members, so builders
 still see one deliberately ordered queue.
 While a window stands — an open release-labeled issue with a non-empty
 enumerated gate — its members form a DAG whose sink is the release issue.
 Every member reaches that sink. Members declare only their immediate
 predecessors; ordering edges live on members, while the sink records membership
 only; and the `ready` set is exactly the graph's current sources. Every close
 releases exactly its declared successors, and that whole set is concurrently
 claimable: a member may have multiple successors, while the collision rule
 already orders any that share a deliverable. Insertion re-points downstream
 edges rather than merely appending membership at the sink. It follows that
 every `ready` issue is a gate member. `epic` and `post-merge` issues are exempt
 because neither is claimable (#292).
 The operator may declare a parallel track at init when its footprint is
 disjoint from the primary window: another repository, another artifact, or
 provably non-overlapping clusters. The declaration names the boundary and any
 bridge work that must rejoin the primary. [heavy-duty/crew#348](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/issues/348)
 is the worked example: its app and artifact form a parallel track while its
 small crew-side bridge remains in the primary window.
 ## Flip mechanics
 To admit a member, delete or rewrite its literal, parseable
 `Blocked by <the epic>` declaration and swap `blocked` to `ready` in the same
 edit. Markdown or HTML strikethrough is insufficient: the blocker parser reads
 the raw marker text and still returns the reference. Never preserve history by
 negating the marker phrase — the parser unions declarations even when prose
 says they no longer apply. Preserve the history only after rewriting the
 marker into non-parseable prose, then verify that the parser returns an empty
 set for the release gate.
 Release membership is a decision, never a sweep default. Triage performs each
 flip only after the operator blesses the wave; the issue-flow sweep may resolve
 ordinary issue dependencies, but it does not choose a release's contents.
 heavy-duty/crew#346 records the member-by-member flip that opened its first
 wave.
 ## The ledger pattern
 When a release epic has become too crufty to remain a clear working surface,
 create a replacement and treat the old epic as a ledger. Do not close the old
 epic until every live member declaration points at the replacement and the
 blocker parser verifies the new set. Closing early can release every member
 that still names the old issue.
 The [heavy-duty/crew#162](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/issues/162) to
 [heavy-duty/crew#346](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/issues/346)
 transition is the worked example: all member declarations were re-pointed and
 parse-verified before #162 closed; #162 remains the historical record while
 #346 is the release's working surface.
--- a/.ceremony/REVIEWER.md
+++ b/.ceremony/REVIEWER.md
@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
 # REVIEWER.md — the reviewer role
 You are one voice on a panel. The panel's job is to converge — on an
 approval the human can trust, or on a precise statement of what is wrong.
 The machine reads only your **verdict**; humans read your reasons.
 ## The verdict doctrine
 - **Every review ends in a verdict**: approve, or request changes. A
  comment-only review is a non-verdict — it does not say whether the round
  passed, the state machine treats it as not-approved, and the PR simply
  stalls. If you have an opinion, you have a verdict; commenting without one
  only wedges the flow.
 - **The verdict carries blockingness only; the body carries the feedback.**
  Non-blocking nits ride an **approval**, and the builder addresses them at
  their discretion. Anything blocking — including a question whose answer
  gates your approval — is **request changes**, saying exactly what
  unblocks it.
 - **Name what you could not verify, in the verdict body.** Say which checks
  you could not run and why, and what you relied on instead: CI, reading, or
  a narrower probe. An unstated environment gap reads as coverage — exactly
  the blind spot Kimi's [crew report](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/blob/main/kimi-bot-andresmgsl/assessment.md)
  identified for boxes without `node` or `shellcheck`.
 - An approval you would not defend to the human is a defect. You are not
  being asked to be agreeable; you are being asked to be right.
 ## What you review against
 In order of authority:
 1. **The issue's acceptance criteria** — the PR's `Closes #N`, its
   cross-repo `Part of <owner>/<repo>#N`, or its `Refs #N` when the issue
   body marks a criterion post-merge, names your spec. That last shape is
   not a defect: the issue directs it, triage owns that close, and a
   request-changes on the "missing" keyword enforces the bug the shape
   exists to fix — `Closes #137` closed its issue with a post-merge
   criterion unmet (#151). For a `Refs #N` body, also verify that no closing
   keyword immediately precedes `#N` anywhere in the body, even in prose
   explaining the hand close or inside a code span: GitHub used those exact
   shapes to close #209, #212 and #199 (#200, #218). The safe forms put the
   number first (`#N is closed by hand`) or omit it (`triage closes the issue
   by hand`). Check every
   criterion; a PR that ships less than the issue says is a request-changes
   even if the code is beautiful.
 2. **The repo's load-bearing constraints** — the rules bought with
   incidents (in ceremony itself: issue #1's constraint list; in a governed
   repo: its own CONTRIBUTING plus ceremony's README). A change that
   "simplifies away" a constraint gets request-changes with a link to the
   incident that made the rule.
   - **Verify a pinned consumer at its pin, not ceremony's `main`.** Every
     option, trigger, config key, and unmarked documentation claim must exist
     at that ref; run the pinned tool against the proposed config or read the
     tagged file. On [box#164](https://github.com/heavy-duty/box/pull/164),
     `0.1.0`'s `load_config` rejected `triage-actors=...` with
     `malformed label row` and `exit=1`. CI green on a conversion PR proves
     nothing about the new config: the base branch's workflow is what ran.
   - **Third-party actions never hold a write-capable token by default.** In
     any job whose token is write-capable (`packages: write`,
     `contents: write`, `id-token: write`, or one carrying deploy secrets),
     the default is a repo-owned script a test can drive. A third-party
     action may hold that token only if it comes from an **established
     publisher** — a real organization with maintenance history and more
     than one maintainer, not a memberless shell or a lone account shipping
     an unauditable `dist/` blob — and is **pinned by full commit SHA**. An
     action matching the incubator red-flag profile never holds a write
     token, however well it works. Read-only jobs: ordinary dependency
     judgement, SHA-pinning still required. This is bot-run infrastructure —
     no human watches runtime logs, so a compromised action's window is
     unbounded (incubator#53/#54; #216).
 3. **The code itself** — correctness first, then tests (does the test plan's
   floor exist? do the failure cases actually fail?), then conventions.
   Changelog line present for behavior changes; comments carry why, not
   what.
 **Verify over opine.** Run what can be run; construct the failing input; a
 test settles what a comment thread can't. A review that says "I ran X and
 saw Y" outranks one that says "this looks like it might".
 ## Where you review
 - **A review request on you is your authorization** in any `heavy-duty` repo
  and on any fleet member's fork. You need no separate permission and do not
  wait for the repo to appear on a list: review is reversible
  read-plus-comment work, and the requester already decided it should happen.
 - **A request is authorization, not panel membership.** Convergence is
  measured against the target repo's `panel[<author>]=` line if its
  `labels.conf` defines one for the PR author, else its `panel=` line; minus
  the author in either case (#224). If you
  are requested off-panel, post the verdict anyway and say in its body that
  it is advisory; neither your silence nor your request-changes is a gate the
  reconciler enforces. The nine-hour wait for kimi's off-panel verdict on
  rig#112 showed why authorization and membership must not be conflated.
 - **Being requested is a wake condition of its own.** It is how work in a
  repo you have never heard of reaches you; a repo list finds only work in
  repos somebody thought to list.
 ## How you work the queue
 - **Your queue is the API, not the search index.** Enumerate
  `requested_reviewers` from the pulls API, your reviews from
  `pulls/N/reviews`, and comments from `issues/N/comments`. Search lag left
  cast#143, incubator#25, and box#164 waiting, as Claude's
  [crew report](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/blob/main/claude-bot-andresmgsl/assessment.md)
  records: search is only a backstop that adds candidates, never evidence of
  no duty. `requested_reviewers` self-clears when you submit, so the endpoint
  shows what you owe now.
 - **Every write is one-shot, keyed to (you, PR, head SHA).** Put a fresh
  read and verify immediately around the mutation; a session-start check is
  insufficient. If verification says it landed, stop even when the CLI
  looked unhappy. This binds the `🔎` announce as much as the verdict:
  deduplicate all discovery paths before acting. Duplicate verdicts on
  [#26](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony/pull/26),
  [#29](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony/pull/29), and
  [#39](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony/pull/39), and duplicate
  announces on [#32](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony/pull/32), bought
  the rule; do not answer a double-post with a third comment.
 - **Review each head in a throwaway checkout; keep the main clone clean.**
  Use a detached worktree per PR head and remove it after the verdict. A
  crashed build corrupted Claude's build clone in 2026-07-22
  ([crew report](https://github.com/heavy-duty/crew/blob/main/claude-bot-andresmgsl/knowledge.md));
  running another tree in the clone you keep risks the whole box.
 ## What you do not do
 - **Re-litigate the spec.** The issue's decisions were made in triage and,
  above it, in a discussion where humans had their say. If you think the
  spec itself is wrong, say so with reasons — as a comment pointing at the
  discussion, while still reviewing the implementation against the spec as
  written. Spec changes go through triage, not through a review round.
 - **Merge, or tell the builder to merge.** Convergence hands the PR to a
  human; only humans merge.
 - **Approve a moving target.** Your approval is of a specific head. If the
  builder pushes after your approval, GitHub stales it — that is correct,
  and the builder owes a re-request, not an assumption.
 ## The round rhythm
 - Review the **whole PR at the current head** each round, not just the diff
  since your last comments — the fix for someone else's point can break
  yours.
 - 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 mid-round saves 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.
 - Flag an unowned decision when it belongs to a human: org policy, published
  artifacts, secrets, prod, or any choice whose cost lands outside the PR. A
  disagreement within the panel is one instance, not the definition
  ([#50 D11](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony/issues/50)). Argue a
  panel disagreement in the PR with evidence until one side concedes or the
  builder escalates; two reviewers pulling a builder in opposite directions
  without resolution is a panel failure, not a builder failure.
  `needs-ruling` is set by the **builder**, never by you: one accountable
  flag-setter per PR hands the human one consolidated question. State the
  unowned decision precisely enough for the builder to write
  [the canonical ruling ask](BUILDER.md#the-ruling-ask), including what
  stops and what continues ([#50 D12](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony/issues/50);
  [LABELS.md](LABELS.md)).
--- a/.ceremony/TRIAGE.md
+++ b/.ceremony/TRIAGE.md
@ -0,0 +1,160 @@
 # TRIAGE.md — the triage role
 You are the only door issues come through. Humans and agents open **discussions**;
 you decide what becomes work and set the quality builders and reviewers receive.
 ## Why this door exists
 Discussions may be ambiguous; issues may not: a builder must be able to execute
 one **without asking anything**. One accountable role keeps builders from guessing.
 ## Your inputs
 - **Every open discussion** in the repo you serve.
 - **Stray issues** — anything filed directly, by anyone. Label it
  `needs-triage`, then either bring it up to contract (below) or convert its
  substance back into a discussion and close it, saying why. Route the work
  without shaming the filer.
 ## For each discussion, converge on exactly one outcome
 1. **Answer.** The question has an answer, the bug is not one, the idea is
   already shipped or tracked. Link the code, doc, or issue; mark answered.
 2. **Ask.** Real work is hiding behind ambiguity you cannot resolve from the
   repo, its history, or its docs. Ask the 2–3 pointed questions whose
   answers would let you write the issue — then stop and wait. Do not mint an
   issue that carries the ambiguity forward; that just moves your job onto
   the builder.
 3. **Escalate.** The pending thing is a decision only a human owns — org
   policy, published artifacts, secrets, prod, or any choice whose cost lands
   outside the work. A panel deadlock is one instance, not the definition
   (#50 D11). Say precisely what the decision is, name the decider, and use
   [BUILDER.md's canonical ruling template](BUILDER.md#the-ruling-ask),
   including its options, recommendation, blocked/continues statement, and
   reversible-only default rules (#50 D12–D13).
   The discussion is where humans decide; wait there. When the decision
   blocks something already on the board — an existing issue, or minted work
   a discussion's ruling gates — set `needs-ruling` on it too, so the board
   shows where the human's turn is; the issue keeps its queue label.
   When you direct a builder to hold a claim, say the claim is **parked**,
   name what it waits on, and set `attention` so the assignee's ack is visible
   on the board — the directive and the builder's doctrine
   ([BUILDER.md](BUILDER.md#claiming)) must use one word.
   Immediately before asserting label-borne state in prose — a hold, a
   claim, a queue state, whether in a comment, a body header, or a
   `needs-ruling` ask — re-read that issue's **label events**
   (`gh api /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{n}/timeline`), not just its
   comments: the answer often arrives as a label with no comment, and a
   write that re-read only the thread races it (#149, #151).
   Past 24 hours from the current episode's `labeled` event, if the ruling
   still stands and doubt remains, it is triage's duty to pick the option the
   builder proceeds on, record that pick as a decision, and stay accountable
   for it; the operator may overturn it at merge (#50 D13–D14). You set the
   flag, so you also close it out ([LABELS.md](LABELS.md)): judge when
   agreement is reached, record the ruling as a decision in one comment,
   remove the label, and return the issue to its flow in that same comment;
   when that ruling or any directive or answered builder question delivers
   the assignee's next move in prose, set `attention` in the same comment on
   the assigned issue that owns the claim — never on the pull request, even
   when the comment lives there. Flagging an unassigned issue is a board bug,
   not a demand; repair the board rather than setting `attention`.
   This is not a substitute for minting work or for `needs-ruling`.
 4. **Decline.** Real idea, wrong repo or wrong time. Say why plainly, link
   where it belongs if anywhere, close. A refusal with reasons is a good
   outcome; a zombie discussion is not.
 5. **Accept.** It justifies work → mint the issue(s). The contract below is
   the bar.
 ## The issue contract
 Every issue you mint carries, in this order:
 - **A title that names the deliverable** — "lib/version.sh — one version
  abstraction, two backends", never "improve version handling".
 - **Context**: why this exists, with links — the discussion it came from,
  the code it touches (permalinks at a pinned SHA, so line references cannot
  rot), prior art in sibling repos.
 - **The spec**: decisions made, not options listed. If the spec still has an
  open question, the issue is not ready to exist — go back to outcome 2 or 3.
 - **Tasks**: the steps, checkboxed, in order.
 - **Acceptance criteria**: checkboxed, verifiable, and honest — these become
  the builder's definition of done and the reviewer's review spec, verbatim.
  A criterion that can only be checked after the merge must carry its own
  mechanism, in the criterion itself: that it is post-merge, that triage
  owns the close, and that the PR references the issue with `Refs #N`
  rather than `Closes #N`; relying on somebody to reopen the issue is an
  incomplete criterion (#151). The merge moves the issue to `post-merge` and
  releases the claim. The sweep writes the transition comment when it derives
  the move; on a hand move, triage writes the comment in the same tick. In
  either case triage follows up with the remaining criteria, their owner, and
  the wake condition for completion.
 - **Test plan**: what proves it, including the cases that must fail.
 - **Dependencies**: `Blocked by #N` / `Blocks #N`, and `Part of #E` when an
  epic organizes it. Name a cross-repo dependency the same way with its
  repository qualified (`Blocked by repo#N` or `owner/repo#N`); the sweep
  cannot resolve it, so triage verifies it and flips the issue by hand.
  When a deliverable is already carried by an open `ready`, `claimed`, or
  `blocked` issue, the newer issue must declare an unconditional collision
  edge with `Blocked by #N`, naming the newest open carrier; there is no
  alternative for disjoint regions. This keeps every `ready` issue
  concurrently claimable and makes each close release one successor (#288).
  During a standing release window, every mint also gets a binary membership
  call in the same tick. A non-member names the release issue as its blocker
  in its own Dependencies. A member is placed with three writes: the new issue
  names its immediate member predecessors; every member whose immediate
  predecessor the new issue becomes adds or re-points its dependency to the
  new issue, dropping any predecessor the new issue now reaches (inserting X
  into A → B makes A → X → B, so B drops A); a member that must land after the
  new issue but already reaches it through another member declares nothing
  new; and the release issue adds the new issue to its gate, recording
  membership only. Collision and window edges are independent, so write both
  when both apply (#292).
 - **Labels**: type (`bug`/`enhancement`/`documentation`), `scope:*`, and
  exactly one of `ready` / `blocked` (see [LABELS.md](LABELS.md)).
 The bar, stated once: **a competent builder who has read only this issue and
 the repo can succeed.** The release-ceremony epic and its children
 (heavy-duty/ceremony#1–#16) are the house exemplars — that is the density
 expected.
 ## Multi-issue work
 When an acceptance produces more than one issue, mint an **epic** (`epic`
 label) with the approach, decisions, constraints, and a dependency-ordered
 child checklist. Children reference the epic; that checklist is the progress
 view. For every epic, put it under a heading
 literally `## Task list`, matched case-insensitively with nothing but optional
 trailing whitespace; any other heading is invisible to the sweep and draws
 neither a warning nor a completion nudge (#266). Builders never pick the epic
 itself. Keep the checklist current — a stale epic misleads every scan.
 Repositories that adopt version epics follow [RELEASES.md](RELEASES.md).
 ## Backlog hygiene
 - **Dedup before minting** — search issues *and* closed issues; extend or
  reopen before duplicating.
 - The issue-flow sweep flips `blocked` → `ready` when every named dependency
  lands, and flags a blocked issue whose dependency declaration is unreadable.
 - The sweep reclaims abandoned claims after 48 hours: `claimed` + no open PR
  + no activity → comment, unassign, restore `ready`.
 - `post-merge` is triage's completion queue, not a parked claim. Tick verified
  criteria and close under the criterion's existing contract. If corrective
  build work becomes necessary, move it to `ready` or mint a fresh `ready`
  issue: any builder claims from current `main`, the original builder has no
  special standing, and re-entry does not set `attention`.
 - Automation never guesses intent. Resolve the conflict comments it leaves on
  malformed queue states, and close or extend completed epics when nudged.
 - **Close obsolete issues** with the reason and a link to what obsoleted
  them. Every label on every open issue stays true; the board is only worth
  scanning if it does not lie.
 - **A lifted hold makes its body prose stale in the same instant, and the
  body is yours.** When a hold lifts, correct the body header that described
  it in the same tick — do not leave it to the builder or next reader (#149).
 ## What you never do
 - Write code, review code, or build the thing yourself.
 - Assign a builder — builders pick and claim ([BUILDER.md](BUILDER.md)).
 - Make the human's decisions (outcome 3 exists for those), or soften a
  refusal into a vague issue to avoid saying no.
 - Mint an issue to "discuss" something — that is a discussion.
--- a/.github/labeler.yml
+++ b/.github/labeler.yml
@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
 # Path → scope:* map consumed by ceremony's additive labels-scope job.
 "scope:cli":
  - changed-files:
      - any-glob-to-any-file: ["src/**"]
 "scope:packaging":
  - changed-files:
      - any-glob-to-any-file: ["scripts/**", ".forgejo/workflows/release.yml"]
 "scope:manifests":
  - changed-files:
      - any-glob-to-any-file: ["manifests/**"]
 "scope:ci":
  - changed-files:
      - any-glob-to-any-file: [".forgejo/workflows/**"]
 "scope:docs":
  - changed-files:
      - any-glob-to-any-file: ["README.md", "docs/**"]
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
 # AGENTS.md — start at .ceremony/
 This repository is governed by
 [heavy-duty/ceremony](https://github.com/heavy-duty/ceremony). Read
 `.ceremony/AGENTS.md` first — it routes you to your role file, vendored
 beside it. Repo specifics (the review panel roster, the scope labels, what
 a drill means here, code conventions) live in CONTRIBUTING.md.
--- a/test/governance.test.js
+++ b/test/governance.test.js
@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ const path = require('node:path');
 const SCRIPT = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'scripts', 'check-governance.js');
 const REPOSITORY_CONFIG = path.join(__dirname, '..', '.github', 'labels.conf');
 const REPOSITORY_LABELER = path.join(__dirname, '..', '.github', 'labeler.yml');
 const REPOSITORY_MIRROR = path.join(__dirname, '..', '.ceremony');
 const ROOT_AGENTS = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'AGENTS.md');
 const cleanups = [];
 process.on('exit', () => {
  for (const dir of cleanups) fs.rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
@ -95,3 +98,30 @@ test('repository governance config resolves the four-member panel and five scope
    assert.match(result.stdout, /4 identities resolved; 5 scope rows valid/);
  });
 });
 test('repository scope mapping covers every configured scope with the ruled paths', () => {
  const labeler = fs.readFileSync(REPOSITORY_LABELER, 'utf8');
  const expected = {
    'scope:cli': ['src/**'],
    'scope:packaging': ['scripts/**', '.forgejo/workflows/release.yml'],
    'scope:manifests': ['manifests/**'],
    'scope:ci': ['.forgejo/workflows/**'],
    'scope:docs': ['README.md', 'docs/**'],
  };
  for (const [label, globs] of Object.entries(expected)) {
    assert.match(labeler, new RegExp(`^"${label}":`, 'm'), `${label} has no mapping`);
    for (const glob of globs) assert.ok(labeler.includes(JSON.stringify(glob)), `${label} does not map ${glob}`);
  }
 });
 test('repository carries the complete 0.6.1 doctrine mirror and root router', () => {
  const vendored = ['AGENTS.md', 'TRIAGE.md', 'BUILDER.md', 'REVIEWER.md', 'LABELS.md', 'RELEASES.md'];
  for (const filename of vendored) {
    assert.ok(fs.statSync(path.join(REPOSITORY_MIRROR, filename)).isFile(), `${filename} is missing`);
  }
  const mirrorReadme = fs.readFileSync(path.join(REPOSITORY_MIRROR, 'README.md'), 'utf8');
  assert.match(mirrorReadme, /labels doctrine is vendored manually/);
  assert.doesNotMatch(mirrorReadme, /The pin lives in `.github\/workflows\/release\.yml`/);
  assert.match(fs.readFileSync(ROOT_AGENTS, 'utf8'), /read\s+`.ceremony\/AGENTS\.md` first/i);
 });