Session protocol (this template repo)

How a WI/thread session runs here. The live homes: docs/status.md (what's next), docs/requirements/work-items.csv (the WI registry), and docs/log.md (the session/gate record). This skill is the fast path; the process masters (PROCESS.md / PROCESS_OPTIONS.md) win when they disagree. The kit's design history — the old thread specs and the WI-1.x log — is archived at docs/archive/IMPROVEMENT_PLAN.md (context, not a working surface).

1. Read before doing

• Read CLAUDE.md (governs editing the kit) and AGENTS.md (the pointer stub).
• Read docs/status.md (the working surface — what's next) and the scoped WI's row in docs/requirements/work-items.csv. The spec-of-record for a WI is what its row points at (an SR and/or a plan doc); older landed work is in the archived plan. Do only the scoped work — no unrelated edits.
• If a stub is being revived, find and link its earlier backlogged form (search docs/archive/scratch.md + the stub threads) so the resolution is traceable.
• Check git status first. Residue in the working tree is from an interrupted session; reconcile it against the open WI's spec / Done-when before new work — verify-and-commit what is complete, discard what is not part of the scope, and record which in the log. (The unattended loop surfaces this into the session prompt; the judgment is yours — it never auto-stashes.)
• Treat a declared-policy change as a status-staleness event. In the same sitting, grep docs/status.md and docs/run-state for pause/stop/approval language predicated on the old gate-policy, push-policy, review-policy, or guardrails-policy value; point to the policy file instead of paraphrasing it.

2. Respect the constraints

• Byte budgets on AGENTS.template.md (10,000) and PROCESS.md — see the byte-budget-guard skill. Push expansion to PROCESS_OPTIONS.md / ADOPTING.md / EXAMPLE.md.
• Stdlib-only, cross-platform kit scripts (Python 3.8+, Windows + POSIX).
• Single source of truth: state a fact once and link to it; don't paraphrase a rule into five files.

3. End green (gates)

Run the real checks and paste the real output — never a green you didn't produce:

python -m pytest -q -n auto -m smoke
python project-trajectory/scripts/check_docs.py --root . --stale

Both must pass before each commit — this is the commit bar. -m smoke is the fast per-commit tier (WI-122: ~47 s / 531 cases vs ~66 s / 684 for the full suite, both -n auto — the declared stack.ini command, WI-075). Tiering is opt-out: smoke drops only the heavy end-to-end modules (tests/conftest.py SLOW_MODULES — full hook/gate/scaffold runs the commit hook and the gate re-exercise anyway), so a new test is in the bar by default. Run the full unfiltered suite (pytest -q -n auto) before claiming a slice/phase done, at close, and after a broad script change. The full check.py --gate <gate> is the gate bar (unfiltered suite + coverage): it belongs to gate advancement, phase close, and CI, not to each mid-phase slice; --jobs 0 runs its independent steps concurrently. A per-WI slice inside a phase ends at the commit bar (PROCESS_OPTIONS.md, "Phase cadence"). New behavior needs new tests (tests/); update test_bootstrap.py file lists and README.md kit-contents / bootstrap.py MAPPING when the scaffold surface changes.

4. Record the work

• Set the WI's row in docs/requirements/work-items.csv to done with its deliverable, and add a session entry to docs/log.md: one-line summary, deliverables, deviations from spec, byte deltas on budgeted files, and the pytest -q totals (match the style already there).
• Update docs/status.md to point at what's next; don't leave a stale "next".
• With the parallel-dispatch scheduler, WI ordering is derived from the registry (the DAG + Priority + gate class), not a hand-curated docs/next-wi — that pointer is retired (WI-180; process-options.md "Unattended operation"). When filing or triaging a WI, set BuildTier deliberately: quick for mechanical, off-spine work; medium by default; strong only for design-shaping or spine-touching changes — the dispatcher reads it from the WI row. Do not silently downgrade a declared route mid-loop.

5. Commit in this repo's style

• Logical commits — one per deliverable/thread, message WI-<n>: <imperative subject> then a body explaining the why and any deviation (see recent git log).
• Attribution footers are fine here — add Co-Authored-By: as usual (this repo is not anonymous). Omit them only in a privacy-restricted / anonymous repo, where a tool trailer is itself a leak (process-options.md "Commit identity & privacy").
• Do not push unless explicitly asked; branch is whatever the plan header's Branch: line names.