Milestone

/milestone — milestone lifecycle (start / status / close)

Step 0 — load project context (run first)

Read .claude/project-context.md for task_manager, task_prefix, task_team_id, main_branch, storage_backend, scripts_dir, factory_enabled. Load the task-manager adapter _shared/adapters/{task_manager}.md and storage backend _shared/storage/{storage_backend}.md; use their abstract operations for all task/memory actions. {ID} = {task_prefix}-{n}.

Factory overlay. Steps tagged [factory] run only when factory_enabled: true — the honesty stack, factory_state slot tracking, the loose-ends sweep, tripwire/blast-radius/ rollback gates, and /verify integration. With factory_enabled: false, /milestone runs the core lifecycle: start = read milestone + mark first epic In Progress; status = gather + render; close = verify epics Done → CLEANUP epic → record outcome → mark Done. Factory steps reference {scripts_dir}/factory/lifecycle_helpers.py and friends; skip cleanly when absent.

A milestone has format M000{N}{Letter} (e.g. M0003A) OR area-tagged like FCT011C, DAT008A. Every milestone ends in a CLEANUP epic for deferred items.

Lifecycle narrative blocks: every status/start/close call renders the four blocks defined in .claude/skills/_shared/lifecycle_blocks.md — open that file before rendering output.

Inline state breadcrumbs: emit 🧭 [slot-N · /milestone <sub> · step X/Y · last: <prev> · next: <next>] at every numbered step. See .claude/skills/_shared/breadcrumb.md.

End-of-skill receipt block: every /milestone start and /milestone close ends with the ═══ receipt block per .claude/skills/_shared/receipt-block.md.

Subagent dispatches: pre-dispatch line + 5-min keepalive per .claude/skills/_shared/agent-dispatch.md.

Subcommands

Command	Purpose	Blocks rendered
/milestone start {id}	Open the milestone, mark first epic In Progress	NARRATIVE (full) + AGENT SUGGESTIONS (LIGHT)
/milestone status {id}	Where the milestone is right now	NARRATIVE + HONEST ASSESSMENT + OPERATOR ACTIONS + AGENT SUGGESTIONS (full)
/milestone close {id}	Close — final audits, CLEANUP epic, telemetry	NARRATIVE + HONEST ASSESSMENT + OPERATOR ACTIONS + AGENT SUGGESTIONS (full)

---

/milestone start {id}

Step 0 — load shared template

Step 1 — read milestone from Linear

list_milestones({ query: "{id}" })

Step 2 — list epics + dependencies

Step 3 — register session (storage log_session)

3a — parse --honesty flag if present (T9). The full args string may end with --honesty <mode>. Extract <mode> if present, else None:

# argv is the raw post-subcommand string (e.g. "FCT011C --honesty lite")
parts = argv.split()
cli_override = None
if "--honesty" in parts:
    i = parts.index("--honesty")
    if i + 1 < len(parts) and parts[i + 1] in ("full", "lite", "off"):
        cli_override = parts[i + 1]
# An unrecognised value falls through — resolve_honesty_mode treats invalid
# override as "ignore me" and uses the per-milestone glob or default_mode.

3b — resolve + insert. Call insert_session_log() from {scripts_dir}/factory/lifecycle_helpers.py with the detected runtime values (hostname → machine, system prompt → model). The helper honors the live check constraints and writes the resolved honesty_mode so downstream hooks can read it via current_honesty_mode().

from scripts.factory.lifecycle_helpers import (
    insert_session_log, resolve_honesty_mode,
)
mode = resolve_honesty_mode("{id}", override=cli_override)
session_id = insert_session_log(
    machine=detected_machine,        # mothership | workhorse | auditor
    model=detected_model,            # e.g. "claude-opus-4-7"
    branch=current_branch,           # git branch --show-current
    mode="interactive",              # or "factory" / "review" / "companion"
    honesty_mode=mode,               # full | lite | off — surfaced in start ceremony
)
# Persist session_id in conversation state — needed by Step 5 cost footer + Step N close

3c — surface in start banner (T9). The operator must know which gates will fire before any work begins:

📍 Branch: {branch}
   Model:  {model} on {machine}
   Honesty stack: {mode.upper()}{cli_override and "  (--honesty override)" or ""}
   To override: re-run with --honesty full|lite|off

Step 4 — identify first unblocked epic

Step 5 — render output

1. Pre-narrative banners (per _shared/lifecycle_blocks.md canonical order — including stale handoff and cognitive load; time_of_week_gate skipped — close-only).
2. NARRATIVE (full).
3. AGENT SUGGESTIONS (LIGHT) — preflight from preflight_lessons(milestone_id).
4. Footers: velocity emoji, decision provenance, stakeholders.
5. Cost footer.

Persist: write_lifecycle_output(issue_id="{id}", level="milestone", skill_point="start",...).

---

/milestone status {id}

Step 0 — load shared template

Step 1 — gather context (in parallel)

• Linear: all child epics + statuses
• Helpers: full suite + project_milestone_cost(id, budget) for the milestone-only footer
• For each open epic: roll up its current lifecycle_output to the milestone summary

Step 2 — render all four blocks (full)

1. Pre-narrative banners.
2. NARRATIVE — emphasize the milestone's GRAND SCHEME line.
3. HONEST ASSESSMENT — milestone-level optimism reflects pipeline drag, not just on-track epic count.
4. OPERATOR ACTIONS.
5. AGENT SUGGESTIONS (full) — cross-team signal weighted higher at milestone scope.
6. Footers (all): velocity emoji, spec coverage delta (aggregated across child epics), downstream unblocks, decisions, reviewer track record, cost-to-value, milestone cost projection (this is the milestone-only signal), MTTR estimate, rollback freshness, calibration accuracy, Sentry, Slack, stakeholders, linked ideas, competitor gap.
7. Cost footer.

Step 3 — subagent dispatch (deep panel)

Step 4 — persist

write_lifecycle_output(issue_id="{id}", level="milestone", skill_point="status",...)

---

/milestone close {id}

🧭 Emit breadcrumb at every numbered step.

Step 0 — idempotency check — HARD GATE

Search for prior ## ✅ Milestone Closed — {id} receipt comment on the master tracker:

list_comments({master_tracker_id}, limit: 50)

Regex ^## ✅ Milestone Closed — {id}\b. If found:

AskUserQuestion:
  question: "Milestone {id} was closed at {prior.closed_at} by slot-{prior.slot}.
             Re-run /milestone close?"
  options:
    - "No — print prior receipt and exit (Recommended)"
    - "Amend — add supplementary receipt"
    - "Yes — full ceremony again"

Default to "No." Re-running a clean milestone close is rarely intentional.

Step 0b — comprehensive loose-ends sweep — gate on HIGH

Dispatch the sweep helper (per _shared/agent-dispatch.md):

🤖 Dispatching loose-ends sweep → {id} comprehensive scan (~2min expected)

python3 {scripts_dir}/infra/milestone_sweep.py {id}

The sweep scans (see {scripts_dir}/infra/milestone_sweep.py for the source of truth on what's actually implemented vs. TODO):

1. Unresolved questions across milestone-issue comments — regex first-pass (?, "decision needed", "let me know", "should we", "@" + ?). All hits are surfaced as LOW by default. Production-tier LLM triage to promote real blockers to MEDIUM/HIGH is a documented follow-on.
2. Parking-lot reconciliation — every "deferred" in WAH cross-referenced against backlog Linear issues. WAH-says-deferred-X-but-no-ticket → MEDIUM.
3. Premature-Done detection — Done tickets with startedAt: null (the premature-Done pattern). Per-ticket: HIGH.
4. RED placeholder count — milestone-scope acceptance tests still throwing NotImplementedError. Per-cluster: MEDIUM.
5. Decision rot — decision-store entries (storage list_decisions) from milestone contradicting each other. TODO — not yet implemented; sweep emits placeholder hint.
6. Ceremony:pending labels older than 2h. TODO — not yet implemented; sweep emits placeholder hint.

Print the report:

LOOSE ENDS REPORT — {id}
HIGH (blocks close):
  - {item}...
MEDIUM (warns, doesn't block):
  - {item}...
LOW (FYI):
  - {item}...

If any HIGH-severity items: BLOCK with AskUserQuestion — "Waive this HIGH finding? (yes — provide Operator reason / no — abort close)". Each waived finding calls record_decision(title, reason, type: "milestone_waiver", ref_id: "{id}").

Step 0c — register slot + mark active in factory-state (T6)

python3 {scripts_dir}/infra/factory_state.py register
python3 {scripts_dir}/infra/factory_state.py active "/milestone close" "{id}" "1/7"

Step 1 — verify all epics Done (except CLEANUP)

VERIFY-HUMAN enforcement (APP006A+): The VERIFY-HUMAN epic (if present) MUST be Done before milestone close proceeds. This epic contains the Operator walkthrough results from /verify human. If VERIFY-HUMAN is not Done:

HARD BLOCK — VERIFY-HUMAN epic {ID} is not Done.
Operator walkthrough must complete before milestone close.
Run: /verify human --continue {ID}

Step 1a — /verify completion check [factory]

Ask the storage backend for the latest /verify run for this milestone (supabase backend reads qa.test_runs; returns null under storage_backend: none → emit the WARNING below and continue):

get_latest_test_run({milestone_id}, modes: ["full", "mechanical"])

If no /verify run found for this milestone:

WARNING — no /verify run found for {milestone_id}.
Run: /verify full --milestone {milestone_id}

If the most recent run has P0 issues > 0:

HARD BLOCK — last /verify run has {n} P0 issues.
Fix them before closing. Epic: {ID}

Step 2 — run final audit checks (reality / spec compliance / doc sync / compliance)

Step 3 — create CLEANUP epic for deferred items (not optional)

Step 4 — record the milestone outcome

record_outcome("milestone", {id}, { goal, epics_done, deferred,... }) (supabase backend → qa.milestone_outcomes; no-op under storage_backend: none).

Step 4a (NEW) — git cleanup

After the milestone-level branch (if any) is merged, run the same fishy-check + safe-delete + prune pattern as /epic close Step 4e.2. Scope: only the milestone-coordination branch (NOT child epic branches — those were cleaned at their own close).

Step 5 — render lifecycle narrative blocks (NEW)

Render full blocks per shared template:

1. Pre-narrative banners + time_of_week_gate (soft warning on Fri-evening / weekend close).
2. NARRATIVE — emphasize WHAT IT UNLOCKS.
3. HONEST ASSESSMENT — name every scope cut, every descoped epic, every deferred item.
4. OPERATOR ACTIONS — WHAT I'D DO NOW points to the next milestone.
5. AGENT SUGGESTIONS (full).
6. Footers including surprises pattern detection (detect_close_patterns(id)) — if a pattern fires, surface the auto-draft prompt.
7. Cost footer.

Persist: write_lifecycle_output(issue_id="{id}", level="milestone", skill_point="close",...).

After persist: extract a one-line lesson and call write_lifecycle_lesson(...).

Step 5a — Honesty-stack gates — HARD GATE

Before stamping the milestone Done, two pre-flip gates must pass. If either fails, STOP — do not mark Done. Fix the underlying problem and re-render Step 5 + re-run these gates.

T3 — audit-doubt validation: the rendered HONEST ASSESSMENT must end with a ## What I might be wrong about block containing ≥2 distinct doubts.

from scripts.factory.lifecycle_helpers import (
    current_honesty_mode,
    run_audit_doubt_check,
    should_run_hook,
)

# Mode gate: the wired hook only fires when the active
# honesty mode includes ``audit-doubt-check`` (i.e. ``full``). Under
# ``lite`` and ``off`` the gate skips silently — treat skip as PASS so the
# milestone close isn't blocked on a hook the operator opted out of.
#
# Scope to THIS close-ceremony's session row — the bare ``current_honesty_mode()``
# lookup with no session_id picks the most-recently-started in-flight row,
# which under concurrent operators could be SOMEONE ELSE'S session. Pass
# ``current_session_id`` (the row id /milestone start inserted) explicitly
# so the gate uses this ceremony's mode. Fall back to ``"lite"`` if the row
# was written without a mode column.
active_mode = current_honesty_mode(session_id=current_session_id) or "lite"
if should_run_hook("audit-doubt-check", mode=active_mode):
    ok, msg = run_audit_doubt_check(rendered_close_output)
    if not ok:
        raise SystemExit(f"audit-doubt-check BLOCKED: {msg}")

Milestone-close doubts should reference specific load-bearing claims across the WHOLE milestone — not generic warnings. Example: "{ID}'s acceptance test passed under sample N=20 but production traffic is N=500; the threshold may not hold at scale."

T4 — verifier-isolation-check: confirms the Step 2 audit agents ({agents.completion_audit} + {agents.spec_audit} + reviewer) ran on a different machine/model than the implementer who closed the load-bearing epics. Pull impl session from session-log rows (storage log_session records) for the milestone's epics; pull verifier session from this /milestone close invocation.

from scripts.factory.lifecycle_helpers import (
    current_honesty_mode,
    run_verifier_isolation_check,
    should_run_hook,
)

# Mode gate: verifier-isolation is a heavy check that only
# fires under ``full``. Under ``lite`` and ``off`` the loop short-circuits.
#
# Scope to THIS close-ceremony's session row to avoid cross-session mode
# leakage under concurrent operators (see the audit-doubt-check block above
# for the full rationale).
active_mode = current_honesty_mode(session_id=current_session_id) or "lite"
if should_run_hook("verifier-isolation-check", mode=active_mode):
    # For each closed epic in this milestone:
    for epic_session in load_bearing_epic_sessions:
        ok, msg = run_verifier_isolation_check(
            impl_machine=epic_session["actual_machine"],
            impl_model=epic_session["actual_model"],
            verifier_machine=current_close_session["actual_machine"],
            verifier_model=current_close_session["actual_model"],
        )
        if not ok:
            raise SystemExit(
                f"verifier-isolation BLOCKED for {epic_session['issue_id']}: {msg}"
            )

If a cross_model_harden_waiver decision row exists for this milestone (see /epic close Step 0b), the same-model case is allowed — but the waiver MUST be cited in the milestone-outcome row.

Step 5b — E10 milestone-close gates — HARD GATE

E10 added three more gates that fire at milestone close. Each is mode-aware — lite / off modes skip the heavyweight checks cleanly.

import json
import subprocess
from scripts.factory.lifecycle_helpers import should_run_hook

active_mode = current_honesty_mode(session_id=current_session_id) or "lite"

# 1. Tripwire suite: always-on invariants must be green.
#    Tripwires bypass the mode gate — foundational invariants don't get
#    skipped in `lite` (they DO get skipped in `off`).
if active_mode != "off":
    proc = subprocess.run(
        ["pytest", "tests/tripwires/", "-v", "--tb=short"],
        capture_output=True, text=True,
    )
    if proc.returncode != 0:
        # A milestone may NOT close with two or more active rows in
        # tests/tripwires/ALLOWLIST.md. If only one allowlist row is
        # in flight, add a one-line entry there linking to the Linear
        # issue that will fix it, with `expires` ≤ 7 days out.
        raise SystemExit(f"tripwire FAIL: {proc.stdout[-2000:]}")

# 2. Blast-radius aggregate: every child epic's
#    blast-radius must PASS before the milestone closes.
if should_run_hook("blast-radius", mode=active_mode):
    failed = []
    for epic in milestone_child_epics:
        proc = subprocess.run(
            ["python3", "-m", "scripts.audit.blast_radius_check",
             "--epic", epic],
            capture_output=True, text=True,
        )
        verdict = json.loads(proc.stdout or "{}").get("status", "INCONCLUSIVE")
        if verdict != "PASS":
            failed.append(f"{epic}: {verdict}")
    if failed:
        raise SystemExit("blast-radius aggregate FAIL:\n" + "\n".join(failed))

# 3. Rollback-drill freshness: load-bearing milestones
#    must have a passing drill in the last 30 days. `priority:p0` label
#    OR id prefix DAT/MLX/FCT (excluding doc-only) → load-bearing.
if should_run_hook("rollback-drill-freshness", mode=active_mode):
    proc = subprocess.run(
        ["python3", "-m", "scripts.audit.rollback_drills_audit",
         "--milestone", milestone_id],
        capture_output=True, text=True,
    )
    if proc.returncode != 0:
        # STALE → run {scripts_dir}/rollback/drill.sh {milestone_id} first.
        # NEVER_PASSED → create rollback/{milestone_id}.sh from the
        # template, then drill.
        raise SystemExit(f"rollback-drill freshness FAIL: {proc.stdout}")

Step 6 — mark Done + post "What Actually Happened"

The WAH comment header must be exactly ## ✅ Milestone Closed — {id} so the Step 0 idempotency check on subsequent invocations can find it.

Step 6a — mark idle in factory-state (T6)

python3 {scripts_dir}/infra/factory_state.py idle "{id}"

Step 7 — handoff + unmissable receipt block

Emit the standardized receipt block per _shared/receipt-block.md:

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
✅  MILESTONE {id} CLOSED  (<milestone goal>)
    SLOT:     {slot}
    REPO:     {repo}
    TIME:     {ISO ts}
    MODEL:    {model}

    RECEIPTS:
      • Linear comment id={canonical receipt id}
      • milestone outcome recorded via storage `record_outcome` (row id={row_id})
      • Master tracker {tracker_id} updated
      • Sweep report: <N HIGH waived, M MEDIUM, K LOW>

    📍 WHAT'S NEXT
    /milestone start {next_milestone_id}
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Then terminal effects (bell + title + macOS notification) per the receipt-block template.

START A NEW SESSION for the next milestone. <<<

---

Key rules

• Every milestone ends in a CLEANUP epic. Never skip.
• The four-block render lands AFTER all auditing — the assessment must reflect reality.
• Calibration row writes happen regardless of whether the model thinks the milestone passed.

Judgment weave (see /judgment)

• Start: every milestone plan needs GATE: lines with numeric abort conditions — author missing ones with /gate.
• Close: run /refute on the completion claim before marking Done.