The Protocol reads its next work from its roadmap and keeps its delivery record in git and its pull requests

actor

An agent or a person opening, reviewing or resuming the Protocol's work, and the owner keeping its order.

problem

The handbook points every session at the newest plan file and keeps a status line for each, and a gate requires both, so forward planning lives in prose beside the graph that already holds the arc's intent, and committed review files repeat what change proposals, git and the pull request already carry.

outcome

Let an agent opening the Protocol's next work read it from the roadmap recipe, review and recover an arc from git and its pull request, and keep the plan and review files as frozen history no gate requires to grow.

rule.readsRoadmap line 33 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:33

An agent opening the Protocol's next work runs the roadmap recipe over the roadmap Pack the handbook names and follows each entry to its Packs and carrying Specs; no plan file answers for forward work.

no example exercises it

rule.oneRoadmap line 34 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:34

The Protocol keeps one living roadmap Pack, edited in place. Its owner selects captured work for the upcoming pull requests; landing a capture does not add it. Entries leave by an ordinary manifest edit when the selected work is complete or no longer belongs among the next work, and move on the owner's word, with git as history.

no example exercises it

rule.plansFrozen line 35 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:35

plans/ and reviews/ keep the plans and review records of the arcs that had them as history until a cleanup arc removes or archives them; no file is added to either, and a file in either changes only to correct the record it keeps.

no example exercises it

rule.executionRecord line 36 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:36

Before an arc's first push its record is its branch, git being the event log: the first commit message states the owner's working rules for the arc and the arc's Pack, each later message says what its unit did, and outstanding work is read from the arc's Pack, the backlogs and the open-question register; no record file is kept under reviews/ or anywhere else. The arc pushes and opens its draft pull request at its first coherent commit, normally the scaffold, so the window in which only local git holds the record stays short and a session restarted on another machine sees the work. The draft pull request description then holds the record: its branch and base, working rules, lanes, the rulings with who made them, review findings as change proposals and their memos, acceptance as measured, deferrals and refusals. A session resuming without its predecessor's context reads the branch, its commits, the draft pull request and the graph, and never claims git kept what was never committed. The authority to commit and push comes from the owner's instruction for the arc, never from this rule, and no check reads the record.

no example exercises it

rule.reviewFindings line 37 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:37

A review's findings against Specs travel as one change proposal in the shape spec:consumers.intent-composition.proposal states, whose base is the branch-head commit the reviewer read; a proposal composed in a preview names the preview's merge commit from its stamp; the proposal check runs it against the graph at that base, a moved, unresolved or incomparable scope is read again before its change applies, and its memo, as spec:consumers.intent-composition.proposal.memo renders it, is posted to the pull request. A finding against code or another file is a review comment on its line, and a review that proposes no Spec edit has no proposal. The commit that applies a proposal carries its reason line and base, and whether a change was accepted stays in the pull request's discussion and git, never in the proposal or the graph. No review file is committed, and a brief or prompt stays in the session that used it.

no example exercises it

rule.openFindings line 38 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:38

A finding left open against intended design becomes an open question on its carrying Spec with its decider, provisional reading and links, and a deferral is a blocking question with its re-entry trigger; a code defect against settled intent stays a code finding until it is repaired and never becomes an invented design question.

no example exercises it

rule.evidence line 39 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:39

Evidence no test or recipe carries, such as a prototype of a view not yet built, an adopter measurement's raw output or a screenshot for the description, is committed on the arc's branch with the commands that made it, linked from the description at that commit, and removed before the merge; the Protocol merges its pull requests with merge commits, and GitHub keeps each pull request's head ref, so links at the evidence commit keep resolving. A squash or rebase merge would need the evidence published to a durable ref first.

no example exercises it

rule.acceptance line 40 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:40

An arc's acceptance links its bound examples and their run evidence, and re-derives each recipe measurement at the commit the description names, with its commands, never inheriting an earlier result. A run record is evidence from its test file as spec:observation.run-evidence reads it, never a verdict for one verifier, and it counts as evidence for a preview only when its recorded commit is the commit the preview's stamp names; a preview stays a current view, never an acceptance record.

no example exercises it

rule.forwardSection line 41 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:41

Each description's forward section is the roadmap memo rendered at the branch's head, with the re-entry condition, the owner's reason for each entry's place and the refused list in the author's words around it; the pull request that completes an entry's selected work removes it from the roadmap in the same change, entries join or move only on the owner's word, and nothing checks either.

no example exercises it

rule.handbookPointer line 42 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:42

The handbook names the roadmap Pack and the roadmap recipe where it named the current plan, and keeps no status line for any plan.

no example exercises it

rule.gateRecord line 43 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:43

The self-hosting gate's current-record check refuses a handbook that does not name the roadmap Pack or the roadmap recipe, and a generated graph without a Pack node pack:roadmap whose order is priority; it keeps the frozen historical checks, the documented green-gate legs, and the ban on plan status in the decision registry and the glossary until the cleanup arc removes the folders they read. It checks no plan number, roadmap content, freshness, work order or review disposition.

no example exercises it

0 unkeyed rules.

roadmapPack line 47 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:47

pack:roadmap, carried by specs/roadmap.pack.sdp.md.

no citation recorded

handbookTokens line 48 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:48

the gate reads the handbook for the strings pack:roadmap and recipe 53, and the generated graph at generated/graph.json for a Pack node pack:roadmap whose order is "priority".

gateMessages line 49 · specs/protocol/roadmap-replaces-plans.sdp.md:49

AGENTS.md — the handbook does not name the roadmap Pack, AGENTS.md — the handbook does not name the roadmap recipe, generated/graph.json — the roadmap Pack pack:roadmap is missing, generated/graph.json — the roadmap Pack pack:roadmap does not state order: priority, and generated/graph.json — the generated graph is missing or unreadable.

no citation recorded

criteria

• Resume an arc from its branch and draft pull request alone, reading the tree, its commits and the graph, and name any context that lived only in the earlier session.
• Run the gate with a handbook that does not name the roadmap Pack and with a roadmap manifest that does not state order: priority, and see each refused; an empty roadmap, a built entry and an order contrary to dependency add no finding.

mode

reviewed

Verifier bindings

• test:protocol.roadmap-practice · anchored · test anchor binding present · test/check-self-hosting-gates.test.ts:59

  External run evidence from test/check-self-hosting-gates.test.ts

  Test anchors: test:protocol.roadmap-practice. Specs verified by those bindings: spec:protocol.roadmap-replaces-plans.

  Run 1: external run evidence from vitest 4.1.10

  Build: CI 391 · Branch: cursor/media-plan-and-articles-09b1 · Commit: 076cd4f1f85640d8236e5cca1bffffa68ab79a33 · Start: 2026-10-31T15:32:20.471Z · Stop: 2026-10-31T15:34:02.073Z

  Name	Suite	Result	Duration
  accepts the current record without requiring the historical ledger shape	the self-hosting records gate	passed	60.25 ms
  fails when a frozen historical owner-packet pin is broken	the self-hosting records gate	passed	72.88 ms
  refuses a missing handbook pointer: pack:roadmap	the self-hosting records gate	passed	61.63 ms
  refuses a missing handbook pointer: recipe 53	the self-hosting records gate	passed	51.88 ms
  names a missing roadmap manifest	the self-hosting records gate	passed	66.31 ms
  names the generated graph when absent	the self-hosting records gate	passed	51.11 ms
  names the generated graph when corrupt	the self-hosting records gate	passed	51.2 ms
  accepts quoted priority with a comment and rejects a renamed roadmap id	the self-hosting records gate	passed	143.42 ms
  requires a priority roadmap node derived from the manifest:	the self-hosting records gate	passed	54.29 ms
  requires a priority roadmap node derived from the manifest: order: reading	the self-hosting records gate	passed	54.06 ms
  requires a priority roadmap node derived from the manifest: --- # Roadmap order: priority	the self-hosting records gate	passed	48.32 ms
  checks no content, dependency order or plan number: []	the self-hosting records gate	passed	66.27 ms
  checks no content, dependency order or plan number: [spec:probe.built]	the self-hosting records gate	passed	55.04 ms
  checks no content, dependency order or plan number: [spec:probe.dependent, spec:probe.dependency]	the self-hosting records gate	passed	54.32 ms
  keeps the documented green gate and semantic plan-status ban	the self-hosting records gate	passed	58.2 ms
  ships the roadmap, recovery and review convention in the handbook	the self-hosting records gate	passed	1.69 ms

Requirement drawing

• Declared verifying examples: no declared verifying example.

Decisions

• Plan and review files stop carrying the delivery record once the roadmap and the pull request do

  The Protocol reads its forward planning from its roadmap and keeps its delivery record in git and its pull requests; it adds no plan file and no review file, and plans/ and reviews/ stand as frozen history until a later arc removes or archives them. An agent opening the next work runs the roadmap recipe over the roadmap Pack the handbook names and follows each entry to its Packs and carrying Specs. Before an arc's first push its record is its branch, git being the event log: the arc's first commit message states the owner's working rules for the arc and the arc's Pack, each later message says what its unit did, and outstanding work is read from the arc's Pack, the backlogs and the open-question register; no record file is kept under reviews/ or anywhere else. The arc pushes and opens its draft pull request at its first coherent commit, normally the scaffold, so the window in which only local git holds the record stays short and a session restarted on another machine sees the work. The draft pull request description then holds the arc's narrative: its story, lanes, rulings with who made them, review findings as change proposals and their memos, acceptance as measured, deferrals and refusals. A review's findings against Specs travel as a change proposal whose base is the commit the reviewer read: the branch head, or, for a proposal composed in a preview, the merge commit its stamp names, checked against that base and posted to the pull request as its memo; a finding against code or another file is a review comment on its line; a finding left open becomes an open question with its decider, provisional reading and links. Evidence no test or recipe carries is committed on the arc's branch with the commands that made it, linked from the description at that commit, and removed before the merge; the Protocol merges its pull requests with merge commits, and GitHub keeps each pull request's head ref, so links at the evidence commit keep resolving. A squash or rebase merge would need the evidence published to a durable ref first. Briefs and prompts stay in the session. The handbook names the roadmap Pack and the roadmap recipe where it named the current plan, and the self-hosting gate checks that instead of a current plan.

• impl:protocol.roadmap-practice · realizes the roadmap handbook and its current-record gate · test/check-self-hosting-gates.test.ts:52

  Uses

  None.

Runtime observation: not tracked.

Runtime observation: not tracked.

Build attestations: not tracked.

Deployments: not tracked.

Bills of materials: not tracked.