spec-archive

name	spec-archive
description	Manually archive user-selected FRs or milestones by `git mv` into `specs/frs/archive/` (and optionally `specs/plan/archive/`) with a diff approval gate. Accepts ULID, tracker ID/URL, or `M<N>`. Escape hatch for /implement Phase 4 auto-archival gaps.
argument-hint	<ULID, tracker ID, tracker URL, or M<N>>

Spec Archive

Archive the user-selected FR(s) identified by $ARGUMENTS. This is the escape hatch for situations /implement Phase 4 auto-archival can't reach. It never scans the spec files for completed milestones or checked-box ACs — the caller must name what to archive.

Process

0. Layout + tracker-mode probes

Before any other step:

• Tracker-mode probe — Run the Schema L probe (see docs/patterns.md § Tracker Mode Probe). If CLAUDE.md has no ## Task Tracking section, mode is none. Tracker-mode /spec-archive still operates only on local specs/ content — archival of completed tracker tickets is the tracker's own concern.

0a. Resolver entry

Call buildResolverConfig(claudeMdPath, adaptersDir) from adapters/_shared/src/resolver_config.ts once at entry, then pass the result to resolveFRArgument($ARGUMENTS, config) from adapters/_shared/src/resolve.ts. Malformed adapter metadata surfaces as MalformedAdapterMetadataError → NFR-10 canonical refusal.

• ulid → archive that single FR (step 1).
• tracker-id / url → branch on mode: tracker mode uses findFRPathByTrackerRef(specsDir, trackerKey, trackerId) (path-returning, no id: requirement); mode: none uses findFRByTrackerRef(specsDir, trackerKey, trackerId) (ULID-returning). The tracker-mode helper is the canonical lookup — findFRByTrackerRef would always miss in tracker mode (no id: line) and trigger the refuse branch below against an FR that exists on disk.
  • Hit → archive that single FR. No import, no tracker network call.
  • Miss → refuse with the NFR-10 canonical error: "No local FR mapped to <tracker>:<id>. Archival never auto-imports. To dismiss the tracker ticket, close it in the tracker directly." Exit non-zero. No side effects. /spec-archive never auto-imports.
• fallthrough and $ARGUMENTS matches the shared milestone-token grammar (M<N> or Epic-keyed M_<epic-key>) → batch archival of every FR with milestone == <token> plus the plan file (step 1). /spec-archive M12 is the canonical group form.
• fallthrough otherwise → refuse and prompt the user for a valid ULID / tracker ref / milestone token (NFR-18).
• AmbiguousArgumentError → surface per NFR-10 with the <tracker>:<id> disambiguation remedy; exit non-zero.

Full decision table: docs/resolver-entry.md.

1. Archival procedure

Archival uses the same code path as /implement Phase 4. The milestone-binding assertion below is FR-backed scope only: it iterates exactly the FR files being archived and their tracker: bindings — it never enumerates the tracker board and never fetches a ticket that has no FR; bugs and ad-hoc tickets are out of scope by construction.

Single-FR archival (argument resolved to one ULID):

1. Locate the FR file: read the spec's frontmatter and compute its base name via Provider.filenameFor(spec). Verify status: active or status: in_progress.
2. Present the Diff Preview (§ Diff Preview below) — the filename move, the frontmatter flip, and any Provider.releaseLock call.
3. On explicit approval:
   • Milestone-binding assertion (tracker mode, project_milestone: true). Before any move, call assertMilestoneBindingAtArchive(provider, project, frFile, { projectRoot, mode }) from adapters/_shared/src/assert_milestone_binding_at_archive.ts: it fetches the FR's bound ticket and verifies the adapter-aware milestone binding — all three kinds the helper handles (object → projectMilestone.name byte-equals the plan-heading canonical name; epic → the ticket's parent key sanitizes back to the Epic-keyed milestone token, degrading to the label surface for grandfathered numeric milestones; label → labels contains milestone-<M-token>) — attaching once on a miss. Vacuous under mode: none, on capability-gap adapters, or when the plan file is absent. A refused outcome refuses the archive with the NFR-10 canonical shape naming the ticket, the expected binding, which of the gate's SIX causes fired, and the remedy that fits THAT cause. Surface the refusal's own remedy verbatim. Do not substitute a generic "run /spec-archive --backfill-milestone-labels, or attach the milestone manually" line: it is wrong on three of the six causes and dangerous on two of them — when the ticket fetch failed, or when the post-attach re-read failed, nothing is known to be missing and a manual attach invites a DUPLICATE WRITE. "The single attach attempt did not land" is likewise only one cause of six — the FR stays status: active and no git mv fires.
   • git mv specs/frs/<name> specs/frs/archive/<name> using the Provider.filenameFor(spec) base — stem preserved across the move. Archival never renames.
   • Flip frontmatter status: active → status: archived; set archived_at: <ISO now>. Precision: full ISO-8601 with date + time + Z (e.g., 2026-04-30T17:23:11Z); not date-only with zeroed time. Render the wall-clock instant via , never the shorter form (it rounds to midnight UTC, which an earlier smoke caught as a regression shape).

Milestone-group archival (argument is M<N>):

1. Scan every active specs/frs/*.md for milestone == M<N>. If the match set is empty, branch to plan-only archival (STE-200 AC-STE-200.1, see below); otherwise refuse cleanly with "M<N> has plan with unchecked ACs and no FRs; ambiguous state" only when the plan is present but the auto-detect heuristic does not fire.
2. Build the batch:
   • Per matched FR (tracker mode): call assertMilestoneBindingAtArchive (same helper + arguments as the single-FR path) before that FR's git mv — the milestone binding is verified per FR, not once per batch. On a refused outcome the batch skips only the offending FR — no git mv, no frontmatter flip, no releaseLock for it — reports it with the same NFR-10 detail, and the other FRs proceed.
   • Per matched FR: git mv specs/frs/<Provider.filenameFor(spec)> specs/frs/archive/<same-name> + frontmatter flip + traceability-link rewrite (rewriteArchiveLinks(repoRoot, frId)) + Provider.releaseLock.
   • If specs/plan/M<N>.md exists, include git mv specs/plan/M<N>.md specs/plan/archive/M<N>.md.
3. Present the Diff Preview covering every move + flip + traceability rewrite + release.
4. On approval, land all N moves + N flips + N rewrites + N releaseLock calls + the optional plan-file move in a single atomic commit. Any error aborts the commit entirely — no partial archival. Then run the Post-Archive Drift Check.

Plan-only archival (STE-200 AC-STE-200.1 / AC-STE-200.2 — milestone has zero FRs in specs/frs/):

1. Auto-detect: when the FR match set for M<N> is empty AND specs/plan/M<N>.md exists, run the auto-detect heuristic — fire the plan-only branch when any of: (a) plan frontmatter kind: scaffolding (per STE-197), OR (b) every ^- [ ] task checkbox in specs/plan/M<N>.md is [x] (or [deferred]) — the scan is heading-agnostic, so it does not depend on the milestone heading's separator form, OR (c) the operator passed --plan-only explicitly.
2. Run the drift Pass A grep against the live tree (live trees only — no FR rows to walk).
3. git mv specs/plan/M<N>.md specs/plan/archive/M<N>.md and flip the plan frontmatter status: active → archived with archived_at: <ISO now> (per STE-197 AC-STE-197.4 — synthesize a frontmatter block for legacy frontmatter-less plans).
4. Surface a plan_only_archival capability row in the closing summary.
5. Land in a single atomic commit; run the Post-Archive Drift Check.

--plan-only flag (AC-STE-200.2): forces the plan-only branch when the auto-detect heuristic would not fire (escape hatch for unusual cases). Refuse if FR match set is non-empty — --plan-only is for explicitly-empty cases; mixed usage is operator error. Refuse if specs/plan/M<N>.md does not exist with "No FRs and no plan file for M<N>".

--parked flag (AC-STE-369.4): /spec-archive M<N> --parked additionally writes ship_state: parked into the plan's frontmatter during the archival flip (milestone-group or plan-only — any path that moves the plan file). The +ship_state: parked line renders inside the existing mandatory Diff Preview approval gate — no new prompt. Parking marks the milestone as deliberately unshipped: the plan_ship_coherence gate probe surfaces it as a parked milestones: NOTES row instead of a violation. Unparking happens by shipping.

Exit hints (milestone archival closing line): default runs end Archived. Next: /ship-milestone M<N>; parked runs end Archived (parked). Unpark by shipping: /ship-milestone M<N>.

Capability tokens (closing summary). Per archived FR, the closing summary MUST emit milestone_label_asserted_at_archive when the milestone-binding assertion passed (binding present, or missing-then-attached) and MUST emit milestone_label_archive_refused when the assertion refused that FR's archive (FR skipped, still status: active; the refusal names which of its six causes fired and carries the remedy that fits that cause — quote it verbatim rather than assuming the attach simply did not land). Exactly one literal backticked token per archived FR; narrative paraphrase is insufficient — /gate-check's closing_summary_capability_keys probe greps the literal.

No skill writes to files under specs/frs/archive/ or specs/plan/archive/ except the frontmatter flip (status / archived_at, plus ship_state under --parked) at move time. Full reference: docs/layout-reference.md § /spec-archive.

2. Technical-spec.md — never archive

specs/technical-spec.md holds ongoing architectural truth, not shippable work. Architectural decisions are marked Superseded-by: FR-<N> in place — that matches the ADR convention (adr.github.io, Nygard) and preserves the decision trail where future implementers look for it. /spec-archive does not edit technical-spec.md. If the user asks to "archive" an ADR, direct them to supersede it in place instead.

--backfill-milestone-labels — one-shot milestone-binding backfill sweep

/spec-archive --backfill-milestone-labels sweeps existing FRs whose bound tickets are missing their milestone binding and backfills them. Call backfillMilestoneLabels(provider, project, specsDir, { mode, apply }) from adapters/_shared/src/backfill_milestone_labels.ts: it scans both the active specs/frs/ tree and the archived specs/frs/archive/ tree, keeping only FRs that carry both a tracker: binding and milestone: frontmatter. Each FR's canonical milestone name resolves from its plan-file heading (specs/plan/<M>.md, falling back to specs/plan/archive/<M>.md); the present/missing check is adapter-aware (object binding → projectMilestone.name byte-equals the canonical name; label binding → the issue's labels contain milestone-<M-token>).

Dry-run by default. Without --apply the sweep writes nothing — it fetches each bound ticket read-only and previews every intended attach as a ticket → milestone row. --dry-run names the default explicitly; pass --apply to perform the attaches. Re-running --apply after a clean sweep is a no-op: every ticket classifies as already-correct and zero writes fire.

Aggregate report. The sweep closes with the three count buckets — backfilled (attached this run, or intended in a dry-run), already-correct (binding present, skipped with no write), failed (attach did not land) — and, per failed ticket, its id, the expected milestone, and the plan file it maps to, each with the NFR-10 canonical detail (Remedy line). The sweep is best-effort per ticket: one failed attach is recorded and the remaining FRs still process; no partial abort.

Scope + vacuity. FR-backed only: the sweep iterates FR files and their tracker: bindings — it never enumerates the tracker board, so a ticket with no FR (ad-hoc bugs, board-only items) can never be fetched or touched. Under mode: none, or when the adapter declares project_milestone: false, the sweep is vacuous — zero candidates, no tracker call, empty report.

Diff Preview

Before any filesystem change, render a diff preview the user can confirm or reject. For single-FR archival:

--- specs/frs/<name>  →  specs/frs/archive/<name>  (git mv; <name> = Provider.filenameFor(spec), stem preserved)
@@ frontmatter @@
-status: active
-archived_at: null
+status: archived
+archived_at: 2026-04-22T15:00:00Z

--- Provider.releaseLock(<ulid>)
+++ (tracker mode: transition_status → done)          — return "transitioned" when the ticket was In Progress
+++ (tracker mode: ticket already at canonical Done)  — return "already-released" (idempotent; no write)
+++ (tracker-less: rm .dpt/locks/<ulid>)              — return "transitioned" when the lock file existed
+++ (tracker-less: no lock file present)              — return "already-released" (silent no-op)

For milestone-group archival, list each git mv, each frontmatter flip, each releaseLock, each FR's milestone-binding assertion outcome (present / attached / refused / vacuous — refused FRs render as skipped), and the optional plan-file move explicitly. Do not summarize — the user must be able to read the full plan and confirm or reject. Close the bulk Diff Preview with a single aggregate summary row naming the two releaseLock return counts:

releaseLock summary: <N transitioned, M already-released>

This aggregate is how the bulk path reports which FRs performed a write versus which were already terminal — the count comes free from Provider.releaseLock's return value, so no extra getTicketStatus call is needed (NFR-8 call-budget discipline).

Approval gate: do NOT perform any git mv, frontmatter write, or releaseLock until the user explicitly approves. If the user rejects, asks for changes, or is ambiguous, stop and restart at step 0a with their feedback.

Reopening an Archived FR

If the user reopens an archived FR (e.g., they discover post-ship rework is needed), the canonical path is to git mv specs/frs/archive/<name> specs/frs/<name> (where <name> is whatever Provider.filenameFor(spec) returns — tracker ID in tracker mode, short-ULID in mode: none) and flip status: archived → status: active with archived_at: null. This is NOT a /spec-archive operation — reopens are performed by the user directly or by /spec-write on the reopened FR. The ULID in frontmatter is stable across open/archive cycles (NFR-15); no revision-suffix mechanism is required.

Post-Archive Drift Check

After the archive move(s) complete, and before the final report, run a two-pass drift check against the live spec files. The drift check is advisory only — it never auto-rewrites narrative and never blocks the archival operation itself.

Pass A — Token grep (deterministic)

Grep specs/requirements.md, specs/technical-spec.md, specs/testing-spec.md, and every specs/plan/*.md (excluding specs/plan/archive/**) for the exact identifiers just archived. Search literally for M{N}, FR-{N} (if still referenced by legacy FR numbers in prose), and AC-{N}. patterns (the trailing dot anchors the AC token).

Every hit is an orphan token reference: the live spec names content that no longer lives in the active tree. Pass A findings are high severity. Pass A runs before Pass B and its rows appear first in the unified report so deterministic findings are reviewed before judgment findings.

Pass B — Semantic scan (judgment)

Read each live spec file in turn with the following brief:

• (a) Archived ID list: the ULIDs (and/or milestone ID) just archived in this operation.
• (b) Archive excerpt: a one-paragraph excerpt of the archived FR's title line + requirement statement (and, for milestone archival, the plan file's goal line) — not the full body. Keeping the Pass B context bounded to title + goal keeps the prompt size stable regardless of archive size.
• (c) Scope-framing instruction: flag narrative sections whose framing assumes the archived scope is the entire project. Look for wording that labels the project by the just-archived FRs/milestones when the remaining active content contradicts that framing.

Canary pattern: narrative that labels the project by the archived scope. The load-bearing example is the Flutter dogfood run — archiving the documentation milestones left requirements.md Overview calling the project a "layered documentation set" and Out-of-Scope saying "Code changes — documentation only", while a code milestone was still in flight. Any similar framing — "documentation-only", "docs-only deliverable", "layered X set" where X is the archived scope — is the signal Pass B must catch. Pass B findings are medium severity.

Pass B is inherently subjective; the canary example bounds the judgment but edge cases will vary between runs. False positives are accepted as the cost of catching semantic drift that grep cannot see.

technical-spec.md uses Superseded-by markers, not archival — Pass B flags for this file are advisory only, never push for removal

Unified report (Schema I)

Merge Pass A and Pass B findings into a single table following Schema I (see specs/technical-spec.md § 3). Pass A rows appear first, then Pass B rows.

| File | Section | Severity | Reason | Suggested action |
|------|---------|----------|--------|------------------|
| requirements.md | §6 Traceability Matrix | high | Orphan row `AC-HG95TZ.2` references archived HG95TZ | Remove row |
| requirements.md | Overview (§1) | medium | "layered documentation set" framing assumes archived scope; contradicts in-flight M5 code milestone | Rewrite Overview to reflect current milestone mix |

Exactly 5 columns in the order File, Section, Severity, Reason, Suggested action. Exactly 2 severity values: high (Pass A) and medium (Pass B).

Empty report: if both passes found nothing, print the literal string No drift detected and continue to the final report without prompting the user.

User choice (advisory — never blocks archival)

If the drift report is non-empty, offer the user exactly three choices:

1. Address inline now — walk through each flagged row, propose the edit, and wait for explicit per-edit approval. Pass A findings may be offered as mechanical deletions but still require explicit user approval; the drift check never auto-edits narrative based on Pass B findings.
2. Save for later — write the Schema I table to specs/drift-{YYYY-MM-DD}.md for later review. Archival completes; no narrative edits are made.
3. Acknowledge and continue — no file is written, no edits are made. Archival is complete.

The drift check never blocks the archival operation itself. The archive moves, frontmatter flips, and releaseLock calls are already committed to disk by the time this check runs; the user's choice only governs what happens to the drift report.

Rules

• This skill operates ONLY on user-selected units (ULID, tracker ref, or M<N>). Never auto-scan live specs for "done" milestones, checked boxes, or completion heuristics.
• Always present the diff preview and wait for explicit approval before any git mv, frontmatter write, or releaseLock call.
• Every archival lands in one atomic commit (single FR or milestone group).
• Tracker-ref miss → refuse and exit; never auto-import to archive.
• Never edit specs/technical-spec.md — ADRs use Superseded-by: in place.
• Never write under specs/frs/archive/** or specs/plan/archive/** except the status / archived_at (and ship_state under --parked) frontmatter flip at move time.
• Call Provider.releaseLock(id) for every archived FR.