plan-exit-governance-drift-handoff

name	plan-exit-governance-drift-handoff
description	When ending a session on an iterated plan draft, audit and document approval-state drift across GitHub labels, local approval markers, README status, and latest review verdicts.
version	1.0.0
author	Hermes Agent
category	coordination
tags	["planning","governance","handoff","github","review"]

Plan Exit Governance Drift Handoff

Use when:

• A GitHub issue is still in planning/re-review mode
• The plan has gone through multiple adversarial review waves
• You are preparing to exit, hand off, or pause work
• There is any chance older approval state still exists

Why this matters

A local plan can still be draft or "not approval-ready" while the live issue already shows status:plan-approved and/or .planning/plan-approved/<issue>.md exists from an older state. If you end the session without auditing that, the next operator may incorrectly treat the issue as executable.

Required exit audit

Before finishing, check all four surfaces:

1. Live GitHub issue state and status:* labels
2. Local approval marker .planning/plan-approved/<issue>.md
3. docs/plans/README.md row status
4. Latest valid provider review verdicts in scripts/review/results/

Required handoff contents

Document explicitly:

• current local plan status (draft, plan-review, etc.)
• latest valid provider verdicts
• whether the issue is honestly approval-ready or still revision-required
• whether GitHub / local marker / README disagree
• the exact contradiction if drift exists
• that the next session must reconcile approval-vs-review drift before implementation or further advancement

Recommended wording pattern

• "Live issue shows status:plan-approved, but latest valid review evidence still returns MAJOR findings."
• "Local approval marker exists, but current draft remains revision-required."
• "Next session must determine whether approval remains authoritative or whether fresh-review rollback to status:plan-review is required."

Minimal command bundle

cd /path/to/repo

gh issue view <issue> --json state,labels,title,url
ls -l .planning/plan-approved/<issue>.md
rg -n "\| <issue> \|" docs/plans/README.md

Then read the latest provider artifacts for the active plan.

When to roll back

If fresh review evidence is MAJOR and there is no newer authoritative user approval after the revised draft, the next session should consider the fresh-review rollback routine:

• remove stale status:plan-approved
• restore status:plan-review
• remove stale local approval marker if appropriate
• sync docs/plans/README.md
• leave a governance-cleanup note on the issue

Output artifacts

Prefer both:

1. a GitHub issue status comment
2. a local exit handoff doc under docs/handoffs/

This makes the drift visible both in-repo and on the issue thread.