---
lifecycle_status: active
document_type: thread-handoff
track: 1
next_story: A.6
approval_status: pending
updated_at: 2026-07-24
lifecycle_note: >-
  Stories A.4 and A.5 completed locally on 2026-07-24. Their combined source,
  validation, fixture, manifest, and CI changes remain uncommitted,
  independently unverified, and unreleased. A.6 repository governance is the
  next separately gated Track 1 story. This handoff does not approve it.
---

# Next Thread - Story A.6 Repository Governance

## Current State

The local `Trips-so/governance` worktree now has:

- A.4's three source schemas, seven examples, and bounded 7 entity / 5
  relationship / 3 alias checkpoint;
- A.5's stable validation-report and generated-output contracts;
- offline owner and immutable evidence-reference resolution;
- typed metadata for 12 current documentation pages;
- sixteen positive/negative conformance fixtures;
- available local `validate` and `manifest` descriptor commands;
- deterministic documentation-manifest and registry-index generation; and
- one bounded GitHub Actions validation workflow.

All families remain unreleased. The descriptor remains `reserved`. The work is
not committed, pushed, independently human-verified, signed, promoted, or
consumed by a runtime.

## Next Approval Gate

Story A.6 should define repository governance before implementing it. Its
candidate decision surface is:

- contribution and review rules, including independent verification;
- approval tiers and public-exception handling;
- preserved instruction-block and receipt requirements;
- family lifecycle, correction, erasure, retention, and legal-hold behavior;
- operator queues and incident classifications;
- release, signing, promotion, rollback, and revocation boundaries;
- RPO/RTO, restore drills, decommissioning, and break-glass table-top
  expectations; and
- the exact line between repository CI, human approval, release records, and
  later publication/runtime systems.

The interview must reconcile ADR-0010 authority and ADR-0013's still-proposed
succession model without silently treating proposed text as accepted policy.

## Hard Boundaries

- Do not create a release, signature, tag, promotion, or rollback mechanism
  before A.6 decisions are approved.
- Do not activate `trips.docs-source.json` registration or central intake.
- Do not add registry inventory, policy data, claims, evidence records,
  provenance records, graph data, or downstream consumers.
- Do not implement Cloudflare/R2, the Trips.so Docs panel, or a Birdie
  Specialist runtime.
- Do not commit or push without explicit instruction.
- Keep A.4/A.5 passing results distinct from independent human verification.

## Read First

1. `NEXT_THREAD_STORY_A6_REPOSITORY_GOVERNANCE_2026-07-24.md`
2. `STORY_A5_DETERMINISTIC_VALIDATION_SPEC.md`
3. `EPIC_A_REPO_HUB_FOUNDATION_SPEC.md`, sections 10-12
4. `PLAN_BIRDIE_POLICY_DOCS_SYSTEM.md`, Story A.6
5. `PLAN_BUILD_TRIPS_DOCUMENTATION_PROGRAM.md`
6. `/home/dylan/lamp/public_html/clients/trips.so/governance/docs/adrs/ADR-0010-program-authority-matrix.md`
7. `/home/dylan/lamp/public_html/clients/trips.so/governance/AGENTS.md`

## Reusable Next-Thread Prompt

```text
Read
/home/dylan/lamp/public_html/clients/trips.so/plans/documentation-plan/NEXT_THREAD_STORY_A6_REPOSITORY_GOVERNANCE_2026-07-24.md
and the files in its Read First section. Use the one-question-at-a-time
interview. First summarize the proposed A.6 decision boundary, give a concrete
governance-repository example, provide a recommendation and ELI15 explanation,
then ask one approval question only. Do not implement A.6, create releases,
commit, or push unless I explicitly approve the bounded story.
```