objective-close

objective-close

Use the objective umbrella skill first for shared vocabulary, selection rules, storage model, safety boundaries, and family policy.

Resolve the Objective

Resolve exactly one Objective per the umbrella skill's Selection rules; the umbrella also owns the storage model and required file shapes — this skill does not restate them. The closure-specific delta: closing adds ## Closure to objective.md and writes closed.md, and keeps the existing slug directory in place. Objective records are Markdown; read and edit them directly, using ns objective exec for deterministic read mechanics.

Workflow

1. Run ns objective exec read-objective <slug> --format md to load the selected record's raw Markdown and closed state.
2. If already closed, stop per Stop / ask.
3. Load every edge-connected Objective before authoring closure: run ns objective show <slug> --format md --should-include-closed-edges to inventory counterpart states and both Edge Annotations (the flag is required: the default view hides edges whose counterpart is closed, and step 8 must assign a disposition — including already closed — to every declared edge), then run ns objective exec read-objective <counterpart> --format md for each counterpart. Read each active counterpart's objective.md, roadmap.md, and recent relevant updates; read orientation.md when present.
4. Confirm the closure outcome is clear: completed, abandoned, deferred (deliberately parked), or superseded (another record or landed reality took over), with concise evidence or rationale. Use these outcome words in the Closure Marker so closed records stay machine-legible. A deferred closure must include an explicit restart pointer in ## Closure: which roadmap rows resume, what recorded evidence can be trusted as-is, and what must be re-baselined against the then-current tree. For an Umbrella Objective (see the objective skill's Objective patterns reference), also record cross-child lessons and synthesized closure evidence in the parent; open Subobjectives gate closure per Stop / ask.
5. Add or update ## Closure in objective.md with outcome, key evidence, remaining assumptions or risks, caveats, and follow-ups if any. Also judge whether the record holds durable architecture facts — storage models, conventions, contracts, decided semantics — that no doc, README, or CONTEXT.md owns; if so, name the graduation candidates (fact → target doc) in ## Closure rather than letting a closed record become the only home of load-bearing documentation.
6. When material PR evidence supports the completed or abandoned outcome, summarize it in ## Closure with PR numbers and Objective impact, using the shared Objective PR evidence convention from the objective umbrella skill when a list is clearer than prose. Do not turn closure PR evidence into a broad PR ledger or historical backfill.
7. Re-judge the closing record's own Blocked Sentence. A closing record should not keep a live blocked: sentence; normally remove it as part of closure.
8. Propagate the closure through every Objective Edge. For each counterpart, use both Edge Annotations plus its full current record to assign and act on one disposition:
   • updated. Closure changes the active counterpart's durable meaning. Edit every affected surface needed to make its post-closure state true: clear or reword a Blocked Sentence; reword stale Edge Annotations on both endpoints; advance or complete synthesis/dependency rows in roadmap.md; update assumptions, risks, open questions, sequencing, or closure-adjacent narrative in objective.md; and re-derive orientation.md when the counterpart is orienting. Write a new Semantic Update under that counterpart when the event is a meaningful finding, completion event, plan change, risk change, or follow-up. Existing updates remain immutable.
   • unchanged. Closure has no durable effect on the active counterpart. Make no edits there and record a concise reason in the final report; an edge by itself does not justify churn.
   • already closed. Do not amend the counterpart unless the user explicitly requested it; report that no live tracking needed propagation. Common effects to look for are unblocking work, parent/Umbrella synthesis, dependency completion, changed sequencing, retired assumptions or risks, and newly exposed follow-up. Do not recursively close a counterpart as a side effect: if propagation leaves it closure-ready, report that and route it through a separate Objective Close.
9. Keep all Objective Edges in place unless closure itself proves an annotation's relationship is false; closure alone does not dissolve an edge. When only the relationship wording changed, reword both mirrored Edge Annotations rather than removing the edge.
10. Run ns objective check --all after any Record Frontmatter edit. Fix every structural error before continuing.
11. If the closing Objective has an orientation.md, consult roadmap.md's completion section and the durable Direction/Getting to lines of orientation.md. If a durable rule should survive the initiative, note it in ## Closure (or to the user) as a candidate to graduate into AGENTS.md "Architecture rules". Do not delete orientation.md: writing closed.md drops it from the always-load set automatically.
12. Write closed.md as a minimal Closure Marker. Put closure meaning in objective.md, not in closed.md.
13. Leave .ns/objectives/<slug>/ in place; deletion is source-controlled per the umbrella skill, never part of close. Reopening happens only on an explicit user request, as its own workflow (see Reopen below) — never as part of a close.

Reopen

There is no routine reopen path: do not reopen to record progress, amend closure context, or because completion criteria later look unmet — those are objective-update or amend-closure conversations. On an explicit user request to reopen a closed Objective:

1. Delete closed.md.
2. Amend ## Closure into a dated history rather than deleting it: keep the original closure text and append a Reopened <date>: line with the reason and what changed since closure.
3. Re-run the connected-Objective impact review in the reverse direction: restore or reword this record's blocked: sentence if a real gate exists, and re-judge every active counterpart whose frontmatter, narrative, roadmap, orientation, or Semantic Updates were affected by closure. Write new corrective Semantic Updates where reopening materially changes tracking; never amend the close-time updates.
4. If the record has an orientation.md, it rejoins the always-load set automatically once closed.md is gone; re-read it for staleness against the current tree before relying on it.
5. If the record closed as deferred with a restart pointer, start from that pointer and re-baseline whatever it marked as volatile.
6. Run ns objective check <slug> after any frontmatter edit.

Closure timing

Closure does not have to wait for the closing work to land on the trunk branch. When the same branch and PR that finishes the Objective also writes ## Closure and closed.md, the merge of that PR is the closure event on the trunk. Couple Objective tracking with the work that triggered it: prefer closing on the branch that ships the final work over carrying closure to a follow-up PR.

Do not create a duplicate Semantic Update solely for closure. Create one only when closure introduces distinct semantic information beyond the normal update guidance.

Stop / ask

• Objective selection is ambiguous or absent.
• Required Objective files are missing.
• The closure outcome or rationale is unclear.
• The record is an Umbrella Objective with Subobjectives still open that the user has not explicitly parked and synthesized.
• The Objective is already closed and the user did not ask to amend closure context.
• The user asks to delete or move the Objective as part of close; for removal from active checkout state, redirect per the Workflow's source-control deletion rule (step 9). A reopen folded into a close is also a stop: reopen is its own explicit user request handled by the Reopen section.

Verify

• Confirm objective.md contains ## Closure.
• Confirm closed.md exists under the selected Objective directory and its outcome uses the standard vocabulary (completed / abandoned / deferred / superseded, optionally qualified).
• For a deferred outcome, confirm ## Closure carries an explicit restart pointer.
• Confirm the Objective directory remains under .ns/objectives/<slug>/.
• If an orientation.md was present, confirm it was left in place (not deleted) and any durable-rule graduation candidate was noted.
• If the closing record declared edges, confirm every counterpart received an explicit updated, unchanged, or already closed disposition based on both Edge Annotations and the counterpart's full current tracking — not only its Blocked Sentence.
• For each updated counterpart, confirm its durable files express the post-closure state, any warranted Semantic Update is new and counterpart-local, existing updates were not modified, and an orienting counterpart's orientation.md was re-derived when needed.
• Confirm no counterpart was recursively closed; report any counterpart now closure-ready.
• Confirm edges remain mirrored and were not removed merely because one endpoint closed.
• If any Record Frontmatter was edited, confirm ns objective check --all reports no structural errors.
• Summarize the closure outcome, connected-Objective dispositions and files changed, and note that closed Objectives are no longer eligible for objective-next by default.