Ban em dashes and require durable plan solutions

[DocksDocks]

Goal

Cut the plan record grammar and lifecycle text over from em dashes to hyphens, refuse em dashes in plan bodies, and require every plan to deliver durable solutions with temporary fixes allowed only on an explicit user request

Mode: plan-and-implement

Research

• Load-bearing em-dash grammar in plan.mjs: Depends empty cell (246, 904), review heading regexes (454, 455), plan and code finding-line regexes (467, 472), and the queue empty "Depends on" cell (965). No cosmetic em dashes in plan.mjs.
• The hyphen forms after cutover: ### Plan review - <UTC date>, ### Code review round <n> - <UTC date>, finding separator " - " (space hyphen space), empty Depends and "Depends on" cells -. Em-dash records become ineligible; the latest well-formed hyphen record per kind wins as today.
• Documented grammar carrying em dashes: plan-contract.md (114, 123, 168, 170, 174, 176, 185), plan-md-template.md (127, 311, 313, 317, 319), docs/PLAN.md (123, 307, 309, 313, 315), plan-reviewer SKILL (70, 72, 73), codex-agent-templates.md (98, 100), agents/plan-reviewer.md (67, 74, 76, 82), agents/code-reviewer.md (100, 102, 108), .codex/agents/code-reviewer.toml (62, 64). Zero em dashes in github-issue-publication.md and .codex/agents/plan-reviewer.toml.
• Cosmetic prose em dashes to remove in the same cutover so the ban is total inside lifecycle-owned text: plan-manager SKILL (50, 182 twice, 183), plan-contract.md (85, 109, 140, 151, 223), plan-workspace SKILL (210, 211), plan-md-template.md (1, 5, 295, 363), plan-reviewer SKILL (49), docs/PLAN.md (1, 291, 359), codex-agent-templates.md (1), selftest.mjs comment (2). docs/PLAN.md is byte-identical to the template's terminal fence, so both change together.
• Test pins on the em-dash grammar: plan-cli.mjs fixture rows and review-record assertions (160, 524, 783, 792, 794, 795, 798, 800, 803, 836, 1420, 1456, 1498, 1513, 1516, 1523, 1546, queue fixtures 2254, 2273, 2293) and plan-skill-phases.mjs (171, a prose pin that also carries an em dash).
• Enforcement: checkPlan gains an em-dash refusal for the whole body, folded into the check 10 family with its own message, keeping the pinned "13 checks" count. The hardened mutators from plan 23 then refuse any em-dash body before writing.
• Migration: this plan's own body legally carries em-dash Depends cells under the current grammar. After the cutover lands in the working tree, the first lifecycle write converts this body to hyphen grammar through edit, which validates with the new checks; later step and status writes then pass the full-validation gate. Closed plans keep their em-dash records as history and are never migrated. show and archive do re-read verdicts through reviewSummary and the archive verifier, so after the cutover an em-dash-era record is ineligible: show on such a closed plan reports no trusted review verdicts, and a hypothetical archive retry would refuse for a missing Code-review: pass. That is the accepted trade for a total ban; fixtures pin both behaviors.
• The lifecycle authoring node plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/AGENTS.md also carries em dashes (3, 4, 31, 37, 97) and joins the cutover so lifecycle-owned text is em-dash-free in total.
• Durable-solutions policy: one shared wording lands in the plan-manager drafting rules, the plan-reviewer finding lens, both shipped reviewer wrappers, both repo Codex wrapper TOMLs, the workspace codex templates, and the canonical record standard itself: plan-contract.md plus the byte-mirrored docs/PLAN.md and plan-md-template.md. Reviewers treat an unrequested temporary fix as a finding: goal_fit in plan review, Spec severity by impact in code review. A shared clause pin lands in scripts/tests/plan-skill-phases.mjs.

Steps

#	Id	Task	Files	Depends	Effect	Status	Done when
1	grammar_cutover	Switch parser and check grammar in plan.mjs to hyphen forms: review headings, finding separators, empty Depends and queue cells; update every plan-cli fixture and assertion that pins the em-dash forms; migrate the live queue's empty "Depends on" sentinel to -	plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-manager/scripts/plan.mjs, scripts/tests/plan-cli.mjs, docs/PLAN-QUEUE.md	-	local	done	Hyphen records parse as trusted; em-dash records are ineligible; empty Depends is -; next reads the migrated queue; plan-cli suite passes
2	body_dash_ban	Refuse any em dash in a plan body inside checkPlan with its own check 10 message; refuse U+2014 in the title and goal inside new prevalidation before gh issue create; refuse U+2014 in the status ... blocked --reason text before the composed-body write; all with test coverage	plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-manager/scripts/plan.mjs, scripts/tests/plan-cli.mjs	1	local	done	check exits 1 naming the em-dash rule for a body containing one; new with an em-dash goal or title exits 1 and creates no issue; status <n> blocked --reason with an em dash exits 1 and leaves the issue unchanged; hyphen bodies pass; the "13 checks" count is unchanged
3	durable_policy	Add the shared durable-solutions rule to plan-manager drafting, plan-reviewer findings, both shipped wrappers, both Codex wrapper TOMLs, the codex templates, and the record standard with its byte-identical mirrors, pinned in the phase tests	plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-manager/SKILL.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-reviewer/SKILL.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/agents/plan-reviewer.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/agents/code-reviewer.md, .codex/agents/plan-reviewer.toml, .codex/agents/code-reviewer.toml, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-workspace/references/codex-agent-templates.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-manager/references/plan-contract.md, docs/PLAN.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-workspace/references/plan-md-template.md, scripts/tests/plan-skill-phases.mjs	-	local	done	Each surface states: durable root-cause solutions only; a temporary fix requires an explicit user request recorded in the plan; reviewers treat an unrequested temporary fix as a finding; the shared clause is pinned and docs/PLAN.md stays byte-identical to the template fence
4	docs_grammar	Rewrite the documented record grammar and remove every remaining em dash across the contract, docs/PLAN.md, the workspace template and SKILLs, the reviewer SKILL, the lifecycle authoring node, codex templates, and selftest comment; update plan-skill-phases pins; add finished-plan fixtures pinning that em-dash-era records are ineligible under the new grammar	plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-manager/references/plan-contract.md, docs/PLAN.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-workspace/references/plan-md-template.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-workspace/SKILL.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-manager/SKILL.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-reviewer/SKILL.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/AGENTS.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/test/selftest.mjs, scripts/tests/plan-skill-phases.mjs, scripts/tests/plan-cli.mjs	1	local	done	Zero U+2014 bytes remain in lifecycle-owned skills, references, wrappers, the authoring node, docs/PLAN.md, and both test suites; docs/PLAN.md stays byte-identical to the template fence; a legacy em-dash record on a closed plan yields no trusted verdict in show; phase tests pass
5	hash_gate	Re-sync skill content hashes and pass the plugin gate	plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-manager/SKILL.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-reviewer/SKILL.md, plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-workspace/SKILL.md	1, 2, 3, 4	local	done	node scripts/ci.mjs --plugin plan-lifecycle exits 0

Acceptance

ID	Command	Expected
A1	node scripts/tests/plan-cli.mjs	Exit 0 with hyphen-grammar records trusted, em-dash records ineligible, and the body em-dash refusal covered
A2	node scripts/tests/plan-skill-phases.mjs	Exit 0 with updated pins
A3	node plugins/plan-lifecycle/test/selftest.mjs	Exit 0
A4	node scripts/ci.mjs --plugin plan-lifecycle	Exit 0; the full node scripts/ci.mjs also exits 0 because the diff spans repo-wide surfaces

Do not touch

• docs/plans/finished/ - frozen history
• Closed plan issues and their em-dash review comments: history, never migrated
• The hardened write paths from plan 23: assignee verification, retire recovery, prevalidation, mutator validation semantics

Open questions

None

Review

Review records are stored in issue comments.

Verification Results

• A1 node scripts/tests/plan-cli.mjs - exit 0: hyphen grammar trusted, em-dash records ineligible, body/title/goal/reason U+2014 refusals covered, legacy finished-plan records yield no trusted verdict.
• A2 node scripts/tests/plan-skill-phases.mjs - exit 0: durable-policy clause pinned on every surface, hyphen grammar pins, zero-U+2014 assertions.
• A3 node plugins/plan-lifecycle/test/selftest.mjs - exit 0.
• A4 node scripts/ci.mjs --plugin plan-lifecycle - exit 0; full node scripts/ci.mjs also exit 0 (3 plugins + repo-wide; diff spans repo-wide surfaces).

[DocksDocks]

Plan review - 2026-08-24

Plan-review: repair

• [goal_fit] plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/AGENTS.md:3 - step 4 promises zero U+2014 bytes in lifecycle-owned skills, but this omitted file still contains em dashes at lines 3, 4, 31, 37, and 97 - add the file to step 4 and replace those remaining characters
• [goal_fit] ## Steps row 3 - the durable-policy step omits plan-contract.md, docs/PLAN.md, and its byte-mirrored plan-md-template.md, leaving the canonical record standard without the explicit-user-request exception required by the Goal - add all three policy surfaces and pin the shared clause in scripts/tests/plan-skill-phases.mjs while preserving the docs/template byte identity
• [research_gap] plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-manager/scripts/plan.mjs:735 - the migration claim says no lifecycle command re-reads a finished plan's verdicts after archive, but showPlan always calls reviewSummary, and archivePlan reads the code verdict at line 1027 - state the resulting old-record behavior explicitly and add finished-plan show/archive fixtures for the hyphen-only grammar

[DocksDocks]

Plan review - 2026-08-24

Plan-review: repair

• [goal_fit] plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-manager/scripts/plan.mjs:createPlan - step 2 adds the U+2014 refusal only to checkPlan, but new --goal builds and publishes a drafting body without calling that check, so it can still create a plan body containing an em dash - extend step 2 to reject U+2014 in the goal/body before gh issue create and add a fixture proving no issue is created

[DocksDocks]

Plan review - 2026-08-24

Plan-review: repair

• [research_gap] docs/PLAN-QUEUE.md:12 - the live queue still encodes an empty Depends on cell with U+2014, but step 1 changes parseQueue to recognize only -, so next will treat the old sentinel as a dependency and leave active lifecycle data outside the cutover - add docs/PLAN-QUEUE.md to the grammar-cutover files and replace its empty sentinel with -

[DocksDocks]

Plan review - 2026-08-24

Plan-review: repair

• [goal_fit] plugins/plan-lifecycle/skills/productivity/plan-manager/scripts/plan.mjs:867-887 - status ... blocked --reason validates only the old body, then writes the supplied reason without validating the composed body, so a reason containing U+2014 defeats the goal's body-wide refusal - extend ## Steps row 2 to reject U+2014 in --reason before the write and cover that the issue remains unchanged

[DocksDocks]

Plan review - 2026-08-24

Plan-review: pass

[DocksDocks]

Code review round 1 - 2026-08-24

Code-review: pass