Check reference

Active work is building on an ancestor that was abandoned, marked obsolete, or replaced.

Check whether the parent's closure means this work should also close, or be reparented to something still active.

This draft needs ratification to take effect, but nobody has edited it for a long time.

Propose it for ratification if it is still wanted. Archive it if it is not.

More than one live artifact has a type that allows only one live instance in this workspace.

Keep the current artifact. Close or archive the remaining duplicates.

This is actively in progress but has no priority set — it can't be ranked against other work competing for the same capacity.

Set a priority so it can be compared with everything else in flight.

This is actively being worked on (in progress or in review) but has no owner on record.

If someone's already on it, assign them so it's reflected here.

Lifecycle fields on this artifact violate an invariant — for example, a closure reason set on a non-closed item.

This is usually a data entry error. Correct the lifecycle state to match what's actually happening.

There are multiple top-level objectives with no shared parent tying them together — competing directions that don't ladder up to a common goal.

Consider creating a shared parent goal, or deciding which direction is primary.

This has sub-items, but none of them are concrete, executable tasks — the whole subtree is still at a planning level.

If this is still early-stage, that's fine for now. Otherwise, it's time to break it into real tickets.

This active persona or problem has no live project or ticket connected through SERVES or ADDRESSES.

Connect the closest shared execution artifact, or close the demand artifact if it is intentionally parked.

A parent of this artifact completed or migrated, but this artifact still has a different state. Another parent may still be live.

Decide whether to close this artifact, move it to a live parent, or leave it open on purpose.

This work's parent completed or migrated, but this item is still open — it may have been overlooked when the parent closed.

Decide whether to close it, carry it forward under a new parent, or reparent it.

This strategic commitment has no owner — nobody is accountable for it.

Assign an owner who is responsible for its outcomes.

Tickets under this declaration point cannot reach an active persona or problem through their own relationships or inherited project context.

Link this shared project to the missing demand artifacts so every affected ticket inherits the repair.

Two different owners are working on overlapping work under the same parent at the same time.

Check whether this is intentional, or whether one should be deferred or merged with the other.

This strategic goal has high-priority work underneath it, but nothing in its entire subtree is assigned to anyone.

This usually means urgent work is at risk of stalling. Assign an owner to at least one piece of it.

No ratification covers the current premise, or its validation has expired.

Ratify or re-ratify an uncovered premise. If authority is current, renew validation without changing authority.

This plan hasn't been updated while the work under it keeps changing — the written strategy may no longer reflect what's actually being done.

Review and update the plan to match current execution, or acknowledge the divergence.

This project or epic is still marked active, but all its work is closed and it hasn't been touched in a while.

Close it if the work is complete, or add new work if it's still active.

These two artifacts were judged to be in logical opposition — their stated intent conflicts.

Review both and decide which direction is correct, then update or close the one that's wrong.

A child artifact was judged to contradict the intent of its parent — the work opposes what the parent says it's for.

Review both and decide whether the child needs reframing, reparenting, or closing.

This child near-duplicates its parent instead of decomposing it into more specific work.

Restate it as a concrete sub-task of the parent's intent rather than a restatement of it.

These two artifacts were judged to be near-duplicates — the same intent stated twice in different parts of the graph.

Consolidate them into one, or clarify how they're actually different.

This objective's children don't cohere as a single decomposition — they're pulling in different directions.

Consider whether they're actually serving the same parent goal, or whether they belong under different objectives.

The artifact does not meet its type, writing, or specification rubric.

This plan seems to depend on something — a system, integration, or capability — that isn't documented anywhere in the workspace or the code.

This is a judgment call. See the reasoning below for what triggered it, then decide whether the dependency is real, already handled elsewhere, or just needs to be written down.

This goal or strategy states a measurable target, but none of its descendants are working toward it.

Create work that directly addresses the metric, or remove the metric if it's no longer the right measure.

Work is concentrated by priority or branch, or often has no priority set. Check whether the distribution matches your intent.