First Officer Gate Lifecycle

«gate.lifecycle»(slug, stage): bind, decide, apply one recorded authorization

Load before engaged gate action. It grants no writes; read fo-write-core.md before FO mutation.

The binary owns preparation, withdrawal, recording, and one-use consume; this skill only routes their observed results.

Boot. status --boot --identify --json ready_gates gives definition_dir, entity_dir, slug/stage/readiness. Engage slug via status --read <slug> --json, never search. needs-preparation: review report, or at an initial: true stage the committed seed itself; awaiting-captain: open; withdrawn-awaiting-prepare: successor; approved: unblocked; malformed/ambiguous: fail closed.

Prepare. Resolve ${SPACEDOCK_BIN:-spacedock}; keep paths. For each retained absolute R (definition_dir, entity_dir), derive relative P; state R is the engaged task directory, never .. Run git -C "<R>" ls-tree -r --name-only HEAD -- "<P>" | awk 'tolower($0)~/\.(md|markdown)$/{print}', quoted. Read once; summarize. No logs/history/status/help probes. Compose the selected-source <R>/<P> (observed workflow root or committed entity path); never retype prose. Use absolute if cwd/state spellings differ. No binary JSON/IDs/digests/Git locators/room coordinates.

Run this sequence once and in this order:

1. ${SPACEDOCK_BIN:-spacedock} gate prepare ENTITY --question QUESTION --artifact REVIEW --summary SUMMARY [--reference FILE ...] --workflow-dir WORKFLOW_DIR
2. ${SPACEDOCK_BIN:-spacedock} state commit ENTITY --workflow-dir WORKFLOW_DIR
3. In one shell event, run `${SPACEDOCK_BIN:-spacedock} status --read ENTITY --checklist --json --workflow-dir WORKFLOW_DIR` and the same command with `--ac-scan` instead of `--checklist`.
4. Load spacedock:present-gate and present once from that structured evidence.

Initial-stage gate. At a stage the workflow marks initial: true, the committed seed IS the reviewed artifact: no prior stage existed to write a report. Prepare directly from the seed with --artifact naming the entity; never author, request, or wait for a stage report, and never emit report-incomplete. Skip step 3 — both structured reads exit nonzero with no report. Present outcome, scope, exclusions, and the ideation proof the next stage owes.

Cold report candidate (non-initial stages). Structurally review the path-resolved entity's latest exact-stage report/checklist and commit. An insufficient obligation, claim, Summary, or scope stops once with report-incomplete: <concrete defect> and no prepare, mutation, presentation, idle, or repeat-next. Otherwise invoke prepare once; nonzero/mismatch stops with its exact error and no retry or gate record --briefing. Require prepare to emit room, briefing, digest, and state=open; never reconstruct the room. On nonzero commit, structured-read failure, or stage mismatch, stop before presentation or any later lifecycle effect. Use checklist text/ranges and AC citations to cross-check the gate; do not full-read/grep the entity or project boot after prepare or presentation. No conn: ask and stop open. Explicit conn: immediately record and consume; never final after presentation.

Withdraw stale open authority. If a prepared room is stale before the Captain decision, run:

${SPACEDOCK_BIN:-spacedock} gate withdraw ENTITY --reason REASON --workflow-dir WORKFLOW_DIR

Require state=withdrawn, commit the entity, and stop unless replacement inputs are ready. Withdrawal never means approve, revise, or hold. On withdrawn-awaiting-prepare, prepare and commit N+1, present its emitted room, and stop open. Never record, consume, present, dispatch, or recover with record --briefing on withdrawn N.

Record and durably close. Use exactly one semantic source:

# Captain-approve fast path: close, sync, consume, sync in one call
${SPACEDOCK_BIN:-spacedock} gate record ENTITY --decision approve --actor person:captain [--reason REASON] --consume --workflow-dir WORKFLOW_DIR

# Captain's chat decision
${SPACEDOCK_BIN:-spacedock} gate record ENTITY --decision approve|revise|hold --actor person:captain [--reason REASON] --workflow-dir WORKFLOW_DIR

# FO decision under explicit Captain conn
${SPACEDOCK_BIN:-spacedock} gate record ENTITY --decision approve|revise|hold --actor agent:first-officer --reason EVIDENCE_JUDGMENT --conn-quote GRANT --conn-source SOURCE --workflow-dir WORKFLOW_DIR

No Captain grant: bind/present and leave open; a later grant permits delegation. An existing conn requires present once, immediate record, then the route below. Record an FO-rendered decision as agent:first-officer with a nonblank reason, never person:captain; reserve it for the Captain. Cite the grant: quote it verbatim and name where it was given; the recorder refuses an FO decision without both. revise/hold need reasons.

Map Captain calls before recording: approve maps to approve with an accepts-direction evidence reason; redo with feedback maps to revise with an accepts-direction reason; reject with feedback-to maps to revise with a rejects-direction reason; reject without feedback-to maps to hold with a pause reason; hold maps to hold with a pause reason; not yet maps to hold with a pause reason naming what remains. Routed redo/reject reasons include concrete asks and invoke «feedback.route» after the close commit; hold decisions commit and stop at the gate.

Require exit 0, bound attempt/Briefing, state=closed, and decision; record validates Resolution/application before atomic write, commits, and syncs itself (split-root); sync=/phase= discriminator and recovery in fo-dispatch-core.md. Close/sync failure halts.

Route fail-closed. For approve, run:

${SPACEDOCK_BIN:-spacedock} gate consume ENTITY --workflow-dir WORKFLOW_DIR

Consume rechecks currency, successor, blockers, and one-use state under lock. Nonterminal: require exit 0, consumed=true, expected successor; it writes successor/consumed state, commits, and syncs. Then call dispatch build --stamp exactly once in the bound adapter shape (Codex named: no --bare-mode); never probe another shape. Require status and nonempty started in its commit. Terminal: require consumed=false, route=approved-awaiting-merge; drive «merge.guard»(slug) with no dispatch. Never use status --set to advance a gate.

• revise: never consume after close commit; invoke «feedback.route».
• hold: after close commit, remain at the gate and surface the reason.
• blocked/wrong-stage/unknown/ineligible approval: close is durable; halt and preserve status bytes.
• stale: consume exits nonzero, leaves status unchanged, changes only pending → superseded; commit it, bind a replacement Briefing, re-present.
• pending terminal approval: unspent — drive «merge.guard».
• already consumed: authorization is spent. Nonterminal status resumes ordinary dispatch/recovery; terminal status resumes the existing merge ceremony. Never re-record, consume, or dispatch a terminal successor. Diagnostic repeat consume must be nonzero and byte-clean.

Resume. Recover durable-but-unsynced writes per fo-dispatch-core.md; never retry failures or repair frontmatter. Routes: open → always state commit, then structured reads and presentation; failure stops; needs-preparation → review; withdrawn → prepare; pending approval → consume; revise/hold → route/stop; consumed → dispatch/merge. Prepare replay is idempotent; divergent binding refuses.