feat: repo-governance - Define book discussion templates #246

Current delivery and branch audit — 24 October 2026

This current snapshot supersedes conflicting earlier branch instructions and implementation-status claims below. Earlier dated notes remain historical evidence, not current acceptance. No status, hierarchy, native PR association or repository change is proposed by this description patch.

• Outcome: Approve book-specific Discussion categories and compatible forms.
• Recorded status: In Progress. Accepted whole-child completion is not established.
• Verified implementation position: Five forms plus README are present. Their presence does not demonstrate configured categories, approved audiences or rendered default-branch creation.
• Outstanding acceptance: Approve categories/slugs and audiences; verify schema and actual creation behaviour. Settings changes are separate owner actions.

Branch instructions

• Repository: lightspeedwp/ThisOneTimeOnAcidCom
• Implementing issue(s): this existing child; GitHub sync counterpart feat: repo-governance - Define book discussion templates #246 in the same repository. Linear GitHub-sync mapping retrieved; GitHub issue body/parent not independently re-read in this audit. Do not use a closing/development association until independently verified.
• Parent epic context: native parent verified; coordination only. No implementation branch/file plan belongs to the epic itself.
• Allowed closing target(s): none now. Whole-child acceptance and independent GitHub/Linear mapping/association review are required before proposing a closing target; never the parent.
• Branch state: unresolved
• Branch: unresolved — exact recommendation withheld
• Base: develop, verified at 3f583002482d80ffd1910676bcf7c63e13989b20; refresh before separately authorised implementation
• Naming policy: target instructions, contributor guide, validator, local branch guide, organisation strategy. Classification rationale: feat is the candidate code/documentation class; authorised prefix is checked independently of the Linear title. No exact new name is recommended; no branch mutation or reuse is approved.
• Pull request template: shared pr_feature.md — explicitly read/use its sections; do not add a repository-local copy
• PR association safeguard: No parent identifier/link in a future branch name, PR title/body, coding prompt, development link or closing directive. Association/status automation settings remain unverified; do not assume “Related to” text or a hyperlink is harmless. Child references in this description are not proposed PR text.
• Constraints: preserve unrelated work; do not create/switch/rename/delete branches, force-push, merge, deploy, change settings or close records under this draft. Shared locked configuration/templates require human review. Residual protected-file declarations remain relevant despite absent guard workflow; do not equate absent automated enforcement with permission. Workflow ownership conflicts require controller/owner resolution, not local edits to managed dependency workflows.
• Conflicts or missing evidence: Exact category/form dispositions unresolved; no form edits or deletions can yet be enumerated. Bound remaining discovery to the five current YAML forms.

Expected file changes

Plan status: provisional bounded proposal, not an approved or exhaustive implementation manifest; conditional rows are not permission to act.

• Out of scope: New categories by assumption, unrelated templates, shared locked-template edits and automatic settings changes.
• Remaining discovery: Exact category/form dispositions unresolved; no form edits or deletions can yet be enumerated. Bound remaining discovery to the five current YAML forms.
• Scope-change gate: stop for revised exact scope and approval before adding materially different paths or operations. No unbounded “other files as needed”. Protected-file approval never overrides a prohibition on routine agent edits.

Evidence and handoff packet

• Recipient and request: originating issue-management audit; read-only exact existing-record preview for approval, not a new intake or implicit specialist invocation.
• Selected record: this existing child description, separate from the coordination parent; no writes performed.
• Implementing targets and criteria: this child’s existing outcome and acceptance criteria remain in force. Approve book-specific Discussion categories and compatible forms. Outstanding gates: Approve categories/slugs and audiences; verify schema and actual creation behaviour. Settings changes are separate owner actions.
• Sources checked: current Linear description/status/native parent/relations/explicit pullRequests and GitHub sync metadata; target instructions, contributor guide, validator, local branch guide, organisation strategy; the exact source paths/revisions above and current repository inventory. Shared template config checked at 47aee0722033f65d4d9d57429b410b518646b817. Some path evidence is inventory-only and is labelled as such; it is not full content/behaviour validation.
• Branch/PR evidence: Current remote inventory includes historical epic/repo-governance-lightspeedwp/ThisOneTimeOnAcidCom#237 and broad governance/testing branches; scope/base/diff fit was not verified, so none is recommended for reuse. An open application-instrumentation pull request overlaps shared configuration; refresh its head, changed paths and scope before choosing a branch or editing shared files. No reuse is approved. No native linked PR was returned for this child; descriptive/historical references are not native associations.
• Association and closing rationale: Linear GitHub-sync mapping retrieved; GitHub issue body/parent not independently re-read in this audit. Do not use a closing/development association until independently verified. No complete-child acceptance or closing target established. Linear GitHub documentation lookup identified the integration article but did not expose its detailed association content; current workspace linking/status rules remain unverified. No parent identifier/link in a future branch name, PR title/body, coding prompt, development link or closing directive. Association/status automation settings remain unverified; do not assume “Related to” text or a hyperlink is harmless. Child references in this description are not proposed PR text.
• Unresolved points and exclusions: Exact category/form dispositions unresolved; no form edits or deletions can yet be enumerated. Bound remaining discovery to the five current YAML forms. New categories by assumption, unrelated templates, shared locked-template edits and automatic settings changes.
• Approval state: draft only. Exact description-preview approval is still required; repository edits/branch actions/PRs/settings/native associations retain separate boundaries. Existing GitHub issue sync is active, so approved description changes may propagate externally; no duplicate GitHub body write is proposed.

Define the initial book discussion categories and corresponding forms, deciding whether organisational defaults or local .github/DISCUSSION_TEMPLATE/ files best serve the book.

Acceptance criteria

• Initial categories and their intended audiences are approved
• Forms match category slugs and current GitHub schema
• Local versus inherited behaviour is documented
• Discussion creation is tested on the default branch

Editorial questions, story suggestions and reader feedback are starting proposals, not approved categories.

Target: book repository. Reference: shared .github directory.

Current implementation and remaining acceptance — 19 October 2026

Reviewed against develop revision 4ecdb26d9655a48bf000a7c89da2f70383edce87. No tests, interface submissions, settings changes or metadata mutations were performed during this review. Merged changes are partial evidence, not automatic completion.

Delivered: #305 merged five Discussion forms.

Remaining acceptance: approve book-specific categories/audiences; verify matching slugs and schemas; document local/inherited behaviour; demonstrate default-branch form selection and Discussion creation.

Validation gap: form files do not establish configured categories or working interface behaviour.