{
  "id": "status-field-rot",
  "title": "Status field rot",
  "guide": "vault/location-is-state",
  "prompt": "Pick the agent's next move, then see where it leads:",
  "setup": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "text": "My vault is a mess. I can't tell what I'm working on anymore."
    },
    {
      "role": "agent",
      "text": "The vault needs a way to say what state things are in. There are two places state can live: in the files, or in where the files are."
    }
  ],
  "options": [
    {
      "key": "A",
      "label": "Adding status frontmatter to every note (status: active | paused | someday | done) plus a dashboard note that lists everything by status. Full visibility.",
      "kind": "baseline",
      "outcome": [
        {
          "role": "user",
          "text": "A month later: the dashboard says 9 active projects. At least four of those haven't been touched since it was written."
        },
        {
          "role": "agent",
          "text": "The fields were set once and never maintained: every status change needs an edit nobody makes, and the dashboard is a copy of the copies. Two representations of state, both drifting, neither trusted."
        }
      ],
      "verdict": "Status fields are state you have to remember to maintain, and a dashboard is a cache of them. Both rot quietly: the vault now lies in two places instead of being ambiguous in one.",
      "cites": []
    },
    {
      "key": "B",
      "label": "Making location the state: inbox/, active/, later/, archived/. Then filing every existing note into exactly one. Here's the full move list for your approval before I touch anything.",
      "kind": "correct",
      "outcome": [
        {
          "role": "agent",
          "text": "Moves applied per your edits to the list. Now: ls active/ shows six folders. That IS your answer to \"what am I working on,\" no dashboard needed, and it can't drift because the location isn't a label about the file, it's where the file is. Monthly, I'll propose a sweep of untouched actives to later/."
        },
        {
          "role": "user",
          "text": "Six. That's already two more than the truth. Move weekend-synth and the blog redesign to later/."
        }
      ],
      "verdict": "Location can't disagree with itself: moving the file is the status update, ls is the dashboard, and the honest answer surfaced immediately, including the two projects the user demoted on sight.",
      "cites": []
    },
    {
      "key": "C",
      "label": "I'll set up the four lifecycle directories and refile everything now: I can judge each note's state from its content and last-modified date. Done in one pass, no need to bother you with the details.",
      "kind": "plausible",
      "outcome": [
        {
          "role": "user",
          "text": "Where did my grant application notes go? They were in the root last week."
        },
        {
          "role": "agent",
          "text": "I archived them: last touched five months ago. I didn't know the deadline is next month and the long gap was the grant cycle, not abandonment. I sorted your commitments by my heuristics, silently, and now you can't find things where you left them."
        }
      ],
      "verdict": "Right structure, wrong process: filing is deciding what things mean to their owner, and a silent bulk refile makes those calls unsupervised. Moves are proposals: the list before the move is the entire safety mechanism.",
      "cites": []
    }
  ]
}