Remove the pre-GitHub plan archive, old records, and the plan-body guard #106

Goal

Remove the files under docs/ that only the pre-GitHub plan workflow used, because plans live in GitHub issues and the files add noise: the frozen plan archive docs/plans/ (121 files), docs/release-evidence/, docs/authoring-audits.md, docs/optimization-audit-may-2026.md, and docs/PLAN-QUEUE.md. Remove the no-bespoke-gates guard with its test, fixtures, registry row, and gate step, because its fourth test needs a plan body under docs/plans and can never fire after the removal. Update every reference in this repository (docs/AGENTS.md, docs/PLAN.md, the root AGENTS.md, scripts/AGENTS.md, .github/AGENTS.md, .claude/launch.json, and script comments). Keep docs/AGENTS.md and docs/PLAN.md, and keep the shipped plan-lifecycle guidance about docs/plans/finished/ for other projects. Git history keeps every removed file.

Yolo: the user delegated every decision except the merge to the agent.

Mode: plan-and-implement

Research

Facts

• Plans have been GitHub issues since commit b976562e ("make the plan record a GitHub issue"); docs/AGENTS.md and docs/PLAN.md call docs/plans/finished/ frozen pre-GitHub history that no helper reads. The archive holds 121 files (4.9 MB).
• git grep outside the removed files finds these references: docs/AGENTS.md (the PLAN-QUEUE note, the frozen-archive note, and the point-in-time records section), docs/PLAN.md (two lines), the root AGENTS.md (repository scope and the context-tree row for docs/AGENTS.md), scripts/AGENTS.md (the PLAN-QUEUE sentence and the durable-anchors and no-bespoke-gates rows), .github/AGENTS.md (the repo lane list names no-bespoke-gates), .claude/launch.json (its only configuration serves docs/plans over HTTP), scripts/ci.mjs (the no-bespoke-gates gate step), scripts/tests/ci-plugin-targeting.mjs (an assertion that the repo lane runs that guard once), scripts/config/test-contracts.json (row unit-no-bespoke-gates), scripts/lib/ci-targeting.mjs (a comment), scripts/skills/durable-anchors.mjs (SKIP_PATHS skips docs/plans, and its comments), and scripts/skills/refs-guard.mjs (a comment with a docs/plans example).
• scripts/plans/no-bespoke-gates.mjs flags an export only when all four of its measurements hold; the fourth is "a plan body under docs/plans/ names the export" (PLAN_DIR). Its unit test (scripts/tests/unit/no-bespoke-gates.test.mjs) reads a real archive file (PLAN_PATH) and fixtures under scripts/tests/unit/fixtures/no-bespoke-gate/. With docs/plans gone, the guard can never report a defect.
• docs/release-evidence/, docs/authoring-audits.md, and docs/optimization-audit-may-2026.md are dated records; nothing in the repository reads them (the word release-evidence in scripts/tests/test-contracts.mjs is a release-role value, not the folder).
• The shipped plan-lifecycle skills (plan-contract.md, plan-workspace/SKILL.md, plan-md-template.md) mention docs/plans/finished/ and docs/PLAN-QUEUE.md for projects that migrated from the old layout; that guidance concerns other repositories and stays.
• The review benchmark's held-out case code-H1-plan.md quotes a historical plan that names docs/plans/finished/; it is case data and stays.

Decisions

1. Remove the records. Delete docs/plans/, docs/release-evidence/, docs/authoring-audits.md, docs/optimization-audit-may-2026.md, docs/PLAN-QUEUE.md, and .claude/launch.json.
2. Rewrite the docs node. docs/AGENTS.md keeps its plan-record routing, drops the PLAN-QUEUE and frozen-archive notes, and replaces the point-in-time records section with a records rule: docs/ holds only AGENTS.md and PLAN.md; plans, audits, and release evidence are recorded in GitHub issues and pull requests; long-lived documentation uses the durable anchor grammar. docs/PLAN.md drops its two lines about the archive and PLAN-QUEUE. The root AGENTS.md describes docs/ as plan routing and updates the context-tree row.
3. Remove the guard. Delete scripts/plans/ (the guard is its only file), the unit test and its fixtures, the registry row, the gate step, the ci-plugin-targeting assertion, the scripts/AGENTS.md row, the .github/AGENTS.md mention, and the ci-targeting comment. Rejected: a guard that reads plan issues (network access in the gate) and a plan citation in code (the user chose removal).
4. Drop the dead skip. durable-anchors.mjs loses SKIP_PATHS and its docs/plans comments, so every AGENTS.md node is in scope; the scripts/AGENTS.md row says so. refs-guard.mjs gets a generic example in its comment.
5. Review diff. The review diffs show each deleted file by name only (git diff -D), and the dispatch lists the deleted paths, because the archive's text is not under review.

Engineering standards

• Steps 1 and 2: code-clarity for the changed text and comments.
• Commits: commit-discipline. Self-review during code review round 1: code-review with code-clarity.

Steps

Acceptance

Do not touch

• The shipped plan-lifecycle guidance about docs/plans/finished/ and docs/PLAN-QUEUE.md for other projects.
• The review benchmark case data.
• Git history: no rewrite.

Open questions

Verification Results

Commits: fa4c1ea6 (step 1: 127 deleted files, docs/AGENTS.md, docs/PLAN.md, root AGENTS.md) and 5cf3efb3 (step 2: the guard, its test and fixtures, and their references).

• a1: bun scripts/ci.mjs passed for the repo-wide checks and both plugins on the candidate.
• a2: the git grep printed nothing.
• a3: ls docs printed AGENTS.md and PLAN.md.
• Code review round 1 (panel, deleted files shown by name only): all three lenses passed with no finding; the self-review found nothing.