archive

---

name: archive description: File a finished shift into its own archive folder, laid out like the live site, so the live files keep only open work. license: MIT

Archive the finished paperwork for the host-opened project. This files records — it never does shift work, never ticks a box, never touches the contract.

The four state files and what each holds are in $NIGHTSHIFT_PLUGIN_ROOT/skills/nightshift/references/shift/state-map.md. Archive each by its own lifecycle; never reclassify one as another.

Resolve the installed plugin root to an absolute $NIGHTSHIFT_PLUGIN_ROOT — ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} on Claude Code, $PLUGIN_ROOT on Codex when set, otherwise the absolute path this skill was attached from (skills/archive/SKILL.md). Run every command below through "$NIGHTSHIFT_PLUGIN_ROOT/runtime/ns" — native Windows: & "$NIGHTSHIFT_PLUGIN_ROOT\runtime\windows\ns.ps1" in the PowerShell tool, same verbs — which resolves the host and the workspace; ns help lists the verbs, and ns bind prints the six resolved facts (TASK_ROOT, NIGHTSHIFT_WORKSPACE, NS, NIGHTSHIFT_PLUGIN_ROOT, HOST, SOURCE); $NS below is that NS. Never a bare relative path: the working directory persists between calls. Each $NS/... path below is where the current layout keeps that file; ns path <key> prints where this workspace keeps it, and ns path --list names every key.

Read $NS/state-version first. Legacy (missing), 1 and the current 2 may be archived. A newer or malformed marker fails closed — file nothing, rewrite nothing, and never migrate. state-version itself stays live; it is not an archive record.

In artifact mode the work target is a persistent folder, not a Git repository. File the same Nightshift records; do not require a work-target commit that cannot exist. Copy live receipts with "$NIGHTSHIFT_PLUGIN_ROOT/runtime/ns" archive-receipts, and pass --retire <receipt-name> once per ticked item (native Windows: -Retire with those names as one comma-separated list). Missing or empty receipts create no dated receipts folder. A receipts path that is not a usable directory is a refuse, not an empty skip.

If $NS/run/.pending-filing exists, a shift asked for filing at clock-out. It carries date= and shiftId= lines naming that shift — use them — and an asked=1 line once the gate has held the session to ask for it. Delete the marker once filing is done, and only then. Nothing else about it is special: file the same way you would on any explicit Archive.

$NS/run/.ended names the shift that finished and where it files, in shiftId=, archiveRoot=, archiveLayout=, shiftName= and archiveFolder= lines. Clock-out claimed that folder for the shift, and every later Archive of it returns there, whatever day it runs.

Only what is closed is filed. Each record lives in one place: filed once it is closed, live while it is open. Filing is a copy: nothing leaves live storage until its filed copy reads back. A ticked item's receipt leaving live storage is a separate step, and the agent running Archive takes it from $NS/punch-list.md — not later, not the owner, and not by guessing. --retire with one record name, repeated once per ticked item on POSIX; on native Windows, -Retire takes those names as a single comma-separated list. Receipts of open items are never named: they stay live and are not filed. The morning receipt is named only when that shift has ended and no open item still needs it. Once the shift has ended, the helper also retires every ticked item's receipt it filed, even if a name was missed. It will not retire an open item's receipt.

Before naming anything, read $NS/punch-list.md and the records themselves. A shift can end with items still open — STOP and the deadline both do that — so .ended is not a reason to leave a ticked receipt live, and it is not a reason to pull an open one. Keep a record live when an open item, an unanswered parking decision or work carried into the next shift still needs it, and when you cannot tell who owns it. Rejected work is filed with its rejection, never erased. A name the helper did not file is refused and told back to you.

Where it goes

Each shift has one folder under the archive root (archive.root in the resolved policy), named by archive.layout:

• date (the default): <YYYY-MM-DD>/, and a later shift that day <YYYY-MM-DD>-shift-2/, -shift-3/ and so on.
• shift: shift-<id>/.
• name: the name on the punch list's title line, as in # Punch List — Archive follow-ups, so archive-follow-ups/.
• date-name: both, <YYYY-MM-DD>-archive-follow-ups/.

A shift with no name files by date under name and date-name, and a second shift under the same name takes -shift-2. The folder records its shift in .shift-id; another shift never writes into it, and filing the same shift again returns to it. archive-receipts prints the folder; receipts land in its receipts/, which is archive/<YYYY-MM-DD>/receipts/ by default. A shift that never reached clock-out has no claimed folder yet and files by today's date: date +%Y-%m-%d on POSIX, or Get-Date -Format yyyy-MM-dd on native Windows.

The folder is laid out like the live site. Every record sits at the path it has under $NS/:

archive/<folder>/
├── .shift-id
├── punch-list.md            the contract and the ticked items
├── receipts/                the receipts of ticked items, the morning page, and an index of this folder
├── inbox/
│   ├── parking-lot.md       the answered decisions
│   └── snag-log.md          the findings with a disposition
└── run/
    ├── shift-policy.json    filed by clock-out
    ├── shift-log.md
    ├── usage/               the shift's usage readings
    └── evidence/findings.jsonl   filed by clock-out, when the shift used it

Links between those records keep working as written. A link to a record that stayed live — the drafting table, a receipt of an open item still being worked — is repointed back to it in the filed page, which is the only copy. Do not hand-edit it.

What moves, what stays

• Punch list → filed by the runtime. Once the shift has ended, archive-receipts files the contract and the ticked items, then takes the ticked items out of $NS/punch-list.md. Open items, the contract and the gates stay live; an item ticked later joins the same filed list on the next Archive. Do not move items by hand. When the owner is present and no open box is left, ask whether to keep the contract for the next shift or change it. In unattended filing (a .pending-filing from clock-out) do not ask: append one reminder under ## Notes (create the heading below ## Items if it is missing): leftover Shift contract and Gates still bind the next Hunt or Start cut; review them before composing a new campaign; Archive does not reset them. Skip the note when open work remains, when the same sentence is already present, or if adding it would require an open checkbox. Never write - [ ] here and never edit above ## Items.
• Receipts — the ticked ones filed and retired. For each ticked item, pass --retire <receipt-name>; receipts of open items stay live and are not filed. archive-receipts rebuilds receipts/README.md on both sides of the move so each index lists only the receipts in its own folder.
• Shift log, usage, policy → filed by the runtime. Once the shift has ended, the helper moves $NS/run/shift-log.md into the folder and starts a fresh one under the same heading, moves the shift's usage readings, and moves a policy of that shift that is still live. A usage-<id>/ folder the Start preflight set aside goes to the folder of the shift it belongs to. Do not move any of these by hand.
• Snag log — the handled entries filed, only the open entries stay. archive-receipts files each - bullet entry of $NS/inbox/snag-log.md that carries a disposition (fixed, ignored, answered, rejected-because, accepted-tradeoff), takes those entries out of the live file, and appends one Filed: pointer to the filed copy (label: the folder's name, or the shift id in the shift layout; target: relative path to the filed file). A file with no entry files nothing. Do not hand-copy entries. Entries still awaiting the owner stay live: an open question is not history yet. Text written as a paragraph instead of a bullet is never filed; Doctor names it by file and line.
• Parking lot — the answered entries filed, only the unanswered stay. Same helper, same pointer rule on $NS/inbox/parking-lot.md. The owner answers an entry by appending · answered: <decision>; an answered entry is filed, never deleted. Parking-lot questions unanswered stay. Read live entries first; when checking whether a finding or decision was already handled, follow the pointer and search the linked file by topic or identifier. Historical decisions are evidence, not fresh authorization. A broken pointer is reported in the snag log; never guess or delete history.
• Work orders — only what's spent. Pending orders are open boxes; they stay. A ## Work order heading with no remaining box is leftover shell from a cut — delete it, do not file it. File only an order whose box was ticked in place, into the folder's staging/work-orders.md.
• Product research → the archive after its shift. When no shift is active, append the completed entries from $NS/product/product-research.md to the folder's product/product-research.md, preserving their dates, sources, evidence, and conclusions; then restore the live file from the shipped template. During an active shift, leave all research live. Research is evidence, so never summarize it away or strip its source URLs while filing it.
• Opportunity map — only terminal outcomes. Move shipped and rejected entries from $NS/product/opportunity-map.md into the folder's product/opportunity-map.md, preserving their evidence links and reasons. Keep candidate, building, and parked entries live: they can still affect a future cycle or need the owner. Restore the shipped headings if moving the last terminal entry leaves an empty section. Never renumber or silently change a status during archive.

Timing

Best between shifts. During an active shift with open boxes, say so and ask before moving anything — the ticked lines are the night's scoreboard, and the owner may want the morning review to see them in place. If the receipts repo exists ($NS/.git) and receiptsAutoCommit is true in $NS/rules.json (or NIGHTSHIFT_RECEIPTS_AUTO_COMMIT=true), commit after archiving so the move itself has history. Default is false — leave the tree dirty for the owner. When committing, use the same headless identity the clock-out gate uses, and turn signing off so a global commit.gpgsign=true cannot stall:

git -C "$NS" add -A
git -C "$NS" -c user.name=nightshift -c user.email=nightshift@localhost \
  -c commit.gpgsign=false commit -q -m "archive"

On native Windows the same git -C flags work in PowerShell. Nothing to commit is success. Never add a remote, never push.

Retention

After filing, preview generated history that the owner has opted in to prune. Run:

"$NIGHTSHIFT_PLUGIN_ROOT/runtime/ns" retain-history

Print that preview verbatim — every eligible path, its age, and the governing rule (retention.runtimeLogDays or retention.archiveDays). Both default to 0 (keep forever); a preview that lists nothing is success, not a prompt to invent a number.

Deletion is a second, explicit step. If the preview lists paths and the owner confirms in this interactive session, run the same command with --apply (POSIX) or -Apply (native Windows). If the shift is armed, the owner does not confirm, or either rule is 0, stop after the preview. --apply/-Apply deletes only the allowlisted runtime log (scheduled.log) and shift folders — dated archive/YYYY-MM-DD/ and archive/YYYY-MM-DD-shift-N/, and any folder a shift claimed in its .shift-id — that are old enough, resolved under $NS/, not symlinks, and free of still-open work. A claimed folder's punch list is a copy whose open items stayed live, so it never holds work back.

Never call ns retain-history from start, hooks, status, Doctor, or recovery. Never call ns archive-receipts from start, hooks, status, Doctor, or recovery. Never delete the live punch list, drafting table, parking lot, rules, current shift files, or owner-authored files.

Index

After filing, add the shift to the private history index: history-index.md at the top of the archive root (archive/history-index.md by default), one file and one shape on every host. When it does not exist but an index.md there opens with # Archived shifts, that file is the index under an older name: rename it to history-index.md and say so. Any other index.md is left alone. With neither, create the file with its heading:

# Archived shifts

One entry per archived shift, from the history-context template. Fields not on record read unavailable.

Each shift is one entry in this shape. Its block is the history-context template in $NIGHTSHIFT_PLUGIN_ROOT/skills/nightshift/references/receipts/cycle-specialist-evidence.md:

## <shift id, or unavailable> — <one-line objective> (<plugin version>)

```text
# history-context / preset
objective: <text>
contracts: <ids>
verification: <profile>
sources: <allowed locators>
limits: <hours, elevation>
```
host: <host> · work target: <target, mode> · branch <branch> from <commit>
outcome: <ticked of total; pull request, merge, release>
evidence: <locators under the archive root>
commits: <count and tip, or the artifacts>
duration: <start> → <end>
ending: <how the shift ended>
record gaps: <what is missing or corrupt, or none>

Filing a shift again updates its entry instead of adding a second. Corrupt or missing fields are recorded — never invented. Compare prior shifts from that index to reuse evidence locators and plans only; never replay side effects. Render audience-specific handoffs from one evidence truth.

Summarize

Print the shift's folder and one line per file moved or trimmed — and what stayed live and why. If a retention preview ran, include whether anything was eligible and whether the owner confirmed a delete.