# Status Document

> A bounded STATUS.md answering what is true today, what is active, and what is blocked — readable in under a minute.

**Tier:** 0 · **Normative weight:** ergonomics
**Requires:** nothing

## Problem it removes

"Where are we?" gets answered from memory, chat scrollback, or a stale plan.
Each answer differs, and work resumes against a reconstructed state instead
of a recorded one.

## Mechanism

One `STATUS.md` at the repository root with a scope contract in its header:
present tense is what is true today; the per-change narrative is Git
history, not this file; displaced history moves out. Sections are bounded on
purpose — **Current phase** (one bolded sentence plus exact state),
**Active (maximum 8)**, **Blocked (maximum 5)**, a named promotion gate
defined as a conjunction of observable clauses, **Known current unknowns**,
and **Out of scope**. The item caps force triage: a status document that can
grow without limit stops being read.

The unknowns section is the quiet workhorse — a standing list of what is
deliberately not known, so silence is never mistaken for coverage.

## Cost

Authoring: under an hour. Per change: a few lines at each real state
change; the "Last updated" date is the honesty check. Per session: it is
the first read, and replaces a longer reconstruction.

## Do not adopt when

The repository's state is fully derivable from its code and CI — a status
document there duplicates what Git already answers.

## Evidence

Assessed in [cloud-ops](/docs/truth-machine/implementations/cloud-ops/),
whose status document carries the "definition of aligned" gate. Observed in
flow, scope, kinra-os, and kinra-site.

## Template

[`templates/status-document/STATUS.md`](/docs/truth-machine/templates/status-document/STATUS.md)

## Related patterns

The [Front Door](/docs/truth-machine/kit/front-door/) points here first.
[Decision Records](/docs/truth-machine/kit/decision-records/) hold the
reasons that this file deliberately does not accumulate.