`branch` and `release` were bare commands, but bare in this repo means
"how you invoke a tier" or "runs one tool" — neither fits a command that
opens or closes a unit of work. They get their own prefix now, since a
prefix is how this repo records _when_ a script runs.
`create:` because both members genuinely create something (a branch, a
release) and it is a plain verb rather than VCS slang. No bare `create`
aggregator: running "all the workflows" describes nothing anyone wants,
and `publish:*` already precedents a prefix without one.
The rule "reuse an existing prefix, never invent one" now says what it
actually means: a new prefix is allowed when the scripts belong in the
pipeline, provided it enters both lists in the same commit as its first
member. That is the lesson from `use:`, which is referenced by prose yet
in none of the lists — already tracked in backlog.tasks.
The bare-command sentence shrinks to `build`, `clean`, `verify`.
The branching model assumed a clean, current `main` and a green baseline
before any edit, but both were prose, and prose nobody checks silently
becomes a suggestion. `npm run branch -- <prefix>/<desc>` asserts the
precondition and only then creates the branch, so a later failure is
attributable to the change that caused it.
Checks run cheap-first (`--porcelain` deliberately catches untracked
files, which would otherwise ride onto the new branch) and the suite
runs last, so an ineligible tree never pays for it. `main`'s remote is
derived from its upstream rather than hardcoded: this repo has both
`origin` and `origin_https`, and `main` tracks the latter, so a
`git fetch origin main` currency check would compare against a ref that
is never updated here. The baseline runs after switching to `main`, so a
red `main` restores the starting branch instead of stranding the caller
on it.
The prefix stays a judgment call: the script validates it against the
documented vocabulary instead of inferring it.
Prose kept as index only — AGENTS.md points agents at the command from
the task workflow, CONTRIBUTING.md owns the model and the bare-script
tier (dropping its stale hardcoded count of "two" conveniences).
tmu