docs: make specs/plans git-tracked and transient — retired via git rm at cycle close

docs/specs and docs/plans hold only the active cycle's artefacts: a spec/plan is committed while its cycle is live and git-rm'd in the cycle-close commit (after audit drift-clean), so HEAD shows only in-flight work while git history keeps the full text. No issue-posting, no gitignore branch — git history + the design ledger are the durable record.

Rewrites conventions.md § Lifecycle as the single source of truth; pipeline.md, design.md, README.md, specify, planner, glossary, brainstorm, issue, and the CLAUDE.md fragment follow it. Naming stays NNNN-slug.md (a within-cycle handle; recycling on an emptied directory is fine).

docs/conventions.md

@@ -27,14 +27,41 @@ These directories are fixed. A project that keeps specs and plans
 elsewhere is the rare exception and states the override in its
 `CLAUDE.md` project facts.
 
+## Lifecycle
+
+`docs/specs/` and `docs/plans/` hold **only the active cycle's
+artefacts** — they are working space, not an archive. A spec or plan is
+valid for the cycle that produces it; its code shapes drift the moment
+the code moves, so a stale one left lying around reads as a live API
+reference and misleads the next agent that opens it.
+
+The two directories stay **git-tracked** — never git-ignored. A
+spec/plan is committed while its cycle is live, and at **cycle close** —
+after `audit` is drift-clean — the orchestrator **retires** it: `git rm`
+the spec and plan in the cycle-close commit. The deletion rides in that
+commit, so at `HEAD` the directories hold only what is still in flight,
+while the full text stays recoverable from git history
+(`git show <rev>:<path>`).
+
+A spec/plan is therefore **transient in the repo**: present for its own
+cycle, gone from `HEAD` afterwards. The durable record of a past cycle
+is the design ledger (where the rationale is lifted during audit) + the
+git history of the spec, plan, and code — never a live file under
+`docs/specs` / `docs/plans`.
+
 ## Naming
 
 Counter-prefixed, per directory: `NNNN-slug.md`, 4-digit
 zero-padded. The counter is per directory, assigned in creation
 order, and stable for the life of the file. New files take the
-next-higher number; deleted files retire their number (numbers are
-not recycled). `brainstorm` / `specify` / `planner` scan the target
-directory for the next free number before writing.
+next-higher number; `brainstorm` / `specify` / `planner` scan the
+target directory for the next free number before writing.
+
+The number is a within-cycle handle, not a stable archival ID.
+Because the directories hold only active artefacts (see § Lifecycle),
+an emptied directory restarts at `0001` and a number freed by a
+retired file may be reused — that recycling is fine, since the durable
+record is git history, not the filename.
 
 The slug separator is `-`.
 

docs/design.md

@@ -87,6 +87,11 @@ standing reading (`CLAUDE.md` + `git log -10`), git discipline
 (only-orchestrator commits, main sacrosanct), Gitea + `closes #N`,
 and the whole pipeline graph (see `pipeline.md`).
 
+Specs and plans are ephemeral active-cycle artefacts — the two
+directories stay git-tracked and hold only what is in flight; at cycle
+close each is `git rm`'d from the repo, kept only in git history, never
+as a durable file (see `conventions.md` § Lifecycle).
+
 ## Project facts (project-specific)
 
 The handful of facts that genuinely vary per project live in the

docs/pipeline.md

@@ -123,8 +123,9 @@ Hard-gate before plan — the spec-production core and the carrier of the
 "no plan without an approved spec" invariant. Takes a settled design
 (directly from sources, or a ratified design handed over by
 `brainstorm`), applies the feature-acceptance criterion, writes the
-spec to `docs/specs`, runs the `grounding-check` gate, and takes user
-sign-off — with review but no interview. Bounces to `brainstorm` the moment the sources do not
+spec to `docs/specs` (an ephemeral active-cycle artefact, git-tracked
+and `git rm`'d at cycle close — see `conventions.md` § Lifecycle), runs
+the `grounding-check` gate, and takes user sign-off — with review but no interview. Bounces to `brainstorm` the moment the sources do not
 resolve a load-bearing design decision. A core node — the
 spec-production gate before `planner` on every design path.
 
@@ -148,7 +149,8 @@ juror can ratify the resolution instead of blocking for lack of one. See
 ### planner
 
 Hard-gate before implement. Produces a placeholder-free,
-bite-sized implementation plan in `docs/plans`
+bite-sized implementation plan in `docs/plans` (ephemeral, retired
+alongside the spec at cycle close — see `conventions.md` § Lifecycle)
 that the implement skill can execute task-by-task. Dispatches
 the plan-recon agent for read-only file-structure mapping.
 
@@ -188,7 +190,10 @@ review-and-commit discipline; the orchestrator inspects and commits.
 
 Runs at cycle close. Dispatches the architect agent (read-only
 drift review against the design ledger) and the bencher agent
-(regression diagnostics). Reports drift and regress.
+(regression diagnostics). Reports drift and regress. Once it is
+drift-clean, the orchestrator retires the cycle's spec and plan —
+`git rm`'ing them in the cycle-close commit (see `conventions.md`
+§ Lifecycle).
 
 ### debug