$ca-status — state snapshot

A read-only summary of .codearbiter/ state. No skill is routed to; no file is modified.

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Drift mode

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With the exact argument drift, load and follow routines/context-check/SKILL.md. The audit begins read-only; re-scout or re-baseline may write only after the user's explicit selection. In drift mode the context-check contract governs; the opening summary and Hard gate below apply only to the no-argument snapshot. With no argument, continue with the unchanged read-only snapshot below. Reject other arguments rather than treating them as drift mode.

An initialized refresh is a separate explicit scoped or full selection handled by that existing owner after its read-only report. Neither this argument nor an ordinary status snapshot authorizes a write, a create-context retry or marker reset.

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Flow

The orchestrator reads and presents:

1. Stage — the stage: maturity value from <project-root>/.codearbiter/CONTEXT.md frontmatter.
2. Pipelines — every slug in <project-root>/.codearbiter/specs/ and plans/, preserving its existing representation. For HTML, use the installed engine's bounded structured reads (identity, index, symbol-scoped read, or task-context) through includes/artifacts.md; do not read rendered markup or execute verification to obtain status. For Markdown, read its actual status ledger without creating a counterpart. Report a spec with no plan, implementation in progress, or implementation complete. Count DONE and historical ACCEPTED toward implementation completion while retaining their distinct labels. Show verification separately: pending, failed, unknown, or the recorded result and its applicability when available. Completion alone does not establish a passing check, current acceptance, review, or release. Report missing/unreadable state as unknown, not complete. A draft spec or plan is not awaiting permission. Show a genuine unresolved product decision, explicit user checkpoint, or BLOCKED stop with its actual reason; status never clears it. An interrupted pipeline is resumable via $ca-feature — say so on its line.
3. Open tasks — the in-flight count from <project-root>/.codearbiter/open-tasks.md (top-level - bullets excluding done - [x]; the same _taskboardlib count the SessionStart hook uses).
4. Open questions — the count of unresolved [CONFIRM-NN] placeholders in <project-root>/.codearbiter/open-questions.md.
5. Overrides since last checkpoint — entries in <project-root>/.codearbiter/overrides.log newer than the marker in <project-root>/.codearbiter/last-checkpoint.
6. Current branch — from git.

Output

## Project status — YYYY-MM-DD

Stage:            N
Branch:           <current branch>
Pipelines:
  <slug>          implementation 3/7 complete (2 DONE, 1 historical ACCEPTED); verification unknown — resume with $ca-feature "<slug>"
  <slug>          spec present, no plan
Open tasks:       N
Open questions:   N ([CONFIRM-NN] unresolved)
Overrides since last checkpoint: N

No specs and no plans → Pipelines: none.

If [CONFIRM-NN] placeholders are open, surface them — do not resolve them here.

When NOT to use

• A full cross-cutting review → $ca-checkpoint.
• A specific question → $ca-btw.

Hard gate

Read-only. MUST NOT modify any file. MUST NOT resolve a [CONFIRM-NN] it surfaces. No skill is routed to by this command.