Comet Phase 5: Archive (Archive)

Prerequisites

• Verification passed (Phase 4 complete)
• Branch handled
• verify_result: pass in openspec/changes/<name>/.comet.yaml

Steps

0. Output Language Constraint

Archive summaries and lifecycle closure notes must use the language of the user request that triggered this workflow.

0. Entry State Verification (Entry Check)

Execute entry verification:

COMET_ENV="${COMET_ENV:-$(find . "$HOME"/.*/skills "$HOME/.config" "$HOME/.gemini" -path '*/comet/scripts/comet-env.sh' -type f -print -quit 2>/dev/null)}"
if [ -z "$COMET_ENV" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: comet-env.sh not found. Ensure the comet skill is installed." >&2
  return 1
fi
. "$COMET_ENV"
"$COMET_BASH" "$COMET_STATE" check <name> archive

Proceed to Step 1 after verification passes. The script outputs specific failure reasons when verification fails.

1. Final Archive Confirmation (Blocking Point)

After entry verification passes, must follow the comet/reference/decision-point.md protocol to pause and wait for the user to confirm whether to archive immediately. Must not run "$COMET_BASH" "$COMET_ARCHIVE" "<change-name>" before user confirmation.

Before confirmation, show the user a brief summary:

• Change name
• Verification report path and result
• Branch handling status
• Irreversible actions this archive will perform: merge main specs with OpenSpec delta semantics, annotate design doc / plan, and move the change to the archive directory

The user confirmation question must be presented as a single-select question with these options:

• "Confirm archive" — immediately run the archive script to complete spec merge and change movement
• "Needs adjustment or re-verification" — do not archive; run "$COMET_BASH" "$COMET_STATE" transition <change-name> archive-reopen to return to phase: verify, then invoke /comet-verify. If verification confirms fixes are needed, follow /comet-verify's verification-failure decision flow back to /comet-build
• "Do not archive yet" — do not archive; keep the current phase: archive state and wait for the user to invoke /comet-archive again later

Only after the user selects "Confirm archive" may Step 2 continue. After the user selects "Needs adjustment or re-verification", must first run the archive-reopen state transition; do not edit .comet.yaml manually.

2. Execute Archive

Run the archive script to automatically complete all steps:

"$COMET_BASH" "$COMET_ARCHIVE" "<change-name>"

The script automatically executes:

1. Entry state validation (phase=archive, verify_result=pass, archived=false)
2. Design doc frontmatter annotation (archived-with, status)
3. Plan frontmatter annotation (archived-with)
4. OpenSpec archive for delta-merge semantics and moving the change to the archive directory
5. Main spec guard against leaked delta-only section headings
6. Update archived: true through comet-state transition <archive-name> archived

If script returns non-zero exit code, report error and stop. If script returns zero exit code, archive is complete. The summary X/Y steps succeeded counts real executed steps and does not double-count delta spec sync or document annotation.

The script calls OpenSpec archive to merge ADDED/MODIFIED/REMOVED/RENAMED delta semantics into main specs, then verifies main specs do not contain delta-only section headings.

Use --dry-run flag to preview without executing.

3. Lifecycle Closed Loop

Spec lifecycle completes here:

brainstorming → delta spec → implementation → verification → main spec merge → design doc annotation → archive

Exit Conditions

• Archive script executed successfully (exit code 0)
• Archive directory openspec/changes/archive/YYYY-MM-DD-<change-name>/ exists
• Archived .comet.yaml contains archived: true

The archive script moves openspec/changes/<name>/ to openspec/changes/archive/YYYY-MM-DD-<name>/.

WARNING: After successful archive, do not run "$COMET_BASH" "$COMET_GUARD" <change-name> archive against the old active change name; the active directory no longer exists. Doing so will cause the guard to error with "change directory not found". Archive completeness is determined by script exit code and archived directory state.

Complete

Comet workflow complete. To start new work, invoke /comet or /comet-open.

Context Compression Recovery

Follow comet/reference/context-recovery.md with phase set to archive. If archived: true and archive directory exists, archival is complete — do not re-execute archive operations.