[ziadantar90]

What this adds

• harness/MODES.md § Fixing a bug keeps the failing test first, the root cause before the fix, the edge inputs, the checks and the hand-off risk check. It writes no plan file: the record goes in the commits and the PR, as in light mode.
  • The failing-test commit's message holds the risk check's output, the symptom, what should happen and its source, the edge inputs and the failure's tail.
  • The fix commit's message and the PR hold the commit the checks ran on, the root cause, the Escaped line, the proof, the checks with their exit codes, screenshots for a UI change, and the hand-off risk check's first line.
• Approval: the owner's report is the approval only for restoring behaviour: what worked before, or what an AC or the docs already promise. A fix that adds a flag, field, option, message or default nobody promised is not a bug fix. It gets a small plan the human approves.
• No learnings file unless something went wrong, or the Escaped line points to a harness rule, checklist item or named check that would have caught the bug. A clean fix's escape stays in its commits, where the prune doesn't read it.
• Moving to bug mode: a fix that needs a risk path goes to bug mode, reusing the failing-test commit, and the bug plan copies the root cause.
• Elsewhere:
  • harness/templates/small-plan.md loses § Bug and its § Check line.
  • harness/CONTROLS.md § Merge gate, harness/SETUP.md, harness/TECHNICAL_LEAD.md and .claude/rules/testing.md say where a bug fix's record goes.
• Self-test: checks the new § Fixing a bug and that the small plan has no bug section. It fails on the old files.
• Update note updates/2026-11-03-bug-fix-no-plan.md, with a reviewed: line for the .claude/rules/testing.md phrase, and a changelog fragment.

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