a-change-is-never-both-active-and-archived

.changeset/a-change-is-never-both-active-and-archived.md

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+"@openspec-ui/core": patch
+"@openspec-ui/cli": patch
+---
+
+The merge gate refuses a change the pull request puts back among the active ones after its base archived it, so the board cannot show a shipped change as unfinished.

openspec/changes/a-change-is-never-both-active-and-archived/.openspec.yaml

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+schema: spec-driven
+created: 2026-10-13
+follows:
+  - a-change-is-archived-with-nothing-open

openspec/changes/a-change-is-never-both-active-and-archived/design.md

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+# Design
+
+## Context
+
+The merge gate (`validate` with `--base <ref>`) already reads the base's
+tree to compare people, histories and the archive. The duplicate of
+`cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage` shows the missing case: nothing read the
+base's *archived* names against the working tree's *active* names. ADR 0035
+and ADR 0036 make archiving a product action; the gate is the one moment a
+pull request can undo it.
+
+## Goals / Non-Goals
+
+**Goals:**
+
+- A pull request that puts a change back after the base archived it is
+  refused, naming the change and where it was archived.
+- The archive's own pull request keeps passing.
+- The one existing duplicate is removed from `main`.
+
+**Non-Goals:**
+
+- No Pipeline change. The gate is where a pull request is judged; the board
+  only draws what the gate let through.
+
+## Decisions
+
+1. **In the gate, with the base.** The rule reads two listings the way
+   `readArchivedSince` reads the archive: the base's active names and
+   archived names, and the working tree's active names. Without `--base`
+   there is nothing to compare, and the rule says nothing. Rejected: a
+   Pipeline-time check — it would redraw cards but still let the bad pull
+   request land.
+2. **Core computes; the CLI reports.** `readResurrectedChanges` returns the
+   change and its archived folder, and the CLI prints one `FAIL` line per
+   change. The `ok` flag folds them in, so the exit code is the contract it
+   already is.
+3. **The archive is exempt.** A change the base still has active is not
+   named, even if it also appears in the base's archive under an older date:
+   archiving is exactly the pull request that has the active copy in the
+   commit before it moves it, and refusing it would jam the product's own
+   archive. Rejected: refusing both directions — it cannot tell the archive
+   apart from a resurrection.
+4. **The date prefix is stripped before comparing.** An archive folder is
+   `<date>-<change>`; the active folder is `<change>`. The same strip
+   `readArchivedSince` already relies on keeps the two keyed by one name.
+5. **The stray copy goes with the rule.** The rule and its one existing
+   instance are the same defect: landing the rule while leaving the copy
+   would leave the board lying for one more cycle.
+
+## Risks / Trade-offs
+
+- A change archived under an older date and legitimately re-opened later
+  (a new proposal under the same name) is refused. The repository has no
+  such case; a change that must live again is given a new name, as its
+  history already does. Documented, not a defect.
+- The comparison needs the base's tree, which the gate already fetches at
+  depth one; no new fetch.

openspec/changes/a-change-is-never-both-active-and-archived/proposal.md

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+# Proposal
+
+## Why
+
+On 2026-10-10 `cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage` was archived: pull request
+#881 renamed its folder into `openspec/changes/archive/2026-10-10-…`. Eight
+minutes later pull request #883 ("add 2 more changes") added the same change
+back among the active ones, every task open, and the merge gate passed it.
+The Pipeline then drew a change as unfinished that had already shipped.
+
+The merge gate already compares the people and the histories against the
+base, and holds each archived change to the open-item rule; it had no rule
+for the reverse — a change put back after its base archived it. A change
+being both active and archived makes the board lie, and nothing mechanical
+refused the one pull request that could do it.
+
+## What Changes
+
+- The merge gate, with `--base <ref>`, refuses every active change whose
+  name the base has archived, naming the change and its archived folder.
+- The rule does not fire for the change a pull request is archiving: the
+  archive's own pull request holds the active copy in the commit before it
+  moves it, and the base still has it active.
+- The one existing duplicate, `cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage`, is removed:
+  its archived copy is the source of truth.
+
+## Capabilities
+
+### New Capabilities
+
+None.
+
+### Modified Capabilities
+
+- `ci-cli`: the merge gate refuses a change that is both active and
+  archived.
+
+## Impact
+
+`packages/core` (`resurrected-changes.ts`), `packages/cli`
+(`openspec-validate.ts`, `main.ts`), the merge-gate tests, and
+`openspec/specs/ci-cli/spec.md`. No command or event of the protocol
+changes; `--base` gains one more comparison in the report it already
+prints. A patch for `@openspec-ui/core` and `@openspec-ui/cli`.

openspec/changes/a-change-is-never-both-active-and-archived/specs/ci-cli/spec.md

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+## ADDED Requirements
+
+### Requirement: The merge gate refuses a change that is both active and archived
+
+With `--base <ref>`, `validate` SHALL fail on every change the working tree
+has active whose name the base has archived, naming the change and the
+base's archived folder for it. A change the base still has active SHALL NOT
+be named: the archive's own pull request holds the active copy in the commit
+before it moves it.
+
+#### Scenario: A change put back after its base archived it
+
+- **WHEN** `validate --base origin/main` runs on a branch that has
+  `cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage` active and `origin/main` has
+  `2026-10-10-cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage` archived
+- **THEN** the report fails, naming the change and that it is archived as
+  `2026-10-10-cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage`
+
+#### Scenario: The archive's own pull request
+
+- **WHEN** `validate --base origin/main` runs on the branch that archives
+  `landing`, and `origin/main` still has `landing` active
+- **THEN** the change is not named for being both active and archived

openspec/changes/a-change-is-never-both-active-and-archived/tasks.md

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+From a defect found on 2026-10-10: pull request #883 put
+`cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage` back among the active changes after the
+base archived it, and the merge gate passed it.
+
+## 1. Core
+
+- [x] 1.1 `packages/core/src/resurrected-changes.ts`: `readResurrectedChanges`
+  returns each active change whose name the base has archived, with its
+  archived folder; it exempts a change the base still has active, strips the
+  date prefix, and throws where the base cannot be read. Exported from
+  `packages/core/src/index.ts`.
+- [x] 1.2 `packages/core/src/resurrected-changes.test.ts`: names a change put
+  back, exempts the archive's own change, ignores a new change and a bare
+  older archive, reads a name containing a date, and throws on an unreadable
+  base. Verified to fail with the base-active exemption removed.
+
+## 2. The merge gate
+
+- [x] 2.1 `packages/cli/src/openspec-validate.ts`: `runValidateAll` reads
+  `readResurrectedChanges` when a base is given, folds the findings into
+  `resurrectedChanges` and into `ok`, and reuses `archiveCheckFailed` where
+  the base cannot be read.
+- [x] 2.2 `packages/cli/src/main.ts`: the text report prints one `FAIL` line
+  per resurrected change, naming it and its archived folder.
+- [x] 2.3 `packages/cli/src/openspec-validate.gate.test.ts`: the gate fails a
+  change put back, passes the archive's own change, and says nothing without
+  a base. Verified to fail when `ok` ignores the findings.
+
+## 3. The existing duplicate
+
+- [x] 3.1 `openspec/changes/cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage/` removed: the
+  active copy with every task open, already archived as
+  `2026-10-10-cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage`.
+
+## 4. Documents
+
+- [x] 4.1 `openspec/specs/ci-cli/spec.md` gains the requirement, carried by
+  this change's delta.
+- [x] 4.2 A changeset: core, cli - patch.
+
+## 5. Checks
+
+- [x] 5.1 `npm run typecheck && npm run lint`, and the affected core and CLI
+  tests, with two workers.
+- [x] 5.2 `openspec validate a-change-is-never-both-active-and-archived
+  --strict`.
+- [x] 5.3 On the real #883 head tree and its base listings: the check names
+  `cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage`, archived as
+  `2026-10-10-cli-is-visible-on-the-homepage`.

packages/cli/src/main.ts

@@ -497,6 +497,9 @@ function formatText(result: ValidateAllResult): string {
   for (const problem of result.historyProblems ?? []) {
     lines.push(`FAIL  ${problem.file}: ${problem.problem}`);
   }
+  for (const one of result.resurrectedChanges ?? []) {
+    lines.push(`FAIL  ${one.changeName} is active, and the base archived it as ${one.archivedAs}`);
+  }
   lines.push(result.ok ? "\nAll changes valid." : "\nOne or more changes failed validation.");
   return lines.join("\n");
 }