Instruction file imported from hed-standard/hed-python (.github/instructions/status_conduct.instructions.md). Copyright stays with the author.

Working in .status/

• .status/ is gitignored: the only copy is on this machine. Never delete, move, or rewrite a file here without asking first. Appending is fine.
• Every markdown file written here opens with a For humans: summary - three or four sentences at the very top: what the file is and what a person needs to take from it.
• The root holds only README.md, decisions.md, development_history.md, and local-environment.md. New material goes in plans/, prompts/, notes/, or scratch/.
• README.md, plans/, and prompts/ are the files that change in place (a status line, a ticked box, the README's current state and Next list); a wholesale rewrite still needs asking first, as the first bullet says. notes/ is write-once. decisions.md and development_history.md are append-only: add an entry, never rewrite or delete one.
• A finished plan moves to archive/completed_plans/ (split still-open boxes into a new plan first) and gets an entry in development_history.md.
• Temporary scripts, experiments, and one-off test files go in .status/scratch/ - never the repository root. scratch/ may hold any file type and is deleted unread; everywhere else is markdown only.
• Do not read archive/ unless a file is named for you.
• Filenames: lowercase ASCII, _ as separator. Notes are YYYY-MM-DD_slug.md (date first); plans and prompts are slug.md - no date, no status word in the name.