Claude Code First, specification version 0.1.0. The plain-language guide
Version 0.1.0. Level 1. Best evidence grade R1/S3.
PG-1 Planning files are governed files
Each planning file an agent writes SHOULD be a governed file.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Keyword | SHOULD |
| Level | 1 |
| Checked | automatically |
| Findings | F100, F101 |
| Harness facts | H4, H6 |
| Threat | internal: the premise that an agent hand-edits when not refused is prose from the tool's author, and every observation is of one tool |
| Status | active |
Rationale: a limit enforced by a tool (AW-2) holds only while writes go through the tool, and in Shio the refusal of hand edits is what keeps that write path from being bypassed (F101). The refusal is one tool's design: roadkeep's guard first matched only edit tools, left shell writes open, and then asked about every commit that staged a governed file until staging was exempted (F100, R1/S2). No project records an agent hand-editing a planning file, so the benefit is argued, not observed, and the rule carries SHOULD. A guard covers only the calls that reach it, so the files still need the check of AW-2 as a gate; the GH chapter treats the guard's gaps. Whether the files are declared to a tool and a guard is wired for them can be read from the repository's configuration.
The bar for filing a task at all, that it names something observed to be wrong or missing, is rule CD-5 in CD.md, since it binds the session that files the task; it is not repeated here.