Reality is filable

The rule. The record's taxonomy must always be able to express the current true state of the work. When something real cannot be filed — a state with no directory, a transition with no representation — the taxonomy is the defect, and it is fixed before more reality accrues.

Why. A record that cannot express what happened goes quiet exactly when it matters most, and a quiet record reads as "nothing happened". The 2026-07-08 review found the live instance: v0.1.0 shipped working capability from a drafts-stage intent while shipped/ sat empty — the lifecycle had no way to represent delivered work mid-stream, so the record's most important fact (things shipped) was invisible to anyone reading the lifecycle directories. Unfilable reality also breeds workarounds: facts get parked in commit messages, changelogs, or heads, where the record's own tooling cannot see them.

Bounds.

• The fix is a deliberate taxonomy change (and an ADR when it shapes the record's architecture), not an ad-hoc folder invented at filing time.
• "Fix the taxonomy" and "file the backlog" are separable: the state must become representable immediately; migrating stragglers can trail as an issue.

Promotion. A lifecycle lint — e.g. no CHANGELOG delivery entry whose intent still sits in drafts/ — would promote this to a discipline.