msd-core/docs/reference/state-md.md

STATE.md schema reference

STATE.md is GSD Core's living project-memory file — a single Markdown document that records where a project stands, what happened last, and what to run next. This page documents its structure. See docs index.

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Overview

Every project managed by GSD Core keeps one STATE.md at .planning/STATE.md. It is read at the start of every workflow and written after every significant action. The file combines:

• YAML frontmatter — machine-readable fields consumed by the status-line hook (parseStateMd) and the gsd-tools state commands.
• Markdown body — human-readable sections covering current position, accumulated context, session continuity, and performance metrics.

The file is intentionally small (target: under 100 lines). It is a digest of the project's state, not an archive.

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YAML frontmatter

Frontmatter appears between --- delimiters at the very start of the file. All fields except gsd_state_version and status are optional; fields may be absent when their data is not yet available.

Annotated example

---
gsd_state_version: '1.0'
milestone: v2.0
milestone_name: Code Quality
status: executing

# Phase-lifecycle fields — all optional (added in v1.40.0, issue #2833)
active_phase: "4.5"
next_action: execute-phase
next_phases: ["4.5"]

progress:
  total_phases: 17
  completed_phases: 10
  total_plans: 84
  completed_plans: 47
  percent: 59

# Additional fields written by syncStateFrontmatter
current_phase: "4"
current_phase_name: Observability
current_plan: "3"
last_updated: "2026-06-01T12:34:56.789Z"
last_activity: "2026-06-01"
stopped_at: "Phase 4 P3 execution complete"
paused_at: null
---

Field reference

Field	Type	When populated	Purpose
gsd_state_version	string ('1.0')	Always	Schema version; written on first state.* call by syncStateFrontmatter.
milestone	string (e.g. v2.0)	When a milestone is configured	Current milestone version, read from the project's config.
milestone_name	string	When a milestone is configured	Human-readable milestone label (e.g. Code Quality).
status	string	Always	Current lifecycle stage. Normalised by normalizeStateStatus() — see status values.
active_phase	string (e.g. "4.5")	An orchestrator command is in flight on this phase	The phase number currently being processed. Set to null when between phases.
next_action	string	Idle, with a recommended command	The slash command to run next: discuss-phase, plan-phase, execute-phase, or verify-phase. Set to null when an orchestrator is in flight or no recommendation is available.
next_phases	YAML flow array (e.g. ["4.5"])	Goes with next_action	The phase ID(s) the next_action applies to (typically 1–2 entries). Set to null under the same conditions as next_action.
progress.total_phases	integer	When phase data is available	Total number of phases in the current milestone, derived from ROADMAP.md and the phases directory.
progress.completed_phases	integer	When phase data is available	Number of phases that have all plan summaries on disk (i.e. every plan completed).
progress.total_plans	integer	When plan files exist	Sum of all plan files across phases in the current milestone.
progress.completed_plans	integer	When summary files exist	Sum of completed plan summaries (one SUMMARY.md per executed plan).
progress.percent	integer 0–100	When progress data is available	Milestone progress in the phase dimension (min(completed_plans/total_plans, completed_phases/total_phases)). The status-line progress bar is only rendered when this field is present — its absence suppresses the bar.
current_phase	string	When a phase is executing	Phase number extracted from the body Current Phase: field.
current_phase_name	string	When a phase has a name	Phase name extracted from the body Current Phase Name: field.
current_plan	string	When a plan is in progress	Plan number extracted from the body Current Plan: field.
last_updated	ISO-8601 timestamp	Always (on write)	Timestamp of the last syncStateFrontmatter call; written by realClock.nowIso().
last_activity	string	When set in body	Date of the last activity, extracted from the body Last Activity: field.
stopped_at	string	When a stop point was recorded	Description of the last completed action; scoped to the ## Session body section to avoid matching archive prose.
paused_at	string	When the project is paused	Freeform description of the pause point; absent or null when not paused.

Status values

normalizeStateStatus() in gsd-core/bin/lib/state-document.cjs maps raw body text to these canonical values:

Canonical value	Matched text (case-insensitive)
discussing	contains discussing
planning	contains planning or ready to plan
executing	contains executing, in progress, or ready to execute
verifying	contains verif
completed	contains complete or done
paused	contains paused or stopped, or paused_at is present
unknown	none of the above

When an orchestrator command is in flight, the convention (issue #2833) is to write the lifecycle stage directly to status:

Command	status while in flight
/gsd-discuss-phase	discussing
/gsd-plan-phase	planning
/gsd-execute-phase	executing
/gsd-verify-work	verifying

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Status-line rendering scenes

formatGsdState() in hooks/gsd-statusline.js reads the parsed frontmatter and emits the first matching scene. If no new lifecycle fields apply, rendering falls through to the original format byte-for-byte unchanged from v1.38.x.

Scene	Trigger	Display example
1. Phase active	active_phase is populated	v2.0 [██░░░░░░░░] 20% · Phase 4.5 executing
2. Idle, next recommended	active_phase is null AND both next_action and next_phases are populated	v2.0 [██░░░░░░░░] 20% · next execute-phase 4.5
3. Milestone complete	percent is 100 OR completed_phases == total_phases	v2.0 [██████████] 100% · milestone complete
4. Default fallback	None of the above match	v1.9 Code Quality · executing · ph 1/5 (existing format)

Scene priority: when both active_phase and next_action are populated, Scene 1 wins — an orchestrator is in flight, so a "next recommendation" would be misleading. This priority is enforced by check order in formatGsdState() and covered by the "scene priority" suite in tests/enh-2833-phase-lifecycle-statusline.test.cjs.

The progress bar ([██░░░░░░░░] 20%) is appended to the milestone segment only when progress.percent is present in frontmatter; absent means no bar.

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Frontmatter parsing constraints

The status-line hook uses regex-based parsing (no full YAML library), so the following constraints apply. They are tested in tests/enh-2833-phase-lifecycle-statusline.test.cjs.

1. Frontmatter must start at the very first character of the file. Anything — including comments — above the opening --- invalidates the match. The opening --- line must be exactly that, with no trailing spaces.

2. Comments inside nested blocks are not supported. The progress: block parser requires the next line to be [ \t]+\w+:. Inserting a # comment between progress: and its first key breaks the match and the bar disappears. Any documentation belongs in the STATE.md body, not inside frontmatter blocks.

3. next_phases primary format is single-line flow. The parser first tries next_phases: ["4.5", "4.6"]. Block sequences (- 4.5\n- 4.6) are also parsed but are less reliable for status-line rendering. Prefer single-line flow for next_phases to keep the regex-based parser predictable. If many candidate phases need recording for documentation purposes, store them in the STATE.md body.

If a future change replaces the regex parser with a full YAML library, these constraints can be relaxed and the tests updated accordingly.

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Markdown body sections

The body (everything after the closing ---) follows the template in gsd-core/templates/state.md. The standard sections are:

Project Reference

Points to .planning/PROJECT.md. Contains:

• Core value — the one-liner from PROJECT.md's Core Value section.
• Current focus — which phase is active.

Current Position

Where the project stands right now:

Field	Format
Phase:	X of Y (Phase name)
Plan:	A of B in current phase
Status:	Free text, e.g. Ready to execute, Executing Phase 4, Phase complete — ready for verification
Last activity:	ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) when handler-written; narrative prose when executor-authored
Progress:	Visual bar, e.g. [████░░░░░░] 40%

The Status: and Last activity: fields in this section are updated by GSD handlers when the existing value is a known template default (Knuth invariant: executor-authored values are preserved). The full list of known handler defaults is in KNOWN_TEMPLATE_DEFAULTS inside gsd-core/bin/lib/state-document.cjs.

Performance Metrics

Execution velocity tracking:

• Total plans completed, average duration per plan.
• Per-phase breakdown table (Phase | Plans | Total | Avg/Plan).
• Recent trend: Improving / Stable / Degrading.

Updated after each plan completion.

Accumulated Context

Decisions — a summary of recent decisions affecting current work (full log lives in PROJECT.md). Added via gsd-tools state add-decision.

Pending Todos — count and reference to .planning/todos/pending/. Captured via /gsd-capture.

Blockers/Concerns — issues affecting future work, prefixed with the originating phase. Added via gsd-tools state add-blocker; resolved via gsd-tools state resolve-blocker.

Session Continuity

Enables instant session resumption:

• Last session: — ISO-8601 timestamp of the last session.
• Stopped at: — description of the last completed action.
• Resume file: — path to a .continue-here*.md file if one exists, otherwise None.

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Backward compatibility

The phase-lifecycle fields (active_phase, next_action, next_phases, and progress.percent for the bar) are additive and opt-in per project:

• A STATE.md with none of the lifecycle fields populated renders byte-for-byte identically to v1.38.x and earlier.
• Adding any lifecycle field is opt-in — the renderer degrades gracefully when fields are absent.
• The progress bar is opt-in even when the progress block exists: only progress.percent triggers the bar; total_phases and completed_phases alone do not.

The formatGsdState #2833 backward compatibility test suite in tests/enh-2833-phase-lifecycle-statusline.test.cjs locks this guarantee; any change that breaks legacy STATE.md rendering will fail the suite.

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Related

• Planning artifacts
• Configuration
• The phase loop
• docs index