ticket-create: plan-authority declaration + incident mode

Context

Sub of #16212 (execution-fidelity epic, operator-commissioned 2026-07-31). Grep-verified 2026-07-31: ticket-create-workflow.md contains zero references to graduated Discussions, epics-in-execution, or plan authority — creation is the one ungated stage, and it is where the measured 50+ off-plan ticket bursts enter.

The Problem

Two authoring behaviors fork plan authority at the source:

1. Off-plan side-tickets. A ticket whose subject sits inside a governed lane (an executing epic, a graduated Discussion's blast radius, an ADR election) can be filed today with no acknowledgment that the plan exists. The #16167 instance: #16210 re-proposed a two-role orchestrator design that D#15595 had ratified and PR #16173 had merged eleven hours before the ticket was written — the creation chain never asked the question.
2. Incident authoring. Under runbook/cutover/incident pressure, every observed symptom becomes a fat ticket immediately (six in one night in the #16167 incident), each looking like diligence while fragmenting the plan's authority. The observations were real; the artifact choice was wrong — they belonged on the governing epic's log until stabilization.

The existing §1d gate covers only the inverse case (a ticket that CITES a pre-quorum Discussion); a ticket that ignores the governing artifact entirely passes untouched.

The Architectural Reality

• .agents/skills/ticket-create/references/ticket-create-workflow.md — §1 sweeps (§1a duplicates, §1d ungraduated-citation), §5 Fat Ticket structure, §8 anti-pattern table.
• AGENTS.md consensus-mandate — amendments to graduated decisions require reopened graduation, not side-tickets.
• ticket-intake §1 PROVISIONAL_UNGRADUATED — the consume-side dual this completes.
• Manifest byte budgets on skill payloads: this workflow file is large; additions must compress adjacent prose.

The Fix

1. New §1e — Governed-Lane Check (plan authority). Before drafting: sweep open epic-labeled issues + graduated Discussions + ADR elections whose blast radius covers the subject (the §1a sweep surfaces most of this already; §1e adds the question). The Fat-Ticket body then carries one declaration line: Plan-Authority: EXECUTES #N | AMENDS D#N | INDEPENDENT — <one-line rationale>
   • EXECUTES #N — the ticket delivers part of the governed plan (typically a linked sub).
   • AMENDS D#N — blocks filing: route to reopening the Discussion per the consensus-mandate; a side-ticket cannot amend graduated authority.
   • INDEPENDENT — permitted, with the rationale on record for intake/review to challenge.
2. Incident-mode rule (same section). While a governing epic is in active execution (declared runbook/cutover/incident), observations default to comments on the governing epic; tickets are authored post-stabilization from that log. Emergency carve-out: a genuinely new, stabilization-blocking defect may still be filed — with Plan-Authority: EXECUTES binding it to the governing epic.
3. §5 Fat-Ticket structure gains the Plan-Authority: line (required when §1e finds a governing artifact; Plan-Authority: none-found otherwise).
4. §8 anti-pattern table gains two rows: off-plan side-ticket in a governed lane; incident-authored ticket burst.

Contract Ledger

Decision Record impact

none — operationalizes the existing consensus-mandate at creation time; no ADR amended.

Acceptance Criteria

• §1e exists with the three-way declaration contract and the AMENDS-blocks-filing rule routed to Discussion reopening.
• Incident-mode rule present, including the stabilization-blocking emergency carve-out (bound to EXECUTES).
• §5 carries the Plan-Authority: line; none-found is the explicit no-governed-lane form.
• §8 gains both anti-pattern rows.
• Net-byte discipline: additions offset by compression elsewhere in the same file where the budget requires; manifest gates green.
• A lint/mechanical check is named as a follow-up decision in the PR body (section-presence when a governed artifact is cited), not bundled into this leaf.
• turn-memory-pre-flight consulted in the PR.

Out of Scope

• Mechanical lint enforcement (explicit follow-up decision post receipt-phase).
• Retroactive re-triage of existing tickets.
• ticket-intake changes (consume-side already gated).

Avoided Traps

• Blocking INDEPENDENT work. The declaration creates a challengeable record, not a permission gate — only AMENDS blocks, because that path already has an owner (the Discussion).
• Declaring on every trivial ticket. none-found costs one line; the sweep burden rides the §1a sweep that already runs.

Related

• Parent: #16212. Sequencing: execution gated behind #16167 stabilization (see parent).
• #16210 (pre-reframe) — the measured EXECUTES-miss instance; #16167 — the incident.

Live latest-open sweep + A2A claim sweep recorded on parent #16212 at filing time (04:14Z, none competing).

Origin Session ID: dd39c5c1-8773-4c9d-a3d4-664f9fb0f952

Retrieval Hint: plan authority declaration EXECUTES AMENDS INDEPENDENT governed lane check ticket-create §1e incident mode observations epic log tickets post-stabilization