git:20260910.16c2b97 to git:20260911.1a9f16c

+ A run is complete when its output contract's done condition is met. Every normal interactive branch that produces a plan artifact or checkpoint is incomplete until the user has been asked what to do next. For a Durable software implementation-plan run that continues past the resume check (Phase 0.1b), that means the Phase 5.4 menu (the handoff menu) has been presented and the selected action has actually fired. For Direct, the change stated and the handoff offered; for a Chat brief, the brief and its one-line save-or-`ce-work` offer in chat. Neither presents the Phase 5.4 menu. Non-software plans and approach-level plans end with the handoff their reference workflow defines. A run that only answers a question may end after the answer unless its reference requires a save or share step.

+ Writing the file, checking confidence, and running or explicitly skipping `ce-doc-review` are intermediate milestones. In pipeline mode, the run is complete only when the plan, the confidence check, and the non-interactive document-review state have been returned to the caller, which decides what happens next.

+ Decide which output contract applies at the start of scoping (Phase 0.6), before choosing depth and before the scoping synthesis. It applies only when no resume route (Phase 0.1) fired and the source check (Phase 0.2) found no upstream artifact. Ground it with bounded inline reads of what the request names, without dispatching a subagent. Select one:

+ - **Direct** — the work can be stated, done, and verified in one pass with no decision the user would weigh. State the change in a few sentences and offer the handoff to `ce-work` or the user; execution starts only with implementation authority, as `references/output-contracts.md` defines.

+ `references/output-contracts.md` defines Direct and Chat brief; read it when either is selected. When the tier is still uncertain after those reads, take the heavier one. If a read surfaces a decision the user would weigh, a risk surface, or multi-pass verification, move to the heavier tier before emitting anything. Durable regardless of size: a run with no synchronous user to act on chat this turn (pipeline, headless, goal- or scheduler-driven), a request whose wording asks for a plan, a plan file, or an output format, a request that continues an existing plan's item, and a risk surface — authentication, payments, migrations, external contracts.

+ Phases run in order unless a reference routes out or short-circuits. Read a phase's required reference in full when you enter that phase; a read made before that phase does not satisfy it, and a reference named for the final steps is read again at its step even when already in context. If a required reference cannot be read, stop before the action it governs and report the blocker and recovery path; never reconstruct the missing rules from memory. In pipeline mode, every required-reference failure returns `status: blocked`, `phase`, `blocker`, and `recovery_path`; include `artifact_path` and preserve the artifact when one exists. Report blocked even when an artifact exists.

+ 1. **Output first.** Read `references/output-mode.md` before interpreting any phase. It defines token parsing, output and confirmation precedence, renderer selection, artifact location, and when a repository may be resolved.

+ 2. **Resume, deepen, approach, and domain.** Read `references/resume.md` before acting. It defines resuming an existing plan, enriching a requirements-only plan, deepening, approach-level planning, and the software/non-software split. Follow any terminal route it selects; otherwise continue.

+ 3. **Source and scope.** Read `references/intake.md` before Phase 0.2 and follow it through Phase 0.7. It defines finding and preserving the upstream artifact, routing out to bootstrap work, blocking questions, depth, named resources, and the scoping synthesis; the Output Contract decision above happens inside it. Do not pass a decision point that has not resolved.

+ 4. Read `references/research.md` before gathering context. It defines local and external research, consolidation, depth reclassification, flow analysis, and requested Bake-offs.

+ 5. Read `references/structure.md` before resolving questions or structuring the plan. It defines settled-decision handling, stable U-IDs, technical design, depth, and planning boundaries.

+ 7. Read `references/final-review.md` before the pre-write review. It defines Phase 5.1 through 5.3.2: scoping synthesis, writing the file, unified-plan metadata, confidence mode, and deepening.

+ 9. In pipeline mode, evidence that invalidates a decision settled earlier in the session stops the write. Return the exact token `settled-decision-invalidated`, the decision, and the reason; do not resolve it silently.

+ 10. Write the plan before presenting options, then complete the confidence path `final-review.md` defines.

+ **STOP. Read `references/plan-handoff.md` immediately before Phase 5.3.8 and 5.4** (document review and the handoff menu). Document review is mandatory for a Durable plan and the default is non-interactive (`mode:non-interactive`). In interactive software runs, ask exactly: "Plan ready at `<absolute path to plan>`. What would you like to do next?" Present its menu and wait. If the selection arrives after a user turn, reload `references/plan-handoff.md` before acting. Rendering the menu, receiving a selection, or announcing a route is not completion; execute the selected action.