Archive Ticket

Purpose

This skill provides instructions for archiving tickets when their derived phases complete. Archiving moves a ticket from .ushabti/tickets/ to .ushabti/tickets/.archived/, making it invisible to agents.

When to Archive

Archive a ticket when:

1. A phase was derived from the ticket (phase.md contains ticket: TNNNN metadata)
2. The phase has been reviewed and approved by Overseer
3. Overseer is declaring the phase complete (status: complete)

Archival is part of Overseer's phase completion workflow.

Archive Procedure

Step 1: Identify the Ticket

When completing a phase:

1. Read the phase.md file
2. Look for a ticket metadata field
3. Extract the ticket ID (e.g., ticket: T0042 means ticket ID is T0042)

If no ticket field exists, skip archival (the phase was not derived from a ticket).

Step 2: Locate the Ticket File

The ticket file is in .ushabti/tickets/ with a filename matching TNNNN-*.yaml

For ticket ID T0042, the filename might be T0042-improve-error-messages.yaml

Use glob pattern to find the exact filename:

ls .ushabti/tickets/T0042-*.yaml

Step 3: Ensure Archive Directory Exists

Ensure the archive directory exists by running:

mkdir -p .ushabti/tickets/.archived

This is idempotent and handles cases where the directory was not created during bootstrap.

Step 4: Move to Archive

Move the ticket file from .ushabti/tickets/ to .ushabti/tickets/.archived/

mv .ushabti/tickets/T0042-improve-error-messages.yaml .ushabti/tickets/.archived/

The filename remains unchanged, only the location changes.

Step 5: Verify

Confirm the ticket file:

• No longer exists in .ushabti/tickets/
• Now exists in .ushabti/tickets/.archived/

Step 6: Log the Action

In review.md, document the archival:

## Completion Actions

- Archived ticket T0042 (improve-error-messages) as phase is complete

Filesystem Operations

Command Template

# Ensure archive directory exists
mkdir -p .ushabti/tickets/.archived

# Find the ticket file
TICKET_FILE=$(ls .ushabti/tickets/TNNNN-*.yaml)

# Move to archive
mv "$TICKET_FILE" .ushabti/tickets/.archived/

# Verify
ls .ushabti/tickets/.archived/TNNNN-*.yaml

Replace TNNNN with the actual ticket ID from phase.md.

Example: Complete Archival Workflow

Phase file (.ushabti/phases/0012-ticketing-system/phase.md) contains:

# Phase 0012: Ticketing System

ticket: T0008

## Intent
...

Overseer completes the phase and archives the ticket:

# Ensure archive directory exists
mkdir -p .ushabti/tickets/.archived

# Find ticket T0008
TICKET_FILE=$(ls .ushabti/tickets/T0008-*.yaml)
echo "Found: $TICKET_FILE"
# Output: .ushabti/tickets/T0008-add-ticketing-system.yaml

# Move to archive
mv .ushabti/tickets/T0008-add-ticketing-system.yaml .ushabti/tickets/.archived/

# Verify
ls .ushabti/tickets/.archived/T0008-*.yaml
# Output: .ushabti/tickets/.archived/T0008-add-ticketing-system.yaml

Overseer logs in review.md:

## Completion Actions

- Archived ticket T0008 (add-ticketing-system) as phase is complete

Notes

• Only Overseer archives tickets, as part of phase completion
• Archived tickets are invisible to agents (agents only read .ushabti/tickets/, not .archived/)
• If a ticket file is missing, log the issue but don't fail the phase completion
• Archival is a one-way operation; archived tickets are not meant to be restored
• The ticket ID and filename do not change, only the directory location