SorraTheOrc · Oct 17, 2026 · Oct 14, 2026 · Oct 14, 2026 · Oct 14, 2026 · Oct 14, 2026
diff --git a/.pi/skills/heartbeat/scripts/heartbeat.py b/.pi/skills/heartbeat/scripts/heartbeat.py
@@ -113,19 +113,21 @@ def check_queue():
             return "No items in completed/in_review queue."
 
         if count < 10:
-            # Sparse queue — flag next item for producer review
+            # Sparse queue — hold the next item for the producer (assign to the
+            # producer-hold identity; the assignee hold replaced the removed
+            # producer-review flag).
             next_data = run_wl(['next', '--json'])
             next_item = next_data.get('workItem')
             if next_item:
                 item_id = next_item['id']
                 item_title = next_item.get('title', item_id)
-                run_wl(['update', item_id, '--needs-producer-review', 'true', '--json'])
+                run_wl(['update', item_id, '--assignee', 'Map', '--json'])
                 return (
-                    f"Flagged {item_title} ({item_id}) for producer review.\n"
+                    f"Held {item_title} ({item_id}) for the producer.\n"
                     f"Queue has {count} completed/in_review items (below threshold of 10)."
                 )
             else:
-                return "No next item found to flag for review."
+                return "No next item found to hold for the producer."
         else:
             # Full queue — find first non-ready item by sortIndex
             items_sorted = sorted(items, key=lambda x: x.get('sortIndex', 0) or 0)

diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
@@ -4,6 +4,19 @@ Read the global agent instructions at `~/.pi/agent/AGENTS.md` — they define th
 
 ## Project-specific guidance
 
+### Claim pattern & scheduling hold (WL-0MV82CHGQ000HAZZ)
+
+The assignee field doubles as the scheduling hold. Implement/plan/intake tiers
+claim with a status flip (`wl update <id> --status in_progress --assignee
+<agent>`); the herdr **audit tier** claims **status-neutrally** — assignee CAS
+only (`wl update <id> --assignee <agent> --if-status completed --if-stage
+in_review --if-assignee ""`), so the item stays `completed`/`in_review`. A
+non-empty assignee is an intentional hold from auto-dispatch (producer sentinel
+`wl update <id> --assignee Map`; clear `--assignee ""` to release); claims
+clear the assignee on session end. See
+[docs/dev/downtime-dispatcher.md](./docs/dev/downtime-dispatcher.md) and the
+global instructions (`~/.pi/agent/AGENTS.md`).
+
 ### Architecture Notes for Agents
 
 Worklog uses **SQLite as the runtime source of truth** with an **ephemeral JSONL pattern** for Git sync:

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,31 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## v1.0.22 (2026-10-17)
+> **Release focus:** This release focuses on making the worklist clearer and more responsive, with better visibility into blocked items, priorities, review status, and in-progress markers, plus instant refresh and a new help screen for shortcuts. It also improves reliability around audits, quick-create, rejections, and finish-gate so work isn't stranded or interrupted.
+### Features
+- Blocked items now show exactly what's holding them up, right in the list. (WL-0MV8EZRDJ001TDA8)
+- Medium-priority items now show a yellow square, so you can tell priority apart from stage at a glance. (WL-0MV7WQTJ9003SAV1)
+- Press Ctrl+R to refresh the worklist instantly, and enjoy a cleaner header. (WL-0MV85T0LT008UT9H)
+- Failed audits no longer strand work off the review queue; items stay in review and can be re-dispatched. (WL-0MV82CHGQ000HAZZ)
+- The producer-review status icon is back in the selection list, so you can see at a glance which items await review. (WL-0MVAMS4RO000H3B0)
+- The worklist now refreshes instantly when you focus its pane, so new items appear without waiting. (WL-0MVAS988R008PNH6)
+- Blocked items now show each blocker's status in both the preview and detail views. (WL-0MVBMLY2Z0032CYR)
+- Quick-create now runs in the background without interrupting your work. (WL-0MV6J5JXL002D8C4)
+- Epic items now show a plain "epic" label instead of a redundant icon, making lists cleaner and easier to scan. (WL-0MVAQ873D007LNWD)
+- The in-progress marker now reliably shows which work items are actively being worked on. (WL-0MV1BWETT005GSUJ)
+- Press ? to open a help screen listing all shortcuts and icon meanings. (WL-0MTV97GV20088CS7)
+### Bug Fixes
+- Blocked items now show their "Blocked By" info steadily instead of flickering on and off. (WL-0MV8Q5X8U004KKAP)
+- The Worklog selection pane no longer crashes on startup after updates. (WL-0MVAY631M004RZ3Q)
+- Failed audits no longer silently remove items from the review queue. (WL-0MV7W77AY005MGBL)
+- Rejecting an item with a reason now runs quietly in the background without opening a command pane. (WL-0MV6J4HQ0009OJPQ)
+- Finish-gate no longer fails when other agents update shared branches mid-run. (WL-0MV5MYBKJ0033P8U)
+- Tests now pass reliably regardless of where the project is checked out. (WL-0MTT7XTN6006MHHV)
+- Separate-process audits now correctly read child results, so parent audits no longer wrongly show "not ready to close. (WL-0MU0FHSEP003PCDY)
+### Other
+- Downtime worker tests are now more reliable, so future updates are less likely to break them. (WL-0MV5RYKQD000L5LM)
+- Updated the shared tools guide so players can find the new agent and lease-release scripts. (WL-0MSRWFPRT009S0SO)
+
 ## v1.0.21 (2026-10-13)
 > **Release focus:** This release focuses on making the worklist more reliable and complete, ensuring blocked, in-progress, and reworked items always appear and that data refreshes instantly. It also fixes several crashes and data-loss issues that could occur when saving changes during conflicts or busy periods, and improves recovery behaviour when AI providers or long outages interrupt queued jobs.
 ### Features

diff --git a/CLI.md b/CLI.md
@@ -161,7 +161,9 @@ Automatic re-sort:
 
 ### `update` [options] <id...>
 
-Update fields on one or more existing work items. Accepts multiple IDs. Options mirror `create` for updatable fields, plus `--description-file <file>` (read description from a file), `--audit-text <text>` and `--audit-file <file>` (read audit text from a file; writes to the `audit_results` table), `--audit-fingerprint <fingerprint>` (content fingerprint for the freshness gate; an explicit value wins over an embedded `Audit content fingerprint: <hex>` line), `--needs-producer-review <true|false>` (set needsProducerReview flag), and `--do-not-delegate <true|false>` (set or clear the do-not-delegate tag).
+Update fields on one or more existing work items. Accepts multiple IDs. Options mirror `create` for updatable fields, plus `--description-file <file>` (read description from a file), `--if-status <status>`/`--if-stage <stage>`/`--if-assignee <assignee>` (atomic compare-and-swap guards; see *Conditional updates* below), `--audit-text <text>` and `--audit-file <file>` (read audit text from a file; writes to the `audit_results` table), `--audit-fingerprint <fingerprint>` (content fingerprint for the freshness gate; an explicit value wins over an embedded `Audit content fingerprint: <hex>` line), `--needs-producer-review <true|false>` (set needsProducerReview flag), and `--do-not-delegate <true|false>` (set or clear the do-not-delegate tag).
+
+> **Soft-delete guard (SA-0MUJBLZC60085DI9):** a soft-deleted item (non-empty `deletedBy`) cannot be updated — `wl update` rejects it per-id with error `deleted-item` and a message naming the item, and exits non-zero. This prevents a stale status/stage update from resurrecting a deleted item for the dispatcher to re-select. An explicit change to the delete-attribution fields themselves (`--deleted-by` / `--delete-reason`) is still permitted.
 
 > **Auto-revert:** when `--audit-text`/`--audit-file` carries a `Ready to close: No` verdict for an item in `in_review` (status `completed`), the item is automatically reverted to `open`/`plan_complete` (priority preserved) and the output reports the transition (`reverted` field in JSON, `[ID reverted from completed/in_review to open/plan_complete]` in human mode). See docs/AUDIT_STATUS.md.
 
@@ -201,6 +203,19 @@ wl update WL-ABC123 --do-not-delegate true   # add tag
 wl update WL-ABC123 --do-not-delegate false  # remove tag
 ```
 
+Conditional updates (compare-and-swap guards):
+
+- `--if-status <status>`, `--if-stage <stage>` and `--if-assignee <assignee>` make the update conditional on the item's current value for that field. When any guard is supplied, the check and the write run inside a single `BEGIN IMMEDIATE` SQLite transaction, so exactly one of several concurrent claimers wins; every loser receives a per-id `stale` result (`success: false`, `error: "stale"`) and **no field is written** (no partial write).
+- The guards compose: supplying more than one requires **all** of them to match. This is how the herdr audit tier claims a `completed`/`in_review` item **status-neutrally** — it changes only the assignee, leaving status and stage untouched:
+
+  ```sh
+  wl update WL-ABC123 --assignee audit-tier \
+    --if-status completed --if-stage in_review --if-assignee ""
+  ```
+
+- `--if-assignee ""` is a meaningful expected value: it matches an item that is currently **unassigned** (empty assignee). It is distinguishable from omitting the flag (which applies no assignee guard), so an empty-string guard is a valid exclusive-claim token.
+- The guarded status values are normalized (e.g. `in_progress` matches a stored `in-progress`). `--if-assignee` matches the stored assignee exactly.
+
 ### `reviewed` <id> [value]
 
 Toggle or set the `needsProducerReview` flag on a work item. If `value` is omitted, it toggles the current value.

diff --git a/bench/tui-expand.js b/bench/tui-expand.js
@@ -122,7 +122,6 @@ async function run() {
       deleteReason: '',
       risk: '',
       effort: '',
-      needsProducerReview: false,
     }, overrides);
     items.set(id, item);
     return id;

diff --git a/docs/dev/context-budget.thresholds.json b/docs/dev/context-budget.thresholds.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "global_agents": 0,
-  "project_agents": 1655,
+  "project_agents": 2416,
   "skills_prose": 473,
-  "total": 2128
+  "total": 2889
 }
diff --git a/docs/dev/cross-repo-producer-review-restore.md b/docs/dev/cross-repo-producer-review-restore.md
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+# Cross-repo restore — producer-review flag in the ship gate & audit runner
+
+> Work item: WL-0MVAPF1QM005FYM1 (child of epic WL-0MVAMS4RO000H3B0).
+> Repo boundary: the ship gate and audit runner live in the **SorraAgents**
+> skill tree; the restore was delivered as SorraAgents work items (not edited
+> from ContextHub).
+
+## Why
+
+The `needsProducerReview` flag was removed (WL-0MV85WFYU0071YQ9 /
+WL-0MV85WGIT004PHRC) and its two roles — the audit verdict's producer signal
+and the ship release gate — were re-homed onto an assignee sentinel
+(`assignee === 'Map'`). That removal was a wrongful deletion
+(RCA WL-0MVAOYBZM0065AEN). ContextHub restored the flag (F2/F3/F4/F5); the
+SorraAgents side is restored here.
+
+## Delivered
+
+| SA item | Scope | Commit |
+|---|---|---|
+| SA-0MVB1QFXI004T4G5 | Audit runner: `'yes'` verdict sets `--needs-producer-review yes` (top-level items); merge-gate blocker flags it; the audit claim is always cleared with `--assignee ""` (status-neutral CAS kept; `_PRODUCER_HOLD_ASSIGNEE` removed). | `4fd33cb4` |
+| SA-0MVB1Q6DR007I49R | Ship gate: `check-final-validation.js`, `check-audit-gate.js`, `run-release.js` block release on `needsProducerReview === true` again; the producer-hold assignee sentinel is removed. | `05ec727b` |
+
+Both SA items are `completed`/`in_review`; SA full suite green
+(audit-runner tests 213 + 49, ship-gate tests 200).
+
+## Kept (Q2=C — not reverted)
+
+- `wl update --if-assignee` atomic CAS and the **status-neutral audit-tier
+  claim** (WL-0MV85WBDB003J35W / WL-0MV85WCJJ0087VMP) — the
+  WL-0MV7W77AY005MGBL fix is preserved. `isAssigneeHeld` (any non-empty
+  assignee is a scheduling hold) remains.
+- The audit runner's legacy-hybrid recovery (`in-progress`/`in_review` →
+  `completed`/`in_review`) is preserved.
+
+## Retired
+
+- The producer-hold assignee sentinel (`PRODUCER_HOLD_ASSIGNEE` /
+  `isProducerHold` / `markProducerHoldWorkItem` / `producer-hold.ts`): no
+  producer-review semantics remain on the assignee. The producer-review signal
+  is the flag again, toggled by `wl reviewed <id>`.
+
+## Verification
+
+- ContextHub: `wl reviewed`, `--needs-producer-review` on create/update and the
+  list/search/next filters, the ❌/✅ selection-list icon, and 6-bucket
+  review-queue grouping are restored (F2–F5).
+- SorraAgents: flag-based ship gate + audit-runner verdict marking restored and
+  tested.
+- End-to-end: a top-level `'Ready to close: Yes'` audit sets
+  `needsProducerReview=true`; `check-final-validation.js` blocks release until
+  the producer clears it (`wl reviewed <id> false`) — the pre-removal release
+  guarantee.
+
+## Related
+
+- ContextHub WL-0MVAMS4RO000H3B0 (epic), WL-0MVAPF1QM005FYM1 (this item)
+- SA-0MVB1QFXI004T4G5, SA-0MVB1Q6DR007I49R (delivery)
+- Reversed: SA-0MV9DUE6F006SK1H (ship-gate re-homing), SA-0MV98PAT7005VXXS
+  (audit-runner producer marking; assignee-clear retained)