/captain-hold-lifecycle
**The lifecycle for work that is waiting on the captain.**
Skill type: Agent-only
Upstream path:.agents/skills/captain-hold-lifecycle/SKILL.md
The lifecycle for work that is waiting on the captain.
What it does
This skill collapses the older separate "decision" concept into one simpler primitive: an ordinary task held for the captain.
When an investigation, scout report, or visual review discovers a genuine unresolved choice, the question must be represented as a captain-held task before the originating work is considered complete. When the captain answers, their actual words are recorded as part of closing or releasing that task.
When to reach for it
Load it before declaring an investigation or visual review complete when captain questions may exist, when recording a captain answer, or when Firstmate detects record divergence between decision surfaces.
How it behaves
Prefer holding the work item that the question gates. Create a new task only when no suitable work item exists.
A "later" answer does not fabricate completion. It re-holds the item with a future date so it leaves the live Captain's Call and resurfaces later.
Common questions
Does finishing the investigation close its captain decision? No. The held task remains open until the captain answers or explicitly defers it.
Can a board or chat channel close a captain decision independently? No. Channels feed the same keyed answer owner; they do not invent their own decision state.
It's working if
- No investigation is marked complete while it still has an unrepresented captain call.
- The captain's exact answer is durably recorded.
- Deferred calls move to a dated gate.
- Bearings reflects answered, released, and deferred outcomes correctly.
Where it fits
This is the authoritative state bridge between investigations, visual review, chat or board answers, and Bearings' Captain's Call.
Upstream: .agents/skills/captain-hold-lifecycle/SKILL.md