feat(task-audit): add Phase C.6 — retire completed parents, promote stragglers

A parent whose child tasks are all resolved closes (DONE/CANCELLED + CLOSED) and archives on the next --archive-done; a parent with one or two open children gets those promoted to standalone level-2 tasks first. Carries the leaf-with-notes carve-out (a task whose only descendant is a dated design note is unstarted work, not a finished container — flag NEEDS-USER, never close) and a warning to verify open-child counts against a real subtree scan, not a fragile regex. Depends on --convert-subtasks running first so the counts are accurate.

From the .emacs.d handoff (2026-07-01 task-audit note).

2 files changed, 38 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.ai/workflows/task-audit.org b/.ai/workflows/task-audit.org
index 94b99da..b6e59dc 100644
--- a/.ai/workflows/task-audit.org
+++ b/.ai/workflows/task-audit.org
@@ -99,6 +99,21 @@ Never merge or re-parent autonomously — which tasks belong together, and wheth
 
 When no clear cluster exists, say so in one line and move on — most audits won't find one, and forcing a merge fragments worse than it consolidates.
 
+** Phase C.6 — Retire completed parents and promote stragglers (interactive)
+
+Phase C.5 consolidates related *open* tasks. This step retires parent tasks whose work is *finished*, so completed containers don't linger in Open Work as scaffolding.
+
+Run =todo-cleanup.el --convert-subtasks= first (it's part of the =clean-todo= / wrap-up cleanup, and =open-tasks.org= runs it too) so every completed sub-task is a dated event-log entry rather than a lingering =DONE= keyword. The closure logic below reads "open child" as a child heading still carrying a task keyword (=TODO=/=DOING=/=WAITING=/=VERIFY=/=NEXT=/=PROJECT=/=STALLED=/=DELEGATED=); a dated entry is correctly not open.
+
+Two shapes, both proposed to Craig (inline numbered options per =interaction.md=, no popup) before applying:
+
+- *Zero open children → close the parent.* A parent whose child *tasks* are all resolved (now dated) and that carries no open child task is finished: close it per =todo-format.md= (=**= parent → =DONE=/=CANCELLED= + =CLOSED:=), and it moves to Resolved on the next =--archive-done=. If the work resurfaces later, a fresh task is created then; a completed container shouldn't sit open as a placeholder.
+- *One or two open children → promote, then close.* When a parent has only one or two open children, pull them out and rewrite them as standalone =**= level-2 tasks — give each a priority per the project scheme, and make the heading stand alone without the parent's context — then close the now-childless parent and let it move to Resolved. The former children become first-class Open Work tasks; the retired parent stops being scaffolding for one or two stragglers.
+
+*The leaf-with-notes carve-out (important).* "Zero open children" is not the same as "done." A =**= leaf task whose only descendants are dated *notes* — a captured "Ideas", "Goals", or "Current State" entry, not a real completed sub-task — is unstarted work with a note attached, not a finished container. Do not close it. Tell the two apart by intent: a container reads as a grouping (a =PROJECT= keyword, an explicit "parent grouping ..." line, or several dated entries that were genuinely separate sub-tasks that shipped); a leaf-with-notes is a single feature/bug task whose title names unstarted work and whose lone dated child is a design note. When the call is ambiguous, flag it NEEDS-USER rather than closing.
+
+Never close or promote autonomously past the ambiguous line — surface the candidates with a recommendation and let Craig ratify, the same interactive stance as Phase C.5. Clear container completions (a =PROJECT= whose every child is dated) can be proposed as a batch; leaf-with-notes ambiguities are flagged individually. Verify open-vs-done counts against the actual headings (a real scan of the subtree), not a fragile regex that a shell's =\b= support can silently break — a miscount here closes live work.
+
 ** Phase D — Flag the judgment calls (interactive)
 
 Present the NEEDS-USER bucket as a short, scannable list — one line per task, naming the decision or the fact required. Adjudicate with the user one item at a time (inline numbered options per =interaction.md=, no popup). Apply the user's calls as they come (which may itself produce more autonomous updates, or new tasks).
@@ -147,3 +162,7 @@ Two Phase C behaviors added, both surfaced by an Emacs-config =todo.org= audit:
 
 - *Tag-vocabulary enforcement.* That project declares a closed tag set (=bug=, =feature=, =refactor=, =test=, =quick=, =solo=); the audit had to strip ~44 ad-hoc tags that had accumulated across the file. The prior workflow only checked that a type tag was *present* — it had no concept of an exhaustive allowed set. The new bullet enforces a declared closed vocabulary and leaves open-vocabulary projects untouched.
 - *Code-complete-but-unverified closing.* Many tasks had shipped (tests green, live in the daemon) but stayed open awaiting a manual or visual verification, so they accumulated as half-open. Leaving them open is noise; auto-closing them would violate "never claim a fix verified before the user confirms." The fix routes the pending human check into the project's =Manual testing and validation= parent (dedup-checked) per =verification.md='s manual-verification hand-off, then closes the implementation task. The work is done and the check is tracked; a failed check promotes to a bug.
+
+** 2026-07-01 — Retire completed parents (Phase C.6)
+
+Added Phase C.6: retire a parent task once its child *tasks* are all done. Zero open children → close the parent; one or two open children → promote them to standalone level-2 tasks, then close. Surfaced by an Emacs-config =todo.org= audit where several PROJECT containers had all children complete. Depends on =todo-cleanup.el --convert-subtasks= running first so completed sub-tasks are dated (not lingering =DONE= keywords) and the open-child count is accurate. Carries a leaf-with-notes carve-out: a =**= leaf task whose only descendant is a dated design note ("Ideas"/"Goals") is unstarted work, not a finished container, and must not be closed — the ambiguous case is flagged NEEDS-USER. The step also warns against counting open-vs-done with a fragile regex (a =\b= that a given shell/awk silently drops miscounts and closes live work).
diff --git a/claude-templates/.ai/workflows/task-audit.org b/claude-templates/.ai/workflows/task-audit.org
index 94b99da..b6e59dc 100644
--- a/claude-templates/.ai/workflows/task-audit.org
+++ b/claude-templates/.ai/workflows/task-audit.org
@@ -99,6 +99,21 @@ Never merge or re-parent autonomously — which tasks belong together, and wheth
 
 When no clear cluster exists, say so in one line and move on — most audits won't find one, and forcing a merge fragments worse than it consolidates.
 
+** Phase C.6 — Retire completed parents and promote stragglers (interactive)
+
+Phase C.5 consolidates related *open* tasks. This step retires parent tasks whose work is *finished*, so completed containers don't linger in Open Work as scaffolding.
+
+Run =todo-cleanup.el --convert-subtasks= first (it's part of the =clean-todo= / wrap-up cleanup, and =open-tasks.org= runs it too) so every completed sub-task is a dated event-log entry rather than a lingering =DONE= keyword. The closure logic below reads "open child" as a child heading still carrying a task keyword (=TODO=/=DOING=/=WAITING=/=VERIFY=/=NEXT=/=PROJECT=/=STALLED=/=DELEGATED=); a dated entry is correctly not open.
+
+Two shapes, both proposed to Craig (inline numbered options per =interaction.md=, no popup) before applying:
+
+- *Zero open children → close the parent.* A parent whose child *tasks* are all resolved (now dated) and that carries no open child task is finished: close it per =todo-format.md= (=**= parent → =DONE=/=CANCELLED= + =CLOSED:=), and it moves to Resolved on the next =--archive-done=. If the work resurfaces later, a fresh task is created then; a completed container shouldn't sit open as a placeholder.
+- *One or two open children → promote, then close.* When a parent has only one or two open children, pull them out and rewrite them as standalone =**= level-2 tasks — give each a priority per the project scheme, and make the heading stand alone without the parent's context — then close the now-childless parent and let it move to Resolved. The former children become first-class Open Work tasks; the retired parent stops being scaffolding for one or two stragglers.
+
+*The leaf-with-notes carve-out (important).* "Zero open children" is not the same as "done." A =**= leaf task whose only descendants are dated *notes* — a captured "Ideas", "Goals", or "Current State" entry, not a real completed sub-task — is unstarted work with a note attached, not a finished container. Do not close it. Tell the two apart by intent: a container reads as a grouping (a =PROJECT= keyword, an explicit "parent grouping ..." line, or several dated entries that were genuinely separate sub-tasks that shipped); a leaf-with-notes is a single feature/bug task whose title names unstarted work and whose lone dated child is a design note. When the call is ambiguous, flag it NEEDS-USER rather than closing.
+
+Never close or promote autonomously past the ambiguous line — surface the candidates with a recommendation and let Craig ratify, the same interactive stance as Phase C.5. Clear container completions (a =PROJECT= whose every child is dated) can be proposed as a batch; leaf-with-notes ambiguities are flagged individually. Verify open-vs-done counts against the actual headings (a real scan of the subtree), not a fragile regex that a shell's =\b= support can silently break — a miscount here closes live work.
+
 ** Phase D — Flag the judgment calls (interactive)
 
 Present the NEEDS-USER bucket as a short, scannable list — one line per task, naming the decision or the fact required. Adjudicate with the user one item at a time (inline numbered options per =interaction.md=, no popup). Apply the user's calls as they come (which may itself produce more autonomous updates, or new tasks).
@@ -147,3 +162,7 @@ Two Phase C behaviors added, both surfaced by an Emacs-config =todo.org= audit:
 
 - *Tag-vocabulary enforcement.* That project declares a closed tag set (=bug=, =feature=, =refactor=, =test=, =quick=, =solo=); the audit had to strip ~44 ad-hoc tags that had accumulated across the file. The prior workflow only checked that a type tag was *present* — it had no concept of an exhaustive allowed set. The new bullet enforces a declared closed vocabulary and leaves open-vocabulary projects untouched.
 - *Code-complete-but-unverified closing.* Many tasks had shipped (tests green, live in the daemon) but stayed open awaiting a manual or visual verification, so they accumulated as half-open. Leaving them open is noise; auto-closing them would violate "never claim a fix verified before the user confirms." The fix routes the pending human check into the project's =Manual testing and validation= parent (dedup-checked) per =verification.md='s manual-verification hand-off, then closes the implementation task. The work is done and the check is tracked; a failed check promotes to a bug.
+
+** 2026-07-01 — Retire completed parents (Phase C.6)
+
+Added Phase C.6: retire a parent task once its child *tasks* are all done. Zero open children → close the parent; one or two open children → promote them to standalone level-2 tasks, then close. Surfaced by an Emacs-config =todo.org= audit where several PROJECT containers had all children complete. Depends on =todo-cleanup.el --convert-subtasks= running first so completed sub-tasks are dated (not lingering =DONE= keywords) and the open-child count is accurate. Carries a leaf-with-notes carve-out: a =**= leaf task whose only descendant is a dated design note ("Ideas"/"Goals") is unstarted work, not a finished container, and must not be closed — the ambiguous case is flagged NEEDS-USER. The step also warns against counting open-vs-done with a fragile regex (a =\b= that a given shell/awk silently drops miscounts and closes live work).