Draft → Review → Approved

Every document in nepwalk-docs moves through three statuses. This controls what downstream departments can safely use as input.

---

The three statuses

Status	Set by	Meaning
draft	AI (automatically on creation)	Being worked on. May change significantly.
review	AI via <dept>: publish <file>	Author considers it complete. Awaiting human approval.
approved	Human reviewer (PR merge)	Confirmed correct. Safe to use as input.

The status lives in the document's YAML frontmatter:

---
status: draft
---
```text

---

## Rules

**Downstream depts should only depend on `approved` documents.**
A `draft` SRS may still have missing requirements. Building against it causes rework.

**The AI will not promote a document to `approved`.**
Only a human reviewer can do this — by approving and merging the PR.

**`draft` documents are hidden from the published mkdocs site.**
The `exclude_drafts` hook removes them from the public build. They exist in the repo but are not browsable until they reach `review` or `approved`.

**`review` documents are visible but marked.**
Other teams can read them and plan ahead, but should not treat them as final.

---

## How a document moves through statuses

### draft → review

The author runs:

: publish

The AI sets `status: review` in the frontmatter and opens a PR to `nepwalk-docs`.

### review → approved

A reviewer approves and merges the PR. The merge commit is the approval record.

If changes are needed: the reviewer comments on the PR. The author revises, the AI updates the doc, and the PR is updated. Status stays `review` until merged.

### approved → draft (revision)

If an approved document needs a significant update, create a new version file:

prd_v1.md ← approved, do not edit prd_v2.md ← new draft

```text

Never edit an approved document in place. Downstream depts may have already built against it.

---

Version numbering

Documents use v<N> suffixes: prd_v1.md, srs_v2.md.

• Start at v1.
• Increment only when the approved version needs significant changes.
• Minor corrections to a draft or review doc do not increment the version.