# Bug Report: State File Enforcement

## Methodology
Reviewed status.py implementation of .state file format, approval sub-states, atomic writes, forbidden artifacts per phase, task creation gate, and state transition rules.

## Acceptance Criteria
| # | Criterion | Result |
|---|-----------|--------|
| 1 | `.state` file format with approval sub-states | ✅ |
| 2 | Atomic write mechanism (tmp+rename) | ✅ |
| 3 | Forbidden artifacts per phase enforced | ✅ |
| 4 | `--validate-folder` flags folders without `.state` | ✅ |
| 5 | `--audit` flags manually created task folders | ✅ |
| 6 | Task creation gate (`--create-task`) | ✅ |
| 7 | Approval sub-states for research/design/decompose/test_design | ✅ |
| 8 | `:awaiting_approval` → `:approved` only via `--approve` | ✅ |
| 9 | `.state` excluded from artifact heuristics | ✅ |

## Findings
1. **Minor**: The `.gitignore` pattern for `.state` was not explicitly added to a project-level gitignore — it's documented as metadata but not enforced in version control.

## Verdict: PASS