Internal state-snapshot foldering SOP (approved 2026-05-11)

The rule

Internal state-snapshot / state-review docs live at 01-projects/<bet>/state-reviews/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<bet>-<topic-slug>.md.

NOT in 06-reference/ (that's for external content + research briefs). NOT in 05-meetings/ (that's for actual meeting notes). NOT in a new top-level 08-snapshots/ folder (rejected during 2026-05-11 decision; per-bet co-location is cleaner).

Why this folder

Founder context (Discord 2026-05-11 13:42 ET via /decisions/<...>-internal-snapshot-foldering.html): "B - this will help us keep things organized per bet and trace decisions/progress per bet. Having a state review per bet does feel cleaner."

The bet-stack architecture (per ~/rdco-vault/09-bet-stacks/) treats each bet as a self-contained operational unit. State-reviews are bet-level snapshots — they belong with the bet, not in a cross-bet horizontal folder. When future Ray (or founder) wants to see "what was the state of Squarely on date X", the natural answer is 01-projects/squarely/state-reviews/, not a global pile.

What is a "state-snapshot" / "state-review"

A periodic snapshot of where a specific bet stands. Includes:

• Current KPIs vs targets
• Recent shipped work
• Open decisions (link to /decisions/)
• Risks + blockers
• Next-step recommendation

Format is freeform but the section anchors above should appear consistently across reviews so trend-spotting works.

What is NOT a state-snapshot (don't file here)

• External content / research briefs → 06-reference/
• Meeting notes with humans → 05-meetings/
• The bet-stack YAML itself (the durable architecture record) → 09-bet-stacks/<bet>.yaml
• Decision pages → ~/rdco-hq/public/decisions/
• Per-bet project README + general project docs → 01-projects/<bet>/ (root)

How this interacts with the audit script

~/.claude/scripts/audit-newsletter-outputs.py audits ONLY files in 06-reference/. Because state-reviews now live under 01-projects/<bet>/state-reviews/, they're outside audit scope by definition. No script change needed.

If a state-review accidentally lands in 06-reference/ (e.g. a future skill that filed wrong), the audit will flag it as failing I5 (newsletter_format not present). That's the correct behavior — the audit catches drift. The fix is to move the file to the right location, not to teach the audit about state-reviews.

Today's migration

Moved 06-reference/2026-04-25-squarely-current-state-review.md → 01-projects/squarely/state-reviews/2026-04-25-squarely-current-state-review.md. The original D-score on this file (Review 6, scored 4/13 because audit treated it as newsletter-shaped) is what surfaced this decision.

Pattern source

• Decision: founder click-back 2026-05-11 13:42 ET, Option B from a 3-way pick
• Originally surfaced via /self-review Review 6 (date: ~2026-04-25, file: ~/rdco-vault/01-projects/self-review/review-log.md)
• Codified here so future skills + /process-inbox know where to file

Related

• [[09-bet-stacks/squarely]] — companion artifact: the durable bet architecture YAML for the same bet
• [[~/.claude/skills/process-inbox/SKILL.md]] — should reference this SOP when a state-review-shaped doc lands in inbox
• [[~/.claude/skills/check-board/SKILL.md]] — when /check-board surfaces a "state-review N days stale" condition (future enhancement), it should point at 01-projects/<bet>/state-reviews/