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porch: no re-scope mechanism — plan_phases baked into status.yaml at plan-approval, never reconciled from the plan doc #1135

Description

@waleedkadous

Problem

When an architect descopes an approved plan (e.g. "implement phases 1-3 only, defer 4-8" — a normal mid-flight scope decision), there is no supported way to update porch's phase schedule. plan_phases is written into status.yaml at plan-approval time and never reconciled from the plan doc's Machine-Readable JSON afterward. porch --help offers rollback (rewind) but nothing that edits the phase list.

Consequence: after the last in-scope phase completes, porch schedules the next baked-in phase; the builder correctly refuses to edit status.yaml (strict-mode rule), and the project wedges. The only workaround is an architect-authorized manual status.yaml edit — exactly the hand-editing porch's design forbids.

Hit live: shannon spir-2773, 2026-07-03 (8-phase plan descoped to 3 at plan-approval; architect had to authorize a one-time supervised yaml trim).

Suggested shape

porch rescope <id> — re-read the plan doc's Machine-Readable phases JSON and reconcile plan_phases (only pending/unstarted phases may be added/removed; started/complete phases immutable). Or an --phases flag on approve.

Filed by the shannon realtime architect.

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