A `Shipped` brief now requires a `Cut-closed:` declaration. When you close a brief as Shipped, add a Cut-closed: preamble field recording that no further slices are coming: an ISO 8601 date then evidence, as in 2026-08-25 All nine slices are Shipped. It must sit above the brief's first ## heading; written below one it reads as absent. The coverage lint also refuses a Draft brief that carries the field, and every other state may carry it or omit it.
A brief that passed the coverage lint yesterday can fail today, so this is a gate change to plan for rather than a new option to adopt. Any repository holding a Status: Shipped brief without the new field fails until it is backfilled — run it from your repository root as python3 <skill>/scripts/lint-brief-coverage.py --root . before your pipeline does — it resolves docs/product/briefs beneath the root you pass, so pointing it at the briefs directory itself finds nothing and exits 0.
A brief's states and legal moves are now documented once, so the reference guide and the lint cannot disagree about which transitions are legal or what each status requires of its children.