Feature plan: Step 1 · Step 2 · Step 3 · Step 4

Debug mode: enabled, inherited from approved Step 3.

Execution state

• Steps 1–3 approved; branch feature/markdown-list-structure; baseline b9d1cc874, planning commit 17fcec043. Six sequential stages, no merged-branch reuse or publication/deployment/disposal authorization.

• Study entry before implementation: railspike-effort / v3/markdown_list_structure, v1/R1/P2, Codex single exposed rater; 0.90 total reaffirmed, prior scores/missing intake retained. Existing exact R1 verification retained. No measured labor, independent rating or accepted outcome.

• No external dependency, schema/navigation or wider-column changes. Preserve todo.txt and recovery storage.

Stage 1 - Paragraph ownership and numbering

• Changes: canonical renderer collects adjacent flat items and content-column continuations, retains wrapped/loose paragraphs inside items, starts sibling lists on marker-kind changes and preserves every ordered source number with explicit values. Existing nested/unsupported blocks temporarily retain prior behavior pending Stages 2–3. Registered three focused list tests and updated procedure assertions to semantic numbers instead of six detached lists. Continuing-study planning records included here, outside the initial planning commit.

• Verification — passed: renderer lint, 29/29 list/reader/table tests, retraction guide's single six-step list and all four standalone tables, repeated/gapped/restarted numbers, blank paragraphs, marker changes and following standalone content; whitespace check. One new assertion initially assumed no separator newline before following prose; separated semantic list and paragraph checks, then reran all 29.

• Notes: planning 17fcec043. Stage 2 nesting, Stage 3 full recovery/safety, browser and portable publication remain pending. No full-suite/UI/deployment claim.

Stage 2 - Nested list relationships

• Changes: bounded recursive list ownership through eight levels, mixed ordered/unordered children, sibling marker changes, established-column dedents and paragraph return to parents. Same canonical inline path, render signature and ordered values. Updated prior nested-list assertions to require structural nesting; unsupported cases remain for Stage 3 recovery.

• Verification — passed: 32/32 list/reader/table cases; mixed grandchildren, parent paragraph after children, wide-number content columns, eight levels and real account-key plan risk bullets. Initial mixed fixture exposed parent text aligned with a child's marker column; returning to the owning ancestor content column fixed it, then all cases passed. PHP lint/whitespace checks passed.

• Notes: Stage 1 commit e27a0356d. Ambiguous/unsupported constructs still need whole-block recovery and adversarial safety before browser/delivery work.

Stage 3 - Unsupported-block recovery and safety

• Changes: replaced legacy flattening with complete escaped list-source recovery for tabs, unknown/dedented ownership, over-limit nesting, oversized numeric markers, indented code and embedded tables/quotes/fences. Fenced examples remain in their source block through closing delimiters, including unindented example lines; subsequent standalone headings/tables remain outside. Comment preprocessing preserves fenced example bytes while suppressing prose comments before either semantic or fallback rendering. No alternative inline/link parser.

• Verification — passed: 37/37 focused list/reader/table tests; whole-block source equality, nine-level fallback, ambiguous columns, tabs and marker widths, nested/optional-pipe tables, quotes, indented/fenced code and following standalone tables, code-comment bytes versus hidden prose comments, literal tasks, escaping, unsafe/traversal/symlink links, image alternatives, real procedure and nested-plan fixtures. PHP lint/whitespace checks passed.

• Notes: Stage 2 commit dd24c3ad1. Fallback is intentionally broad for unsupported embedded blocks. New fallbacks are keyboard-focusable source regions; actual phone/focus/deep-nesting presentation remains Stage 4. No dependency, source-document rewrite or broader syntax extension.

Stage 4 - Accessible ordinary reader

• Changes: semantic six-step/paragraph browser assertions replace six detached lists. Compact list indentation and paragraph spacing reuse reader styles; five-to-eight-level lists get a keyboard-focusable local scroll region with readable minimum width. New isolated list fixture covers literal numbers, parent paragraphs, eight-level links, nine-level/source fallback, fenced example bytes and standalone tables. No wider-column/layout expansion.

• Verification — passed: 37/37 PHP cases and 8 dynamic Chromium scenarios, desktop/390px × default/Word97/Chicago/Midnight, JavaScript disabled. Normal Tools→Docs→guide entry, actual source numbers/paragraphs, parent/child ancestry, safe list/table link destinations, Tab access to deep-list and source regions, ArrowRight scrolling, visible focus, readable deep text, code bytes and no page-wide overflow. Node/PHP syntax and whitespace checks passed.

• Visual review — passed: all four phone list fixtures plus desktop Word97; deep text retains usable width, markers are visible at initial scroll, source recovery/adjacent tables stay readable. Screenshots reset local scroll only after real keyboard checks. Durable measurements: dynamic_browser_evidence.json; fixture /tmp/markdown-lists-dynamic-teun5itn.

• Notes: Stage 3 commit 3bfe93666. Local Chromium only; copied/static release and recovery remain Stage 5. Accessibility labels add no explanatory visible copy; navigation/icons unchanged.

Stage 5 - Portable publication and recovery

• Changes: copied-package acceptance includes supported lists, source fallbacks, literal numbers and deep-list region parity; static-reader assertions check the actual single six-step procedure/paragraphs. Existing table/download/asset contracts remain covered.

• Verification — passed: 2/2 full static inventory/on-demand tests. Copied complete dependency-free application on PHP 8.1.2, actual full/shared CLI publication, dynamic/generated list/table/fallback parity and destinations, stale/deleted-reader refresh; injected renderer failure returns 503 without exposing internal failure detail, keeps the published list/fallback release usable, and restoration/rebuild succeeds. No source-doc snapshot abort.

• Verification — passed: 8 generated reader + 8 static discovery browser scenarios, desktop/390px × default/Word97/Chicago/Midnight. Generated readers exercise semantic parents/numbers, deep/source Tab/ArrowRight/focus, safe list/table link navigation, code bytes, alignment and no page overflow. Inspected all four generated phone list screenshots. Evidence: release_recovery_evidence.json, static_browser_evidence.json, static_discovery_evidence.json; fixture /tmp/markdown-release-80msiqso. Syntax/whitespace checks passed.

• Notes: Stage 4 commit f9b4528d0. Complete static inventory test takes several minutes; focused/source correctness is not inferred from duration. No production activation, full-suite or physical-device claim. Corpus acceptance/closeout remains Stage 6.

Stage 6 - Corpus acceptance and closeout

• Changes: frozen/refreshed compact reports, a reproducible dependency-free maintainer list audit, all 453 measured nested-list document classifications and human-readable acceptance. Updated runbook with content-column ownership, literal numbers, eight-level support, whole-block recovery and explicit padding/numeric guards. Wider Docs column and broader syntax extensions remain deferred.

• Verification — passed: all 1,405 frozen source hashes match and render without errors; 1,411 refreshed tracked documents at 4876f2337 render without errors. Frozen standalone table count remains 118. Audit covers 453 documents / 9,716 nested-item candidates: 447 structured, five mixed, one source-only; 3,934 actual nested list containers and nine source regions. Every inspected list tree has valid parent/item balance, explicit ordered values and depth within the eight-level bound; source regions match canonical safety-filtered source. Observed corpus nesting reaches three levels; dedicated reader fixtures prove eight-level/over-limit behavior. Candidate counts are not semantic successes; visual review remains representative.

• Verification — passed: final 46/46 catalog/reader/list/table cases plus Stage 5 2/2 static cases; 48 distinct focused PHP cases. Hand-counted metrics fixture, corpus audit, PHP/Node/Python syntax, artifact links, whitespace and dependency-delta checks passed. Dynamic/static/discovery evidence covers 24 distinct theme/viewport scenarios. Inspected phone fixtures across all themes and desktop samples, not every document or physical device.

• Notes: Stage 5 commit 4876f2337; application renderer/CSS did not change afterward, so complete copied-package/recovery/browser evidence remains applicable. No full-suite, live deployment, merge/push, schema/navigation change, new dependency, todo.txt edit or recovery disposal. Stage 6 commit follows this summary.

Study closeout and handoff

• Stable v3/markdown_list_structure, scope v1 clarified/R1/P2, Codex single exposed rater; baseline b9d1cc874. Planning 17fcec043; Stages 1–5 e27a0356d, dd24c3ad1, 3bfe93666, f9b4528d0, 4876f2337; Stage 6 follows. Six planned/six completed stages, no new feature request or split. Corrections: newline-sensitive assertion replaced with semantic checks; ancestor paragraph return fixed from mixed fixture; browser checks strengthened for source/deep-region Tab/arrow access and initial-scroll screenshots. No remaining implementation inside approved supported/fallback boundaries.

• Projected 0.90 total preserved/reaffirmed; separately assessed retrospective scope 0.95 for ownership/nesting, privacy-safe whole-block fallback, phone/keyboard containment, corpus classification and real publication/recovery evidence. All three frozen R1 hashes reverified, same exposed rater; no measured labor, independent rating or accepted-count increment. Maintainer comfortable-fit judgment and acceptance pending; parent history-removal retention acceptance remains separate/incomplete.

• Dependency delta zero external additions/upgrades/copied code; manifests/locks and third-party tree unchanged. Technically complete local handoff, with full suite, physical devices and deployment unverified. Recovery bundles and the recorded wider Docs follow-up remain preserved.

Merge authorization — 2026-10-23T15:18:18.733723+00:00

• User performed UAT and said “Great, please merge, and what's next.” Accepted delivered list slice for merge/publication; preserve all six stage commits and the other work now on origin/main. Study comfortable-fit/sizing judgment remains unknown; functional acceptance does not invent that judgment.

• Next recommendation: read-only task-list presentation using existing literal checked/unchecked markers (626/542 candidates in the latest measured report), preserving source and no task-editing controls. This is a recommendation, not an implementation or new-cycle approval. Wider Docs column remains separately recorded and deferred.

• Integrate updated origin/main before publication and verify canonical renderer/CSS preservation plus focused Docs/link checks. No dependency, layout expansion, deployment or historical-storage disposal.

• Merge verification — passed: integrated origin/main f82061406; preserved both ledger histories in the sole content conflict and automatic README/test-runner merges. 47/47 focused PHP cases include Docs/catalog/list/table plus checkout real-Git acceptance; metrics fixture and whitespace checks passed. Canonical renderer/Docs CSS are byte-identical to the reviewed list branch, and newer origin history contains no target Markdown vendor path. Prior package/browser/recovery evidence remains scoped to the unchanged renderer; no new full-suite, production or live-deployment claim.