Command: acceptance (move to acceptance queue)

Use for: needs acceptance:, acceptance:

Prerequisites: Read ../bootstrap.md and ../rules.md first. Read ../id-prefixes.md when appending to ACCEPTANCE.md.

Trigger

needs acceptance: [reference to section in ITERATION.md] or acceptance: [reference to section in ITERATION.md]

→ Find the referenced section in ITERATION.md
→ Remove that section from ITERATION.md
→ Add it to the bottom of work/ACCEPTANCE.md using the acceptance template format
→ Include the date it was moved to acceptance
→ Mark source as "ITERATION.md"

Workflow

1. Read ../bootstrap.md if needed; read ITERATION.md — backfill missing ids per ../id-prefixes.md (Backfill), then read ACCEPTANCE.md and backfill missing ids there too
2. Locate the referenced section in ITERATION.md
3. Read the acceptance template — ../templates/acceptance-template.md
4. Identify the section by title or other reference provided by the user
5. Extract the entire section including the title and all content
6. Remove the section from ITERATION.md (preserve file structure)
7. Format the entry according to the acceptance template:
   • Assign **Id:** ACC-N — compute the next ACC-N in ACCEPTANCE.md after backfill as max(**Last id:** counter, in-file max **Id:** ACC-*) + 1 (../id-prefixes.md).
   • If the iteration section had **Id:** ITER-N, set **Source id:** ITER-N; otherwise omit Source id:.
   • If the iteration section has a **Why:** field, copy its text verbatim into the acceptance entry's **Why:** field
   • If the iteration section lacks **Why:**, set **Why:** [Not yet documented]
8. Append to the bottom of ACCEPTANCE.md (before the final --- separator if present)
9. Update the persistent counter in ACCEPTANCE.md — raise **Last id:** ACC-N to the newly assigned id. Removing the section from ITERATION.md (step 6) does not change ITERATION.md's **Last id:** — the counter is monotonic.
10. Commit — Stage only the changed work/ file(s) and commit with message xp_work: move ITER-N to acceptance as ACC-N (e.g. xp_work: move ITER-3 to acceptance as ACC-5). Do not use git add .; only stage specific work/ files that were modified.
11. Confirm completion by saying "Moved to acceptance queue"

When items arrive from pluck

The pluck command may append to work/ACCEPTANCE.md when implementation is finished but human verification is still required (see pluck.md, human verification gate). Use the same template, ACC-N assignment, and formatting rules as above. Differences:

• Source — The queue file the section was plucked from (e.g. IMPROVEMENTS.md), not ITERATION.md.
• Source id — The plucked entry’s PREFIX-N from the queue section.
• Why — Copy the plucked queue section’s **Why:** verbatim when present. If absent, set **Why:** [Not yet documented].
• Pre-verification — In the current pluck workflow, the feature branch is squash-merged to the base branch and the worktree/branch are cleaned up before acceptance is queued. Pre-verification therefore does not need to describe merge, branch cleanup, or worktree removal. Use this field only when additional non-merge setup steps are needed for the human to test (e.g. environment variables, config files, service restarts).

The pluck workflow creates two commits on the base branch: a feature delivery commit (squash merge of the implementation) and a housekeeping commit (queue section yank + ACCEPTANCE.md append). The owner later runs accept: / xp_work accept on the ACC-N item when verified.

See ../format-guidelines.md for template paths.