/ca-status

name: ca-status
description: Show the project's current state at a glance — stage, open tasks, open questions, overrides since the last checkpoint, current branch. Read-only.
argument-hint: "(none) | drift"

$ca-status — state snapshot

A read-only summary of `.codearbiter/` state. No skill is routed to; no file is modified.

<!-- catalog-command-modes:start -->

Drift mode

<!-- command-mode:drift legacy-route:context-check --> With the exact argument `drift`, load and follow [skills/ca-context-check/SKILL.md](../ca-context-check/SKILL.md). The audit begins read-only; re-scout or re-baseline may write only after the user's explicit selection. In drift mode the `context-check` contract governs; the opening summary and Hard gate below apply only to the no-argument snapshot. With no argument, continue with the unchanged read-only snapshot below. Reject other arguments rather than treating them as drift mode. <!-- catalog-command-modes:end -->

Flow

The orchestrator reads and presents:

1. **Stage** — the `stage:` maturity value from `<project-root>/.codearbiter/CONTEXT.md` frontmatter. 2. **Pipelines** — every slug in `<project-root>/.codearbiter/specs/` and `plans/`, with how far each got: spec awaiting approval, spec approved / no plan, plan in progress (`ACCEPTED` count vs. total from the plan's status column), or complete. An interrupted pipeline is resumable via `$ca-feature` — say so on its line. 3. **Open tasks** — the in-flight count from `<project-root>/.codearbiter/open-tasks.md` (top-level `- ` bullets excluding done `- [x]`; the same `_taskboardlib` count the SessionStart hook uses). 4. **Open questions** — the count of unresolved `[CONFIRM-NN]` placeholders in `<project-root>/.codearbiter/open-questions.md`. 5. **Overrides since last checkpoint** — entries in `<project-root>/.codearbiter/overrides.log` newer than the marker in `<project-root>/.codearbiter/last-checkpoint`. 6. **Current branch** — from git.

Output

## Project status — YYYY-MM-DD

Stage:            N
Branch:           <current branch>
Pipelines:
  <slug>          plan 3/7 ACCEPTED — resume with $ca-feature "<slug>"
  <slug>          spec approved, no plan
Open tasks:       N
Open questions:   N ([CONFIRM-NN] unresolved)
Overrides since last checkpoint: N

No specs and no plans → `Pipelines: none`.

If `[CONFIRM-NN]` placeholders are open, surface them — do not resolve them here.

When NOT to use

• A full cross-cutting review → `$ca-checkpoint`.
• A specific question → `$ca-btw`.

Hard gate

Read-only. MUST NOT modify any file. MUST NOT resolve a `[CONFIRM-NN]` it surfaces. No skill is routed to by this command.