The Lifecycle

Every embryo moves through states. The lifecycle is not a progress bar — it is a signal of how alive an idea is, and what kind of engagement it needs. The lifecycle is the method: define, probe, generate paths, then validate. Living states change the agent's stance. The two end states record how the idea left: it died, or it worked (ADR 0005).

States

latent → germinating → growing → maturing
                                    ↓        ↓
                                 fossil   transplanted

Latent

The embryo exists but the agent has not yet engaged with it. The seed has been captured. The tension is implicit — present but not yet surfaced.

A latent embryo is waiting. Opening it auto-engages the agent; the first successful turn advances it to germinating.

Germinating

The agent has begun engaging. The first questions have been asked. The embryo is aware of its own tensions.

This is the most fragile state. The idea could grow into something or reveal itself as hollow. The agent's job here is to probe without breaking — to find the genuine tension without exhausting the embryo before it has developed.

Growing

Connections are forming. The embryo has survived initial questioning and is developing shape. Other embryos may be linking to it, or it to them. The agent may propose paths — alternative directions, not the answer — which you can keep as tensions or dismiss.

Maturing

The idea is being validated. It has a clear shape, and the work is now evidence: research, experiments, artefacts, the cheapest test that could kill it. The agent asks what would prove the idea or kill it, and may propose fossilization (it failed) or transplant (it works).

A maturing embryo leaves the garden in one of two ways: fossil when it dies, or transplanted when it works. You can still jump backward to a living state before closing. (Before ADR 0005 this state was MATURE.)

Fossil

The embryo has been closed. It is no longer active, but it is not erased. A fossil retains:

• The original seed
• The full lifecycle history
• The reason for closure (always recorded)
• The connections it held at the time of closure

See Fossils & Memory for the full picture.

Transplanted

The idea worked: it was productised or is in use, and it now lives outside the garden. A transplant keeps:

• What it became (transplantOutcome): a link or a reference to the component, doc, repo or skill
• Why it worked (transplantReason, always required)
• The full lifecycle history

Only a MATURING embryo can be transplanted, so the idea passes through validation first. A transplanted embryo is closed to the agent and to lifecycle, tension and connection changes (409). You can still add notes from outside as the artefact evolves (USER_NOTE events).

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Transitions

Who advances an embryo?

• First agent engage on a LATENT embryo sets GERMINATING (logged as STATE_CHANGED initiated by AGENT). The collaborator shows an explicit first confrontation moment (latent → germinating) — not a silent auto-advance. That is the germination trigger in the current lab.
• You can jump to any other living state from the detail page at any time (including backward). There is no adjacency graph.
• The agent does not suggest other lifecycle transitions. Path, fossil and transplant proposals are separate HITL notes.

The fossilization transition

Fossilization is terminal. It always requires a reason. It is never silent.

See Fossils & Memory for how fossilization works.

The transplant transition

Transplanting is terminal too. It requires what the idea became and why it worked. You start it from a MATURING embryo, or accept the agent's transplant proposal and add the outcome. It is never silent.

Reverting states

An embryo can move backward in the lifecycle if new tensions emerge. A maturing embryo can return to growing. Fossilized and transplanted embryos cannot be reverted.

Resurrection — ↺ resurrect on a fossil creates a new LATENT embryo with a confirmed RESURRECTS link back to the fossil. The agent may also propose RESURRECTS to a fossil in context.

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What state signals

State	What it means	Agent engagement
Latent	Waiting to name the real problem	DEFINE — recover the problem if the seed is already a solution
Germinating	Being probed	PROBE / INVERT — assumptions, not patches
Growing	Generating paths, not the answer	VARIETY — alternative directions; optional path proposals
Maturing	Validating — transplant, fossilize or keep testing	VALIDATE — evidence or the cheapest killing experiment; fossil or transplant proposal
Fossil	Path closed, reason kept	No agent input
Transplanted	Living outside the garden, reason kept	No agent input; user notes only

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Next: The Agent