# R120 — Issue reply drafts are never committed or mentioned in commit text
id: R120 · group: - · status: active · tags: - · origin: developer 2026-09-30 · added: 2026-09-30

**Rule.** Replies we draft on the maintainer's behalf to a GitHub issue, PR or reporter, and discussion records that exist only to ingest a reporter's message and draft a reply, are never committed, and no commit message, plan note, log or summary says a reply was drafted or posted. Fix work prompted by an issue is fine: the fix, its task, and commit messages citing the issue number or URL as the reason are committed normally.

**Why.** The repository is public. Outward text is written by the maintainer, like a developer, per `docs/gen3-standards.md`; an agent's reply draft is not that text, and a committed draft or a note that one was drafted would publish it as ours. History cannot be un-published once pushed.

**How.**
- A `discuss` agent whose topic is reading a reporter's message and drafting a reply writes its record and the draft under `.run/` (gitignored), never under `phase-ends/`.
- `tools/commit_task.sh` leaves unstaged a discussion record carrying an `Outward: yes` line or a reply/reporter topic, and refuses a commit message that mentions a drafted or posted reply, comment or response.
- A reply-drafting record already committed is untracked with `git rm --cached` and gitignored; history is rewritten only on the developer's decision, on a clean tree.