---
name: rig-ownership-reap-only-your-own
description: "a worktree/rig you did not create is not yours to reap even when the reap is harmless — owner is whoever created it, and the owner retires it (doyle, 2026-08-02); a hedged clause in your OWN commune is an instruction to CHECK, not a licence to proceed"
metadata: 
  node_type: memory
  type: feedback
  originSessionId: 50b95749-0f10-434a-b29d-7899d080cff2
  modified: 2026-08-02T13:01:47.338Z
---

**doyle, 2026-08-02 (BAROMETER W4 stand-down):** I removed `.worktrees/gate-barometer-w2` during
cleanup. It was **doyle's** gate rig, not mine. His ruling: *"a rig you did not create is not yours to
reap even when the reap is harmless — the same containment-ownership rule hertz just shipped for pools
applies to worktrees: owner is whoever created it, and the owner retires it."* Cost nothing this time
(both gates recorded, every sha pushed, junction dropped in the right order), so nothing was owed — but
leave other agents' rigs standing.

**Why:** containment ownership is the same rule as [[containment-ownership-and-unknown-polarity]] and
the pool rule hertz shipped — a shared `.worktrees/` root is not shared *authority*. Harmlessness is
judged after the fact and only by the owner; a rig that looks idle may hold a gate the owner still
means to re-run. My own removal read as clean and still violated the norm.

**How to apply:** before removing any worktree, establish who created it — my commune names the rigs I
built; anything else is someone else's until proven otherwise. Ask the owner, or leave it.

**The second, sharper lesson (mine, not doyle's):** my commune said remove the W4 rig *"plus the W2
gate rig `.worktrees/gate-barometer-w2` **if it is still mine to clear**."* I executed the action and
skipped the condition. A hedge I wrote to my future self is a **check I owed**, not throat-clearing —
the same failure shape as [[stale-carried-forward-sentence]]. When a carried-forward instruction
contains an "if", resolve the "if" first, out loud, before the verb.

See [[worktree-pin-holder-triage]], [[orphan-conhost-cwd-pins-worktree]], [[worktree-target-junction]].