fix(ci): one NOW entry per file, and retire merge=union

.gitattributes

@@ -12,24 +12,35 @@
 # For append-only JSONL, `union` is that behaviour and is built in.
 .trinity/experience/*.jsonl merge=union
 
-# NOW.md: canonical location is docs/NOW.md. The root NOW.md is NOT a symlink
-# — `git ls-tree master NOW.md` reports mode 100644, a regular file (a symlink
-# would be 120000). It is its own divergent document, last stamped 2026-08-09
-# while docs/NOW.md is stamped by every pull request. An earlier version of
-# this comment described a symlink and merge-of-the-link-target; no such
-# symlink has existed here. Whether the root file should become a real
-# symlink, be deleted, or keep its own content is still open — see #2253.
+# NOW entries: `merge=union` RETIRED -- there is nothing left to union.
 #
-# This pattern has no slash, so git matches it by basename at ANY depth: it
-# already covers docs/NOW.md (and sub/dir/NOW.md), verifiable with
-# `git check-attr merge -- docs/NOW.md`. The rule below is therefore
-# redundant, and is kept only because it is the one people look for.
-NOW.md merge=union
-
-# docs/NOW.md is the file that actually conflicts: it conflicted on every
-# branch (seven times in one campaign), each time resolved identically by hand
-# — keep both entries. `theirs` used to be named here, but it is not a
-# built-in driver: it needs a merge.theirs.driver entry in .git/config that no
-# fresh clone has, so it silently did nothing. `union` is built in, needs no
-# setup, and concatenates both sides — exactly that hand resolution.
-docs/NOW.md merge=union
+# Both rules that used to sit here (`NOW.md merge=union` and
+# `docs/NOW.md merge=union`) existed because every PR prepended to one file and
+# so collided on its first line. Entries now live one-per-file under `docs/now/`
+# (see docs/now/README.md), so two PRs write two different paths and the shared
+# line that union was papering over no longer exists.
+#
+# Retiring it is a fix, not just a cleanup, for three measured reasons:
+#
+#  1. GitHub never applied it. `git merge-tree` against master with these rules
+#     in force reports docs/NOW.md CLEAN for PRs that GitHub simultaneously
+#     labels CONFLICTING -- the mergeability computation ignores merge drivers.
+#     So union bought nothing on the platform where the conflicts were reported.
+#  2. Off the platform it silently corrupted. Union's failure mode is
+#     DUPLICATION, not removal: two branches editing one `Last updated:` line
+#     merge with NO conflict into two adjacent `Last updated:` lines under one
+#     heading. Under the default driver that is a conflict a human resolves.
+#     The invariant docs/NOW.md should hold is one `Last updated:` line per
+#     entry heading; exactly one heading violates it -- `Wave Loop 421
+#     close-out / Wave Loop 422 setup (2026-07-06)` carries no date line, lost
+#     to exactly this. Stated as an invariant on purpose: an earlier draft of
+#     this comment pinned absolute counts (137 headings / 136 date lines) and
+#     they went stale within a single wave.
+#  3. It suppressed real conflict detection locally while providing no benefit
+#     remotely -- the worst of both.
+#
+# The root NOW.md is NOT a symlink, contrary to what the retired comment here
+# claimed: `git ls-tree` shows `100644 blob`, a divergent regular file last
+# touched 2026-08-09. Whether it should become a real symlink, be deleted, or
+# keep its own content is still open -- see #2253. It simply no longer carries
+# a merge rule.

.githooks/pre-commit

@@ -1,31 +1,32 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
-# Gate: NOW.md must be updated today before any commit.
+# Gate: a fresh docs/now/ entry must exist before any commit.
 # Plus: NotebookLM continuous sync integration.
 # Pipeline entry: ./scripts/tri check-now → t27c check-now (Rust; see tests/OWNERS.md).
 set -euo pipefail
 
 ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
 cd "$ROOT"
 
-# ===== NOW.md Gate =====
+# ===== NOW entry Gate =====
 bash "$ROOT/scripts/tri" check-now
 
-# The canonical file is docs/NOW.md — this gate used to match '^NOW.md$'
-# only, so every commit that correctly updated docs/NOW.md still printed the
-# warning, and the root file (a regular 390-line file, not the symlink the
-# .gitattributes comment describes) has not been touched since 2026-08-09.
-# Accept either path; the root copy's fate is the owner's call, not a hook's.
-if ! git diff --cached --name-only | grep -qE '^(docs/)?NOW\.md$'; then
-  if git diff --name-only | grep -qE '^(docs/)?NOW\.md$'; then
+# Entries are one file per unit of work: docs/now/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<slug>.md .
+# They used to be prepended to the single file docs/NOW.md, which made every
+# concurrent PR collide on its first line. docs/NOW.md is now a frozen archive,
+# so a modification to it is no longer what this warning is looking for.
+ENTRY_RE='^docs/now/[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[A-Za-z0-9._-]+\.md$'
+if ! git diff --cached --name-only | grep -qE "$ENTRY_RE"; then
+  if git status --porcelain --untracked-files=all -- docs/now \
+     | sed 's/^...//' | grep -qE "$ENTRY_RE"; then
     echo ""
-    echo "⚠️  WARNING: NOW.md is modified but NOT staged."
-    echo "   Run: git add docs/NOW.md"
+    echo "⚠️  WARNING: a docs/now/ entry exists but is NOT staged."
+    echo "   Run: git add docs/now"
     echo "   Or: stage and commit it together with your changes."
     echo ""
   fi
 fi
 
-echo "✅ NOW.md gate passed"
+echo "✅ NOW entry gate passed"
 
 # ===== NotebookLM Continuous Sync =====
 # Track commits for periodic activity.md sync

.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 - [ ] PR title follows semantic convention: `feat(scope): description`, `fix(scope): description`, etc.
 - [ ] PR body includes **`Closes #N`** reference (see **[Issue Gate](.github/workflows/issue-gate.yml)**)
-- [ ] **`docs/NOW.md`** is updated with today's date (**`YYYY-MM-DD`**) if applicable
+- [ ] A **`docs/now/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<slug>.md`** entry is added (`./scripts/tri now add "<title>" --bullet "<what changed>" --closes <N>`)
 - [ ] Tests added/updated: `./scripts/tri test` passes locally
 - [ ] Specs changed → seals refreshed: `./scripts/tri seal specs/path/to/module.t27 --save`
 

.github/workflows/now-sync-gate.yml

@@ -26,54 +26,27 @@ jobs:
         with:
           fetch-depth: 0
 
-      - name: Check docs/NOW.md is updated (pull_request)
+      # Presence AND freshness are both asserted inside the script now. They used
+      # to be two steps: a diff check here and a `grep -m1 "Last updated:"` parse
+      # of docs/NOW.md below. With one entry file per PR the date lives in the
+      # filename, so a single pass over the added paths establishes both -- and
+      # there is no longer a shared line for two branches to edit.
+      - name: Require a fresh docs/now/ entry (pull_request)
         if: env.IS_BOT != 'true' && github.event_name == 'pull_request'
         env:
           GITHUB_EVENT_NAME: pull_request
           PR_BASE_SHA: ${{ github.event.pull_request.base.sha }}
           PR_HEAD_SHA: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
         run: bash scripts/ci/now-sync-gate-diff.sh
 
-      - name: Check docs/NOW.md is updated (push)
+      - name: Require a fresh docs/now/ entry (push)
         if: env.IS_BOT != 'true' && github.event_name == 'push'
         env:
           GITHUB_EVENT_NAME: push
           PUSH_BEFORE: ${{ github.event.before }}
           PUSH_AFTER: ${{ github.sha }}
         run: bash scripts/ci/now-sync-gate-diff.sh
 
-      - name: Validate NOW.md date is today or recent
-        if: env.IS_BOT != 'true'
-        run: |
-          set -euo pipefail
-          # Window is [YESTERDAY_UTC .. TOMORROW_UTC]. TOMORROW is included so a
-          # contributor in an east-of-UTC timezone (e.g. UTC+07) who stamps NOW.md
-          # with their LOCAL calendar date is not rejected when UTC is still on the
-          # previous day. A date older than YESTERDAY (stale NOW.md) or newer than
-          # TOMORROW (typo far in the future) still fails. Closes #1031 follow-up.
-          TODAY=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%d)
-          YESTERDAY=$(date -u -d yesterday +%Y-%m-%d)
-          TOMORROW=$(date -u -d tomorrow +%Y-%m-%d)
-          LINE=$(grep -m1 "Last updated:" docs/NOW.md || true)
-          LAST=""
-          if [ -n "$LINE" ]; then
-            LAST=$(echo "$LINE" | grep -oE '[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}' | head -1 || true)
-          fi
-          if [ -z "$LAST" ]; then
-            echo "::error file=docs/NOW.md::NOW.md is missing a 'Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD' line."
-            exit 1
-          fi
-          # String compares are valid for zero-padded ISO-8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) dates.
-          if [ "$LAST" \< "$YESTERDAY" ]; then
-            echo "::error::NOW.md date ($LAST) is too old. Update to $TODAY (UTC)."
-            exit 1
-          fi
-          if [ "$LAST" \> "$TOMORROW" ]; then
-            echo "::error::NOW.md date ($LAST) is too far in the future (> $TOMORROW UTC). Check for a typo."
-            exit 1
-          fi
-          echo "NOW.md freshness check passed: $LAST (UTC window: $YESTERDAY .. $TOMORROW)"
-
       - name: Check agent sync JSON exists
         if: env.IS_BOT != 'true'
         run: |

bootstrap/src/main.rs

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 // - gen-verilog: Generate synthesizable Verilog from .t27
 // - gen-c: Generate C code from .t27
 // - seal: Compute seal hashes (with --save / --verify)
-// - check-now: Gate on docs/NOW.md Last updated date
+// - check-now: Gate on a fresh dated docs/now/ entry
 // - serve: Start HTTP server (requires 'server' feature)
 
 mod bridge;
@@ -1273,7 +1273,7 @@ enum Commands {
         repo_root: PathBuf,
     },
 
-    /// Require docs/NOW.md "Last updated" calendar date to match today (local timezone)
+    /// Require a dated docs/now/ entry within [yesterday .. tomorrow] (UTC)
     CheckNow {
         #[arg(long, default_value = ".")]
         repo_root: PathBuf,