Playbook 03 takes an issue's number from the issue tracker

Issue numbers collided while each author read main and the open pull
requests; since 2026-10-10 the tracker (ADR 0275) hands them out. The
playbook and the hq-new-issue skill now open every issue there, keep a
folder only for a design or governance issue, and say where its status
lives until slice 3. Research 042's finding that the SDK had no
compare-and-set is corrected, and to-be 53 names the module's code.

00-META/process/03-issues.md

@@ -19,14 +19,36 @@ The knowledge base already holds the operational record and is indexed on sympto
 folder is not a second copy of it. An issue here is a question HQ must **answer**, not an
 incident someone must **clear**.
 
+## The issue tracker holds the number
+
+Every issue is opened in the **issue tracker**, the module `mesh-issues` holding the seat `issue-tracker` on the
+control-node ([ADR 0275](../../02-DECISIONS/0275-the-mesh-numbers-and-tracks-its-issues-in-a-module-of-its-own-and-hq-keeps-only-the-narrative-of-a-design-or-governance-issue.md),
+[to-be 53](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/53-the-issue-tracker.md)). Its number comes from one counter advanced by
+compare-and-set, so two authors opening at the same moment never get the same one. **A number is never taken by
+reading `main` or the open pull requests** — that is how numbers collided (issue 155: two records sharing a number
+reached `main` with every check passing). A session that cannot reach the tracker takes no number and says so.
+
+An issue takes one of two shapes:
+
+- **With a folder here** — a design or governance issue, whose narrative belongs in this public record and is
+  reviewed in a pull request. The tracker holds its number, title, notes and links; its status stays in the folder's
+  frontmatter until slice 3 of to-be 53 has imported the folders and been checked, and until then the tracker's
+  `move` refuses it, saying its status lives in its folder.
+- **Wholly in the tracker** — every other issue. Its status, owner, notes and links live in the tracker from the
+  start, and nothing is written here.
+
+No status is ever kept in two places for one issue.
+
 ## Steps
 
-1. Take the next free number — **across `main` and every open pull request**, not `main` alone.
-   Work sits on unmerged branches for days, so two people both reading `main` allocate the same
-   number; it happened twice in one hour between two machines, and the second collision reached
-   `main` with every check passing (issue 155). `cycle.py` now refuses two records sharing a number,
-   which catches a collision but does not prevent one. Create
-   `04-ISSUES/NNN-short-name/00-report.md`:
+1. Open the issue in the tracker, through the mesh MCP server:
+   `mesh_call issue-tracker.open` with `title`, `report` (the symptom **as observed**, in plain terms, with the
+   evidence that it happened), optionally `located-in` (entries of the tracker's registered list of owners), and, for
+   an issue that gets a folder here, `record` — the folder's name without its number, `short-name`. The tracker
+   answers with the number `NNN`; a refused open spends none.
+
+   **An issue with a folder** then creates `04-ISSUES/NNN-short-name/00-report.md` under exactly that number, on a
+   branch:
 
    ```yaml
    ---
@@ -38,15 +60,21 @@ incident someone must **clear**.
    ---
    ```
 
-   Then the symptom **as observed**, in plain terms, with the evidence that it happened.
-2. Investigate in `01-diagnosis.md` in the same folder — the trail, dated, including what was
-   ruled out. Move `status:` to `diagnosing`, then `located` once the owner is known.
-3. Resolve. Set `status: resolved`, fill `fixed-by:`, and if the root cause was a design gap,
+   Then the symptom as observed, as in the tracker's report.
+
+   **An issue wholly in the tracker** is done at this step: what follows happens through the tracker's verbs.
+2. Investigate. For a folder-backed issue, the trail goes in `01-diagnosis.md` in the same folder — dated,
+   including what was ruled out — and `status:` moves to `diagnosing`, then `located` once the owner is known. For an
+   issue wholly in the tracker, the trail goes in `issue-tracker.note` and the status changes through
+   `issue-tracker.move`, which refuses `located` without a registered owner in `located-in`.
+3. Resolve. Set `status: resolved` (in the frontmatter, or through `issue-tracker.move` for an issue wholly in the
+   tracker), fill `fixed-by:`, and if the root cause was a design gap,
    run playbook [02](02-graduation.md) and fill `amended-design:`. **A core issue** — its `located-in`
    names the controller, the node-engine, the tool runner, the SDK, or the catalogue's bus, forge or build
    agent — resolves with `replay:`, the id of its replay in mesh-lab's replays register, proved to fail on
    the commit before the fix and pass on it, or with `replay-none:` saying why none is possible
-   ([ADR 0237](../../02-DECISIONS/0237-a-change-is-judged-against-the-mesh-that-runs-before-it-merges-on-the-build-seat.md); `cycle.py` checks it).
+   ([ADR 0237](../../02-DECISIONS/0237-a-change-is-judged-against-the-mesh-that-runs-before-it-merges-on-the-build-seat.md);
+   `cycle.py` checks it on a folder, and `issue-tracker.move` refuses the move without it).
 
 ## Rules
 
@@ -57,8 +85,9 @@ incident someone must **clear**.
 - A fix that turns out to have broken something else is written back into the record that asked for
   it, pointing at the new issue. Somebody arriving at a record to learn why the code is the way it
   is must not have to already know there was a sequel.
-- Renumbering a collision happens once, in the branch that lands last. Renumbering a branch whose
-  author is still pushing only moves the race.
+- A number never moves. A folder carries the number the tracker gave; a folder whose number collides with
+  another (one numbered before the tracker, or by hand) is a fault, and `cycle.py` refuses two records
+  sharing a number.
 - An issue whose answer is a general lesson should also be written to the knowledge base, so
   the next person searching a symptom finds it. Both, not either.
 - `status: wontfix` is legitimate and requires a sentence saying why.