Prep Action Budget Overdraft

This mechanic prevents daily preparation actions from becoming clean readiness when the day budget was already spent, frozen, borrowed, or contaminated.

The base preparation-actions mechanic defines what a meeting, dispatch, evidence pull, rehearsal, construction step, edit patch, silence hold, blackout contact, or withdrawal negotiation can produce. This mechanic defines whether the day had enough budget authority to produce it cleanly.

Contract

prep_action_budget_overdraft:
  trigger_kind: state_pressure
  source_prep_day_row_required: true
  base_action_budget_required: true
  actions_spent_this_day_required: true
  frozen_or_borrowed_actions_required: true
  requested_future_slot_required: true
  harmed_reader_or_explicit_absence_required: true
  future_reader_consumes_prep_budget_state: true
  no_fixed_turn_trigger: true
  no_raw_action_count_trigger: true

The mechanic is active when all of these are true:

• a prep output exists or is being claimed;
• the day budget is visible, missing, frozen, borrowed, or overdrawn;
• a later reader wants to consume the output as readiness, coverage, proof, route movement, rehearsal credibility, or sponsor-safe work;
• a harmed reader, slot, crew, route, or public surface would inherit the cost.

Required Docket Shape

prep_action_budget_docket_required:
  source_prep_day_row: required
  base_action_budget: required
  actions_spent_this_day: required
  frozen_action_source_or_absence: required
  borrowed_action_source_or_absence: required
  requested_future_slot: required
  prep_output_claimed: required
  harmed_reader_or_absence: required
  budget_state_after: required
  future_reader_or_route_effect: required

The docket keeps the day’s capacity, the claimed prep output, and the future reader separate. A row cannot close cleanly with only action spent or prep ready.

Budget States

State	Meaning	Valid future use
certified_remaining_budget	The day still had enough budget for the output.	Future reader may accept the output.
frozen_action	One action is frozen by audit, blackout, crew, or sponsor pressure.	Future reader must wait or clear source.
borrowed_against_tomorrow	The output stands by spending tomorrow’s capacity.	Next day budget is reduced.
rehearsal_debt	The output stands only as coverage or rehearsal debt.	Future checks become costlier.
split_by_slot	Budget is divided among main, side, route, and public readers.	Each reader consumes its assigned slice.
overdraft_scar	The over-spend is public and surchargeable.	Later readers may add cost or challenge.
unbudgeted_default	The output was accepted without budget authority.	Default mutates future play.

Forbidden Promotions

These promotions are invalid unless the budget docket explicitly permits them:

• raw action spent to clean slot readiness;
• borrowed night-shift work to free next-day capacity;
• frozen rehearsal to clean final-air credibility;
• crew overtime to free live-floor coverage;
• silence hold to sponsor-safe closure;
• blackout contact to route asset movement;
• edit patch to public reality without future reader cost.

Branch Requirements

Every Prep Action Budget Readback branch must provide:

• one relief surface;
• one cost surface;
• a named budget_state_after;
• a named future_reader_or_route_effect;
• counter movement on at least three relevant axes when it closes by default or scar.

Valid branch families are:

• certify_remaining_budget;
• freeze_contaminated_action;
• borrow_next_day_action;
• convert_to_rehearsal_debt;
• split_budget_by_slot;
• publish_overdraft_scar;
• unbudgeted_prep_default.

Default Rule

If the future reader consumes the prep output while the budget row is absent, overdrawn, hidden, frozen, or borrowed without readback, fire Unbudgeted Prep Default.

The default is not a simple failure. It records who captured false readiness, who was harmed or omitted, which budget state was hidden, and how the next reader becomes frozen, reduced, costlier, hostile, or recovery-only.