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Pending Handshake (state)

Definition

The state of a Shrubbery that has been sent by the Lead but not yet acted on by the Knight. The row is live in the Accord and awaiting an explicit accept or refuse.

Avoid: waiting, in-review, queued.

Role

Pending_Handshake is the live wire between proposal and commitment. The row exists in the Knight's Accord queue and represents an open question: will this commitment happen? It scores nothing toward the Flow Score — the consent-first rule holds until the Knight acts. However, rows that linger past the stale threshold without a response count toward the Ghost Rate, making Pending_Handshake the only state where the passage of time alone is a scoring event.

A Pending_Handshake row is not editable by either party without triggering a Renegotiation. The Lead can send a nudge; the Knight can accept or refuse.

Lifecycle

  • Draft → Pending_Handshake — Lead promotes via the Send action in the Detail Sheet.
  • Active → Pending_Handshake — Lead made a substantive edit (Renegotiation). Row re-enters the Accord with a "Renegotiated" indicator.
  • Pending_Handshake → Active — Knight performs the Handshake (accepts).
  • Pending_Handshake → Refused — Knight refuses via the Accord.
  • Pending_Handshake ages out — equivalent to Refused for Ghost Rate purposes; the row status does not change automatically.

Last updated: 22 June 2026