Foreshadowing v2.1

Assign stable IDs to every meaningful setup and track it from planning through payoff. A setup that is not registered is a setup that will be forgotten.

Lifecycle

Statuses: PLANNED, PLANTED, ACTIVE, PAID_OFF, ABANDONED, RECON_REQUIRED.

• PLANNED — designed but not yet in prose.
• PLANTED — present in text, meaning not yet operative for the reader.
• ACTIVE — doing work the reader can respond to.
• PAID_OFF — resolved in a way that honours the setup.
• ABANDONED — deliberately dropped, with a recorded reason.
• RECON_REQUIRED — the setup now conflicts with canon and needs a decision.

Never delete an abandoned setup silently. Record the reason, because abandoned setups are where authorial memory diverges from the text.

What to track

Setup, surface meaning, true meaning, intended payoff, visibility, strength, dependencies, affected chapters, and status. Record in foreshadowing/FORESHADOW.md.