The status lifecycle

Each [[lifecycle]] row in The vault contract names one status: the note types it applies to, whether a note may start there, and which statuses it can be reached from.

initial is written out

Every row says whether a note can begin at that status. Writing initial on one row means writing it on all of them; a lifecycle that declares it on some rows and leaves the rest open is refused.

published is declared and never set

The diagram shows transitions the contract allows, including ready → published. Yomihon never sets a note to published, even when the contract permits that target: the value records a publication that happened somewhere else, and a reading surface cannot attest to one.

This restriction concerns the target, not a note already marked published. A published note carries that value, written by hand. Its status panel offers archived because this example contract allows published → archived, as the diagram shows. Other vaults offer the onward transitions their own contracts permit.

settled keeps a finished note unmarked

A row can say settled = true. A reading page then prints a note's status only when the note is not at a settled one, so a finished library is not covered in labels and the few notes still to be done stand out. A contract that never writes the key marks every status.

What a write is

The button rewrites one line of a note's Frontmatter. If the file changed on disk while you were reading, the write is refused rather than applied to a version you never read.