reference creatortrack deploy guard untracked files 20260715T151429

Discovered during the 2026-07-15 OG-image ship: after merging PRs and pulling, an untracked file left behind by an unrelated Codex session (docs/handoffs/creatortrack-public-platform-pricing-2026-07-15.md) blocked the prod deploy, because the deploy guard treats any non-empty git status --porcelain (untracked included) as a dirty tree, not just modified/staged files.

Why: Justin's ~/creatortrack is a read-only-main live prod+dev checkout ([[reference_creatortrack_prod_deploy_guardrail]]); the guard exists to stop deploys from picking up unintended local state, but it doesn't distinguish untracked scratch files from real dirty changes.

How to apply: Before a prod deploy, if git status --porcelain shows untracked files, don't assume they're deploy-relevant; check whether they're stray docs/handoffs (relocate to ~/forge/memory/handoffs/, their canonical home, and commit) rather than deleting them, then retry the deploy.

[auto-memory session 577603bc-d3a9-4b19-bb8e-6db80243b054, confidence 0.75, mode staged]