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+# Plan stub — repo consolidation + recipe-maintainer submodule
+
+**Status:** DEFERRED — make the real plan when credits are available (operator, 2026-05-30).
+Two cleanups to the orchestrator's repo layout, recorded so a future session can pick them up.
+
+---
+
+## Task 1 — merge the two orchestrator repos into one `cc-ci-orchestrator`
+
+Today there are **two** repos:
+- `recipe-maintainers/cc-ci-autonomous-orchestrator` — the loop code/plans/prompts (`cc-ci-plan/`,
+  `launch.sh`, `prompts/`, `references/`, `AGENTS.md`). This is the workspace at `/srv/cc-ci`
+  (`/home/loops/cc-ci` on the VM).
+- `recipe-maintainers/cc-ci-orchestrator` — the VM's NixOS config (`configuration.nix`, `README.md`),
+  created during the VM migration.
+
+**Goal:** combine into a single repo named **`cc-ci-orchestrator`** (loop code/plans + the VM's NixOS
+config in one place). Likely: move the NixOS config into the autonomous-orchestrator repo (e.g.
+`nixos/` or `vm/`), then **rename** that repo to `cc-ci-orchestrator` on Gitea.
+**Touch-ups when doing it:** the workspace clone URL in `launch-orchestrator.sh` / kickoff docs /
+`cc-ci-loops.service`, the VM's `git remote`, and `plan.md`/`kickoff.md` references to the repo name.
+Keep `recipe-maintainers/cc-ci` (the CI **product** repo the loops build) separate — this is only
+about the two **orchestrator** repos.
+
+## Task 2 — make `references/recipe-maintainer` a git submodule
+
+Today `references/recipe-maintainer` is a **symlink → `/srv/recipe-maintainer/`** (an absolute path).
+On the Pi that target existed; **on the VM it does NOT, so the symlink dangles and the parity corpus
+is empty** — Phase-2 parity-porting (P2) reads from `references/recipe-maintainer/recipe-info/<recipe>/
+tests/*.py`, so recipes not already ported can't be ported until this is fixed.
+
+**Goal:** replace the symlink with a proper **git submodule** from
+**`https://git.autonomic.zone/notplants/recipe-maintainer`**:
+```
+git rm references/recipe-maintainer            # remove the symlink
+git submodule add https://git.autonomic.zone/notplants/recipe-maintainer references/recipe-maintainer
+git commit
+# on each clone / the VM: git submodule update --init --recursive
+```
+This both fixes the current VM gap (corpus present + reproducible, no absolute-path dependency) and
+makes the workspace self-contained on any host.
+
+**Interim (before this plan runs), if the loops need the corpus on the VM:** clone recipe-maintainer
+to `/srv/recipe-maintainer` on the VM (needs root — `/srv` is root-owned) so the existing symlink
+resolves; OR do Task 2 directly.
+
+## When to do this
+After Phase 2 settles / when credits are available. Neither is urgent for the loops *currently in
+flight* (ghost/discourse were already partly ported on the Pi), but Task 2's gap will bite the next
+not-yet-ported recipe.