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+---
+name: "Spikes skip merge and stop for human review"
+---
+
+# Story 265: Spikes skip merge and stop for human review
+
+## User Story
+
+As a user, I want spike work items to stop after QA instead of auto-advancing to the merge stage, so that I can review the spike's findings and prototype code in the worktree before deciding what to do with them.
+
+## Context
+
+Spikes are investigative — their value is the findings and any prototype code, not a merge to master. The user needs to:
+- Read the spike document with findings
+- Review prototype code in the worktree
+- Optionally build and run the prototype to validate the approach
+- Then manually decide: archive the spike and create follow-up stories, or reject and re-investigate
+
+Currently all work items follow the same pipeline: coder → QA → merge → done. Spikes should diverge after QA and wait for human review instead of auto-advancing to merge.
+
+## Acceptance Criteria
+
+- [ ] Items with `_spike_` in the filename skip the merge stage after QA passes
+- [ ] After QA, spike items remain accessible for human review (worktree preserved, not cleaned up)
+- [ ] Spikes do not auto-advance to `4_merge/` — they stay in `3_qa/` or move to a review-hold state
+- [ ] The human can manually archive the spike when done reviewing
+- [ ] Non-spike items (stories, bugs, refactors) continue through the full pipeline as before
+
+## Out of Scope
+
+- New UI for spike review (manual file inspection is fine)
+- Changes to the spike creation flow