diff --git a/.story_kit/work/2_current/150_bug_qa_2_agent_never_auto_assigned_because_pipeline_stage_only_matches_exact_qa.md b/.story_kit/work/2_current/150_bug_qa_2_agent_never_auto_assigned_because_pipeline_stage_only_matches_exact_qa.md
index b347f1c..660aa9e 100644
--- a/.story_kit/work/2_current/150_bug_qa_2_agent_never_auto_assigned_because_pipeline_stage_only_matches_exact_qa.md
+++ b/.story_kit/work/2_current/150_bug_qa_2_agent_never_auto_assigned_because_pipeline_stage_only_matches_exact_qa.md
@@ -58,5 +58,6 @@ match agent_name {
 - [ ] Agent config in `project.toml` supports a `stage` field (`coder`, `qa`, `mergemaster`, `other`)
 - [ ] `find_free_agent_for_stage` uses the config `stage` field instead of name parsing
 - [ ] `qa-2` is correctly auto-assigned to QA work
-- [ ] Backwards compatible: if `stage` is not set, falls back to name-based matching
+- [ ] `stage` is a required field — server refuses to start if any agent is missing it
+- [ ] The old name-based `pipeline_stage()` function is removed
 - [ ] All existing agents in `project.toml` have `stage` set