Bench Status Pad

The moment it serves

An examination rarely pauses at a clean boundary. A tool may still be running. A question may be half answered. The next action may be obvious at 4:47 p.m. on Friday and strangely absent by Monday morning.

The Bench Status Pad exists for that gap. It is not trying to preserve the whole case. It preserves the small layer of working memory that makes the next start trustworthy.

What version 0.3 changed

The earlier proof used three state markers: Process running, Safe to resume, and Blocked. The middle marker asked the examiner to interpret a condition rather than record something actionable. Version 0.3 replaces it with Do not interrupt.

The final prompt changed too. Do not forget was easy to understand but too vague to define its own information. Version 0.3 calls that space Critical context: the fragile fact that matters on return but does not naturally belong under the process, next action, or blocker.

Before publishing the new proof, the card was loaded with three representative technical scenarios: a running mobile acquisition, an analysis task blocked on investigator confirmation, and a verification/documentation pass ready to move into targeted review. Those are layout and information-load simulations, not evidence that the release test has passed in the field.

What belongs on the sheet

The card records only what is needed to re-enter the examination quickly: where the process stands, what finished last, what comes next, what remains open, and any context that is too easy to lose over the interruption.

The state markers have one job: change what the returning examiner does. A marker that proves decorative in field use should disappear.

What it is not

This is not a permanent examination note, chain-of-custody record, evidence inventory, or substitute for agency documentation. A completed card may still contain sensitive or discoverable information. Local policy decides how it is secured, retained, incorporated into the record, or destroyed.

The next honest gate

The geometry is no longer the main question. The next test belongs to actual hands: ordinary handwriting, real interruptions, and measured re-entry time. Version 0.3 remains at the Sample stage until that test is passed.