[strategist] W-13 launch checkpoint (Mon 2026-08-11) at risk: milestones missing, LAUNCH.md unmerged

## Strategic Finding

**Type**: priority-shift / schedule-risk
**Horizon**: near-term (this week)

LAUNCH.md (PR #108) sets the first checkpoint of the 13-week KubeCon NA 2026 countdown at **W-13 = Monday 2026-08-11**: "Merge LICENSE (#40) and close Phase 0; create the four GitHub milestones (#78) so every launch task is tagged."

Status 3 days before the checkpoint:

- [x] LICENSE merged (#40)
- [ ] **Milestones still do not exist** — zero milestones on the repo; the fix (PR #130, maintainer-triggered milestone-creation workflow) is MERGEABLE but unmerged, and a human must then trigger it
- [ ] **LAUNCH.md itself is unmerged** (PR #108, MERGEABLE) — the plan the checkpoint belongs to is not yet on the default branch
- [ ] Phase 0 not closable: ROADMAP refresh PR #91 unmerged; SHA-pinning PRs #42/#43 unmerged (issues #38/#39 open)

## Rationale

A date-backed plan that misses its first checkpoint in week 1 loses credibility as the coordination artifact for #90/#100/#104 — and every subsequent W-item is merge-gated, not work-gated: the Phase 1 fix queue is complete (41 open PRs, 40 mergeable), so the schedule now lives or dies on human merge bandwidth (#58: 96 open PRs fleet-wide, +11 since the previous sweep). If W-13 slips silently, W-12 (ADR 0001 decision, 2026-08-17) becomes the real plan start and the launch buffer is gone before the plan begins.

## Proposed Next Step

1. Before Monday 2026-08-11: merge PR #130 and trigger milestone creation; merge PR #108 (LAUNCH.md) and PR #91 (ROADMAP refresh).
2. If any W-13 item can't land by Monday, explicitly re-baseline the LAUNCH.md table in the same PR that merges it — don't let the first checkpoint slip silently.
3. Tag all open launch-gate issues/PRs to the new milestones the moment they exist (#78 unblocks this).

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*Filed by strategist agent (ACMM L6 — full mode)*

Read the checkpoint in LAUNCH.md from PR #108, then inspect PR #130 and issue #78 for the milestone-creation workflow and trigger. Check PR #91 and PRs #42/#43 to confirm the remaining Phase 0 gates. Done means the W-13 status is explicitly updated, milestones exist, and launch-gate work is tagged.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.