Deprecation policy

An entry's status is active or deprecated, and deprecation is the only retirement this registry has.

1. Deprecating an entry means publishing a new snapshot. A published snapshot is never modified, replaced, or deleted — the same rule VERSIONING.md §3.3 holds published release directories to.
2. A deprecated entry is never removed. It appears in every later snapshot, with status: "deprecated". A token that vanished from the list would make the Records that name an older snapshot unreadable against a newer one, which is the failure snapshot binding exists to prevent.
3. Deprecation never invalidates history. A Record minted against the snapshot in which the token was active stays conformant, permanently. A validator judging that Record resolves against the snapshot the Record names.
4. **A deprecated token is never reused and never re-activated with a different meaning.** Reuse is what makes an old Record silently say something new.
5. Deprecation is advice to Producers, not a rejection rule for Consumers. A Producer SHOULD NOT mint new Records using a deprecated token; a Consumer still resolves it, and MUST NOT reject a Record on the basis of it.

A later snapshot may correct a definition's wording. It may not change what the token means — that is redefinition, which the policy above forbids — and HISTORY.md records the change either way.