A branch with a working framework migration on one component, kept for six weeks and then deleted on purpose.
what the branch contained:
one component, converted
the token file, mapped to @theme
a build with both stylesheets, to compare output
a note in the README explaining what it was for
what it would have become if kept:
a branch that diverges, is rebased twice, and is
cited in two years as "we already started this".
deleted, with the measurements written into the
decision record.A prototype whose conclusions are recorded is finished, and one that survives becomes an argument. The measurements are the artefact worth keeping — output size, the class vocabulary needed for one component, and the honest note that the migration is a rename — and none of that requires the code to still exist.