QuantEcon · mmcky · Aug 12, 2026 · Aug 12, 2026
diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Guidance for coding agents (and humans) making changes in this repository. Read
 
 ## What this repo is
 
-The canonical home for **data consumed by the QuantEcon lecture series** (renamed from `QuantEcon/data` on 2026-07-16, per [meta#336](https://github.com/QuantEcon/meta/issues/336)). Its purpose is **stability**: it snapshots upstream sources — with attribution to each source carried in the manifest — so a lecture build never depends on a live API or a third-party host staying up. It is a **cache, not a content-distribution host**. The published tree is **flat** (`lectures/`, since 2026-07-16) and live on GitHub Pages; the remaining transition is the custom domain — files are served at `quantecon.github.io/data-lectures/lectures/` today and will move to `https://data.quantecon.org/lectures/` once DNS is resolved (PLAN Phase 4, [#15](https://github.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/issues/15)). The full convention lives in the draft manual page ([QuantEcon.manual#108](https://github.com/QuantEcon/QuantEcon.manual/pull/108)).
+The canonical home for **data consumed by the QuantEcon lecture series** (renamed from `QuantEcon/data` on 2026-07-16, per [meta#336](https://github.com/QuantEcon/meta/issues/336)). Its purpose is **stability**: it snapshots upstream sources — with attribution to each source carried in the manifest — so a lecture build never depends on a live API or a third-party host staying up. It is a **cache, not a content-distribution host**. The published tree is **flat** (`lectures/`, since 2026-07-16) and live on GitHub Pages; consumers fetch it over the raw GitHub forms below. **There is no pending host transition**: the `data.quantecon.org` custom domain was deferred indefinitely on 2026-08-12 in favor of the `qeld` consumer package (`PLAN-QELD-PACKAGE.md`, D11) — the stable interface lectures get is a package call, `qeld.url('<filename>')`, not a branded host ([#37](https://github.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/issues/37), [#15](https://github.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/issues/15)). The full convention lives in the draft manual page ([QuantEcon.manual#108](https://github.com/QuantEcon/QuantEcon.manual/pull/108)).
 
 ## Rules
 
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ There is **no form that is safe in every case**, and that is the whole trap. The
 - **CPython consumers** (site notebooks, Colab, every series except `lecture-wasm`): `https://github.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/raw/main/lectures/<file>`.
 - **`lecture-wasm`** (code cells execute under Pyodide in the reader's browser — **repoint rule 5**): `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/main/lectures/<file>`, and nothing else. The strict audit hard-fails any `lecture-wasm` code-cell read via a `github.com/…` form. `{download}` targets and prose links are navigations and are CORS-exempt, so any resolving form is fine there.
 - **Never `media.githubusercontent.com` for a path in this repo** (**repoint rule 6**). It is the LFS media endpoint and routes per *path*, so it 404s everything `lectures/` publishes — which is all of it, since the published tree is 100% plain git. The strict audit fails on this too.
-- Final form once Pages is live: `https://data.quantecon.org/lectures/<filename>`.
+- There is **no pending final-form swap** — the two direct forms above are standing (decision 2026-08-12, `PLAN-QELD-PACKAGE.md` D11; `data.quantecon.org` deferred, [#37](https://github.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/issues/37)). Once the `qeld` package ships, lecture code reads `qeld.url('<filename>')`, which emits exactly these forms per runtime; prose links, `{download}` targets and URL-is-the-lesson reads keep the direct form permanently.
 - Never reference a non-default branch in a published URL — the audit fails on any ref that is not `main`.
 
 The failure modes are silent in both directions, which is why all three are machine-checked: a `raw` read of an LFS path returns **HTTP 200 with ~133 bytes of pointer text**, and `pd.read_csv` on it raises nothing and yields a 2×1 frame.
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ Because this repo is a **stability cache, not a content-distribution host** (see
 
 For the public data sources most snapshots come from (World Bank, FRED, Eurostat, …) the answer is a **known yes, recorded once per source** — permissive terms plus attribution. Record what the source states and move on; don't re-litigate it per snapshot. Treat the manifest's `redistribution` field as a **cheap binary gate** (`permitted` / `restricted`): a fast `permitted` for public statistics agencies, `restricted` blocking only the genuinely restricted source before it goes public — e.g. FRED re-serves third-party series that may not be redistributed, and anything under non-commercial or no-redistribution terms must not be cached here, since attribution alone does not cure those. Capture licence detail richly when the source provides it; where it is genuinely unavailable, record the gap rather than blocking the file.
 
-**Licensing does not gate migration** (settled 2026-08-06, [#35](https://github.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/issues/35)). A file the lectures have **already served publicly** migrates here with its licence recorded *as found* — including `redistribution: restricted` and a null licence name where that is the honest answer — and is logged in the inventory ([#35](https://github.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/issues/35), feeding [workspace-lectures#20](https://github.com/QuantEcon/workspace-lectures/issues/20)) with a `note`. Resolve it (permission, an open replacement, or removal) before `data.quantecon.org` is promoted as a public open-data host: **that promotion is the gate, not the file's move.** Rehosting the same bytes with better provenance and an explicit licence field improves on the status quo, so a licence question is never a reason to stall a migration.
+**Licensing does not gate migration** (settled 2026-08-06, [#35](https://github.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/issues/35)). A file the lectures have **already served publicly** migrates here with its licence recorded *as found* — including `redistribution: restricted` and a null licence name where that is the honest answer — and is logged in the inventory ([#35](https://github.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/issues/35), feeding [workspace-lectures#20](https://github.com/QuantEcon/workspace-lectures/issues/20)) with a `note`. Resolve it (permission, an open replacement, or removal) before this repo is ever promoted as a branded public open-data host: **that promotion is the gate, not the file's move** — and with the custom domain deferred indefinitely (2026-08-12, D11), no promotion is scheduled, so the gate looms over nothing while the [#35](https://github.com/QuantEcon/data-lectures/issues/35) inventory stays tracked. Rehosting the same bytes with better provenance and an explicit licence field improves on the status quo, so a licence question is never a reason to stall a migration.
 
 This covers **inherited** data only. A genuinely new dataset — one with no prior life in a lecture repo — still has its licence established *before* it lands, as the P5 additions all did.
 
@@ -150,7 +150,8 @@ The generated dashboard (`scripts/build_audit.py`, [#20](https://github.com/Quan
 ## Repo map
 
 ```
-lectures/            # the published tree — flat, live on Pages; data.quantecon.org pending
+lectures/            # the published tree — flat, live on Pages; read via raw URLs
+                     #   today, qeld.url() once the package ships (PLAN-QELD-PACKAGE.md)
                      #   21 files, 18 with manifests (business_cycle's three still
                      #   need theirs — see #13). Manifests are sidecars: <filename>.yml
 builders/            # one builder per published dataset — NOT published

diff --git a/PLAN-QELD-PACKAGE.md b/PLAN-QELD-PACKAGE.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # PLAN — `qeld`, the consumer-side data package
 
-**Status:** design settled, nothing implemented · **Last updated:** 2026-08-10
+**Status:** design settled, nothing implemented · **Last updated:** 2026-08-12
 **Relationship to `PLAN.md`:** that document migrates *bytes* into this repo. This one gives *consumers* a
 stable way to read them. They are independent — the migration completes with or without `qeld` — but the
 call-site convention here replaces repoint rules 5–6 for any lecture that adopts it.
@@ -26,8 +26,10 @@ It exists to solve three concrete problems:
    because the first fails CORS in the browser. That split *is* repoint rules 5–6. `qeld.url()` erases it.
 2. **`pyodide_http.patch_all()` is in every wasm lecture.** Importing `qeld` under emscripten installs the
    transport shim, and those two lines leave the lectures.
-3. **The host cutover.** When `data.quantecon.org` lands (#37, #15), it is one constant in one package
-   rather than an edit in every lecture.
+3. **The backend stays reworkable.** Any future change of host or serving arrangement is one constant in
+   one package rather than an edit in every lecture. This property is now load-bearing rather than
+   incidental: the `data.quantecon.org` cutover it originally anticipated was itself retired in favor of
+   it (D11) — the package, not a branded host, is the stable interface.
 
 **What it is not:** a cache, a fetcher, a loader, a data-version manager, or an integrity client. See §3.1.
 
@@ -37,7 +39,8 @@ It exists to solve three concrete problems:
 
 D1–D5 were taken 2026-08-10 against the original design report. D2, D3 and D5 were **revised the same day**
 in a working session that re-scoped the package from fetch-and-cache to URL-resolver; D1 and D4 stand
-unchanged. D6–D10 are new.
+unchanged. D6–D10 are new. D11 was taken 2026-08-12 and reaches outside the package: it retires the
+`data.quantecon.org` plan this document previously deferred to.
 
 | # | decision | status |
 |---|---|---|
@@ -51,6 +54,7 @@ unchanged. D6–D10 are new.
 | **D8** | **Data format: tier 1 binds at intake, tier 2 is a forward-looking preference** | new — §4.2 |
 | **D9** | **Integrity lives in CI, not at the call site** | new — §6 |
 | **D10** | **Rollout is ordered by win, not by migration track** | new — §7 |
+| **D11** | **`qeld` replaces the host cutover: `data.quantecon.org` is deferred indefinitely, and the base URL stays on the raw repo forms** | new — §2.2 |
 
 **The scoping principle throughout:** ship the minimum; add sophistication as demand requires.
 
@@ -69,6 +73,42 @@ on inspection, and the reasoning is recorded here so it is not re-proposed:
 **What `<2` protects, and therefore what the major version means:** catalog keys are append-only, and a
 key's meaning never changes within a major version.
 
+### 2.2 D11 — the package replaces the custom domain (2026-08-12)
+
+The programme carried two candidate stable interfaces without ever choosing between them: a branded host
+(`data.quantecon.org/lectures/<file>` — PLAN Track Y, #37, #15) and this package. **Decision: invest in
+`qeld`; defer the domain indefinitely.** Taken by the maintainer 2026-08-12; the recorded reasons:
+
+1. **Tidier lectures.** A dataset lookup reads better than a URL literal — and the URL is still one
+   `print(url)` away for any reader who wants it, since `url()` returns a plain string.
+2. **Backend freedom.** The serving arrangement can be reworked as project needs evolve behind one
+   constant interface point in the lectures. A branded host offers the same indirection only for host
+   moves; the package's indirection covers key naming, transport, and context too.
+3. **More than a URL.** `info()` puts provenance, licence and citation metadata at the call site —
+   something no URL scheme can offer.
+4. **No forever-promise.** A branded public data host must be served at that name indefinitely, and #35
+   makes its licensing review a gate on promoting it. The package makes no such promise: it points at
+   whatever the repo already serves, so the #35 promotion gate simply never comes due unless a public
+   host is someday established after all.
+
+It is not an effort trade — #37 is two DNS/settings actions while Q3 "is not a weekend" — it is a
+commitment trade, and the technical ground is already level: the raw forms and the Pages default URL both
+serve `access-control-allow-origin: *` on a direct 200, so nothing consumer-facing waits on a domain.
+
+**The operational consequence — the base URL stays on the raw repo forms** (`raw.githubusercontent.com`
+under Pyodide, the 302-tolerant `github.com/…/raw/` form elsewhere) **and must never move to
+`quantecon.github.io`.** The moment a custom domain is attached to a Pages site, GitHub starts
+301-redirecting the `github.io` form to it — re-creating for already-shipped wheels exactly the
+redirect-CORS failure §3.2 exists to avoid. Raw URLs are untouched by Pages domain changes, so on a
+raw-link base the deferral is reversible at any time for one minor release. What is accepted in exchange:
+emitted and leaked URLs name `QuantEcon/data-lectures@main`, with GitHub's rename redirects as the only
+safety net — the same exposure every lecture URL has today.
+
+Consequences recorded elsewhere in this document and the repo: the "interim" URL forms are **standing,
+not interim**; #15's final-URL sweep is superseded by Q6–Q7 adoption; `migration.yml`'s `final` status is
+redefined (Q1); §8.7's note that #37 "races this work" is retracted; PLAN.md Track Y is re-scoped to this
+plan.
+
 ---
 
 ## 3. Design
@@ -94,7 +134,9 @@ everywhere. A design where context changes *what you get* produces "works in my
 Exactly two jobs:
 
 1. **URL form** — `raw.githubusercontent.com` under Pyodide (the `github.com/…/raw/` form 302s and fails
-   CORS); the 302-tolerant form elsewhere; `data.quantecon.org` for both after #37.
+   CORS); the 302-tolerant form elsewhere. These are the standing forms, not interim ones: the
+   single-host collapse a custom domain would have offered was declined in D11, and the base never moves
+   to `quantecon.github.io` (redirect trap, §2.2).
 2. **Browser transport shim** — under emscripten, `import qeld` installs the fetch shim, because the right
    URL is still not enough: `pd.read_excel(url)` goes through urllib, which fails in the browser.
 
@@ -222,8 +264,8 @@ convertible today** and the rest are blocked on the format decision (§8.3, §8.
 shortenings of literals adopted in the *recent repoint PRs*; a plain one-line literal would win those back
 without a package. 32 are neutral or excluded.
 
-**The case rests on:** those ~10 structural sites, the wasm shim, the host-cutover property, and group D's
-portability bugs. **Not** on the read-site tally. Anyone re-reading this plan should weigh it on that basis.
+**The case rests on:** those ~10 structural sites, the wasm shim, the backend-rework property (§1, now
+load-bearing per D11), and group D's portability bugs. **Not** on the read-site tally. Anyone re-reading this plan should weigh it on that basis.
 
 The best diff in the corpus is `lecture-python-advanced.myst/lectures/hansen_jagannathan_1991.md:182`, where
 `qeld` deletes a hand-rolled version of itself — a 3-fragment URL literal, a local-vs-remote branch and a
@@ -290,7 +332,7 @@ or every migrated read classifies `local-path` and the dashboard inverts.
 
 | phase | work | gate |
 |---|---|---|
-| **Q1 — Audit first** | `build_audit.py` learns `qeld.url('X')` → pattern `qeld`, counted migrated **and terminal**. For `pattern == 'qeld'`, assert the key exists in `lectures/` and is not deprecated — otherwise the qeld path loses every assertion #55/#48/#47 added. `migration.yml`: `final` := canonical-host *or* qeld | `audit.json` `stats` and `problems` unchanged on today's repos (**not** "byte-identical" — the audit stamps `date.today()`) |
+| **Q1 — Audit first** | `build_audit.py` learns `qeld.url('X')` → pattern `qeld`, counted migrated **and terminal**. For `pattern == 'qeld'`, assert the key exists in `lectures/` and is not deprecated — otherwise the qeld path loses every assertion #55/#48/#47 added. `migration.yml`: `final` := every code read via qeld, with §4.1 carve-outs terminal on the direct form (the canonical-host arm was retired with D11) | `audit.json` `stats` and `problems` unchanged on today's repos (**not** "byte-identical" — the audit stamps `date.today()`) |
 | **Q2 — Schema hygiene** | Document `read_as` (used in 6 manifests) and `sheets` (5) in `manifest-schema.yml` — both are in use and neither appears in the file `AGENTS.md` calls "the authoritative, commented field reference". Add `deprecated:` (new, used nowhere yet) since §3.3 warns on it. `shape` is already documented. Delete `then: "iloc[1:]"` from `longprices.xls.yml:70` by moving `iloc[1:]` into the lecture — a post-read transform encoded as a string to evaluate is exactly what D5 excludes | `manifest-schema.yml` covers every field any manifest uses. Needs none of #14's decisions — do not block on it |
 | **Q3 — Package** | `packages/qeld/`: `url()`, `info()`, context detection, advisory catalog. Catalog compiler shares a freshness gate with `CATALOG.md`. Format tier-1 assertion. First release to PyPI via trusted publishing | Offline suite green on every PR: catalog compiles and is fresh; unknown key warns and still returns a URL; URL form correct per detected context; suffix fidelity incl. `.csv.gz`; `info()` fields present. CPython matrix |
 | **Q4 — Live leg** | Post-merge + scheduled job: fetch each served URL, compare to the manifest hash, open an issue on failure | Green on `main`; an induced failure opens an issue |
@@ -361,7 +403,8 @@ intro file also touches zh-cn.**
 - Ask Spencer/Tom what actually retired `qeds` — it is dead as a project but **still installable** (PyPI
   returns 200 for 0.7.0, not yanked), one letter-transposition from `qeld`. Consider reserving
   `quantecon-data` and `qedata` as stubs.
-- `data.quantecon.org` DNS (#37) is the nearest unblocked item and races this work for the same weekend.
+- ~~`data.quantecon.org` DNS (#37) is the nearest unblocked item and races this work for the same
+  weekend.~~ **Retracted 2026-08-12** — D11 defers #37 indefinitely; nothing races this work.
 - Publishing `qeld` does **not** move #35's licensing gate — it rehosts nothing and fetches the same public
   URLs `pandas_panel` reads today. Do not add a release check that fails on `redistribution: restricted`;
   `countries.csv` is restricted and unresolved, so it would block every release from day one.