diff --git a/plan/README.md b/plan/README.md
index 6101ab1..fd9fc57 100644
--- a/plan/README.md
+++ b/plan/README.md
@@ -67,9 +67,15 @@ adjacent code is open. Accessibility and copy are like this: they are never
 done, and pretending otherwise just produces an epic that is permanently 80%
 complete.
 
+`declined` — decided against. Not `blocked`, which is waiting, and not an epic
+sitting late in the order: somebody could have expected the project to do it,
+and the answer is no rather than not yet. The file stays and the id stays a
+valid commit scope, because the reason something is not being built is worth as
+much as the reason something is.
+
 ## The tables are generated
 
-The four tables below are output, not source. `scripts/gen-plan-readme.py`
+The five tables below are output, not source. `scripts/gen-plan-readme.py`
 reads every epic's frontmatter and rewrites what sits between the
 `<!-- generated: … -->` fences. Everything around them is hand-written and is
 passed through untouched, so prose can go anywhere except inside a fence. The
@@ -83,7 +89,7 @@ that is what stops two branches each adding an epic from conflicting over rows
 neither of them cared about.
 
 Which table an epic lands in follows from the file as well. [complete/](complete/)
-is Complete, and outside it the status picks between the other three. Shipping
+is Complete, and outside it the status picks between the other four. Shipping
 an epic, or archiving it, is an edit to the epic and nothing else.
 
 ## Complete
@@ -165,6 +171,18 @@ fix before it has been exercised than after.
 | [arena-image](arena-image.md) | The image is small, current and reproducible |
 <!-- /generated -->
 
+## Not pursued
+
+Answered no. What a file here holds is a list of answers rather than a line of
+work: what the project is not building and why, written down so that a question
+somebody has already settled is not settled again differently by the next person
+to ask it.
+
+<!-- generated: declined -->
+| id | title |
+|---|---|
+<!-- /generated -->
+
 ## Where the schemas are
 
 There is no lexicon epic. A `blue.lance.*` or `games.permadeath.*` schema is a
diff --git a/prek.toml b/prek.toml
index f6628f7..f84a5ed 100644
--- a/prek.toml
+++ b/prek.toml
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ entry = "scripts/check-plan.py"
 pass_filenames = false
 files = '^plan/.*\.md$'
 
-# plan/README.md's four tables are generated from that same frontmatter, so a
+# plan/README.md's five tables are generated from that same frontmatter, so a
 # row cannot quietly stop matching the epic it points at, and adding an epic
 # does not mean editing tables every other branch is also editing. A failure
 # here means the register is stale: run scripts/gen-plan-readme.py and stage
diff --git a/scripts/check-plan.py b/scripts/check-plan.py
index f8faacd..49ed26b 100755
--- a/scripts/check-plan.py
+++ b/scripts/check-plan.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ import sys
 REQUIRED_KEYS = ["id", "title", "status", "repos", "dependsOn", "exitCriterion"]
 
 # Documented in plan/README.md, under "Status".
-VALID_STATUS = ["shipped", "open", "blocked", "continuous"]
+VALID_STATUS = ["shipped", "open", "blocked", "continuous", "declined"]
 
 LINK_RE = re.compile(r"(?<!\\)\[[^\]]*\]\(([^)\s]+)(?:\s+\"[^\"]*\")?\)")
 CHECKBOX_RE = re.compile(r"^\s*[-*] \[([ xX])\]")
diff --git a/scripts/gen-plan-readme.py b/scripts/gen-plan-readme.py
index b807026..e804788 100755
--- a/scripts/gen-plan-readme.py
+++ b/scripts/gen-plan-readme.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
-"""Generate the four tables in plan/README.md from the epics' own frontmatter.
+"""Generate the five tables in plan/README.md from the epics' own frontmatter.
 
 Every row in the register used to repeat an id, a title and a status that the
 epic file already carried. That cost two things. Nothing checked the copy, so a
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ So the tables are output now. Each one sits between an HTML comment fence and
 is rewritten from the files; everything outside a fence is hand-written prose
 and is passed through untouched. Which table an epic lands in follows from
 where it is and what its status says: plan/complete/ is Complete, `shipped`
-outside it is Shipped-with-loose-ends, `open` and `blocked` are Open, and
-`continuous` is Continuous.
+outside it is Shipped-with-loose-ends, `open` and `blocked` are Open,
+`continuous` is Continuous, and `declined` is Not pursued.
 
 Row order comes from plan/order.txt, a plain list of ids that is advisory and
 optional — an epic it does not name still appears, alphabetically, at the end
@@ -73,6 +73,11 @@ TABLES = [
         False,
         lambda e: not e["archived"] and e["status"] == "continuous",
     ),
+    (
+        "declined",
+        False,
+        lambda e: not e["archived"] and e["status"] == "declined",
+    ),
 ]