> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.sherwood.sh/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Challenge window

> Why proposer bonds and guardian locks stay locked for 14 days after a proposal ends, how a challenge works, and why filings are paused today.

Guardian review happens before execute. The challenge game is the check that happens **after**: for 14 days after a strategy's planned end, anyone can accuse an executed proposal of having been a drain. This page explains why that window exists and what it means for your WOOD.

## How a challenge works

* **Who can file:** anyone, against an executed proposal, until `executedAt + duration + 14 days` (`ChallengeGame.challengeWindow()` = 1,209,600 s).
* **Silence convicts.** If nobody disputes a filing within `autoSlashDelay` (7 days), it convicts. Seven days is long enough to survive a weekend, an operator outage or a short chain halt.
* **Disputes go to TokenCourt:** a 5-day, age-weighted WOOD vote. A tie is NotGuilty.

## Who pays on a conviction

* The approving guardians' WOOD locks are slashed at their slash rate.
* The proposer forfeits the **whole** [proposer bond](/explanations/proposer-bond).

The protocol punishes the people who let the drain through. It does not reimburse the vault.

## Why bonds and locks outlive settle

A conviction can only take what still exists. If the proposer bond came back at settle, a proposer could execute a drain, self-settle an hour later and walk away with the bond before anyone filed. So:

* A settled proposal's bond is released after `executedAt + duration + 14 days`, and only when no challenge is pending. Before that, `reclaim-bond` reverts `ChallengeWindowOpen`.
* Guardian locks are held until their 7-day epoch ends plus the 14-day window: about settle + 14 to 21 days.

Rejected, Expired and Cancelled proposals never executed, so their bonds come back at once.

## Why filings are paused today

`ChallengeGame.filingsPaused()` is `true` on 4663. Disputed challenges are decided by WOOD jurors, and the deploy keeps filings paused until the juror reserve is 30 days old. A young reserve would be easier to capture for the first cases.

While filings are paused, the 14-day window still delays bond release, but nothing can be filed during it. The Safe lifts the pause; read the flag live rather than relying on a date.

## What it costs you

Each settled proposal keeps its bond locked for about two more weeks. With back-to-back proposals, bonds overlap: about `(duration + 14 days) / cadence` of them at once. Weekly 7-day proposals keep about three bonds locked. Size your WOOD reserve for that.

## Related

* [Proposer bond](/explanations/proposer-bond)
* [Launch posture](/explanations/launch-posture)
* [Guardian review](/protocol/governance/guardian-review)
* [Settlement and drawdown](/explanations/settlement-and-drawdown)


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