diff --git a/.beads/sync-state.json b/.beads/sync-state.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d1cb1add
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.beads/sync-state.json
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+{
+  "last_failure": "2025-12-28T22:30:12.543584-08:00",
+  "failure_count": 1,
+  "backoff_until": "2025-12-28T22:30:42.543585-08:00",
+  "needs_manual_sync": false,
+  "failure_reason": "git pull failed in worktree: exit status 128\nFrom github.com:steveyegge/gastown\n * branch            beads-sync -\u003e FETCH_HEAD\nfatal: Cannot rebase onto multiple branches.\n"
+}
\ No newline at end of file