What’s Fixed
Creating a contract without picking a stage used to leave it with no stage at all. Stage-entry automations, milestone tasks, and time-in-stage tracking never started until someone opened the contract and chose a stage.
New contracts now start in the first stage of their pipeline. Automations and milestone tasks tied to that stage run right away, the same as if you had chosen it yourself.
If you pick a stage when you create the contract, that choice is still used.