The numbering is the flow: decisions are 02, design is 03

papa-hq reads 01 research -> 03 decision -> 02 design. The order is a
scar, not a choice: 02-DESIGN existed from its initial commit, and when
adr/ was finally promoted on 2026-07-13 it took the next free number
rather than its place in the sequence. By then design was too settled to
renumber.

hal-hq was three commits old, so it is not. adr/ becomes 02-DECISIONS and
02-DESIGN becomes 03-DESIGN, and following the folder numbers now walks
the process in the order it happens: research produces a decision, the
decision authorises a design.

00-GENESIS becomes 00-META, matching papa's rename from the same
restructure.

Every path reference rewritten across documents, frontmatter, playbooks
and skills. All links resolve; all 58 frontmatter blocks parse and their
path fields still point at files that exist.

03-DESIGN/00-as-is/07-knowledge.md

@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+---
+layer: as-is
+status: implemented
+code: [hal]
+updated: 2026-08-23
+decisions: []
+---
+
+# Knowledge
+
+The mesh keeps two knowledge stores. They are not redundant, and knowing which is which is the
+difference between finding an answer in one search and rediscovering it over several hours.
+
+## The operational memory
+
+A store of operational notes, written and read by whoever — human or agent — is working. Each
+note is a slug and a body: how something works, what went wrong, what the fix was, what
+assumption turned out to be false.
+
+It is indexed on **symptoms**. The entry someone needs is usually titled after the error they
+are staring at, which is why the standing instruction is to search the literal error text
+before forming a hypothesis rather than after one fails.
+
+Its content is overwhelmingly the record of previous debugging: a large body of
+troubleshooting entries, module conventions, and standing notes about work that is open. It is
+the mesh's institutional memory of *what has already gone wrong*.
+
+The cost of skipping it is documented in the mesh's own record: entries have been rediscovered
+from scratch, over hours, in sessions where the search was skipped because the trail felt
+confident. It fires hardest on familiar ground, not unfamiliar ground.
+
+## The structured archive
+
+A second store, structured rather than flat: spaces, pages, revisions, tiers, and full-text
+search. Where the operational memory is a note, this is a document with an owner and a
+lifecycle.
+
+Content is promoted through tiers — private, then team, then platform — with a librarian agent
+owning approval and promotion at the boundary. Proposals to edit are reviewed rather than
+applied.
+
+This is where the mesh's **governed** documents live, including the constitution injected into
+design sessions ([ADR 0009](../../02-DECISIONS/0009-the-mesh-is-governed-by-a-constitution.md)).
+
+## Why both
+
+The distinction is by lifecycle, not by subject.
+
+| Operational memory | Structured archive |
+|---|---|
+| Written the moment something is learned | Written deliberately, reviewed |
+| Flat, symptom-indexed | Structured, tiered, owned |
+| Anyone writes; nothing approves | Promotion is approved |
+| Truth is "this happened" | Truth is "this is agreed" |
+
+Collapsing them would cost one of the two properties: either every hard-won note waits for
+review, or governed documents can be changed by anyone mid-incident.
+
+## Where this repository sits
+
+This repository is a third thing, and the objection was raised when it was created: a fourth
+knowledge system repeats the mistake the split was made to fix.
+
+The answer given was **indexing, not location** — that these documents are indexed into the
+knowledge base so that a symptom search returns them alongside everything else. One source,
+many surfaces.
+
+**That indexing does not currently exist.** A search for this repository's content returns
+nothing. The claim is load-bearing for the decision to separate the repository at all, and
+until it is true, this repository is exactly the fourth knowledge system the objection
+described. Recorded here rather than in the ledger, because it is a statement about how the
+mesh's knowledge actually works today.
+
+## The librarian
+
+A single agent owns the archive's approvals and promotions. Its approval capabilities have at
+times not been reachable as tools, which does not affect the operational memory but does mean
+promotion stops silently — the store keeps accepting proposals that nothing can approve.