# Checks

```
python3 00-META/checks/records.py
```

Non-zero exit on any problem, so it can be a gate rather than a report.

**Why this exists.** Until now nothing in this repository was verified by anything but reading,
which is how a superseded decision stayed live in the constitution for days and in
`01-to-be/README.md` alongside it. Both were found by a person looking. `how-we-build` §5 says
*an unenforced rule is indistinguishable from a wrong one, and costs more, because people
believe it* — this repository was carrying several.

**Every check here failed on something real before it passed.** A check that has never failed is
indistinguishable from one that cannot.

| Check | Asserts | Found |
|---|---|---|
| `links` | every relative link resolves | — (run ad hoc during authoring; now permanent) |
| `rests-on` | `decisions:` and `extends:` name records that exist and are **accepted** | the class behind both incidents |
| `live-citation` | a governing document citing a **superseded** record names its replacement in the same paragraph | `01-to-be/README.md` citing ADR 0022 as live guidance |
| `supersession` | if A says it was superseded by B, B says it supersedes A | ADR 0012 never declared that it superseded 0011 |
| `numbering` | the number in the filename is the number in the heading | — |

## What is deliberately not checked

- **`02-DECISIONS/` and `01-RESEARCH/` may cite superseded records freely.** A decision record
  discusses history; research records what was observed. Flagging those would produce noise on
  correct documents, and a check that cries wolf gets suppressed — which costs more than not
  having it.
- **`03-DESIGN/00-as-is/` may rest on a superseded record.** It describes what runs, and what
  runs was built under whatever was decided at the time
  ([ADR 0006](../../02-DECISIONS/0006-the-substrate-and-the-control-plane.md):
  *as-is describing a superseded decision is exactly what as-is is for*).
- **Whether a citation's prose is still true.** Only whether the record it points at is live.
  A document can cite an accepted record and describe it wrongly, and nothing here notices.

So "governing" means `00-META/` and `03-DESIGN/01-to-be/` — the documents that tell somebody
what to do.

## Adding a check

State what incident it would have caught, and make it fail before you make it pass. A check
whose failure has never been observed is a guess about its own correctness.