# 02-DECISIONS

**The decision records live in the knowledge base, not here** (ADR 0290). The knowledge base is the module
`mesh-knowledge`, holding the seat `knowledge-base`; it holds every record whole — its number, title, topic,
status, date, deciders, its clauses, its typed links, its reasoning and every version — and it is the only
place a record is read. This repository keeps no copy. From any node and any folder, through the mesh MCP
server: `knowledge-base.ask` with a question in plain words, `knowledge-base.get` with a number (and
`reasoning: true` for the why), `knowledge-base.holds` with a topic below for the clauses in force. A record
is written with `knowledge-base.reserve` and `knowledge-base.propose`, as playbook
[02](../00-META/process/02-graduation.md) says. The records left this folder at hq commit 76b346af,
the commit the knowledge base's records name as their source (issue 426).

## Reading order

This folder keeps one thing: the six topics of the reading order, in the order somebody would learn the
system. Each record names its own topic, and the knowledge base reads these lines through the records module
and refuses a record whose topic is not one of them. `index.py` checks that they are written.

1. **What the mesh is** — `topic: the mesh`. What it is for, and the parts it is made of.
2. **Its tiers, from the bottom up** — `topic: the tiers`. The foundation, the node and the controller, and
   what each one provides to the one above.
3. **What runs on them, and how it gets there** — `topic: what runs on it`. Modules, seats and
   provisions, and how they reach a node.
4. **How it is built** — `topic: building it`. The code, its repositories, and what is made from
   it for a node.
5. **How it is checked** — `topic: checking it`. What judges a change, and what proves a decision holds.
6. **How we work** — `topic: how we work`. This repository, its playbooks, and how decisions and
   designs are made.