# Checks

```
python3 00-META/checks/records.py      structure: links, citations, supersession, topics
python3 00-META/checks/index.py        every record's topic is in the reading order, and no list of records is stored
python3 00-META/checks/index.py --print  the records, by topic, in reading order (generated, never written)
python3 00-META/checks/words.py        the glossary's retired words are not used, no daemon's line is written, and no word is defined twice
python3 00-META/checks/words.py --list tools   the words the catalogue's copy must list
python3 00-META/checks/words.py --list lines   the daemons' lines the catalogue's copy must list
```

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which is how a superseded decision stayed live in the constitution for days and in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| `live-citation` | a governing document citing a **superseded** record names its replacement in the same paragraph | `01-to-be/README.md` citing ADR 0022 as live guidance |
| `supersession` | if A says it was superseded by B, B says it supersedes A | ADR 0012 never declared that it superseded 0011 |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 | — |
| `topics` | every record names a topic of the reading order in `02-DECISIONS/README.md` | — |
| *(index.py)* | the reading order is written, every record's topic is one of it, and the README stores no list of records ([ADR 0248](../../02-DECISIONS/0248-the-decision-index-is-generated-when-it-is-read-and-never-stored.md)) | a stored list made every two open decisions conflict ([issue 297](../../04-ISSUES/297-two-open-decisions-always-conflict/00-report.md)); it failed on the README of `main` before the list was removed |
| `status-vs-code` | a to-be document naming specific code is not still `designed` | **ten documents**, several with a *What was built* section, describing lab-proven code |

## 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.

## cycle.py

The development cycle, checked ([ADR 0080](../../02-DECISIONS/0080-the-development-cycle-is-checked.md)):
a to-be design names a decision, an in-progress/implemented design names its owning code, a graduated
research overview says what it became, and no two issue records share a number (issue 155 — the
number is how a record is cited, and `main` lags every open pull request, so two people reading it
allocate the same one). An issue report carries the day it was `opened:` and no status key — `status:`,
`located-in:`, `fixed-by:`, `amended-design:`, `replay:`, `replay-none:` or `resolved:` — because an issue's
status lives in the issue tracker ([ADR 0275](../../02-DECISIONS/0275-the-mesh-numbers-and-tracks-its-issues-in-a-module-of-its-own-and-hq-keeps-only-the-narrative-of-a-design-or-governance-issue.md));
it failed on all 361 reports that carried them before they were removed. The rules on an issue's status this
check held until then — an owner for a located issue, a fix for a resolved one, and a core issue's `replay`
or `replay-none` ([ADR 0237](../../02-DECISIONS/0237-a-change-is-judged-against-the-mesh-that-runs-before-it-merges-on-the-build-seat.md))
— are refused at the write by `issue-tracker.move`. And an accepted record that puts work
off — "until renamed", "left for later", "not decided here", "postponed", "future work", "deferred", "a later
change" — names the issue that tracks it, as tracking it ("tracked by issue N", or "issue N tracks"), in that
paragraph or list item, or in a dated progressive insight that speaks about it: one in the same section, or one
that quotes it. An issue cited for another reason tracks nothing, and one insight does not excuse every deferral
in a record. A rejected option is not work put off and is not held, judged by its `##` section, so an option under a
`###` subheading of "Considered Options" is skipped too
([issue 354](../../04-ISSUES/354-a-decided-rename-was-never-scheduled-and-the-operator-believed-it-live/00-report.md):
ADR 0244 deferred the code renames with no issue, and two days later the operator believed them done). Held to
it: a record dated from 2026-10-09, and an older one corrected under the rule. Measured from ADR 0244's date
it found deferrals without an issue in ADR 0241, 0244 and 0270; held from 2026-10-09 it failed on 0270 and 0273
(whose "not decided here" sits beside a citation of issue 340 that tracks none of it), and on 0244's four
deferral places once its insight brought it under the rule — on three of them while the insight, in §6, named
the issue without quoting them — before each named its issue (355, 357, 354). `python3 00-META/checks/cycle.py`

## words.py

One word per thing, checked ([ADR 0244](../../02-DECISIONS/0244-the-mesh-is-described-in-domains-and-one-word-names-one-thing.md)).
It reads the glossary's *Not:* lines (the retired words, each with its scope) and *Identifier until
renamed* lines, and fails on a retired word or a bare identifier in running prose — what is left once code,
quotations, struck-through text, link targets, comments and frontmatter are taken out — in `00-META/`,
`03-DESIGN/`, `AGENTS.md`, `README.md`, and research and issues dated from 2026-10-07. Decision records are
never checked. It also fails when a glossary head word heads two entries or is also retired.
[`words-allowed.md`](words-allowed.md) names a document that could not be reworded at once, with a date, or
a graduated research effort kept as written. With `MESH_CATALOG_DIR` set it compares the catalogue's copy
of the tools' retired words (`retired-words`) with the glossary.

It also fails on a **daemon's line** ([ADR 0272](../../02-DECISIONS/0272-the-operator-reaches-the-controller-with-mesh-cli-on-every-node-and-a-node-is-the-terminal-only-where-no-agent-runs-as-its-operator.md),
its insight of 2026-10-09): the operator types one command, `nox`, and a document names a `nox` line, never the
controller's or the node-engine's binary followed by one of its commands. The lines are the check's own list
(`DAEMON_LINES`); a command that is a line only with an argument after it is matched as a line is written. Looked
for in the same documents, from 2026-10-09 for research and issues, in the document's own words — code blocks and
spans included, quotations and block quotes taken out. With `MESH_CATALOG_DIR` set it compares the catalogue's copy
(`retired-lines`) with the list.

It failed on something real before it passed: 581 uses of retired words in 63 documents on its first run, besides the glossary itself and research 034 —
"the host" for the node-engine in 30 designs, "control plane" in 10, the glossary's own entry for the tool runner —
and two glossary contradictions (the "console", the deprecated broker's seat), fixed in the change that
added it. A retired word's plural (`s` or `es` on its last word) is matched as the word: until 2026-10-07
it was not, so "alerts", "rollouts" and "the hosts" (the node-engines) passed while their singulars
failed; the plural failed on 15 uses in 10 documents before it passed. A verb that reads like a plural
("a node hosts") is a finding too, and is reworded. Homonyms (*plan*, *gate*, *tier*, *ask*, *store*, *record*, *check*) are not checked by it: a
word list cannot tell one sense from another, so they are reviewed.