hq/00-META/checks/README.md

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 Until now nothing in this repository was verified by anything but reading, which is how a superseded decision stayed live in the constitution for days and in 01-to-be/README.md alongside it.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live-citation	a governing document citing a superseded record names its replacement in the same paragraph	01-to-be/README.md citing ADR 0022 as live guidance
supersession	if A says it was superseded by B, B says it supersedes A	ADR 0012 never declared that it superseded 0011
partial-supersession	a record's supersedes-in-part: names records that exist, each carrying a dated Superseded in part note naming it under its heading; and every such note is named back by its superseder's field	11 of 21 partial supersessions had no note on the record they change, and 6 more were said only in prose (research 045)
clauses	an accepted record dated from 2026-10-11 writes its ## Decision section as numbered clauses with a bold lead (ADR 0290 rule 3)	226 of 263 decision records wrote their decision as prose, so the knowledge base must draft their clauses
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)	a stored list made every two open decisions conflict (issue 297); 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: 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): 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); 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) — 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. The tracking issue counts when it has a folder in 04-ISSUES/, or when its number is above every folder's: since ADR 0275 an issue from 365 on lives only in the issue tracker, which a checkout cannot read, and the tracker hands out numbers in order (issue 436). A made-up number above the folders therefore passes; the reviewer checks that the issue exists, with issue-tracker.get. 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: 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). 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 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, 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.