Every remaining cluster merged. Each was one design that had been split across
several records because it was worked out over days rather than at once.
the node host 8 -> 1 applies not decides, depends on nothing,
per operating system, root service, the
launcher, episodic, what a declaration is,
actions from the bundle only
a node and how it joins 4 -> 1 what a node is, joining, the link as
security boundary, the enrolment token
modules and the graph 7 -> 1 everything is a module, no domain modules,
three edges, provisioning, the core library
substrate and control 6 -> 1 the test, seven contexts, one control plane,
plane the authority is not a database, the named
products, the pinned bundle
connectivity 3 -> 1 a route is a grant, reachability declared,
filter rules
delivery 5 -> 1 reconciliation not a pipeline, artifacts,
the three silos, a failed step, the verdict
the lab 5 -> 1 (earlier)
how this repository 10 -> 1 (earlier)
works
Nothing was dropped. Each consolidated record carries the reasoning of the ones
it absorbs -- the measurements, the incidents, the alternatives rejected --
because that reasoning is the only reason to keep a record at all. What is gone
is the fragmentation: eight files to read to understand tier 0, when tier 0 is
one component.
The four superseded records went too. They existed to point at their
successors, and the successors now contain what they said.
The checker made this safe. Each merge left dangling links -- 38 files after
the host merge alone -- and it named every one. Nothing was found by reading,
and a manual pass would certainly have missed some, including references inside
AGENTS.md which every session loads.
2.4 KiB
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which is how a superseded decision stayed live in the constitution for days and in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 0017 as live guidance |
supersession |
if A says it was superseded by B, B says it supersedes A | ADR 0018 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/and01-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 0048: 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.