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 Until now nothing in this repository was verified by anything but reading, which is how a superseded decision stayed live in the constitution for days and in 01-to-be/README.md alongside it.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`live-citation`	a governing document citing a superseded record names its replacement in the same paragraph	`01-to-be/README.md` citing ADR 0022 as live guidance
`supersession`	if A says it was superseded by B, B says it supersedes A	ADR 0012 never declared that it superseded 0011
`partial-supersession`	a record's `supersedes-in-part:` names records that exist, each carrying a dated Superseded in part note naming it under its heading; and every such note is named back by its superseder's field	11 of 21 partial supersessions had no note on the record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)
`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. 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.