emsenn

Promote triage specifications to ASR

3 min read

Summary

emsenn already wrote specifications for how the repository should work — Semiotic Markdown, Semiotic Git, typed knowledge graphs, intake pipelines, baseline renewal, policy enforcement hooks, a spec-spec, and more. These are sitting in triage/engine/contracts/ and triage/specifications/. They should be promoted to the ASR specification directory.

Motivation

The ASR specification directory at technology/specifications/agential-semioverse-repository/ defines how the repository works. But emsenn’s own specifications for key subsystems are trapped in triage. The agent has been writing new specs and plans for things emsenn already specified — this is exactly the problem emsenn identified: “I bet you could find like 50 plans that you currently are making me repeat.”

Important caveat: Do not assume triage specs are ready to promote as-is. Some may be outdated — for example, Semiotic Markdown already has a full published spec at technology/specifications/semiotic-markdown/ that is more recent than the triage version. Each triage spec must be compared against existing published content before promotion.

Specifications to promote

From triage/engine/contracts/

  1. semiotic-markdown/ — Document format spec. NOTE: A more recent, published version already exists at technology/specifications/semiotic-markdown/. The triage version may contain ideas not yet in the published spec, but the published spec is authoritative.

  2. semiotic-git/ — Git as Heyting algebra of ancestry cones. Tagged commits as modal boundaries. This informs version control governance.

  3. semiotic-repository/ — Repository meta-identity via semantics.yaml. Typed repo identity selecting valid operations.

  4. semiotic-github/ — CI/CD as provenance-bearing interactions.

  5. spec-spec/ — Meta-specification for how specs are written. Versioning, canonicalization, conformance matrices.

From triage/specifications/

  1. knowledge-graph.md — Typed knowledge graph edges: citation, expands-on, contradicts, part-of, version-of.

  2. traceability-graph.md — Dependency DAG from frontmatter, cycle/orphan validation, impact analysis.

  3. intake-stack.md — Content intake pipeline: normalization, validation, context seeding, emission.

  4. baseline-renewal.md — Content maturity as convergence based on edit velocity.

  5. policy.md — Policy enforcement hooks: pre-commit validation, post-merge checks.

  6. audit.md — Transformation provenance logging.

  7. information-engine.md — Canonical content processing pipeline.

  8. storage.md — Point-in-time content snapshots.

  9. activitypub.md — External publication as projection.

Steps

  1. Read each triage spec and assess its current state:
    • Is it complete or a draft?
    • Does a more recent version already exist in the published repo?
    • Does it need adaptation for the current ASR structure?
    • Does it conflict with existing ASR specs?
  2. For specs where a published version already exists (e.g. SMD):
    • Compare triage and published versions
    • Merge any ideas from triage into the published spec
    • Do NOT replace the published spec with the triage version
  3. For specs that are genuinely new and ready:
    • Copy to ASR specification directory with proper frontmatter
    • Add to the ASR spec index
    • Update cross-references
  4. For specs that need adaptation:
    • Note what needs changing
    • Adapt and then promote
  5. For specs that conflict with existing ASR content:
    • Write a decision record resolving the conflict
  6. Update existing plans (0001, 0003, 0005, 0012) to reference the promoted specs where relevant.

Done when

  • All 14 specs assessed
  • Ready specs promoted to ASR directory
  • Adapted specs promoted after adaptation
  • Conflicts resolved via decision records
  • Existing plans updated to reference promoted specs

Dependencies

None — these specs already exist.

Log

2026-03-07 — Created. Second pass of plan 0006 (triage governance mining) revealed that emsenn already wrote formal specifications for most of the repository management infrastructure the agent has been planning from scratch. Advisory report at technology/texts/triage-derived-repo-management-patterns.md.

2026-03-07 — Tempered. Downgraded from critical to high. emsenn corrected: don’t assume triage specs are as useful as they sound. Semiotic Markdown already has a published spec more recent than the triage version. Each triage spec needs comparison with existing published content before promotion. Updated steps to include comparison and merge rather than wholesale replacement.

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