AGENTS.md — The documentation standard

This file defines Markdown tiers, writing rules, and verify-doc-budgets ceilings. Use dsh-doc-standards for audits; the doc-tiers RFC owns rationale.

The tier taxonomy: one home per fact

Each fact has one home: the tier whose job it is. Elsewhere, link to that home; verify-md-links keeps links resolving while duplicated prose drifts.

Tier	Job	Does NOT belong there
Root `AGENTS.md`	Standing orders: rules an agent needs in context in every session, one to three lines each, linking its home	Stories, worked examples, situational procedures, anything restated from a linked home
Subtree `AGENTS.md` (`packages/`, `examples/`, `docs/`)	Orders specific to that subtree	Repo-wide rules the root file already carries
architecture.md	The system map: services, the loop, extension seams — read before changing `packages/`	Type shapes (→ core-data-structures), per-package detail (→ package READMEs), decision rationale (→ RFCs), implementation-status annotations
core-data-structures/	The type catalog: literal shapes and semantics of the spine and seam vocabulary	Behavior narration (→ architecture.md)
rfc/	Decision records: the why and the what-was-given-up; `implemented/` RFCs describe shipped reality in present tense	Migration plans, test checklists, and spec-speak ("should…") once the decision has shipped
postmortem/	Incident stories — the only tier where war-story narrative belongs	—
cookbook/	Step-by-step how-tos with numbered verify steps	Design rationale (→ the RFC each guide links)
Package README	The per-package contract: config, semantics, limitations, extension points	JSDoc restatement, generated-catalog restatement (event/tool tables), other packages' concerns
development.md	First-stop contributor onboarding: local setup, daily workflow, and CI shape at summary level; a bilingual pair under the i18n contract	Runtime/version rationale (→ RFCs), gate-by-gate enumerations that drift from `package.json` scripts
Generated catalogs: cordis events, cordis services, tool-catalog, config-catalog, persistence-catalog, module-graph.md	Exhaustive enumerations regenerated from source, freshness-gated	Hand edits of any kind
Skills (`.agents/skills/`)	Workflows: how to carry out a recurring task against the contracts	The contracts themselves (→ docs)

Placement test: bug story → postmortem; design rationale → RFC; procedure → cookbook; type shape → core-data-structures; package contract → README; universal rule → root AGENTS.md with a link to its rationale.

Writing rules

Document current state, not change history. Avoid "previously/now/no longer", PRs, commits, and stack positions in durable prose; name the live mechanism. Put change stories in commits, PRs, RFCs, or postmortems.
Write an RFC in the same PR for decisions a maintainer may reasonably revisit. Mechanical or self-evident changes need none (when to write one).
One physical line per paragraph (verify-md-wrap): use editor soft-wrap. Code blocks, tables, and list structure keep their formatting; code comments stay under the linter's column limit.
Fenced ts blocks must compile (doc-typecheck); a pasted type definition is fenced ```ts type-equiv and registered in the manifest so it cannot drift (mechanics).
Every new event's JSDoc carries an @mode tag (emit | waterfall | parallel | serial); the catalog generator hard-errors without it. Write the JSDoc to stand alone — it becomes the catalog entry (catalog RFC).
The core-data-structures catalog updates in the same change that reshapes a documented type. verify-type-equiv catches drifted pastes, not never-documented new types (what counts as core).
Bilingual pairs update together: editing either side obligates the counterpart and a re-record in the same change (i18n contract).
Comments and JSDoc state contracts, not reasoning. Keep non-obvious behavior, constraints, or rationale at the closest public seam. Delete implementation narration, test walkthroughs, review analysis, and code restatement.
Your audience is professional programmers. Prefer concise and straight-forward English over metaphor. Do not overuse words like "gate", "vocabulary", "surface", "seams".

Wordcount Budgets

scripts/doc-budgets.manifest.json sets standing-doc ceilings; pnpm run verify-doc-budgets rejects excess or missing files.

When the gate goes red:

Relocate content that belongs in another tier; leave a one-line link if needed.
Condense content that belongs here but can be shorter.
Raise the ceiling only when the words truly need the space; justify the manifest diff in the PR. A too-low ceiling is a budget bug.

Ceilings retain at least 5% headroom and ratchet down after trims. Targets: root AGENTS.md ≤ 1,500 words; architecture.md ≤ 1,800; each subtree AGENTS.md ≤ 600, except this file ≤ 1,250; packages/README.md ≤ 600. Review and the slop checklist govern unbudgeted tiers.

The slop checklist

Hunt these in any doc; the dsh-doc-standards skill runs this list as an audit:

The same rule stated in more than one home. Grep a distinctive phrase; keep one home, convert the rest to links.
Narrated history: "previously", "now", "no longer", "used to", "renamed", "was moved", references to PRs or commits. State the current fact; the why belongs in an RFC, the story in a postmortem or git.
A war story told inline where a one-line rule plus a postmortem/RFC link would do.
Implementation-status annotations in prose or diagrams ("implemented!", "future: …"). Status rots; the repo layout and package manifests carry it.
Hand-restating a generated catalog or JSDoc: event tables, tool arg tables, method signatures. Link instead.
Hand-maintained inventories of tests, packages, or implementation status when the tree or a generator is authoritative.
Reasoning transcripts: step-by-step implementation narration, proof of obvious branches, test walkthroughs, or rejected local alternatives. Keep the resulting contract or durable rationale; delete the path used to derive it.
The same rationale repeated beside sibling methods. State it once at the owning seam or shared helper.
Paragraph walls: one paragraph carrying several rules and parenthetical asides. Split it, or demote the detail to the linked home.
Emphasis inflation: bold, CAPS, or "critically" everywhere means nothing stands out. Reserve emphasis for the clause that changes behavior.
Spec-speak in implemented/ RFCs: "should", migration plans, acceptance checklists. An implemented RFC describes what is, per rfc/implemented/AGENTS.md.

Cross-reference with machine-checkable links, never free prose

Link repository references with relative Markdown paths, never bare filenames or RFC numbers. verify-md-links catches missing targets; the cross-link RFC owns the rationale.

The gate checks file existence, not #anchor validity — verify anchors yourself when linking to one.

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