The per-iter journal under docs/journals/ duplicated the iter commit
body's substance and accumulated as Verlauf-Doku with no Future-Use.
Sweep across all live control documents: CLAUDE.md, the 7 SKILL.md
files, the 11 agent files, design/INDEX.md and the contracts/models
that referenced journals, docs/roadmap.md, and the handful of source
comments + tests that pointed at journal files for rationale.
Mechanism changes:
- Standing-reading-lists in every agent now read `git log -N --format=full`
for recent project state, never per-iter journal files. The architect
reads `git log <prev-milestone-close>..HEAD --format=full` for audit
scope.
- implement-orchestrator no longer writes a journal file. DONE outcomes
emit just code + stats; the end-report is the per-task summary the
Boss uses to write the commit body. PARTIAL/BLOCKED outcomes emit
BLOCKED.md at the repo root — uncommitted by convention, Boss removes
on repair or discard. New iron-law line + four-rationalisation row
+ red-flag bullet codify it.
- audit ratify mechanic: --update-baseline is now paired with an explicit
ratify paragraph in the audit-close commit body, not a separate
JOURNAL ratify entry.
- design/contracts/honesty-rule.md: "history and rationale lives in
docs/journals/" → "lives in git log (iter and audit commit bodies)".
Pinned phrase preserved verbatim.
- CLAUDE.md "Roles of …" section reframed: design/, git log,
journal-archive.md (content-frozen), roadmap.md, specs/, plans/.
No docs/journals/ slot anymore.
- roadmap.md context-lines that pointed at per-iter journals are
dropped where the spec/commit already carries the rationale, or
rephrased to "shipped in the <iter> iter commit" / "docs/journal-
archive.md (<date> entry)" for pre-2026-05-11 references.
What stays (this commit):
- docs/journals/ directory and contents are NOT touched. Removing the
contents is a separate follow-up.
- docs/journals/2026-05-19-design-decision-records.md still has live
readers (docs_honesty_pin.rs Z 108 + parse.rs + duplicate_ctor_pin.rs
+ 3 roadmap mentions) — also follow-up.
- docs/journal-archive.md still exists; its self-pointer header has
been updated to drop the "see docs/journals/INDEX.md" mention.
Workspace builds, full test suite green.
Gate-first TDD: widened design_index_pin.rs clause-3 to a hand-rolled
FAITHFUL Sweep-1 superset (case-sensitive digit-anchored line anchors
+ Sweep-1's ^[^/]* path-excluded date + the audit-named
decision-record phrases, case-insensitive); no regex dep; the blanket
iter-detector rejected as unworkable. Sentence-level strip of
faithfully-migrated history/decision-record prose out of 5 contract
files (the audit's 3 spot-checked + roundtrip-invariant.md +
data-model.md the exhaustive scan found) into the decision-record
journal, each replaced by its present-tense contract equivalent;
float-semantics.md stale 'see Str ABI below' -> str-abi.md;
architect_sweeps honesty sweeps re-scoped to design/contracts only
(models/ is the narrative tier) + ailang-architect.md lockstep.
Invariant: clause-3 GREEN => Sweep-1 clean in contracts/.
The prior dispatch correctly BLOCKED on a real plan defect (iso_date
lacked Sweep-1's path-exclusion, over-firing on legit
docs/specs/2026-.. citations); per the two+-defects-in-one-iteration
discipline the audit Resolution mechanism+scope were corrected
upstream in lockstep (f2cdd67) before re-dispatch, not patched a
third time.
Boss-verified independently: cargo test --workspace 646/0,
design_index_pin 4/4 (clause-3 RED->GREEN), architect_sweeps.sh exit
0 'All five sweeps clean' (acceptance criterion 9 met), acceptance
grep CLEAN, 3 docs_honesty_pin pinned runs each exactly 1 contiguous
match. Zero spec/quality re-loops. FINAL design-md-rolesplit
iteration — milestone functionally complete, audited, drift-resolved,
hard gate enforces the honesty spirit.
The 3020-line docs/DESIGN.md is replaced by the design/ ledger:
design/INDEX.md (sole addressable spine, typed Contracts+Models tables,
polymorphic links — prose file OR authoritative source //!), 14
design/contracts/*.md test-linked invariants + 3 source-link-only
contracts (mangling/env-construction/qualified-xref, no prose file —
code is SoT), 5 design/models/*.md whitepapers, and
docs/journals/2026-05-19-design-decision-records.md (the
relitigation-guard archive — every why/rejected/does-not-do/rollback/
empirical ### moved out at ###-granularity). Clean cut: git rm
docs/DESIGN.md, no stub.
RED-first crates/ailang-core/tests/design_index_pin.rs — the 4-clause
anti-regrowth spine (DESIGN.md-gone / every-INDEX-link-resolves /
every-contract-names-a-resolvable-ratifier /
contracts-carry-no-decision-record-prose) — demonstrably RED before,
GREEN after. Build-atomic by task ordering: design_schema_drift.rs's
include_str! (the only compile-time consumer) retargeted to
design/contracts/data-model.md BEFORE the deletion; its
## Data model/## Pipeline slicer dropped (a simplification the split
enables). 2 NoInstance diagnostics + 2 lockstep E2Es retargeted to
design/contracts/{float-semantics,typeclasses}.md. ~12 agent reading
lists + 5 SKILL bodies + CLAUDE.md + skills/README.md + ~25
code/C/.ail/spec comment xrefs retargeted; OQ7 dangling 'Iter 13b'
cite deleted (no forward target — a pointer would be fiction).
honesty-rule.md rewritten so the rule names the new home
(rationale->journals), resolving the recon-found internal
contradiction; the two docs_honesty_pin.rs:70,72 pinned phrases kept
verbatim+contiguous.
Boss-verified independently: cargo test --workspace 646 passed /
0 failed; design_index_pin 4/4; acceptance grep CLEAN of live
DESIGN.md refs (residuals = only the spec-mandated clause-4
deletion-enforcer). 2 DONE_WITH_CONCERNS routed to the mandatory
milestone-close audit: (a) str-abi.md:23 '(iter str-concat,
2026-05-13)' provenance stamp trips advisory architect_sweeps Sweep-1
— Boss-confirmed byte-identical to DESIGN.md@deeffb1:2062-2065, a
faithfully-migrated PRE-EXISTING anchor (regexes verbatim, only path
retargeted), NOT split-introduced — RATIFY-or-tidy at audit; (b) a
now stale-direction intra-prose 'see Str ABI below' cross-ref in
float-semantics.md — audit-adjudication candidate. Plan defect noted:
Task 9 Step 4's verbatim acceptance grep used a ^./ anchor not
matching the system's grep -rIn output; substance re-verified CLEAN.
Spec grounding-check PASS x2. Journals INDEX + decision-records
pointer appended (Boss-only).
The surface-form file extension changes from .ailx to .ail. AILang's
authoring surface now uses the same .ail stem as its canonical JSON
form (.ail.json), giving the language a single coherent extension
family: .ail is the LLM-authored Form A, .ail.json is the canonical
JSON-AST Form B.
Scope (touched):
- 61 example renames examples/**/*.ailx → .ail (git mv)
- 1 rename experiments/.../rendered/ailx.md → ail.md
- 35 content-edited live-toolchain files (crates/, docs/DESIGN.md,
docs/roadmap.md, docs/PROSE_ROUNDTRIP.md, skills/, bench/reference/*.c,
experiment crates under experiments/.../{render,harness,master})
- Experiment-crate cohort rename Cohort::Ailx → Cohort::Ail,
Form::Ailx → Form::Ail, per_cohort/ailx → per_cohort/ail,
{form-only: ailx} → {form-only: ail}, ```ailx → ```ail
Out of scope (deliberately untouched, to preserve honest history):
- docs/journal-archive.md (content-frozen per CLAUDE.md)
- docs/journals/, docs/specs/, docs/plans/, bench/orchestrator-stats/
- experiments/.../runs/ (frozen LLM-output artefacts; models actually
saw .ailx — renaming would falsify the experimental record)
Verification: cargo build/test --workspace green; experiment crate
cargo test green; bench/check.py + compile_check.py + cross_lang.py
all 0-regressed; negative grep for ailx|Ailx|AILX outside the
out-of-scope paths returns zero matches.
Opens immediate follow-up: roadmap.md P2 todo `ail check`/build/run
accept .ail extension — after this rename, .ail is canonical
authoring surface but the CLI still produces a misleading JSON-parse
error on `ail check foo.ail`. That's the next iter.
Two project-wide rules are now explicit across every skill:
1. Only the Boss commits. No skill agent (implementer,
brainstormer, planner, debugger, fieldtester, docwriter,
architect, bencher) runs `git commit`. Agents write their
artefacts to the working tree as unstaged changes; the Boss
inspects, decides commit shape, and commits.
2. main HEAD is sacrosanct. No actor runs `git reset` or
`git revert` on main. Bad work stays in the working tree
where it is still discardable via `git checkout -- <paths>`.
Implement loses the `iter/<iter_id>` branch mechanic entirely;
Phase 0 of the orchestrator-agent now does a clean-tree check
and refuses to start on a dirty tree. Per-task agent commits
are removed everywhere; reviewers operate against
`git diff HEAD` instead of `pre_task_sha..head_sha`.
Motivation: 2026-05-11 iter 23.4 stranded prep2/prep3 commits on
an iter-branch that never integrated to main, then a corrected
spec falsely claimed those commits had shipped. Branch-per-iter
+ manual-Boss-merge + iter-stacking made the strand structurally
possible. See docs/journals/2026-05-11-iter-disc.1.md for the
full per-task notes and motivation.
Anthropic now reserves /plan as a UI command, so the Skill tool refuses to
dispatch it. Rename the project's plan skill to planner, update the symlink
under .claude/skills/, and adjust references in CLAUDE.md, DESIGN.md,
skills/README.md, and the cross-references between brainstorm / implement /
audit / fieldtest / fieldtester. Plan files themselves (docs/plans/*.md)
keep their name — only the skill ID changes.
All six existing agents (implementer, tester, architect, bencher,
docwriter, debugger) restructured into the same superpowers-derived
layout the SKILL.md files use: Iron Law, Carrier contract, Standing
reading list, Status protocol (DONE / DONE_WITH_CONCERNS /
NEEDS_CONTEXT / BLOCKED), Common Rationalisations, Red Flags. Agents
now know about docs/specs/<milestone>.md and docs/plans/<iteration>.md
but do not open them directly — context curation lives at the skill
level (controller hands the agent task_text, hypothesis, etc.).
Implementer carries TDD as an independent discipline layer, mirroring
the superpowers split between subagent-driven-development (outer loop)
and test-driven-development (inner loop). RED-first applies even when
a plan task forgot to script the failing test.
Debugger scope corrected: RED-first only, hands GREEN to implement
mini-mode. Previously the agent self-applied the fix, which
contradicted skills/debug/SKILL.md Phase 4. The skill is the source
of truth; the agent now matches it.
Two new named reviewer agents:
- ailang-spec-reviewer: did the diff match the task text?
- ailang-quality-reviewer: is the diff well-built? (only after spec
is compliant)
Both replace the ad-hoc general-purpose dispatch in skills/implement
Step 2.3 and 2.4. With named agents, AILang quality conventions are
amortised across dispatches instead of being re-stated inline per
prompt.
skills/implement/SKILL.md updated to dispatch the new reviewers.
skills/README.md agent roster expanded; conventions clarified to
state that agents do not open plan/spec files directly.
ailang-implementer/-tester -> skills/implement/agents/
ailang-architect/-bencher/-docwriter -> skills/audit/agents/
ailang-debugger -> skills/debug/agents/
agents/ now contains only README.md (rewritten in next commit as
roster of skill-bound agents).
Brummel