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AI principles distillation flow

doc/development/agent_principles/distillation_flow.md

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The weekly sync distills AI development principles from documentation. Review this flow before changing the manifest, the distiller gem, or the sync schedule.

For the step-by-step description, see How the sync works.

Distillation flow

Each sync run starts with drift detection and ends with a merge request that updates the distilled files.

mermaid
%%{init: { "fontFamily": "GitLab Sans" }}%%
flowchart TD
    accTitle: AI principles distillation flow
    accDescr: Flowchart of the weekly sync run, from drift detection through merge request creation
    Start([Weekly scheduled CI job]) --> Load

    Load[Load manifest.yml] --> Drift

    Drift{Checksum matches
distilled file front matter?}
    Drift -->|Yes| UpToDate[Principle is up to date]
    Drift -->|No| Affected[Principle needs an update]

    UpToDate --> AnyAffected
    Affected --> AnyAffected

    AnyAffected{Any principles
need an update?}
    AnyAffected -->|No| Done([Exit: nothing to do])
    AnyAffected -->|Yes| Validate

    Validate{Source and baseline
files exist?}
    Validate -->|No| Fail([Fail: missing source path])
    Validate -->|Yes| Distill

    Distill[Call GitLab Duo Agent Platform
Workflow API per principle] --> Assemble

    Assemble[Assemble distilled file
and absolutize links] --> Meaningful

    Meaningful{Content changed?}
    Meaningful -->|No| NoChange[Skip principle]
    Meaningful -->|Yes| Write[Write file with
new checksum front matter]

    NoChange --> Collected
    Write --> Collected

    Collected[Collect updated files] --> MR

    MR[Open merge request
targeting the default branch] --> Review([Human approval and merge])