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Research Maintenance

docs/research/commands/maintain.md

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Research Maintenance

Primary reusable entrypoint:

Recommended command name:

  • research-maintain

Suggested invocation shape:

text
research-maintain <area?>

Examples:

text
research-maintain
research-maintain editor behavior references
research-maintain plate v2 architecture

Purpose

Run the upkeep pass for the research layer.

This command is lighter than full-pipeline.md.

It is the maintain-mode sub-workflow for research-wiki.

It is for keeping existing research healthy, not for opening a whole new lane from scratch.

When To Use

Use research-maintain when:

  • the research layer already has coverage in the area
  • you want to detect stale or missing compiled pages
  • you want to find contradictions, orphan pages, or weak sourcing
  • a task feels bigger than the visible pages, but not big enough for a full new ingest push

Do not use it when:

  • starting a brand-new domain from near zero
  • the relevant raw corpus does not exist yet
  • you already know you need a full research pass

Outputs

Expected outputs:

  • updated stale compiled pages when the evidence is already available
  • missing index.md and backlink fixes
  • explicit gap report for what is still missing
  • appended log.md

Loop

1. Scope the area

If an area is provided, infer the likely:

  • entities
  • concepts
  • systems
  • decisions

If no area is provided, run a broad upkeep pass across the current research layer.

2. Read compiled coverage first

Read:

  1. index.md
  2. the relevant compiled pages

3. Check for upkeep gaps

Look for:

  • stale pages
  • contradictions
  • orphan pages
  • duplicated pages
  • weakly sourced claims
  • missing compiled summaries for raw evidence that already exists
  • missing concept/system/decision pages where source summaries already imply them

4. Fill safe gaps

Safe actions:

  • update stale summaries from already-known evidence
  • add missing backlinks and index entries
  • split mixed pages
  • create missing stubs when source support is obvious
  • open explicit open-questions/... pages instead of faking certainty

Unsafe actions:

  • inventing new decisions without enough evidence
  • pretending the area is complete because some pages exist
  • silently flattening contradictions

5. Report what remains

Return:

  • what was fixed
  • what was still missing
  • whether the area now needs full-pipeline.md instead

Rule Of Thumb

research-full is for building or rebuilding a lane.

research-maintain is for keeping a lane honest.