Spec: the wiki design corpus #

Type: spec
Status: IMPLEMENTED
Status note: the subject-organized typed wiki landed 2026-07-07. On
  2026-07-09 Cameron made the whole wiki the spec: the single-file
  constitution was split into subject pages, DESIGN.md became a doorway,
  Type: law became a normal wiki role, and decision history moved under log/.
Stage: Process
Design:
  - wiki/process/living-spec.md#the-corpus-rule
  - wiki/process/living-spec.md#no-unsourced-surface
  - wiki/interface/continuous-witness.md#the-continuous-witness-narration-under-pressure
Depends on:
  - wiki/process/meta.md#spec-the-design-corpus-system

Behavior #

The repository has one documentation tree organized by subject. Bindingness travels with page type, not directory and not one privileged root file.

DESIGN.md          repository doorway; no unique authority
AGENT.md           binding session entry point
wiki/
  SUMMARY.md       complete navigation manifest
  vision/          premise, player contract, design laws, judgment
  mechanics/       system work orders and tuned constants
  gameplay/        run shape, acts, horizon
  world/           characters, places, story
  interface/       presence, frontends, public site
  art/             visual identity and pipeline
  engineering/     current code facts and architecture
  process/         corpus rules and working method
  log/             append-only decisions and work history

The public Astro/Starlight site renders the same Markdown. Root DESIGN.md is still synchronized at the legacy /constitution/ route as a short doorway for old links; the public navigation and primary calls to action point into the wiki corpus. The renderer surfaces each page's role before its body: LAW, SPEC, KNOWLEDGE, or LOG, with a plain-language authority description. The legacy doorway is labeled NAVIGATION and explicitly carries no design authority.

wiki/SUMMARY.md drives agent navigation and the public sidebar. Every non-dated page must be reachable from it. Dated session logs are indexed by the log ledger rather than individually listed.

Historical migration #

The 2026-07-07 migration combined the former spec/, knowledge/, and devlog trees under wiki/ without changing their roles. The 2026-07-09 migration removed the remaining hierarchy: laws moved into their subjects, the root monolith became a doorway, and the decision tail became dated volumes under wiki/log/decisions/, indexed by wiki/log/decisions.md.

Git history is the archive for the former monolith. Current pages are not required to retain old wording when the same decision is represented more clearly in its owning subject.

Non-goals #

• A CMS or database. Markdown in git remains the medium.
• Equal authority for history and current design. Logs are part of the corpus but cannot override law, specs, or current facts.
• A second rendered copy. The site synchronizes the repository Markdown.

Acceptance criteria #

1. Every non-dated wiki page is reachable from SUMMARY.md and internal links resolve.
2. Every page declares a supported type; spec headers and anchored Design references satisfy meta.md through the shared corpus gate.
3. Root DESIGN.md contains only navigation and the corpus model.
4. Law pages live beside the subjects they govern.
5. Decision history lives under wiki/log and is explicitly non-normative.
6. Starlight renders the wiki from the same Markdown, visibly labels page authority, warns that logs are historical, and keeps the labeled legacy doorway route working.
7. Repository instructions and commit gates point to binding wiki pages, not edits to the root doorway.