Imported from oimiragieo/tensor-grep (.claude/skills/tensor-grep-docs-and-writing/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add oimiragieo/tensor-grep --skill tensor-grep-docs-and-writing. Copyright stays with the author.

tensor-grep docs and writing

This is the docs-of-record runbook: which file owns which contract, how versions get auto-stamped into prose, how the content-pinning tests work, and how to edit a governed doc without silently redding a test three files away. tensor-grep treats docs as part of the product contract, not an afterthought — CONTRIBUTING.md:57-59 and AGENTS.md rule 6 both say a workflow/release/docs-contract change is incomplete until the matching validator test is updated.

Who this is for

Two readers at once — write and act to the lower bound of each:

• A Sonnet-class AI editing docs autonomously: you need the exact file list, exact grep commands, and a hard stop before you delete a pinned sentence.
• A mid-level human engineer: you need to understand why this repo pins prose with assert "..." in doc instead of a single source-of-truth link, so you don't fight the system.

When to use this skill vs a sibling

No skill routes around change-control. Docs-contract changes still need a validator-backed test update (AGENTS.md rule 6) — this skill tells you which test, not an excuse to skip it.

Part 1 — The doc-of-record map

Every governed doc has one job. Do not duplicate another doc's job into it — that is exactly what caused the README to grow an unmaintainable per-release ledger (see Part 5).

Full current list of governed prose files: AGENTS.md, README.md, SKILL.md, docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md, docs/CONTINUATION_PLAN.md, docs/CONTRACTS.md, docs/benchmarks.md, docs/gpu_crossover.md, docs/PAPER.md, docs/routing_policy.md, docs/tool_comparison.md, docs/world_class_plan.md (tests/unit/test_public_docs_governance.py), plus docs/SUPPORT_MATRIX.md, docs/HOTFIX_PROCEDURE.md, docs/EXPERIMENTAL.md, docs/RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md, docs/installation.md, docs/index.md, docs/CI_PIPELINE.md, docs/tool_comparison.md, mkdocs.yml, CONTRIBUTING.md, SECURITY.md, docs/runbooks/resident-worker.md, docs/runbooks/gpu-troubleshooting.md, docs/runbooks/cache-management.md (tests/unit/test_enterprise_docs_governance.py).

TASK_BOARD canonical index (2026-08-06)

Under ## Canonical status index, only checklist rows of the form - [ ] **ID** — Status: …; PR: …; Trigger: … are legal. Free-form campaign bullets under that heading fail tests/unit/test_backlog_tracker_truth.py (AGENTS.md A71). Put session prose in a sibling heading such as ## Campaign note (YYYY-MM-DD). When closing IN_FLIGHT → SHIPPED, include Implementation PRs:, Closure PR:, and Merged SHA: for lifecycle IDs (AGENTS.md A72 / A50). Bump Canonical status index version: and mirror it in docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md.

Part 2 — Two governance layers (and a fast gate)

Layer A — Version stamping (automatic; do not hand-edit the stamped bits)

Two mechanisms fire together inside the Semantic Release job's build_command (pyproject.toml:138, [tool.semantic_release]):

1. version_variables (python-semantic-release's built-in regex substitution of name = "X" / name: X style single-line patterns). Current entries (pyproject.toml:142-154):

   • src/tensor_grep/cli/main.py:pkg_version
   • npm/package.json:version
   • scripts/tensor-grep.rb:TENSOR_GREP_VERSION
   • scripts/oimiragieo.tensor-grep.yaml:PackageVersion
   • scripts/oimiragieo.tensor-grep.yaml:InstallerUrl
   • AGENTS.md:release_docs_current_tag:tf, README.md:release_docs_current_tag:tf, SKILL.md:release_docs_current_tag:tf, docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md:release_docs_current_tag:tf, docs/CONTINUATION_PLAN.md:release_docs_current_tag:tf, docs/CONTRACTS.md:release_docs_current_tag:tf

   The trailing :tf is psr's format-hint suffix (candidate reading: "tag format" — it substitutes the v-prefixed tag, e.g. v1.17.25, not the bare 1.17.25 that plain version_variables entries get). This explains why every release_docs_current_tag: line carries a v prefix. If this ever needs real debugging, check the pinned python-semantic-release@v9 action's version_variables format-hint docs — it is not vendored in this repo.

2. scripts/stamp_release_assets.py (a companion script this repo wrote, run as a plain step in build_command before the git add). version_variables' one-line regex can't rewrite multi-clause prose or derived URLs, so this script owns everything else: the Homebrew formula body (scripts/tensor-grep.rb, handles both a bare TENSOR_GREP_VERSION = "..." constant and a raw version "..." line), the winget manifest's comment header + PackageVersion: + InstallerUrl: (which embeds vX inside a GitHub download path), and roughly 18 distinct prose regexes across two doc groups (scripts/stamp_release_assets.py:39-114):

   • RELEASE_DOC_PATHS = AGENTS.md, README.md, SKILL.md, docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md, docs/CONTINUATION_PLAN.md, docs/CONTRACTS.md — stamps "current tagged version is vX", "current vX (shell/version resolution|positioning|release line)", "latest complete public PyPI/release-asset distribution is also vX", "- Latest tagged version: vX", "- Current release tag: vX", "- GitHub release: <.../releases/tag/vX>", the PyPI pinned-install proof line, "- GitHub release assets: vX has uploaded", and the "Latest tagged/complete PyPI release: vX" link pair.
   • GPU_DOGFOOD_DOC_PATHS = README.md, docs/benchmarks.md, docs/gpu_crossover.md, docs/PAPER.md — stamps the current tag into only the four anchored post-`vX` live-pointer shapes (a ## Current post-vX GPU dogfood Read header, a The post-vX … sentence, - Latest post-vX … status bullets, and the workflow-benchmark pointer line). It deliberately does not rewrite bare post-`vX` occurrences inside dated historical notes — audit #71/#73 replaced a prior unanchored global sub that marched those notes' versions forward every release (a 2026-05 note ended up stamped with a July version). docs/PAPER.md is append-only and carries no live post-`vX` pointer, so it is now exempt from the post-`vX` requirement in both scripts/agent_readiness.py's validate_docs_claims and test_public_docs_governance.py.
   • Run it yourself: python scripts/stamp_release_assets.py (writes) or python scripts/stamp_release_assets.py --check (rc 1 if any stamped doc has drifted from pyproject.toml's version) — a fast local drift pre-check, but not what CI runs. CI's release-readiness job instead runs uv run python scripts/validate_release_assets.py (.github/workflows/ci.yml:119), a much broader validator (winget manifest, CI-workflow gate list, dependabot config, native-CLI/npm-installer contract, README/benchmarks-docs contract, Homebrew formula, uv security constraints, RELEASE_JOB_REQUIRED_GATES — see grep -n "^def validate_" scripts/validate_release_assets.py) that happens to also catch stamp drift as one check among many. Run both locally before a release-bearing push; do not assume stamp_release_assets.py --check alone reproduces the CI gate.
   • build_command finishes with git add AGENTS.md README.md SKILL.md docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md docs/CONTINUATION_PLAN.md docs/CONTRACTS.md docs/benchmarks.md docs/gpu_crossover.md docs/PAPER.md ... — stamping a file on disk without adding it here means the commit never includes it. (See Part 6 for what this means when adding a new governed doc.)

Do not hand-edit any of the stamped fragments above (the release_docs_current_tag: line, "current tagged version is vX", the GitHub-release / PyPI-proof lines, the post-`vX` labels). They are overwritten on every release; a hand-edit just creates diff noise the next release clobbers. The one deliberate exception, already shipped (verify current line with grep -n "a78e33c fix: harden post-release docs governance" docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md — it drifts as new release-line bullets are prepended above it, e.g. still :42 as of v1.95.0 — unchanged since v1.49.3 because no new per-release - Closed vX... bullet has been prepended above it recently, though a future one would shift it): "Latest verified release proof" blocks and "What vX closed:" narrative are kept SEPARATE from the auto-stamped current-tag labels specifically so a release commit stays locally testable without a hand-authored proof block going stale the moment the tag line moves. See tests/unit/test_stamp_release_assets.py::test_stamp_release_assets_preserves_verified_release_proof_blocks for the exact contract this preserves.

Layer B — Content-pinning tests (pytest string containment)

tests/unit/test_public_docs_governance.py and tests/unit/test_enterprise_docs_governance.py do not check structure — they check that specific literal fragments exist verbatim (assert "some exact phrase" in doc) across specific doc sets. This is the load-bearing house style to internalize:

• A single behavior/claim is frequently required in multiple docs at once. Example (test_public_docs_governance.py:400-434): the "Dogfood follow-up workflow" fragments ("PR order", "thinktank", "Gemini", "contract test", …) must appear in all three of AGENTS.md, SKILL.md, docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md — add the workflow note to only one and the test fails on the other two.
• Some tests assert negatively — a fragment must NOT appear. Two important negative guards:
  • test_public_docs_should_not_contain_unaccepted_gpu_or_cold_rg_marketing bans "mathematically guaranteeing", "0ms interpreter lag", "peak theoretical throughput", "further buries", "designed to win on larger files", "GPU-ready", "GPU-accelerated" from README.md, docs/benchmarks.md, docs/gpu_crossover.md, docs/PAPER.md.
  • The handoff_docs loop in test_handoff_docs_should_record_current_release_state_and_fast_gate bans "Latest complete public release PR" and "Latest complete public release commit" from every handoff doc — this is the guard that stops the README's old per-release ledger from regrowing (see Part 5).
• test_public_ast_positioning_should_not_claim_ast_grep_parity bans the literal phrase "ast-grep parity" everywhere, and requires the accepted alternative phrasing — but the exact accepted wording differs per doc: root SKILL.md must contain "validated useful slice", AGENTS.md must contain "useful validated AST slice". Don't assume uniform wording across docs; check the specific assertion.
• Exact backtick/punctuation matters. "current `v1.9.10` positioning" and current tagged version is \v1.9.10`` are different literal strings the stamping regexes and the pytest assertions both match on — copy the surrounding punctuation from an existing pinned sentence rather than freehand-typing a new one.

Layer C — The fast agent-readiness gate (not pytest, runs in seconds)

scripts/agent_readiness.py has a docs-claim-check probe (validate_docs_claims, scripts/agent_readiness.py:634) that re-checks a smaller fragment set (f"v{expected_version}", "python scripts/agent_readiness.py", "context_consistency", "tg agent", "agent-capsule-hardcases", "validated compatibility set", "broad generated-root scan", "rg` remains", "ast-grep") across the same six RELEASE_DOC_PATHS-shaped docs, plus a version-drift check using the same "current vX (shell/version resolution|positioning|release line)" pattern the stamping script writes. Run it locally as a fast pre-push smoke test:

python scripts/agent_readiness.py --output artifacts/agent_readiness.json
tg dogfood --output artifacts/dogfood_readiness.json

Layer B's structural blind spot: it compares a doc to a doc, never to the CODE (2026-07-27). Every assertion above is assert "phrase" in doc. That pins consistency across the doc set — real value, keep it — but it cannot detect the failure that actually hurts: a doc set that agrees with itself and disagrees with the shipped binary. Both arms are prose, so both stay green while the behaviour underneath changes. Receipts in this repo's own task log: #318 (docs/CONTRACTS.md contradicted shipped behaviour, unpinned by any test) and #333 (two more completeness statements in the same file, same gap) — the class recurs precisely because Layer B looks like coverage.

The rule for a CONTRACT claim (an exit code, a field name, a disclosure, a default): pin it to the SOURCE, not to another doc's text. The shape that works, from test_enterprise_docs_governance.py: read the implementing module's text and assert the literal expression it must contain, plus a premise assertion that fails loudly if the emitter is restructured — so both arms can fail. A plain assert "phrase" in doc has only one arm and passes for a claim that stopped being true a release ago. Doc-to-doc pinning is correct for wording; source-pinning is required for behaviour.

This is what caught (and was itself the root cause of 4 wasted CI cycles in) the June-2026 README-rewrite incident — see tensor-grep-failure-archaeology for the full story; the operational lesson for docs work specifically is: decode the structured failing check first. docs-claim-check failing tells you a version or fragment problem; it does not by itself tell you which pytest in Layer B also broke — run Layer B directly (Part 4) rather than theorizing from the readiness JSON alone.

Green governance tests do not validate examples or PR metadata (2026-08-02, #910). A docs PR passed its focused tests and full CI while a Markdown/Python example contained a literal line break in the wrong place and the PR body reported stale counts. Treat examples as code: extract/compile/run them when possible, or add a tiny syntax/shape assertion. Treat titles, bodies, comments, and counts as the same reviewed artifact as the diff; after a scope-changing push, re-read them against the final head. Every count names its population/denominator (0/2 unchecked, not merely 0).

Layer D — The published mkdocs site (a separate universe)

mkdocs.yml defines a subset of docs/*.md as the published site nav (currently: index.md, installation.md, CI_PIPELINE.md, SUPPORT_MATRIX.md, CONTRACTS.md, enterprise_review_bundle_ci.md, EXPERIMENTAL.md, RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md, HOTFIX_PROCEDURE.md, package_manager_publish.md, architecture.md, multi_agent_context_plane.md, benchmarks.md, tool_comparison.md — verify with grep -A2 '^nav:' mkdocs.yml). CI's release-readiness job (.github/workflows/ci.yml:98-101) runs mkdocs build --strict (:116), which fails the build on any broken internal link or nav reference, not just missing content. docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md, docs/CONTINUATION_PLAN.md, docs/PAPER.md, docs/gpu_crossover.md, docs/routing_policy.md, docs/world_class_plan.md are repo-internal only — they are pytest-governed (Layer B) but are NOT part of the published site and don't need mkdocs nav entries. Before editing a file that IS in the nav, run the strict build locally:

pip install mkdocs-material
mkdocs build --strict

Part 3 — The "SKILL.md" name collision (read this before touching any SKILL.md)

Three different files share (or nearly share) the name SKILL.md. Confusing them is the single most likely mistake this skill exists to prevent:

1. SKILL.md (repo root) — a governed release/product-positioning doc, pinned heavily by test_public_docs_governance.py under the variable SKILL_DOC_PATH = Path("SKILL.md"). Auto-stamped (Part 2, Layer A). Treat edits here with the same discipline as AGENTS.md.
2. .claude/skills/tensor-grep/SKILL.md — the tg-usage skill: command patterns, argument order, the registration-audit workflow, for an agent driving tg. Same basename, unrelated content and governance. It has no release-state section and no release_docs_current_tag: line — it is NOT part of the version-stamping set (Part 2, Layer A). Its only version reference is an inline As of vX.Y.Z note inside the Registration-Audit Workflow section (.claude/skills/tensor-grep/SKILL.md:81, currently v1.17.1), which is not machine-stamped and must be hand-updated if it goes stale; do not assume the two SKILL.md files need the same edit. Exactly one pytest reads it: tests/unit/test_benchmark_scripts_part6.py::test_tensor_grep_claude_skill_should_require_non_interactive_action, which asserts the file still contains "do not ask for confirmation" and "make the change directly" (Non-Interactive Mode section, .claude/skills/tensor-grep/SKILL.md:87,89) and "want me to apply this?" (separate Rules section, .claude/skills/tensor-grep/SKILL.md:100) (in tests/unit/test_benchmark_scripts_part6.py -- no line pin; grep the test name). AGENTS.md's own Skills section (grep -n "Keep it in sync whenever commands/flags change" AGENTS.md — was :538, now :1789; AGENTS.md grew ~1250 lines between these two re-verify passes) says to "Keep it in sync whenever commands/flags change" — that sync is currently discipline, not full pytest coverage; only those three literal fragments are machine-checked.
3. .claude/skills/<topic>/SKILL.md (this file's siblings — tensor-grep-change-control, tensor-grep-architecture-contract, etc.) — narrow runbooks, one per topic. As of 2026-08-01, seven test files reference this library (grep -rl '\.claude/skills' tests/ | grep -v __pycache__): test_skill_index_sync.py, test_pyproject_dependencies.py, test_orient_deweight_vendored.py, tests/eval/test_agent_accuracy.py, test_benchmark_scripts_part6.py (the W4-d split's heir to the old monolith), plus two new arrivals since the "five" count above — test_skill_library_drift.py and test_unstaged_skill_edit_guard.py. The claim here used to be "none are pytest-pinned, only the old benchmark-scripts monolith matches" -- already false when it was last "re-verified" on 2026-07-23 (test_skill_index_sync.py landed 2026-07-14), then the "five" count itself went stale by 2026-08-01 as the same two new tests landed. Its own hedge ("if the count has moved again, this line is stale, not the tests") had already come true, twice. What is still true: no test pins the PROSE of an individual topic SKILL.md; test_skill_index_sync.py pins the folder SET against the AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md indices, not the content; test_skill_library_drift.py (new) is a citation-freshness gate, not a content-correctness one. Re-run the grep -- and if the count has moved again, this line is stale, not the tests.

Why this library deliberately does NOT carry independent per-skill SemVer frontmatter. Each SKILL.md in this library stamps its own body prose with the CURRENT release tag (e.g. "Verified against tg 1.93.2") rather than an independent version COUNTER of its own. This is a conscious choice, not an oversight: the monorepo is already versioned atomically via pyproject.toml's single version field, which CURRENT_RELEASE_TAG-style stamps (Part 2) pull live from — a second, per-skill version-counter system would just be bookkeeping the repo already solves, with its own staleness-drift risk on top. Anthropic's skill spec treats a skill's own version: frontmatter field as an unenforced convention, not a load-bearing contract, so there is no external requirement forcing one either. If you are tempted to add version: 1.2.0-style frontmatter to a skill in this library, don't — stamp the body prose with the current release tag instead, matching the existing house style.

CLAUDE.md stays a pointer — do not duplicate AGENTS.md into it

The repo's own CLAUDE.md states its job explicitly: "Claude Code auto-loads this CLAUDE.md; AGENTS.md (read by other agents) holds the full rules, so this file points there to keep them DRY." One slice of this IS now pytest-enforced — the earlier claim here ("verified: no test reads CLAUDE.md") was FALSE: tests/unit/test_skill_index_sync.py reads BOTH AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md (AGENTS_DOC_PATH / CLAUDE_DOC_PATH, verified 2026-08-12) and pins their Skills-section folder enumerations — every real .claude/skills/ folder must appear in both indices, no phantom skills, and the two enumerations must not drift apart. What remains discipline-only is the DRY-pointer PROPERTY itself (that CLAUDE.md's body is a bullet summary of AGENTS.md sections, not duplicated prose) — no test asserts that, so the only thing stopping it from rotting into a second copy of AGENTS.md is discipline. When AGENTS.md gains a new load-bearing section, add one bullet to CLAUDE.md's summary list (matching its existing bullet style — short imperative phrase + the AGENTS.md section it points to), not the full prose.

Part 4 — Runbook: editing a governed doc without breaking a test you didn't run

1. Before changing or removing any sentence, grep the exact phrase you're about to touch against the governance suites:

   uv run pytest tests/unit/test_public_docs_governance.py tests/unit/test_enterprise_docs_governance.py -k "not slow" -q

   or, cheaper, just text-search for the fragment first (use tg, per the workspace's own dogfooding rule):

   tg search "exact phrase you plan to remove" tests/unit

   If it's pinned, you have two choices, both legitimate: (a) keep the fragment and change only the surrounding prose, or (b) change the fragment and update the pinning assertion in the same commit (AGENTS.md rule 6 / CONTRIBUTING.md:57-59). Silently deleting a pinned sentence without touching the test is not allowed — it is the docs-equivalent of routing around a registration site.
2. If you're adding a new capability/behavior claim that should be visible across the doc set (most product-facing behaviors are — check how the closest existing claim is pinned, e.g. tg agent / Actionable Context Capsule spans AGENTS.md, README.md, SKILL.md, docs/CONTRACTS.md, docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md, docs/CONTINUATION_PLAN.md per test_agent_docs_should_lock_agent_context_capsule_roadmap), write the same exact fragment text into every doc in that group, then either reuse an existing loop-style assertion or add a new one following the pattern of the tests already in test_public_docs_governance.py (a docs = {...} dict + a for path, content in docs.items(): assert "..." in content loop; this file has ~30 such tests to copy the shape from).
3. Run the full docs-governance surface before pushing:

   uv run pytest tests/unit/test_public_docs_governance.py tests/unit/test_enterprise_docs_governance.py tests/unit/test_stamp_release_assets.py -q
   uv run pytest tests/unit/test_benchmark_scripts_part6.py -k tensor_grep_claude_skill -q
   python scripts/agent_readiness.py --output artifacts/agent_readiness.json
   uv run python scripts/validate_release_assets.py

   If you touched a file in mkdocs' nav (Part 2, Layer D), also run mkdocs build --strict — CI's release-readiness job runs both mkdocs build --strict and validate_release_assets.py back to back (ci.yml:113-119), so a release-bearing docs change is not proven green until both pass locally.
4. Never hand-edit the auto-stamped fragments (Part 2, Layer A). If a governance test is failing only because the stamped version looks wrong locally, run python scripts/stamp_release_assets.py (not a hand edit) and re-check — a genuinely wrong pyproject.toml version is a release-mechanics problem, not a docs problem (see tensor-grep-release-and-positioning).
5. Never add a banned marketing fragment (Part 2, Layer B negative list) to README.md, docs/benchmarks.md, docs/gpu_crossover.md, or docs/PAPER.md, and never claim "ast-grep parity" anywhere.
6. If you edit a doc with a script instead of the interactive editor, preserve CRLF. .gitattributes pins eol=lf only for *.py/*.rs (the mechanism behind tensor-grep-build-and-env's ruff-format CRLF trap) — every governed doc in Part 1's table (AGENTS.md, README.md, SKILL.md, every docs/*.md, even this .claude/skills/*/SKILL.md library) has no such pin, so on a Windows checkout with core.autocrlf=true (the common default; verify with git config --get core.autocrlf) it is checked out with CRLF line endings even though the committed blob is LF-only. A helper script that opens one of these files in text mode (Python's open(path, newline="\n"), or any text-mode write) and rewrites it flips every line ending in the file, turning an 11-line intended change into a diff spanning the file's entire line count. Fix: read and write in binary mode (rb/wb) and byte-replace, preserving \r\n, or just make the edit with the interactive editor tool instead of a script. git diff --stat showing far more changed lines than you touched is the tell — check it before committing. Sibling trap (2026-08-30): local ruff format --check --preview on markdown can FAIL while git show <rev>:file | ruff ... --stdin-filename file - PASSES. That is not a blob defect and is not a format PR. See tensor-grep-validation-and-qa (markdown stdin vs disk).
7. Byte-exact match failures are often non-ASCII punctuation, not missing text (A96, 2026-08-11). Em dashes (U+2014), en dashes (U+2013), and smart quotes in governed prose defeat byte-exact oldString matching: the text LOOKS identical but an edit tool reports "oldString not found" (it matches exact bytes). Three consecutive failures on one "straight field dump —" line, all text-identical on screen. Fix: locate by line INDEX in a python script file, assert "needle" in lines[i] to prove you hit the right line, splice the target lines, write back with newline="" preserving the file's existing endings — never re-type the line into the tool (PowerShell python -c mangling is a second trap; write the script to a temp file instead).

Part 5 — Runbook: adding a new doc to the governed set

Adding a brand-new file that should join the auto-stamp/pytest-governed set has its own N-site registration shape — the same universal bug class AGENTS.md/tensor-grep-change-control describe for commands and search flags (miss one site, it fails quietly — the file just never gets stamped or never gets checked, with no error).

Before claiming this is done, re-grep all five sites for the new path — the same discipline as the command/flag registration audit in tensor-grep-change-control.

Part 6 — Why README.md is thin now (the ledger-regrowth guard)

Until 2026-06-25, README.md carried a full "## Current Release State" section: per-release fix/feature/release commit hashes, CI/CodeQL run IDs, PyPI line, and a hand-maintained "What vX closed:" changelog ledger. It drifted every release and, when force-rewritten as pure marketing copy, broke ~14 governance tests plus a separate release-blocker gate (agent-readiness needing the AST probe + a stale uv run dev-sync issue) — 4 CI cycles were wasted theorizing from tracebacks instead of reading the structured failing-check output first (full incident: tensor-grep-failure-archaeology).

The resolution, encoded directly in the test file's comments (test_public_docs_governance.py:63-70, 255-269): README.md is now a marketing/positioning doc only. Detailed contract facts live in their dedicated docs (AGENTS.md / SKILL.md / docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md / docs/CONTRACTS.md / docs/CONTINUATION_PLAN.md), and per-version history lives in CHANGELOG.md + GitHub Releases — never in README.md. The negative assertions ("Latest complete public release PR" / "Latest complete public release commit" must NOT appear) exist specifically so this ledger cannot silently regrow. If you're tempted to paste a per-release fix list into README.md, put it in CHANGELOG.md instead — that's exactly the mistake this guard exists to catch.

Part 7 — Templates

7a. A new docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md release-line entry

Match the exact observed pattern (find the current block with grep -n "^- Closed v" docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md | head — its line range shifts every release as new bullets are prepended, so anchor by content not a fixed range) — one bullet per release, past tense, naming the PR and the concrete behavior. As of v1.49.3 the top of the file also carries a denser "Recent shipped milestones (the vX.Y.x line — DATE)" paragraph summarizing a whole release cluster in prose (see docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md:13-16) — use that paragraph style when a release-bearing PR is one of several closing out a themed cluster (an audit blitz, a campaign phase), and the per-release - Closed vX.Y.Z ... gap: PR #NNN ... bullet style (below) for a single standalone release:

- Closed vX.Y.Z <short gap name> gap: PR #NNN <does what, concretely — name the files/flags/fields
  touched, not just "fixes a bug">.

7b. A dogfood-follow-up per-slice evidence-ledger entry

Required fields, per grep -n "Maintain a per-slice evidence ledger" AGENTS.md (was :575, now :1829) and pinned by test_agent_workflow_docs_should_preserve_dogfood_research_pr_slice_process: PR order; slice scope; Exa research anchors (or "not applicable" with a stated rationale); thinktank/planning consensus; subagent ownership; Gemini review result; validation commands; PR CI; main CI; for release-bearing slices additionally semantic-release, release assets, PyPI, and public release dogfood evidence. Copy the shape of an existing entry in AGENTS.md's "Current post-vX dogfood slice ledger" rather than inventing a new field order.

7c. docs/PAPER.md — append, never rewrite

PAPER.md preserves failed attempts on purpose (AGENTS.md "Documentation Discipline": "The paper should preserve failed attempts too, so future agents do not retry the same losing ideas."). The observed convention is a dated blockquote appended at the point of writing, e.g. > post-\vX` dogfood GPU performance note (YYYY-MM-DD): ...` — do not delete or rewrite an old dated note to "clean up"; append a new one that supersedes it and say so in the new note's text.

Part 8 — House style (observed, not invented)

• Dense, factual, hedged prose over adjectives. State the mechanism ("routes to NativeCpuBackend because the GPU sidecar reported sidecar_used = true"), not a claim ("blazing fast"). The banned-marketing-fragment list in Part 2 is the enforced floor of this rule.
• Exact identifiers in backticks, and copy them verbatim from an existing doc rather than retyping — tg agent, NativeGpuBackend, gpu_evidence_status, context_consistency. A missing backtick or a respelled field name breaks nothing structurally but silently stops matching a pinned pytest substring elsewhere.
• Date-stamp the state, not just the facts. Governed docs open with As of <date>, the current tagged version is \vX`, ...— keep this pattern; it's what bothvalidate_docs_claims` and the stamping regexes match on.
• Never claim a speedup or "improvement" without a measured number vs the accepted baseline — this is a docs rule too, not just a code rule (AGENTS.md "Performance Discipline" #4: "Do not update docs or the paper with speed claims until the benchmark line is accepted."). See tensor-grep-benchmark-and-proof-toolkit for how to produce that number.
• Historical notes are additive, not destructive (Part 7c) — this is the opposite convention from SESSION_HANDOFF.md's single "Current Release State" block, which IS meant to be replaced by the stamping script each release. Know which doc you're in before deciding whether to append or overwrite.
• A doc is stale and known to be stale is better than silently wrong. Part 1's point in practice: docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md's release_docs_current_tag: line (Part 2, Layer A) is machine-stamped every release; the surrounding "Last updated:" header and the prose narrative below it are hand-maintained and can trail by several release lines. This gap does not close on its own and was observed OPEN on every re-verify pass from v1.95.0 (2026-07-23) through v1.101.27 (2026-08-01) — whether it is open RIGHT NOW is answered only by the check command head -5 docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md, comparing its Last updated: line against the release_docs_current_tag: line beneath it. (A prior pass embedded the then-observed value here — "still reads Last updated: 2026-07-07" — and the live file moved to 2026-08-12 within three weeks, rotting the snapshot into a present-tense falsehood; see the 2026-08-12 bullet below: only the check command is durable.) Do not re-derive and hand-write a fresh "confirmed drifted by vX, N releases behind" sentence here each pass — that number is itself stale the moment it's written and just adds another dated hedge to maintain. Instead, before trusting the narrative, run: head -5 docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md and compare its Last updated:/release_docs_current_tag: lines against the version named in the top - Closed vX.../Recent shipped milestones entry — a gap between them means the tag is correct (auto-stamped) but the prose below it is not yet refreshed; don't assume the whole file is current just because the top line is.
• Never embed a present-tense snapshot of another doc's state inside an append-only receipt (2026-08-12). Only the CHECK COMMAND is durable — the observed value rots the moment the other doc is next touched, and the receipt then asserts a present-tense falsehood while still reading as verified fact (live instance: this file's own "still reads Last updated: 2026-07-07" snapshot, stale three weeks later when the live file said 2026-08-12). Cite the deriving command (head -5 docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md); when a value must be recorded, date-stamp it as a past observation ("read X on 2026-08-12"), never as "still reads X".
• Status-bearing lines need a same-ID cross-doc contradiction grep before merge (2026-08-12). A handoff/board line that carries a task ID plus a status word (BLOCKED/READY/SHIPPED/…) must be grepped against every other governed doc for the SAME ID before merging — the same ID asserting two statuses across (or inside) docs is the "long document contradicts itself" class AGENTS.md already laws, but status lines make it actionable: a dispatcher reads whichever status it hits first. Live instance: backlog items #89/#90 appeared as both BLOCKED and READY within one handoff pass. Check: grep -n "#<ID>" docs/SESSION_HANDOFF.md docs/TASK_BOARD.md docs/BACKLOG.md and confirm one status per ID per doc-of-record.

Part 9 — Pre-merge checklist for any docs change

• Identified which doc(s) in Part 1's table own this claim — not just the first one that came to mind.
• Grepped the exact phrase being changed/removed against tests/unit/test_public_docs_governance.py and test_enterprise_docs_governance.py before editing.
• New claim written into every doc a matching existing pytest loop requires (Part 4, step 2) — or a new loop-style assertion added if none exists yet.
• No banned marketing fragment introduced (Part 2 Layer B negative list); no "ast-grep parity" claim.
• No hand-edit of an auto-stamped fragment (Part 2 Layer A) — ran python scripts/stamp_release_assets.py instead if a stamp looked wrong.
• Edited via a script rather than the interactive editor → confirmed binary-mode read/write preserved CRLF (git diff --stat shows only the intended lines changed, not the whole file — Part 4 step 6).
• New governed doc → all 5 registration sites in Part 5 confirmed present.
• Code/config/shell example → extracted and syntax/behavior checked where feasible; no malformed literal line breaks hidden by Markdown rendering.
• PR title/body/comments/counts re-read against final head; every count states its population.
• README.md touched → confirmed no per-release ledger content reintroduced (Part 6).
• SKILL.md touched → confirmed which of the three SKILL.md files (Part 3) was actually intended.
• CLAUDE.md touched → change is a short pointer bullet, not duplicated AGENTS.md prose.
• Appended a receipt that cites another doc's state → cited the CHECK COMMAND (or a dated past observation), never a present-tense snapshot ("still reads X") that rots when that doc moves (Part 8, 2026-08-12).
• Added/changed a status-bearing line (task ID + BLOCKED/READY/SHIPPED/…) → same-ID grep across the handoff/board/backlog docs shows ONE status per ID; no cross-doc contradiction (Part 8, 2026-08-12).
• Ran uv run pytest tests/unit/test_public_docs_governance.py tests/unit/test_enterprise_docs_governance.py tests/unit/test_stamp_release_assets.py -q and tests/unit/test_benchmark_scripts_part6.py -k tensor_grep_claude_skill -q green.
• Touched a mkdocs-nav'd file → mkdocs build --strict green.
• Ran python scripts/agent_readiness.py (the docs-claim-check probe) as a fast pre-push smoke test.
• Release-bearing docs change → ran uv run python scripts/validate_release_assets.py locally (the actual CI release-readiness gate, ci.yml:119 — broader than stamp_release_assets.py --check, see Part 2 Layer A).

Provenance and maintenance

2026-08-01 re-derivation. Re-checked every file:line citation in this skill against origin/main again. Two AGENTS.md citations had drifted by ~1250 lines each — far more than any prior pass in this file — because AGENTS.md itself grew substantially between the 2026-07-23 pass and this one: the "Keep it in sync whenever commands/flags change" sentence (Part 3, item 2) moved :538->:1789, and the "Maintain a per-slice evidence ledger" sentence (Part 7b) moved :575->:1829. Both are now cited via grep -n "<exact phrase>" AGENTS.md instead of a bare number. The "five test files reference this library" count (Part 3, item 3) had also gone stale again — two new test files landed since the 2026-07-29 count (test_skill_library_drift.py, test_unstaged_skill_edit_guard.py), bringing it to seven; this is the second time this exact line has gone stale, exactly as its own prior-pass hedge predicted. Deleted the version-pinned "Confirmed drifted by v1.95.0... 45+ releases" sentence in Part 8's SESSION_HANDOFF.md staleness bullet — re-deriving it this pass would have produced a THIRD dated snapshot (now v1.101.27, still Last updated: 2026-07-07) that would itself be stale by the next pass; kept the underlying finding (the gap is real and has stayed open across three re-verify passes) but replaced the specific "as of vX" figure with a standing check command. Everything else re-checked this pass — pyproject.toml:138/:142-154, the scripts/stamp_release_assets.py doc-path groups, ci.yml's release-readiness gate lines, test_public_docs_governance.py's cited ranges (:400-434, :457-476, :63-70, :255-269), the relocated skill test in test_benchmark_scripts_part6.py (grep the test name; the W4-d split retired the monolith), the mkdocs nav list (all 14 entries), and every citation into .claude/skills/tensor-grep/SKILL.md (:81, :87, :89, :100) — matched the live files exactly, byte-for-byte, with zero drift.

Volatile facts re-verified 2026-07-08, release v1.49.3; the docs/BACKLOG.md scope note and the per-skill-version-pins rationale added 2026-07-22, release v1.93.2 (governance mechanics themselves re-checked and found still accurate, no other change); all file:line citations in this skill re-verified against origin/main and the CRLF binary-preserve edit landmine (Part 4 step 6, Part 9 checklist) added 2026-07-23, release v1.95.0 (several citations had drifted 5-263 lines as AGENTS.md / pyproject.toml / ci.yml / test_public_docs_governance.py grew — corrected line numbers are reflected throughout this file; the mkdocs nav list in Part 2 Layer D was also missing two docs, enterprise_review_bundle_ci.md and multi_agent_context_plane.md, now added). Re-verify anything below before relying on it — a wrong runbook is worse than none.

Retention folds (2026-08-13)

• A97 — interrupted edit may have applied. After an interrupted/aborted edit result, READ the file back before retrying; never re-apply blind (a double-apply duplicated whole sections across AGENTS.md + SESSION_HANDOFF.md + the reconciliation doc during the 2026-08-12 retention campaign).
• A98 — a spot-check census of N docs is a claim about the ONE doc checked. Declaring 11 dirty docs "stale" from one file's header missed two never-committed sections; a census needs a mechanical per-file diff or an explicit per-file disposition (ERRATUM-2, docs/audits/2026-08-12-stale-branch-reconciliation.md).

If any command above no longer matches what's in this file, update the skill in the same change.

Retention (2026-08-15) — CEO packets + demand design

• Live CEO dumbed-down packet: docs/audits/2026-08-15-ceo-backlog-update.md. Campaign prose goes under ## Campaign note (YYYY-MM-DD), never under ## Canonical status index (A71).
• Design-on-main ≠ SHIPPED (A122). Update Triggers in-body when a design packet lands; do not flip DEMAND_GATED to SHIPPED on docs alone.
• Operator Fable waiver is recorded on the PR and in AGENTS.md A117 — do not invent clearance.