cwoodruff/history-hygiene

Context

History files (.md files tracking decisions, spawns, outcomes) are read cold by future agents. Stale or incorrect entries poison decision-making downstream. The Kobayashi incident proved this: history said "Brady decided v0.6.0" when Brady had reversed that to v0.8.17. Future spawns read the wrong truth and repeated the mistake.

Patterns

• Record the final outcome, not the initial request.
• Wait for confirmation before writing to history — don't log intermediate states.
• If a decision reverses, update the entry immediately — don't leave stale data.
• One read = one truth. A future agent should never need to cross-reference other files to understand what actually happened.

Examples

✓ Correct:

• "Migration target: v0.8.17 (initially discussed as v0.6.0, corrected by Brady)"
• "Reverted to Node 18 per Brady's explicit request on 2024-01-15"

✗ Incorrect:

• "Brady directed v0.6.0" (when later reversed)
• Recording what was requested instead of what actually happened
• Logging entries before outcome is confirmed

Anti-Patterns

• Writing intermediate or "for now" states to disk
• Attributing decisions without confirming final direction
• Treating history like a draft — history is the source of truth
• Assuming readers will cross-reference or verify; they won't