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