Implicitly invoke when implementation, debugging, review, or validation encounters a witnessed failed/no-effect attempt, benchmark or test regression, revert, repeated same-cluster retry, abandoned strategy, or asks what has already been tried. Project the route gate before repeating a route; transact only inspectable decision-shaping negative evidence through the passive Negative Evidence definition; reopen only after proved applicability changes; selectively admit complete projections to Codex memory.
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Implicitly invoke when implementation, debugging, review, or validation encounters a witnessed failed/no-effect attempt, benchmark or test regression, revert, repeated same-cluster retry, abandoned strategy, or asks what has already been tried. Project the route gate before repeating a route; transact only inspectable decision-shaping negative evidence through the passive Negative Evidence definition; reopen only after proved applicability changes; selectively admit complete projections to Codex memory.
metadata
{"version":"8.1.0"}
Negative Ledger
Mission
Prune semantic search space without turning stale failures into permanent dogma.
The structural boundary is the passive definition:
The selected definition exclusively addresses the canonical store at
.ledger/negative-ledger/events.jsonl, and every operation or projection is
explicit.
$negative-ledger owns the meaning and lifecycle of current negative-evidence
state. Ledger structurally replays the declared protocol and projects that
state without acquiring its semantic authority. memory-note transports an
immutable projection to Phase 2. Phase 2 decides whether to compile a route
constraint, routing trigger, or reusable memory skill.
Never use memory notes as the operational route gate. For accepted admission, load $memory-source-notes before invoking run_memory_note_tool.
Trigger Cues
$negative-ledger;
failed attempts, no-effect attempts, reverts, benchmark or test regressions;
repeated semantic routes or same-cluster retries;
strategy pivots that abandon a concrete route future work might repeat;
"what have we already tried?";
"do not retry this route";
route reopening after artifact-state changes;
fixed-point or review-governor negative evidence;
memory admission of an active/stale/reopened/superseded NEG-* projection.
Activation Policy
Activation is broad; capture is narrow.
Invoke this skill implicitly when current work may change route selection because a concrete route failed, had no effect, regressed a signal, was reverted, was rejected by current proof/review evidence, or is about to be retried under the same cluster. Do not wait for the user to literally name $negative-ledger.
Before selecting a route that resembles a prior failure, project the canonical
route-gate. A recalled $learnings row may trigger this check, but it cannot
block directly.
After a material strategy pivot, regression-confirmed revert, or closeout that leaves a failed route likely to recur, evaluate capture. A transient red test, syntax error, first incomplete implementation, or discarded local typo is no-op unless it exposes a durable failed hypothesis that changes future routing.
Retain exactly one internal disposition for each material activation:
mapped current ledger checked; no write required
captured witnessed negative evidence appended
transitioned existing NEG record changed lifecycle state
no-op activation evaluated; evidence was not durable or route-shaping
blocked ledger unavailable/invalid or active exact/applicable exclusion matched
A material closeout with no failed-route semantics does not activate this
source. Do not query, doctor, or capture merely to manufacture a no-op receipt.
Canonical Store and CLI
Before the first Ledger command in this workflow, load $ledger and complete
$ledger ensure once. Require Ledger major version 1 and
ledger-artifact-abi/v1:
ledger project --projection memory-note is the authoritative source payload
for memory admission. Never reconstruct it from a summary projection.
Bind a pre-cutover current-format store exactly once before ordinary reads or
writes. This validates every existing row and records the selected definition
digest without rewriting the event log:
capture_candidate
need-evidence
unknown
active
accepted_risk
stale
reopened
superseded
Only active can block, and only when witness evidence exists, exclusion scope is valid, applicability still matches the current artifact state, and the route/cluster match is exact enough for the declared scope.
Interpret exit codes: 0 no active exact exclusion, 2 active exact/applicable exclusion, 3 ledger unavailable or invalid.
Pass the identity selected by the record's declared exact, route, route-family, cluster, authority-model, distinction-pattern, or proof-pattern scope.
Treat fuzzy candidates as search hints only.
Re-check current applicability before route suppression.
Resolve symbolic Git refs before the call, pass the immutable identity as artifact, and retain the human-readable source as artifact_state_label in capture data.
Capture Workflow
Capture only when a failure changes future routing: witnessed no-effect attempt, local/global regression, unsound route, complexity disproportionate to value, revert with concrete rationale, repeated proof-wound pattern, or a strategy pivot whose abandoned route would otherwise be retried.
Captures without adequate witness evidence must become need-evidence or capture_candidate, never active exclusions.
capture.json contains one record object, including its requested initial
status. An active capture requires an explicit supported scope and its
identity, an immutable artifact identity, structured source references,
applicability conditions, a narrow exclusion rule, and identified reopening
criteria. Select need-evidence before transaction when those structural
requirements are incomplete; never assert active in prose after Ledger
rejects it.
Every transition to active, including promotion, reactivation, and
reopening, requires the transition proof plus the complete replacement record,
whose status is active. Use the dedicated operation so the event atomically
replaces the reducer's retained record:
Use append-only status events. Every transition requires a JSON proof packet with a reason and structured source references:
{"neg_id":"NEG-000001","from":"active","to":"accepted_risk","reason":"The prior evidence was accepted as a bounded risk.","criterion_ids":[],"criterion_changes":[],"source_refs":[{"kind":"review","ref":"PR 123 acceptance"}]}
Ledger rejects illegal edges, promotion without a complete active record,
unknown criteria, and unchanged before/after claims before append.
Never rewrite old events.
Memory Admission Gate
A negative-ledger source note is allowed only when:
a canonical NEG-* record exists;
definition-bound ledger doctor passes;
ledger project --projection memory-note --param id=NEG-ID returns a complete current projection;
projection includes witness, applicability, narrow exclusion, and reopening criteria when status is active;
the record is likely to matter in future related work;
the note embeds the full bounded projection, stable repository identity, event-chain fingerprint, projection fingerprint, and any prior projection link.
Do not admit prose-only negative-evidence claims, unpromoted learnings hits,
partial current-records output, every need-evidence candidate, or stale
history with no future routing value.
Admission Workflow
After the source owner accepts admission for a capture or lifecycle transition,
load $memory-source-notes and use the validated Negative Ledger adapter:
The adapter runs the definition-bound doctor, obtains the source-owned
projection, rejects incomplete projections, preserves the deterministic
projection payload bytes, and invokes memory-note idempotently. It transports
an accepted source decision; it does not decide recurrence, utility, or route
applicability.
If the definition projection is unavailable, preserve the canonical Ledger transaction and report:
The learning source is historical candidate evidence, not the route-exclusion
store. Legacy .ledger/learnings/learnings.jsonl and .learnings.jsonl are
read only during migration. Verify current applicability and promote
qualifying evidence through the definition's capture transaction.
Guardrails
Do not record vibes as negative evidence.
Do not convert one failed implementation into a broad strategy ban.
Do not block from fuzzy matches.
Do not use stale benchmarks without current applicability reasoning.
Do not treat absence of a ledger entry as novelty proof.
Do not bypass Ledger or hand-edit persistent-adapter records.
Do not let memory notes outrank the repo-local ledger.
Do not write compiled memory directly.
Do not publish incomplete projections to Phase 2.
Do not capture every transient test failure merely because implicit activation occurred.
Do not bypass failed route-gate, memory-note, or doctor projections; those boundaries must fail closed.
Do not invoke a sibling source merely because Negative Ledger activated.
