rename

name	rename
description	Rename a thesis file when company name changes. Atomically updates filename, all inbound wikilinks across the vault, graph adjacency entry header, sector note Active Theses entry, snapshot snapshot_of references, and _hot.md mentions. Use when company changes name (FB → META, Square → Block, etc.), or when correcting a typo in a thesis filename.
model	sonnet
effort	max
allowed-tools	Read Grep Glob Edit Write Bash(date * mv * cp * mkdir * find * grep *)

Rename a thesis file when the company name portion changes. TICKER does NOT change — only the segment after -. Example: Theses/META - Meta.md → Theses/META - Meta Platforms.md.

Without /rename, manual file renames break: (a) every inbound wikilink across the vault, (b) _graph.md's adjacency header, (c) sector note Active Theses entries, (d) snapshot_of: fields in _Archive/Snapshots/ (breaking /rollback), (e) _hot.md free-text mentions. /lint #3 catches broken wikilinks only after the fact without auto-fix.

Design rationale in .claude/skills/rename/RATIONALE.md (§N.M anchors).

Arguments

$ARGUMENTS = TICKER "New Company Name". Examples:

• /rename META "Meta Platforms"
• /rename SHOP "Shopify Inc"
• /rename SQ "Block" (after Square → Block rebrand)

Missing quoted name, no ticker, or extra args → ask user to clarify.

Step 0: Pre-flight

0.1: Acquire vault lock

ticker:TICKER scope per .claude/skills/_shared/preflight.md Procedure 1. Timeout 5 min. Capture token, verify (Procedure 1.5) every subsequent block, release in final reporting block.

0.2: Name sanitization (C6.1 — §7)

Run .claude/skills/_shared/preflight.md Procedure 3 against proposed new_name from $ARGUMENTS:

1. NFC-normalize input.
2. Trim leading/trailing whitespace. Empty → reject.
3. Length ≤ 100 bytes → reject if exceeded.
4. Character whitelist: [a-zA-Z0-9 \-_.,'&()]. Any other character → reject (specific flag for /, \, :, *, ?, ", <, >, |).
5. No leading dot → reject.
6. First whitespace-token not reserved (CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1-9, LPT1-9, case-insensitive) → reject.

On rejection, emit contract's standard rejection message + suggested clean variant. Do NOT proceed.

Step 1: Validate

1. Find current thesis via ticker-prefix glob: Theses/TICKER - *.md.

   • Zero matches: stop. ⚠️ No thesis found for [TICKER] in Theses/. Run /thesis [TICKER] to create.
   • Multiple: stop. ⚠️ Multiple Theses/ files match prefix "[TICKER]" — [list]. Resolve filename collision before re-running.
   • One match: extract [old_name] from Theses/TICKER - [old_name].md.

2. Compute new filename: Theses/TICKER - [new_name].md.

3. Validate new name:

   • No path-illegal characters (double-checked post-sanitization).
   • Must not match existing file at new path in Theses/. Collision → stop: ⚠️ Target file already exists: Theses/TICKER - [new_name].md. Choose a different name or remove the existing file first.
     • Exception — incomplete-rename repair (§2.2): if .rename_incomplete.TICKER exists AND its new_name: equals proposed new name, this is a repair re-run. The collision is expected (filename move from prior failed run already produced Theses/TICKER - [new_name].md). Skip abort, log ℹ️ Repair re-run detected — .rename_incomplete.TICKER exists for [TICKER] → [new_name]. Skipping mv (already done), proceeding to retry failed wikilink rewrites from Step 5., jump from Step 1 directly to Step 5 (skip Steps 2/3/3.5/4).
   • Archive collision check (§6): glob _Archive/TICKER - [new_name].md (non-recursive — ignore _Archive/Snapshots/). Match → warn, require explicit confirmation:

     ⚠️ Archive collision: _Archive/TICKER - [new_name].md already exists from a prior closure of this ticker. If you later close the renamed thesis, /status Step 7.5 would mv the new thesis to the same archive path and silently overwrite the old archive copy.
     
     Options:
       (a) Proceed anyway (accept future overwrite risk).
       (b) Rename the old archive first: mv "_Archive/TICKER - [new_name].md" "_Archive/TICKER - [new_name] (closed YYYY-MM-DD).md" — then re-run /rename.
       (c) Cancel.
     

     Wait for user selection. Do NOT proceed silently.

4. Check no-op: [old_name] == [new_name] (case-sensitive after trim) → stop. ⚠️ Old and new names match. Nothing to rename.

   • Exception — incomplete-rename repair: same bypass as Step 1.3 when .rename_incomplete.TICKER matches proposed new name.

Step 1.4.5: Incomplete-rename cross-name guard (§2.3)

If .rename_incomplete.TICKER exists, read its frontmatter and compare new_name: to proposed new name:

• marker.new_name == proposed_new_name → repair re-run (already handled by Steps 1.3/1.4 exceptions). Jump to Step 5.

• marker.new_name != proposed_new_name → STOP with explicit guard. Proceeding would orphan repair targets.

  ❌ In-flight rename conflict for TICKER:
    Existing marker: .rename_incomplete.TICKER
      prior new_name:     [marker.new_name]
      failed_files:       [N entries — these need OldName → marker.new_name rewrites]
      batch:              [marker.batch]
  
    Proposed rename:
      new new_name:       [proposed_new_name]
  
  These conflict. The marker's failed wikilink rewrites were collected for
  "[marker.new_name]" — proceeding with "[proposed_new_name]" would orphan those
  repair targets (their wikilinks would still reference an obsolete OldName,
  never NewName2, with no marker to track them).
  
  Resolve before re-running /rename. Options:
    (a) Finish the prior rename first:
        /rename TICKER "[marker.new_name]"
        (re-runs Step 5 wikilink rewrites for the still-failing files;
        when all succeed, marker auto-deletes)
    (b) Manually resolve the failed files listed in the marker, then
        delete the marker (rm ".rename_incomplete.TICKER"), then re-run
        this rename.
    (c) Accept loss of in-flight repair state. BEFORE running rm:
        (1) READ the marker's "Failed files" list. Print with explicit warning:
            "These N file(s) currently contain wikilinks to [[Theses/TICKER -
             [TRULY_ORIGINAL_NAME]]] (the name BEFORE the prior failed rename).
             After deleting the marker and re-running with the new name, those
             wikilinks will remain broken — Step 5's grep/replace targets the
             CURRENT filename ([marker.new_name]), not the truly-original name.
             The new rename's Step 5 will NOT fix these. /lint #3 will flag them
             eventually.
             Resolution before option (c): manually grep-replace
             [TRULY_ORIGINAL_NAME] → [proposed_new_name] in each listed file
             FIRST, then proceed."
        (2) Wait for explicit user confirmation of manual remediation OR explicit
            acceptance of broken-wikilink outcome.
        (3) Only then rm ".rename_incomplete.TICKER" and re-run /rename.
  

  Do NOT proceed silently. Wait for user action, then re-invoke.

5. Survey inbound references (read-only — for confirmation prompt). Issue the five probes below as a single parallel tool-call batch — all probes are read-only against vault state that is stable under the ticker lock acquired in Step 0.1. One message, five independent tool invocations, lands in one round-trip instead of five serial rounds:

   #	Probe	Tool	Purpose
   1	Grep vault	Grep (multi-path) across Theses/ Sectors/ Macro & Technology/ Research/ _Archive/ _Archive/Sectors/ _Archive/Research/ _Archive/Snapshots/, excluding .git/ and _Inbox/processed/	Count Step 5 wikilink pattern matches; partition results by category during parsing — live files (Theses/, Sectors/, Macro & Technology/, Research/), archived theses (_Archive/*.md root), archived sectors (_Archive/Sectors/), archived research (_Archive/Research/), snapshot bodies (_Archive/Snapshots/) — for the Step 2 survey breakdown
   2	Grep snapshot frontmatter	Grep for snapshot_of: references to old path in _Archive/Snapshots/	Frontmatter count (separate from body matches — handled by Step 8)
   3	Read _graph.md	Read	Locate ### TICKER - [old_name] in Adjacency Index; note presence
   4	Resolve sector note	Read candidate sector note (inferred from thesis sector: frontmatter read earlier in Step 1)	Scan Active Theses for old wikilink (sector-resolution contract applied in reasoning layer after read)
   5	Read _hot.md	Read	Count free-text mentions of TICKER - [old_name] (outside wikilink syntax)

   After the batch returns, parse results in the reasoning layer to build the survey summary for Step 2's confirmation prompt. Sector-resolution match_confidence is determined from the already-read sector candidate content; no additional tool call needed. If the sector-resolution fallback chain requires reading multiple candidate sector files, the LLM may issue a secondary parallel Read batch — still bounded.

Step 2: Confirm (Tier 3 — Mandatory)

Present proposed rename + survey. Wait for explicit user confirmation.

Proposed rename:
  Old: [[Theses/TICKER - old_name]]
  New: [[Theses/TICKER - new_name]]

Side effects (will be updated):
  - Inbound wikilinks in live files (Theses/, Sectors/, Macro & Technology/, Research/, _hot.md): [count] across [N] files — [list paths]
  - Inbound wikilinks in archived theses (_Archive/*.md root): [count] across [P] files — [list paths]
  - Inbound wikilinks in archived sectors (_Archive/Sectors/): [count] across [Q] files — [list paths]
  - Inbound wikilinks in archived research (_Archive/Research/): [count] across [R] files — [list paths]
  - Inbound wikilinks in snapshot bodies: [count] across [M] snapshots (excludes the pre-rename snapshot from Step 3)
  - Graph adjacency entry header: ### TICKER - [old_name] → ### TICKER - [new_name]
  - Sector note Active Theses entry: [present/absent — sector resolved as [sector_name] via [confidence]]
  - Snapshot snapshot_of fields: [count] snapshots in _Archive/Snapshots/
  - _hot.md free-text mentions: [count] occurrences

Pre-rename safety snapshot will be created.

Confirm? (y/n)

Do NOT proceed without explicit user confirmation.

Step 3: Pre-Rename Snapshot

mkdir -p _Archive/Snapshots
HHMMSS=$(date +%H%M%S)
cp "Theses/TICKER - [old_name].md" "_Archive/Snapshots/TICKER - [old_name] (pre-rename YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS).md"

Read snapshot, add frontmatter:

snapshot_of: "[[Theses/TICKER - [old_name]]]"
snapshot_date: YYYY-MM-DD
snapshot_trigger: rename
snapshot_batch: rename-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS
rename_target: "[[Theses/TICKER - [new_name]]]"

Batch ID uses HHMMSS (6 digits) to prevent same-minute collisions. rename_target: field tells /rollback that a cascade matching this batch is reversing a rename.

Step 3.5: Pre-flight Read/Write Check (§1)

Step 5's rewrite will touch every file in the inbound-reference set. Catch unreachable files BEFORE the mv — §1.1 explains why.

For each file in the inbound-reference set (live files in Theses/, Sectors/, Macro & Technology/, Research/, _hot.md, plus _Archive/Snapshots/*.md with body matches and snapshot_of: matches):

1. Read check: attempt to read file's first 10 bytes. Fail → record in unreachable_files: [list].
2. Write probe: [ -w "path" ]. Not writable → record in unreachable_files.

unreachable_files non-empty → STOP. Vault in original state (no mv, no edits).

❌ Pre-flight check failed: [N] file(s) cannot be edited. Rename aborted — vault unchanged.

Unreachable files:
  - [path 1] (reason: [permission denied | file locked | not found])
  - [path 2] (reason: ...)

Resolve access issue (close file in another editor, fix permissions, restore deleted file) and re-run /rename. Pre-rename snapshot retained: [[_Archive/Snapshots/...]].

Step 4: Move the File

mv "Theses/TICKER - [old_name].md" "Theses/TICKER - [new_name].md"

Verification:

ls "Theses/TICKER - [new_name].md"
ls "Theses/TICKER - [old_name].md" 2>/dev/null  # should produce no output

mv fails → stop. ❌ Rename failed at mv step — vault unchanged. Snapshot retained: [[_Archive/Snapshots/...]]. Investigate filesystem permissions. Wikilinks not modified; vault safe.

Step 5: Update Inbound Wikilinks (§3, §5)

Grep vault (excluding .git/ and _Inbox/processed/), Edit each file. _Archive/ (root archived theses), _Archive/Sectors/, _Archive/Research/, and _Archive/Snapshots/ are NOT excluded — every one of these locations holds notes that may carry [[Theses/TICKER - old_name]] wikilinks. Stale wikilinks in archived sector or research notes break Obsidian rendering on browse and break /rollback integrity if those archives are ever restored. Stale wikilinks in snapshot bodies break /rollback content fidelity (§3.1).

Seven wikilink patterns (§5 — includes 2 archive-specific forms beyond the 5-form canonical contract):

Pattern	Replacement
[[Theses/TICKER - old_name]]	[[Theses/TICKER - new_name]]
[[Theses/TICKER - old_name|alias]]	[[Theses/TICKER - new_name|alias]] (preserve alias)
[[Theses/TICKER - old_name#section]]	[[Theses/TICKER - new_name#section]] (preserve anchor)
[[Theses/TICKER - old_name.md]]	[[Theses/TICKER - new_name.md]]
[[TICKER - old_name]]	[[TICKER - new_name]] (folder-less, less common)
[[TICKER - old_name|alias]]	[[TICKER - new_name|alias]]
[[TICKER - old_name#section]]	[[TICKER - new_name#section]]

Edit-per-file approach: per file with matches, single Edit with replace_all: true per pattern. Atomic; bounded failure blast-radius.

Self-references in renamed thesis: covered by same rewrite (e.g., template scaffolding wikilinks back to the thesis itself).

Snapshot body rewrite exception (§3.3): skip the just-created pre-rename snapshot from Step 3. Identify via snapshot_trigger: rename frontmatter + matching HHMMSS. That snapshot IS the pre-rename state — must stay untouched so /rollback recovers original content. All OTHER snapshots are eligible for body wikilink rewrites.

Forward-drift trade-off (§3.2): rewriting snapshot bodies means snapshots no longer faithfully reproduce vault state at snapshot time. Alternative (not rewriting) re-injects broken wikilinks on rollback. Forward-drift is lesser evil — a snapshot that can't cleanly restore is a dead snapshot.

Track: list of files modified (split by live vs snapshot for Step 11 report), total wikilink count, failed_edits: [list] for any Edit that errors.

Failure handling: Edit fails for a file → do NOT abort loop. Continue with remaining. Append failed path + reason to failed_edits. End of Step 5, if failed_edits non-empty → write incomplete-rename marker (Step 5.5).

Cross-step failure accumulator initialization (H3 fix): at the start of Step 5, also initialize an empty all_failed_ops: [] list in working memory. Steps 6 through 10 append to this list on any Edit / validation / Bash failure. Step 10.5 consolidates into the marker. Section ## Failed operations (Steps 6-10) of the marker captures everything beyond Step 5's wikilink failures.

Step 5.5: Write .rename_incomplete.TICKER Marker (if any Edit failed)

If failed_edits empty → skip Step 5.5 write; Step 10.5 will still write the marker later if all_failed_ops accumulates.

If non-empty → write .rename_incomplete.TICKER at vault root. Per-ticker filename (§2.1 — multiple in-flight repairs coexist). The marker created here includes an empty ## Failed operations (Steps 6-10) section that Step 10.5 populates on demand.

---
type: rename-incomplete
ticker: TICKER
old_name: [old_name]
new_name: [new_name]
batch: rename-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS
date: YYYY-MM-DD
---

# Incomplete Rename

`/rename TICKER "[new_name]"` completed the move but left [N] file(s) with
stale wikilinks and/or [M] follow-up operation(s) in a partial state. These
must be repaired before downstream ticker-scoped skills operate on TICKER.

## Failed files (Step 5 — wikilink rewrites)

*(empty if all Step 5 wikilink rewrites succeeded; populated by Step 5.5)*

- `Theses/SOMEOTHER - Foo.md` — reason: [Edit error: file lock | permission denied | concurrent modification]
- `_Archive/Snapshots/X.md` — reason: ...

## Failed operations (Steps 6–10)

*(empty if Steps 6-10 succeeded; populated or updated by Step 10.5 — H3 fix)*

- Step 6 (graph adjacency header): _graph.md — adjacency entry `### [TICKER] - [old_name]` not found (graph stale)
  - Recovery: run `/graph` (full rebuild) after the marker is cleared — re-derives header from current filename
- Step 7 (sector note Active Theses): Sectors/[Sector Name].md — [specific failure — e.g., sector-resolution substring confidence declined, Edit lock]
  - Recovery: manually replace `[[Theses/[TICKER] - [old_name]]]` → `[[Theses/[TICKER] - [new_name]]]` in the sector's Active Theses section, then remove this bullet from the marker
- Step 8 (snapshot `snapshot_of:` field): _Archive/Snapshots/[Snapshot Name].md — Edit failed
  - Recovery: manually edit the snapshot's frontmatter `snapshot_of: "[[Theses/[TICKER] - [old_name]]]"` → `"[[Theses/[TICKER] - [new_name]]]"`
- Step 8.5 (archive registry row rewrite): .archive_ticker_registry.md — [awk/mv error]
  - Recovery: manually replace `[TICKER] - [old_name]` → `[TICKER] - [new_name]` in the `archived_filename` column (second pipe-delimited field) of every row whose first field is `[TICKER]`
- Step 9 (_hot.md free-text mentions): _hot.md — Edit failed ([N] mentions unresolved)
  - Recovery: manually replace `[TICKER] - [old_name]` → `[TICKER] - [new_name]` in free-text mentions (Active Research Thread narrative, Recent Conviction Changes bullets, etc.)
- Step 10 (thesis Log append): Theses/[TICKER] - [new_name].md — Edit failed
  - Recovery: manually append the `Renamed file:` Log entry per the format in `rename/SKILL.md` Step 10

## Recovery

Re-run:

  /rename TICKER "[new_name]"

/rename's repair detection (Step 1.3/1.4 exceptions) skips the filename move
(already done) and retries:
  - All "Failed files" wikilink rewrites (Step 5)
  - All "Failed operations" bullets above (Steps 6–10 — H3 fix)

Successful retries remove their entries from the respective list. When both
lists are empty, this marker is auto-deleted.

/lint #37 surfaces this marker until every listed repair succeeds.

DO NOT delete this marker manually unless you have verified every failed file
and operation has been repaired externally.

Append-only on re-runs (§2.4): if .rename_incomplete.TICKER already exists AND new_name: matches current run, READ first. Merge new failed_edits into existing "Failed files" list (dedupe by file path) and merge new all_failed_ops into existing "Failed operations" list (dedupe by (step, target) tuple), update batch: to latest run's batch, rewrite. Don't overwrite — accumulating across repair attempts surfaces persistent problem files and ops.

Cross-new_name conflict: handled by Step 1.4.5 guard. Never runs here.

Step 6: Update Graph Adjacency Entry Header (§4)

Edit _graph.md:

• Find: ### TICKER - [old_name] in ## Thesis Adjacency Index section.
• Replace with: ### TICKER - [new_name].

Missing heading (graph stale) → warn + append to all_failed_ops (H3 fix):

- Step 6 (graph adjacency header): _graph.md — adjacency entry for [TICKER] not found (graph stale)
  - Recovery: run /graph (full) after marker clears — rebuilds adjacency index from current filenames

Emit user-visible warning: ⚠️ Graph adjacency entry for [TICKER] not found — graph is stale. Run /graph after rename to rebuild. Continue skill — do not fail.

Scan ## Cross-Thesis Clusters table for cells containing old name format. Replace. (Most cluster references use [[Theses/...]] wikilinks — Step 5 handled. This catches free-text.)

Do NOT update _graph.md frontmatter date: or last_graph_write: (§4.1). Watermark ownership is /graph's. Advancing would silently mask pending changes from next /graph last. Next /graph last correctly re-extracts this thesis (mtime advanced by rename).

Graph validation: re-read _graph.md. Verify:

1. YAML frontmatter parses.
2. New heading ### TICKER - [new_name] exists in adjacency index.
3. Old heading ### TICKER - [old_name] does not exist anywhere.
4. Adjacency entry count matches theses: frontmatter (±2).

Any fail: emit ⚠️ Graph may be corrupted by rename — [specific failure]. Run /graph to rebuild. AND append to all_failed_ops:

- Step 6 (graph validation): _graph.md — [specific failure: YAML parse | duplicate heading | old heading remains | count mismatch]
  - Recovery: run /graph (full rebuild) to regenerate graph from current filenames

Step 7: Update Sector Note

If thesis is status: active or status: monitoring, sector note (resolved Step 1.5) likely contains thesis in Active Theses.

Read sector note. If contains [[Theses/TICKER - old_name]] or [[TICKER - old_name]]:

• Already rewritten in Step 5 if grep covered sector note. Verify via re-read.
• If missed (unusual format), apply targeted Edit here.

Skip if status: draft (drafts aren't in sector notes per /thesis Step 5).

Failure handling (H3 fix): if sector-resolution returned substring confidence and user declined, OR if the targeted Edit here fails, append to all_failed_ops:

- Step 7 (sector note Active Theses): Sectors/[Sector Name].md — [substring-confidence declined | Edit error: specific reason]
  - Recovery: manually replace [[Theses/[TICKER] - [old_name]]] → [[Theses/[TICKER] - [new_name]]] in the sector's Active Theses section

If sector-resolution returned none (no matching sector note), this is NOT a failure — log ℹ️ Sector note skipped — no matching Sectors/*.md for frontmatter [sector]. Skipping Step 7. and continue; the thesis's sector frontmatter is the authoritative signal and /thesis Signal C handles orphans.

Step 8: Update Snapshot snapshot_of: Fields (§3.4)

For each _Archive/Snapshots/*.md with snapshot_of: "[[Theses/TICKER - [old_name]]]":

1. Read frontmatter.
2. Targeted Edit: snapshot_of: "[[Theses/TICKER - [old_name]]]" → snapshot_of: "[[Theses/TICKER - [new_name]]]".

Preserves /rollback functionality. Without this, /rollback would read snapshot_of:, look for old path, fail to find original (or recreate at old path causing filename split).

Exception (§3.3): skip snapshots whose snapshot_trigger: rename AND rename_target: matches the new path — these are this skill's own snapshots (Step 3); must retain old snapshot_of: reference for accurate rollback semantics.

Failure handling (H3 fix): for each snapshot whose Edit fails, append to all_failed_ops (one entry per failed snapshot):

- Step 8 (snapshot `snapshot_of:` field): _Archive/Snapshots/[Snapshot Name].md — [Edit error: specific reason]
  - Recovery: manually edit the snapshot's frontmatter `snapshot_of: "[[Theses/[TICKER] - [old_name]]]"` → `"[[Theses/[TICKER] - [new_name]]]"`

Do NOT abort the loop — continue with remaining snapshots.

Step 8.5: Update .archive_ticker_registry.md Historical Rows (H4 fix)

.archive_ticker_registry.md carries TICKER|archived_filename|YYYY-MM-DD|conviction|rationale rows. If TICKER was previously closed (under [old_name]), then resurrected via /rollback (which ideally cleared the row via its Step 6.2a), then renamed live — or if resurrection happened via manual mv that bypassed /rollback — the registry may still carry rows referencing the pre-rename archived_filename.

Rewrite the archived_filename column for every row matching this TICKER so future /thesis TICKER Signal C lookups resolve consistently:

if [ -f .archive_ticker_registry.md ]; then
  # Replace the second pipe-delimited field for rows whose first field == TICKER.
  # Preserve rows for OTHER tickers untouched. Preserve header/comment lines.
  awk -F'|' -v OFS='|' -v t="$TICKER" -v oldn="$OLD_NAME" -v newn="$NEW_NAME" '
    NR==1 || /^#/ || NF<2 { print; next }
    $1==t && $2==t " - " oldn ".md" { $2 = t " - " newn ".md"; print; next }
    $1==t && $2==t " - " oldn      { $2 = t " - " newn;      print; next }
    { print }
  ' .archive_ticker_registry.md > .archive_ticker_registry.md.tmp
  mv .archive_ticker_registry.md.tmp .archive_ticker_registry.md
fi

Track: count of rewritten rows (0 if no prior closures on record, typically 0–1 in practice). Report in Step 11.

Failure handling (H3 — see §Step 10.5): if awk or mv fails, append to all_failed_ops accumulator with recovery instructions:

- Step 8.5 (archive registry row rewrite): .archive_ticker_registry.md — [awk/mv error]
  - Recovery: manually replace "[TICKER] - [old_name]" → "[TICKER] - [new_name]" in the `archived_filename` column of every row whose first field is "[TICKER]"

No-op on missing file: if .archive_ticker_registry.md doesn't exist (clean vault or all prior rows already cleared), skip silently — no error.

Why this is safe against double-rewrite: the awk match is exact ($2==t " - " oldn — not substring). A row already rewritten to [new_name] doesn't match, so re-running /rename with the same args is idempotent.

Step 9: Update _hot.md Free-Text Mentions

Most _hot.md references use [[Theses/...]] — handled by Step 5. This step catches free-text:

• Recent Conviction Changes: bullets may say **TICKER - old_name**: ... → replace.
• Active Research Thread: narrative prose mentions.
• Latest Sync / Sync Archive: descriptions.

Use Edit with replace_all: true for literal TICKER - [old_name] (not in wikilink syntax). Word-boundary care — don't match substring inside longer words.

Word cap: after edits, check _hot.md total. Over 4,000 (soft cap per _shared/hot-md-contract.md; unlikely from rename) → prune ## Sync Archive oldest first. Abort if over 5,000 hard cap.

Failure handling (H3 fix): if the free-text Edit fails (rare — _hot.md rarely has file locks), append to all_failed_ops:

- Step 9 (_hot.md free-text mentions): _hot.md — [Edit error: specific reason] ([N] mentions unresolved)
  - Recovery: manually replace `[TICKER] - [old_name]` → `[TICKER] - [new_name]` in `_hot.md` (outside wikilink syntax — Active Research Thread narrative, Recent Conviction Changes bullets)

Step 10: Append Log Entry to Renamed Thesis

Append to renamed thesis's ## Log:

### YYYY-MM-DD
- Renamed file: "TICKER - [old_name]" → "TICKER - [new_name]". [N] inbound wikilinks rewritten across [M] files. Snapshot: [[_Archive/Snapshots/TICKER - [old_name] (pre-rename YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS)]]

Prefix "Renamed file:" — /sync Step 2.5 skill-origin classification + Step 3e drift exclusion (registry §15).

Failure handling (H3 fix): if the Log append Edit fails, append to all_failed_ops:

- Step 10 (thesis Log append): Theses/[TICKER] - [new_name].md — [Edit error: specific reason]
  - Recovery: manually append the "Renamed file:" Log entry per the format above; required for audit trail and /sync Step 2.5 classification

Step 10.5: Consolidate failure accumulator into marker (H3 fix)

Purpose: Steps 5.5 (failed_edits) and 10.5 (all_failed_ops) jointly own the .rename_incomplete.TICKER marker. Step 5.5 writes the marker on Step 5 wikilink failures. This step writes or updates the marker to include any Step 6–10 operation failures accumulated in all_failed_ops.

Skip condition: if failed_edits empty AND all_failed_ops empty → skip. No marker action.

Otherwise:

1. Determine marker state (new or existing from Step 5.5 / prior run):
   • Marker does NOT exist → write from scratch using the template in Step 5.5, populating both ## Failed files (Step 5 — wikilink rewrites) and ## Failed operations (Steps 6–10) sections from the two accumulators.
   • Marker EXISTS (Step 5.5 wrote it this run, or prior-run marker being repaired):
     • Read marker, parse existing ## Failed files and ## Failed operations sections.
     • Failed files merge: current failed_edits replaces existing list entries whose file path matches (repair retries remove resolved entries; new failures add). Dedupe by file path.
     • Failed operations merge: current all_failed_ops replaces existing bullets whose (step, target) tuple matches (repair retries remove resolved entries; new failures add). Dedupe by (step, target).
     • Update batch: frontmatter to current run's batch ID (tracks latest repair attempt).
     • Rewrite marker with merged sections.
2. Auto-cleanup after merge: if both merged lists are EMPTY (every prior failure resolved, no new failures accumulated), delete the marker:

   rm -f ".rename_incomplete.TICKER"
   

   The auto-cleanup contract (§Marker auto-cleanup contract below) is now owned by Step 10.5, not scattered across Step 5.5. Marker persists until every file and every op succeeds.

Repair re-run semantics: when /rename TICKER "[same new_name]" runs with an existing marker, Step 1.3/1.4 exceptions skip the mv. Steps 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 10 all re-run and re-accumulate their failures. Step 10.5 merges: resolved entries drop, persistent entries remain, new failures add. Monotonic shrink until empty, then marker disappears.

Step 11: Report

• Renamed: Theses/TICKER - [old_name].md → Theses/TICKER - [new_name].md | Repair re-run — mv skipped (already done)
• Pre-flight check: passed ([N] files reachable) | aborted ([M] unreachable — no changes made)
• Wikilinks rewritten (live files): [count] across [live file paths in Theses/, Sectors/, Macro & Technology/, Research/, _hot.md]
• Wikilinks rewritten (snapshot bodies): [count] across [_Archive/Snapshots/*.md paths]. Excludes pre-rename snapshot from Step 3.
• Wikilink update failures (Step 5, if any): [list files]
• Follow-up operation failures (Steps 6–10 — H3 fix, if any): [list (step, target, reason)]
• .rename_incomplete.TICKER marker: created (with Failed files and/or Failed operations sections) | updated (merged new failures) | cleared (all prior failures resolved — file deleted) | n/a
• Repair status (if marker processed this run):
  • Failed files resolved this run: [paths retried successfully and removed from marker]
  • Failed files still failing: [paths still in marker]
  • Failed operations resolved this run: [(step, target) tuples retried successfully and removed from marker]
  • Failed operations still failing: [(step, target) tuples still in marker]
  • Marker state: cleared (both sections empty — file deleted) | retained ([N] files + [M] ops still need repair)
• Graph adjacency entry: header updated | ⚠️ stale graph — entry not found, run /graph (recorded in marker via Step 6)
• Sector note: updated as [sector_name] (resolution [exact|normalized|substring]) | skipped (draft status) | skipped (no matching sector note) | ⚠️ failed — see marker Step 7 entry
• Snapshots updated: [count] snapshot_of: fields adjusted (of [total]); [failed_count] recorded in marker Step 8
• Archive registry rows rewritten (Step 8.5 — H4 fix): [count] rows in .archive_ticker_registry.md updated | 0 (no prior closures on record) | ⚠️ failed — see marker Step 8.5 entry
• _hot.md: [count] free-text mentions replaced | ⚠️ failed — see marker Step 9 entry
• Pre-rename snapshot: [[_Archive/Snapshots/TICKER - [old_name] (pre-rename YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS)]]
• Batch ID: rename-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS

To undo this rename: run /rename TICKER "[old_name]" (symmetric inverse). Pre-rename snapshot also available via /rollback TICKER → select (pre-rename) snapshot, but rollback alone restores content only; filename revert + inbound wikilink revert require running this skill in reverse.

Marker auto-cleanup contract (H3 refactor — now owned by Step 10.5)

The .rename_incomplete.TICKER marker is jointly owned by two write points:

1. Step 5.5: writes marker if failed_edits (Step 5 wikilink failures) is non-empty. Includes an empty ## Failed operations (Steps 6–10) section that Step 10.5 may populate.
2. Step 10.5 (H3 fix): consolidates all_failed_ops from Steps 6–10 into the marker. Creates the marker if Step 5.5 didn't (Step 5 succeeded but a later step failed). Deletes the marker if both sections are empty after merge.

Both write points dedupe across re-runs: Step 5.5 dedupes by file path, Step 10.5 dedupes by (step, target) tuple. Monotonic shrink across repair re-runs until both lists empty, then marker auto-deletes.

/lint #37 surfaces any marker with non-empty ## Failed files OR non-empty ## Failed operations.

Edge cases (§8 — all out-of-scope)

• Rename across ticker change (FB - Facebook → META - Meta): TICKER must be stable. Manual workaround: /thesis META + copy content + /status FB active→closed.
• Renaming archived theses: /rename operates on active/monitoring/draft in Theses/. Manual mv + registry edit for archived.
• Old name with regex special chars: glob/grep assume literal string matching. Unusual symbols (parens, braces, $) prompt explicit escaping confirmation.