grounded-vault

Use when maintaining a durable Markdown knowledge store that agents compile from sources, when every number or quote in a wiki page must trace back to an immutable source, or when compiled pages need cheap drift detection against the code they describe. Teaches the raw/wiki/archive layout, per-claim provenance links, and git fingerprints for zero-token staleness checks.

Grounded Vault

A grounded vault is a three-layer Markdown store in which every compiled claim can be traced back to an immutable source and every page can be checked for staleness with one git diff. It needs a git repository and nothing else. The convention comes from the llm-wiki-loop project, which is a reference implementation rather than a dependency; this skill teaches the pattern so it works with plain files and whatever agent is in the session.

When to Use

An agent compiles notes, papers, transcripts, logs, or code into wiki pages that later sessions rely on.
A page cites numbers, dates, or quotes, and a reader must be able to verify each one against its source.
Pages describe code, and rereading the codebase every session to check whether they still hold is too expensive.
Knowledge must be corrected without losing history: superseded pages are archived, never deleted.

Session state, task queues, and conversation continuity are a different problem; use the context-management or conductor plugins for those. This skill is about provenance and drift on a durable knowledge store.

The three layers

Layer	Contents	Who writes it	Rule
`raw/`	source material: notes, papers, transcripts, logs, exported data	people and ingestion only	immutable once added; agents never edit a raw file
`wiki/`	compiled pages built from `raw/` and from code	agents and people	every number, date, and quote links to its source
`archive/`	pages that drifted or were superseded	agents, during garbage collection	moved, never deleted; the header says why

Two files sit at the vault root. index.md is the map of every current page. log.md is an append-only record of what changed and why. Both change in the same commit as the page they describe.

Page header contract

Every wiki/ page opens with a header block:

# Authentication architecture

> Raw: [raw/notes/auth-v1.md](../raw/notes/auth-v1.md), [raw/adr/0007-jwt.md](../raw/adr/0007-jwt.md)
> Fingerprint: git:5b237fa
> Monitored: src/auth/jwt.ts, src/auth/session.ts, package.json
> Status: Current

Raw: lists every source the page was compiled from. Inline claims link to their specific source as well: Tokens expire after 15 minutes ([raw/adr/0007-jwt.md](../raw/adr/0007-jwt.md)).
Fingerprint: is the short commit hash the page was compiled against.
Monitored: lists the code paths the page describes. A change to any of them after the fingerprint means the page may be stale.
Status: is Current, Outdated (monitored code moved on), or Disputed (a newer source contradicts the page).

Grounding rule

A compiled page states only what a source supports, and every number, date, or quotation appears verbatim in the linked source. A synthesis says it is one and links its inputs. A gap in the sources is written into the page as a gap rather than filled by guessing.

Check it mechanically: for each linked claim, search the linked raw file for the exact figure or quoted phrase. A miss is a grounding error and blocks the commit. The script in references/details.md does this for a whole vault.

Drift detection

Compare the fingerprint with the current tree instead of rereading monitored code:

git diff --stat 5b237fa..HEAD -- src/auth/jwt.ts src/auth/session.ts package.json

Empty output means the page still describes the code it was compiled against. Any output means recompile: reread only the changed files, update the page, and stamp the new fingerprint. The check runs in milliseconds and spends no model tokens.

Workflow

Ingest. Put new material in raw/ under a dated or sourced filename. Never rewrite an existing raw file; add a new one beside it.
Compile. Write or update the wiki/ page with the header block, a source link on every claim, and the fingerprint of the commit the code was read at.
Check. Run the grounding check and the drift check before committing. Fix misses at the source; do not weaken a claim to make the check pass.
Garbage collect. When drift or a contradicting source appears and the page is not recompiled now, change its status, move it to archive/, and record the reason:
```
> Status: Outdated
> Reason: src/auth/session.ts changed after git:5b237fa; see log.md 2026-09-01
```
Update the map. Every add, move, or archive updates index.md and appends one line to log.md in the same commit.

Commit gate

Run both checks from a pre-commit hook or a CI step so a page cannot land with an unverifiable number or a stale fingerprint:

python3 scripts/check_vault.py --strict   # exits 1 on any grounding miss or drifted page

Going deeper

references/details.md covers: the vault check script, batching the drift check across pages, templates for index.md and log.md, renamed or deleted monitored files, sources that are binary or live at external URLs, and the reference implementation.