How To Reduce Sprawl · Clief Notes

How To Reduce Sprawl

Here are a few rules I'm building into my deep-research workspace today.

Convert long repeated prose into named principles.Example: “Template Object Authority Rule” lives in synthesis-rules. Other files say “Apply Template Object Authority Rule,” not restate it.

Create a governance-index.md. One map of all canonical rules and their homes. This prevents future agents from adding duplicate policy.

Make stage docs procedural only. Stages should say “do this, check that, output these.” They should not explain the philosophy in full.

Move historical explanations out of active state. Historical detail belongs in changelog/validation report.

Use ledgers instead of placeholder notes. Source gaps, related runs, follow-up actions, and draft approvals should stay in ledgers until there is enough substance for a note.

Keep packages reader-first. The package index should point to:

action hub;
source/gap/routing checks;
follow-up ledger

It should not become the whole package in miniature.

Add an “artifact creation threshold.” Create a note only when it has a distinct canonical job. Otherwise add a row to an existing matrix, ledger, manual section, or follow-up ledger.

What are you building today?

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