vault-sync

Vault Sync Skill

TEMPLATE: This skill uses {{PLACEHOLDER}} tokens. Replace with your project values before use.

Purpose

Keep an OKF knowledge vault honest as the code evolves. The vault is a map of the system; this skill detects drift between map and territory, regenerates only the affected concepts, and records the sync.

When This Skill Applies

Invoke this skill when:

• A significant change merged — schema, public interfaces, CI workflows, agent or skill config
• A staleness review is due (the stale-concepts Base is the queue)
• The user asks to sync, refresh, or update the knowledge vault
• A concept is suspected of being wrong

Key Files

Path	Role
<vault>/_meta/vault-config.json	Machine-readable constitution — types, tags, frontmatter contract
<vault>/_meta/CONVENTIONS.md	The human-readable rules
<vault>/_meta/manifest.json	ID registry, reverse index, and baseline_sha drift watermark
<vault>/_meta/templates/	Per-type skeletons
<vault>/log.md	Dated changelog
knowledge-vault/scripts/validate-vault.mjs	The gate

Procedure

1. Detect drift

Read the baseline and diff it to HEAD across the watch-list — the source paths your concepts claim to describe. Configure this list for your project; the example below is illustrative.

BASELINE=$(node -e "console.log(require('./<vault>/_meta/manifest.json').baseline_sha)")
git diff --name-only "$BASELINE"..HEAD -- \
  'src/**' 'lib/**' 'config/**' '.github/workflows/**' 'docs/**'

A concept is stale if and only if a changed path matches its resource or an entry in its sources. Check the manifest first (it is the reverse index); grep concept frontmatter as backup.

This is file-level truth. Do not substitute a time-based heuristic — "older than N days" flags everything and teaches people to ignore the flag.

2. Detect inventory changes

Re-enumerate your source globs and diff against the manifest.

• New source, no concept → create one. Add the manifest entry first, so the ID exists in the registry before anything links to it.
• Deleted source → set the concept's status: deprecated. Do not delete the file. Inbound links must be cleaned first, in a follow-up change; the backlinks pane or the validator's orphan report shows them.

3. Regenerate

For a handful of concepts, update inline. For larger sets, fan out generation agents batched by area. Every generation prompt must carry exactly four things:

1. The type template from _meta/templates/
2. A golden example — a real, already-accepted concept of the same type
3. The hard rules from _meta/CONVENTIONS.md, inline
4. The manifest ID registry — links may target only IDs listed there

Every touched concept gets timestamp: = today and verified_against: = the current short SHA.

Re-derive facts from the source files. Never patch prose without re-reading the code it describes. Editing a concept to match a changed interface without opening the file is how a vault becomes fiction.

4. Validate

node knowledge-vault/scripts/validate-vault.mjs --vault <vault>

Must exit 0. Markdown lint must pass. Neither is optional.

5. Record

Prepend a dated entry to log.md: what changed, why (ticket), and the source SHA. Then bump baseline_sha and generated in the manifest.

Ship on a {{TICKET_PREFIX}}-XXX-vault-sync-<topic> branch with a docs(vault): … commit to {{MAIN_BRANCH}}. The pull request should name the code changes that triggered the sync.

Invariants (do not relax)

• Concept-to-concept links never leave the bundle; out-of-bundle links only under ## Citations
• Relative markdown links only — no wikilinks, no leading-slash paths, no repo-host URLs for repo files
• Link only to IDs in the manifest. If a concept does not exist, name it in prose and report it as a suggestion — never invent a link
• One concept per file; H2 sections exactly match the type template, in order
• Stub types cite their source-of-truth doc; they never restate it
• A citation is not re-verification. Only re-deriving a concept from source bumps its timestamp and verified_against

Anti-Patterns (Do NOT use)

Bumping timestamps on a docs-only pass   (that is laundering, not verification)
Deleting a concept when its source dies  (deprecate; clean inbound links first)
Regenerating the whole vault on drift    (regenerate only what the diff implicates)
Patching prose without reading the code  (the one habit that makes a vault untrustworthy)
Skipping the validator because "it is just docs"  (drift is invisible without the gate)

Authoritative References

• knowledge-vault/docs/GUIDE.md -- the method and why each rule exists
• knowledge-vault/docs/ADOPTION-PLAYBOOK.md -- running your first build
• knowledge-vault/docs/BUILD-PROMPT.md -- the multi-agent build prompt

Routes To

• safe-workflow — branch, commit, and PR conventions
• linear-sop — recording the sync against a ticket
• pattern-discovery — find existing concepts before writing new ones