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…n alternatives exist (Aaron 2026-05-01) Aaron 2026-05-01: *"would Aaron name this file/branch/commit this way? best find an external anchor other than me."* Trigger: Otto framed the artifact-name-as-rule discipline test as "would Aaron name this way?" — Aaron-as-anchor. Aaron flagged this directly: brittle (only as available as Aaron), framing- wrong (Aaron-as-test-anchor IS the directive failure mode Otto-357 names), and weaker (substrate credibility comes from external sources per Otto-352). Discipline-test priority ladder: 1. Mechanical (regex / audit script — pure string check) 2. External-process (compliance / industry-standard — OWASP / GDPR / W3C / etc.) 3. Self-encoding artifact name (`../no-copy-only-learning-agents-insight` pattern — naming re-applies discipline on every reference) 4. External-anchor lineage (Otto-352 — peer AI / sibling repo / industry literature) 5. Aaron-as-anchor (ferry-of-last-resort only) Carved sentence: *"Aaron is the ferry-of-last-resort, not the test-of-first-resort. Default to mechanical, external, or self-encoding anchors. Escalate to Aaron only when no alternative exists."* Self-test: this memo passes its own test (mechanical filename schema match; self-encoding rule-name in filename; external- anchor lineage cited; Aaron-as-anchor not invoked for the test). Filing this WITHOUT asking Aaron whether to file IS the rule applied to its own promotion — the failure mode the rule names would have been "should I file this Aaron?"
…x discipline + precision-axis (Aaron 2026-05-01) Two follow-up refinements from Aaron post initial filing: 1. **Pre-condition-fix discipline** (avoid PR review hell): *"you pr review agents can mechanicalize any anchor you want on the pr process, just be ready to have the pre condition fix for that class or you'll be in PR review hell."* PR agents ARE the mechanical anchors at PR-process layer. Pushing without pre-condition fixes = review-thread proliferation + force-push + CI re-run loop. Mitigation: run mechanical checks LOCALLY before pushing (markdownlint, tsc, bun test, drift checks, etc.). Mechanization gradient: editor (best) < pre-commit (better) < pre-push (acceptable) < post-push (failure mode). 2. **Precision matters** (cheaper + more accurate): *"more precise mechanicalization is cheaper and more accurate."* Mechanical tests have a precision axis. Higher precision: fewer false positives (cheaper, less review-thread noise), more accurate (catches what should be caught), auditable. Investment direction: spend effort on precision, not coverage-breadth. Five precise checks beat fifty fuzzy ones. Sharpens the ladder: precise-mechanical > external-process > self-encoding > external-anchor-lineage > Aaron-as-anchor. Imprecise mechanical might NOT beat external-process. Composes with B-0153 lint suite (mechanical-anchor inventory), B-0156 TS port (run mechanizations locally via bun), B-0157 detect-changes (gating reduces SET of fired checks not hell of any single one), reproducible-accuracy-before-quality (precision IS the accuracy axis).
…ling-repo hasn't encoded pre-condition-fix + precision-axis lesson (Aaron 2026-05-01) Aaron 2026-05-01: *"this is the lesson the sibling repo you got the patterns from have not encoded yet either."* Important calibration: external anchors are PARTIAL. The sibling repo (per the detect-changes memory) leads on parallel-CI architecture but hasn't encoded the pre-condition-fix + mechanization-gradient + precision-axis lesson. Don't extrapolate from external-anchor silence. Absence of external doctrine on a class of question is NOT evidence the question doesn't matter. Pattern lineage attribution discipline (three classes): 1. Borrowed — external anchor has explicit doctrine; we adapt 2. Validated — external anchor demonstrates pattern in production; we reference as evidence 3. New / silent-axis — external anchor doesn't address this class; we're charting This rule is class 3. Substrate provenance: Otto + Aaron 2026-05-01 conversation, NOT borrowed from sibling repo. We're ahead on the pre-condition-fix axis where they're silent. Doesn't make our rule wrong; doesn't make their architecture wrong. Different surfaces of discipline. Sharpens external-anchor-lineage usage (Otto-352): treat external anchors as strongest where explicit, weakest where silent.
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Pull request overview
Adds a new memory/feedback_*.md rule that formalizes a “discipline-test priority ladder” (mechanical → external-process → self-encoding → external-lineage → maintainer judgment as last resort), and indexes it in memory/MEMORY.md so it’s discoverable from the main memory index.
Changes:
- Added a new feedback memory defining the anchor-preference ladder for decision “discipline tests”.
- Added a corresponding entry to
memory/MEMORY.md(newest-first index).
Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
memory/feedback_prefer_mechanical_external_anchors_over_aaron_as_anchor_aaron_2026_05_01.md |
New feedback memory documenting the anchor-priority ladder and rationale. |
memory/MEMORY.md |
Adds the new memory file to the top of the index. |
…ion per Copilot finding Copilot reviewer (PR #1131 line 173): the memo claimed `<type>_<topic>_<date>.md` with `aaron_<date>` suffix is documented in `memory/README.md`, but README only documents the type-prefix (`feedback_*` / `project_*` / `user_*` / `reference_*`); the body shape + author-attribution suffix are emergent corpus conventions, not formally schema'd. Update the self-test to be honest: - Mechanical: type-prefix per README (canonical); body + suffix emergent (corpus-pattern, not de jure schema). - External-process: type-prefix schema-checks; corpus-pattern verifies via grep regex. - Documentation-gap acknowledgment: candidate B-0153 lint class to extract the emergent convention into a documented schema in memory/README.md.
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…ick (3 PRs rebased + 8 threads resolved) (#1136)
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Summary
Aaron 2026-05-01: "would Aaron name this file/branch/commit this way? best find an external anchor other than me."
Filing the rule that I should have used in the first place — sharpens Otto-352 (external-anchor-lineage) + composes with Otto-357 (no-directives + autonomy-first-class).
Discipline-test priority ladder
Carved candidate
Self-test
This memo passes its own test:
The rule passes its own test by design — well-formed sign.
composes_with
Otto-352 (external-anchor-lineage) + Otto-357 (no-directives) + Otto-364 (search-first authority) + visibility-constraint + assumed-state-vs-actual-state. Five pre-existing anchors.
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