memory(bare-main-ambiguity): generic automation rule — explicit refs required (Amara 2026-04-29)

memory/MEMORY.md

@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 **📌 Fast path: read `CURRENT-aaron.md` and `CURRENT-amara.md` first.** <!-- paired-edit: PR ?? restraint-bead-promoted + beacon-promotion-pattern 2026-04-29 -->
 
+- [**Bare `main` is ambiguous — automation uses explicit refs (Amara, 2026-04-29)**](feedback_bare_main_ambiguity_automation_discipline_explicit_refs_required_amara_2026_04_29.md) — Generic multi-remote-repo automation rule: scripts use `refs/remotes/<remote>/<branch>` (or `refs/heads/<branch>`); bare branch names only for interactive humans. Hard-stop on fatal base-ref errors. Caught when bare `git checkout main` was hitting `fatal: matched multiple (2) remote tracking branches` and the loop continued past the failure with wrong downstream state.
+
 - [**Cold-readability addendum to Confucius-unfolding pattern (Aaron, 2026-04-29 addendum on 2026-04-25 file)**](feedback_confucius_unfolding_pattern_aaron_compresses_terse_rich_with_implication_claude_unfolds_into_operational_substrate_2026_04_25.md) — Operational addendum 2026-04-29 lands on the existing Confucius-unfolding canonical home (originally a 2026-04-25 file describing the Aaron-compresses + Claude-unfolds dynamic). New angle: when writing durable substrate, expand demonstrative pronouns / in-flight nicknames / implicit time-and-person references / recently-coined jargon inline — future-Claude reads on cold-start with zero shared context. Aaron's correction *"Confucius-unfold you have some existing skill or something for this — it has confucius in the name"* caught the over-eager substrate-creation failure mode (drafted a separate file under a longer name; consolidated into the existing canonical home). Composes with `agent-experience-engineer` skill (audit side) and the verbatim-preservation rule.
 - [**Aaron's channel: record close to verbatim (Aaron, 2026-04-29)**](feedback_aaron_channel_verbatim_preservation_anything_through_this_channel_2026_04_29.md) — Aaron 2026-04-29: *"anyting this comes over this channel should get recorded somwhere pretty close to verbatium"*. Anything Aaron sends through the maintainer channel (Claude Code CLI conversation + autonomous-loop wakeups + mid-tick corrections + `/btw` asides + forwarded multi-AI synthesis packets) gets preserved close-to-verbatim somewhere durable (memory / research notes / tick-history shards / commit messages). Synthesis goes alongside the verbatim, not instead. Typos are signal; smoothing register destroys information. Includes verbatim record of Aaron's substantive 2026-04-29 channel inputs from this session.
 - [**The git repo is the soulfile — binaries are scary, text history is fine (Aaron + Amara, 2026-04-29 RECALIBRATED)**](feedback_repo_is_soulfile_dont_commit_raw_diagnostic_dumps_aaron_amara_2026_04_29.md) — Recalibrated 2026-04-29: text compresses well in git pack-delta storage and is NOT the soulfile threat; binaries (compiled outputs, archives, large media, profile dumps in binary form) DON'T delta-compress and balloon clones forever. Aaron: *"don't go too hardcore on soulfile protection, text compresses very well, bin is what we are scared of and need to really really think about not history in text form."* PR-review readability for noisy text is a separate concern → recommended `.gitattributes` mitigation: `linguist-generated=true -diff` (NOT `-merge` — that unsets the merge driver and breaks 3-way text merges; landing in PR #761). Default: text → track freely; binary → git-lfs or non-soul repo.