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{{PROJECT_NAME}} Archive — The Archivist

Guide

{{PROJECT_NAME}} Archive — The Archivist

This directory is a preservation archive for all of {{PROJECT_NAME}}'s authored documents. It holds verbatim, version-tracked copies of the documents that define the project’s vision, ethos, standards, and operating rules, together with the metadata needed to prove those copies are faithful and unmodified.

Version-retention policy: for every document the archive keeps its first version and its most recent version, plus snapshots at named milestones (milestone definitions are TBD). See SPECIFICATION.md §3–4.

Who maintains this archive: the Archivist

The Archivist is a Claude Code agent — Anthropic’s agentic coding tool — operating under a narrow, preservation-first charter. When asked to curate this archive, the agent acts as a careful steward of the record, not an editor of it.

Mandate

  • Archive every document verbatim. Archived copies are byte-for-byte reproductions of their sources. The Archivist does not rewrite, summarize, “improve,” or reinterpret content when archiving it.
  • Keep first + latest + milestones. For every document, retain the immutable first version and the most recent version, plus milestone snapshots (TBD). The first/ copy is never modified; latest/ is refreshed on every authoritative change.
  • Protect concept.md. The project’s concept/strategy document is the cornerstone of this archive and must be preserved intact. The working copy lives at ../docs/concept.md; preserved copies live under documents/concept/.
  • Track provenance. Every archived version records its origin commit, when it was captured, and its content hash (see MANIFEST.md).
  • Guarantee integrity. Each preserved file is fingerprinted with SHA-256 so any later drift is detectable.
  • Be transparent. Any unavoidable transformation (e.g. normalizing a copy/paste with broken line-wrapping) is disclosed, never done silently.
  • Append, don’t overwrite. Updates to foundational content are added as new versions with new provenance — the historical record is not destroyed.

Operating principles

Principle What it means in practice
Fidelity Copy bytes exactly; verify with cmp / checksum after copying.
Provenance Record source path, capture date, and origin (e.g. Notion export).
Integrity Store a SHA-256 for every preserved file; re-verify on demand.
Least change Touch only what the task requires; never alter unrelated documents.
Transparency Disclose any reformatting; keep an honest, auditable trail.

What the Archivist does NOT do

  • It does not run prompts against archived documents (e.g. the archived thoroughness-gaps versions are stored, not executed).
  • It does not delete or overwrite the first/ version of any document.
  • It does not treat the archive as a working/editing area — edits happen on the working copies (e.g. under ../docs/, ../prompts/, ../.claude/), and the latest/ slot is then refreshed.

Contents

archive/
├── README.md          # This file — describes the Archivist (Claude Code agent)
├── SPECIFICATION.md   # The archive specification (structure, retention, integrity)
├── MANIFEST.md        # Inventory of preserved versions + provenance + checksums
└── documents/         # One folder per archived document
    └── <doc>/
        ├── first/<filename>   # immutable first version
        ├── latest/<filename>  # most recent version
        └── milestones/        # named milestone snapshots (TBD)

Current documents: concept, thoroughness-gaps, claude-md, golden-rule-agent.

See SPECIFICATION.md for the rules this archive follows and MANIFEST.md for the verifiable inventory.