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SOP-024 — Knowledge curation (capture → curate → preserve → index → retrieve)

Guide

<!-- last-reviewed: 2026-06-01 · owner: documentarian -->

SOP-024 — Knowledge curation (capture → curate → preserve → index → retrieve)

SOP · owner: Documentation (Documentarian) for the curate + index steps. Layer: SOP/Runbook (docs/canon.md). Runs the KM lifecycle (knowledge-management.md §3); the two-index reconciliation it ends on is detailed in SOP-025. Links to the KM design, does not restate it.

Interface Contract

  • Inputs: filed knowledge entry (docs/knowledge/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md) ← from <any agent (contributor)> · trigger: “document changed”
  • Outputs: curated + dual-indexed knowledge entry → to Archivist · trigger: “artifact approved”
  • Inputs: preserved record (fan-out) ← from Archivist · trigger: “preservation complete”
  • Handoff trigger (in): an agent files a knowledge entry, or the weekly/at-close curation cadence runs
  • Handoff trigger (out): the entry is deduped, correctly titled/slugged, promotion-decided, and listed in docs/knowledge/README.md (SOP-025 GREEN)
  • Definition of Done before handoff:
    • [ ] Entry follows templates/knowledge-entry.md; one topic; YYYY-MM-DD-<slug> title matches the topic
    • [ ] Deduped/merged against same-topic entries; supersession recorded if it revises an earlier entry
    • [ ] Promotion decided (link to its SOP/job-aid/manual home, or “Not yet promoted”)
    • [ ] scripts/km-index-check.mjs returns GREEN (entry listed in the README index — SOP-025)
    • [ ] Handed to the Archivist for preservation

Purpose

Turn raw, dated learnings into a curated, findable knowledge base so the org’s hardest-won know-how accrues instead of evaporating at session reset. Documentation owns curate and index; capture is every agent’s, preserve is the Archivist’s (three named owners, knowledge-management.md §2).

When to use

  • An agent files a docs/knowledge/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md entry (document changed).
  • The weekly curation pass, or session-close (GR-6), runs.
  • A later learning contradicts an earlier entry (supersession).

Flow

flowchart LR
  C["CAPTURE<br/>every agent"] --> Cu["CURATE<br/>dedupe · title · promote"]
  Cu --> Pr["PRESERVE<br/>Archivist"]
  Pr --> I["INDEX<br/>README (SOP-025)"]
  I --> Re["RETRIEVE<br/>every agent, session open"]
  Re -.->|new learning| C
  classDef s fill:#0f766e,color:#fff,stroke:#134e4a
  class C,Cu,Pr,I,Re s

Text fallback: capture (every agent) → curate (Documentarian: dedupe, fix the title/slug, decide promotion) → preserve (Archivist) → index (update the README, SOP-025, until km-index-check.mjs is GREEN) → retrieve (every agent at session open) → loops as new learnings arise.

Steps

  1. Receive / sweep. Open the new entry (or run the weekly sweep over docs/knowledge/*.md). Confirm it uses templates/knowledge-entry.md and is one topic.
  2. Curate. Dedupe and merge same-topic notes; fix the YYYY-MM-DD-<slug> title so it matches the topic; if it revises an earlier entry, mark the earlier one superseded (do not delete — governance is supersession, not expiry, knowledge-management.md §5).
  3. Decide promotion. If a “Next time” bullet is now standing practice, promote it into the corpus (an SOP/job-aid/manual) and fill the entry’s Promotion link — the link prevents double-homing. Else: “Not yet promoted — still inbox.”
  4. Falsifiability check (K6): the entry names files, exact numbers, and the specific dead end. Shallow GR-6 notes are sent back to the contributor or enriched.
  5. Preserve. Hand to the Archivist (artifact approved).
  6. Index. Run SOP-025 (two-index discipline): add the entry’s row to docs/knowledge/README.md and run node scripts/km-index-check.mjs until GREEN.
  7. Confirm the entry is curated, preserved, and indexed.

Roles / approvers

Documentarian curates + indexes. Archivist preserves. Process Engineer owns the KM process/cadence. The contributor owns the content of the learning. Promotion targets are approved by the promoted doc’s class owner.

Guardrails

  • Single-writer index. Only this SOP’s index step (SOP-025) writes docs/knowledge/README.md — to avoid a multi-agent write race; contributors file
    • report, they do not edit the index.
  • No expiry on dated entries — supersession only (knowledge-management.md §5).
  • Promote-and-link, never copy. A restated procedure inside a knowledge entry is a curation defect (K4).
  • One topic per entry (K3) — split multi-topic entries.

See also: SOP-025 (two-index discipline) · knowledge-management.md §3/§5 · templates/knowledge-entry.md · docs/knowledge/README.md · charter (docs/units/documentation/charter.md).