docs: reconcile documentation against the code; add a supersession ledger
Five weeks of undocumented evolution left the docs describing a site that
partly no longer exists, with nothing marking which documents were historical.
The code is treated as the source of truth throughout; every claim below was
verified against code, config or the Makefile rather than inferred.
Two mechanisms, following patterns the repo already used:
- docs/reference/superseded-decisions.md (new) — one authoritative table of all
14 reversals: what was planned, where, what is true now, when, and why. Plus
a short list of decisions that were NOT reversed, since their planning docs
are old enough to look suspect.
- Inline "> **Superseded ...**" notes at each stale claim, so a claim can never
be read un-corrected. This mirrors the existing "> History:" notes in
architecture.md and "> **Changed 2026-07:**" in trip-switching.md.
Scope split by tense: present-tense docs (CLAUDE.md, reference/, guides/,
README.md, CONCEPTS.md) are corrected; past-tense records (plans/, specs/,
milestones/, summary.md, pm-analysis.md) are annotated only, never rewritten —
their staleness is what makes them records.
Present-tense corrections:
- CLAUDE.md asserted css-compiled/ is generated from css/style.css and
css/tokens.css. That source relationship does not exist: css/ is hand-authored
and served directly via assets.addCss in partials/base.html.twig, while
css-compiled/ is esbuild output from the CSS imports inside js/src/*.js.
Highest-severity finding — an always-loaded file inviting a hand-edit of a
generated bundle.
- README.md documented every remote-* target without the -test/-prod suffix
guard-env requires, so its entire server runbook was unrunnable, and listed
7 of ~20 targets while CLAUDE.md designates it authoritative for the full
list. Rewritten with all targets, grouped, and the suffix rule stated.
- README.md told readers to "git clone" into user/, which is a submodule.
- architecture.md: nav is Home + Trips + (authenticated) New Post, not
"Home + Past Trips only"; template tree omitted trips.html.twig,
post-form.html.twig and forms/, and placed base.html.twig at templates/ root
rather than in partials/; entry-actions has three API routes, not just delete;
added the undocumented css-compiled/maplibre-gl.css output and a section on
the /post pin editor as the one sanctioned non-entry-map map.
- design-system.md: documented 13 colour tokens against 19 in tokens.css
(missing --color-error, --color-draft-accent and four glass overlays); claimed
"all 3 map templates"; and described --color-canvas as "white".
- design-system-light.md documented a light palette in present tense. No light
mode exists — tokens.css has a single :root block, no prefers-color-scheme or
data-theme switch, and no light hex appears in css/. Banner added.
- posting.md said photos were optional; they are required, 1-6. It documented
hero_image, which was removed for entries (stories keep it). It had no mention
of the frontend edit flow or photo editor, both shipped 2026-07-08. Photo
files are photo-01..NN, zero-padded.
- working/README.md advertised summary.md as the project's "current state" while
summary.md describes Leaflet, /tracker, /map and /stats. Most misleading line
in the tree.
- CLAUDE.md: recorded js/src/location-map.js as the one sanctioned exception to
the single-map-path rule, and documented that make start/setup fail on a clean
checkout because docker-compose.yml still builds a travel-memories service
whose source moved out in a80b0a9.
Also: 2026-07-23-post-form-location-override.md read "Not started" while merged
in user/ as dd19995; status corrected.
Findings that are not documentation problems — the compose breakage, a
repeatable drift check, the unused shortcode-gallery-plusplus, and demo fixtures
for retired views — are collected in
docs/working/2026-07-25-doc-drift-recommendations.md and deliberately not acted
on. Design and verification method: docs/working/specs/2026-07-25-docs-reconciliation-design.md
The submodule gitlink is deliberately not bumped.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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# Docs Reconciliation — Design
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**Date:** 2026-07-25
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**Status:** Implemented
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Reconcile the documentation against the code after five weeks of undocumented evolution, so that a
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repeat review returns "ok".
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---
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## Problem
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Documentation for this project began as thoughts and plans. The app then changed — features were
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built differently, some were dropped, and the owner changed his mind about what he needed. Those
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decisions were recorded ad hoc or not at all. The result is a tree where some docs describe a site
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that no longer exists, and nothing marks them as historical.
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Concretely, before this pass:
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- `docs/working/README.md` advertised `summary.md` as the project's **current state**, while
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`summary.md` described Leaflet, a `/tracker` feed, a `/map` page, a `/stats` page, and a
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"Journal · Map · Stats" nav — none of which exist.
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- `docs/reference/design-system-light.md` documented a light-mode palette in present tense. No light
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mode is implemented anywhere: `tokens.css` has a single `:root` block and no
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`prefers-color-scheme` / `data-theme` mechanism.
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- `CLAUDE.md` — the always-loaded file — asserted a source relationship that does not exist
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(`css-compiled/` generated from `css/style.css` + `css/tokens.css`).
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- `README.md`'s server runbook documented every `make remote-*` command without the `-test`/`-prod`
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suffix that `guard-env` requires, so the documented commands cannot run.
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- `docker-compose.yml` still defines a `travel-memories` service whose source was deleted in
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`a80b0a9` ("moved to separate project"), so `make start` fails on any clean checkout.
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## Root cause
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Per [`docs/solutions/conventions/claude-md-content-tiering.md`](../../solutions/conventions/claude-md-content-tiering.md),
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descriptions drift because the code moves and the prose does not; rules do not drift, because they
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encode intent rather than state. This pass confirms that finding again: every defect found was a
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description of code, config, or a command — not one was a rule that had become wrong on its own.
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The compounding factor is **tense**. The tree mixes two kinds of document with no marker
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distinguishing them:
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| Kind | Files | Staleness is |
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|---|---|---|
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| Present-tense — "this is how it is" | `CLAUDE.md`, `reference/`, `guides/`, `README.md`, `CONCEPTS.md` | a defect |
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| Past-tense — "this is what we decided then" | `working/plans/`, `working/specs/`, `working/milestones/`, `summary.md`, `pm-analysis.md` | correct and expected |
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A completed plan *should* be stale — it is a record. It only becomes a problem when nothing tells a
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reader it is a record. `milestones/milestone-2.md` opens by describing a Leaflet `/map` page in
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confident present tense with no date qualifier.
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## Approach
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Two mechanisms, combined:
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**A — one authoritative supersession ledger.** `docs/reference/superseded-decisions.md` records every
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reversal in one table: what was planned, where it was planned, what is true now, when it changed, and
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why. This answers "what did I change my mind about?" in a single place, which is the question a
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review actually asks.
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**B — inline notes at the point of staleness.** Every superseded section carries a
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`> **Superseded …**` blockquote where the stale claim sits, so the claim can never be read
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un-corrected. This pattern is not invented here — `docs/reference/architecture.md` and
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`docs/guides/trip-switching.md` already use `> History:` and `> **Changed 2026-07:**` notes.
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A alone has an indirection problem (a pointer you may not follow). B alone has a completeness problem
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(no changelog view, and coverage is only as good as the annotation pass). Together each covers the
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other's gap.
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### Scope, split by tense
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- **Present-tense docs are corrected against the code.** The code is the source of truth. Every
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factual claim was verified by reading the code, config, or `Makefile` — not inferred.
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- **Past-tense docs are annotated only, never rewritten.** 41 plans and 25 specs, ~30k lines. Their
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`✅ Complete` trailing notes are good records; rewriting them would destroy the audit trail and is
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unbounded work.
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- **Code-side inconsistencies are logged, not fixed.** Mixing behaviour changes into a documentation
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diff would make it unreviewable. They go to
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`docs/working/2026-07-25-doc-drift-recommendations.md` for a separate decision.
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### Out of scope
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- A repeatable drift check (script with an exit code). Deliberately deferred — the owner asked for the
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one-time reconciliation first. It is the lead recommendation in the recommendations doc.
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- Fixing the `travel-memories` / `docker-compose.yml` breakage, the unused
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`shortcode-gallery-plusplus`, and the `italy-2025` demo fixtures. All logged as recommendations.
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## Verification
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Claims were checked against, not assumed from:
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| Claim area | Verified against |
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|---|---|
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| Nav labels | `templates/partials/base.html.twig:27-31` |
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| Template + partial inventory | `ls templates/`, `ls templates/partials/` |
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| Asset sources → outputs | `user/themes/intotheeast/package.json` build script |
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| `css-compiled/` provenance | CSS imports in `js/src/*.js`; `assets.addCss` in `base.html.twig:7-8` |
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| Design tokens | `css/tokens.css` |
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| Light mode | absence of `prefers-color-scheme` / `data-theme` and of light hex values in `css/` |
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| Photo field rules | `user/pages/02.post/post-form.md:35-46` |
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| `hero_image` removal | `post-form.md:149-151` |
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| `entry-actions` routes | `user/plugins/entry-actions/entry-actions.php:63-73` |
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| `make` targets + env guard | `Makefile` (`guard-env:41-43`, `make-env-target:45-46`) |
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| `travel-memories` removal | `git log -- services/` → `a80b0a9`; `docker compose build` failure |
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| Plan status vs reality | `user/` HEAD `dd19995` |
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The `user/` submodule was moved off the outer repo's pin to its real HEAD (`dd19995`) before
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auditing, because the pin lagged and would have produced findings against a state that is no longer
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current.
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