ai-config Rules Upgrade — Project Closure

Date: 2026-07-07 Project: ai-config-rules-upgrade (_WorkingOn/Projects/ai-config-rules-upgrade/, Complex, 4 phases) Status: ✅ Complete — closed and archived

Summary

Turned the AI rules system from a duplicated CLAUDE.md monolith into a clean, modular, multi-LLM SSOT (AGENTS.md), with a per-dept charter layer. All 4 phases completed 2026-07-06; a follow-up (skills-stale-path-cleanup) closed 2026-07-06; this log formally closes the finite project itself per Talbot’s 2026-07-07 direction, and folds its outcome into the ai-config Ongoing Project it built.

Talbot’s framing: the finite project’s job was to stand up ai-config’s rules architecture; the maintenance and ongoing upgrading of that architecture is itself indefinite, so it belongs to the Ongoing Project construct (~/ai-config/), not to a _WorkingOn/Projects/ folder that implies a one-time deliverable. Future ai-config work is a normal Core/AI/Tasks/ task with project-type: ongoing, pointing at the repo — per SMTM’s existing Ongoing Projects pattern.

What changed, by phase

Phase 1 — De-duplicate (eed6650, eeb33f5, e486ab4)

Reconciled drifted deployed ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md with source before touching it.
Replaced inline testing / WSL-gotchas / caching blocks with pointers to SSOT docs: testing → new Core/AI/AI-Testing-Standards.md; WSL gotchas → GlobalDevRules.md §3.9; caching/PWA → §3.8.
CLAUDE.md reduced 25584→15928 bytes (−38%); source == deployed; no content lost.

Phase 2 — AGENTS.md as SSOT (da6ff37)

Promoted ~/ai-config/AGENTS.md to the universal, tool-agnostic global-instructions SSOT (previously it was just the repo’s own README-ish overview — that content moved to README.md).
claude/CLAUDE.md + GEMINI.md became thin wrappers; deploy.sh concatenates wrapper + AGENTS.md (+ CLAUDE.windows.md on Windows) into the deployed file — chosen over pointer-only because Claude Code auto-loads ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md and won’t follow a pointer.
Verified: deployed rules body byte-identical before/after (241 lines, zero content lost).

Phase 3 — Dept/agent charter layer (fffc15e)

Confirmed the charter layer is coherent: CONSTITUTION.md + 5 JOB_DESCRIPTION.md + 3 Staff Directors (AI/Processes/IT) + Skill-Developer IC. Cancer50 + AI/Tools left as intentional stubs (no fabricated scope).
Added “Dept / Agent Charter Layer” section to AGENTS.md: load-order chain (CONSTITUTION → dept JOB_DESCRIPTION → Staff/<Role> → task SSOT doc), autonomy-level (A0–A4) gating, dept→charter map.

Phase 4 — Audit + test (622b6ac)

Scoped Core/AI/Tools/JOB_DESCRIPTION.md (Talbot: “deduce role/scope”) — technical implementation arm of AI dept, IC = Skill-Developer, autonomy A1.
Stale-path sweep: fixed phase-caused staleness (Director files, AGENTS.md dept-map row); reconciled ai-config’s own drifted trackers.
Surfaced pre-existing, out-of-charter breakage: now/nowcpw/session-close/task-complete still pointed at removed KB/Business/… paths from the earlier Phase-7 vault restructure. Not guessed at — spun off as its own task.
End-to-end agent-load verification: all passed (deployed ruleset intact, source==deployed, all pointer + charter-chain files resolve, Windows target correct).

Follow-up — skills-stale-path-cleanup (closed 2026-07-06, own log: Core/AI/Logs/2026-07-06_skills-stale-path-cleanup.md)

Resolved the Phase-4 finding: filter-focus-refresh moved into ai-config/claude/commands/; session-close deprecated (superseded by project-task-complete); Skills Dashboard updated.

Commits (in `~/ai-config`)

eed6650, eeb33f5, e486ab4, da6ff37, fffc15e, 622b6ac, 38e4d06, 43a5156, 5ecb6b6

Lessons carried forward

Promoted to global AGENTS.md already (done during the project):

Diff-before-deploy for deploy-from-source configs.
De-dup order: migrate-into-SSOT-then-point, verify with marker grep.

Not yet promoted — carried forward as an open candidate (was awaiting Talbot in the project’s own LESSONS.md, preserved here so it isn’t lost when that file is archived):

SSOT + auto-load = build-time concatenation, not a pointer — when an SSOT must also be auto-loaded by a tool (Claude Code auto-loads ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md), a “thin wrapper that points to the SSOT” silently regresses behavior, because the tool won’t follow the pointer. The fix that satisfies both: keep the SSOT as a separate file, and have the deploy step concatenate wrapper + SSOT into the auto-loaded target. Niche (deploy-from-source auto-loaded files) but reusable — candidate for GlobalDevRules.md if a second occurrence shows up.

Also copied into ~/ai-config/LESSONS.md as a standing candidate so the repo (now the permanent home for this history) carries it forward.

This closure’s own action (2026-07-07)

Per Talbot’s request in the project’s final NEXT-STEPS.md cycle:

Finite project formally closed — this log is the consolidated archive; _WorkingOn/Projects/ai-config-rules-upgrade/ removed (full NEXT-STEPS/STATUS/ROADMAP/LESSONS/UPGRADES history superseded by this log + the repo’s own STATUS.md/ROADMAP.md/CHANGELOG.md/LESSONS.md, which already carry the live state).
Core/AI/AI-config.md portal note updated — no longer cites the now-removed _WorkingOn/Projects/ai-config-rules-upgrade/ path; points here instead.
Core/_WorkingOn/Tasks/_active.md AI-dept entry updated to point at this log instead of the removed project’s logs/ folder.
SMTM_System.md improved (separate Processes-dept log: Core/Processes/Logs/2026-07-07_SMTM-v5.3-Ongoing-Projects-Clarity.md) — added a Three-Constructs overview near the top and moved the “Handing a Task to a Dept Agent” workflow into the canonical doc, per Talbot’s feedback that Ongoing Projects weren’t discoverable and the workflow example wasn’t in the authoritative guide.

Going forward: any new ai-config work is a Core/AI/Tasks/<name>.md task with project-type: ongoing, pointing at ~/ai-config/ — not a new _WorkingOn/Projects/ folder. Talbot flagged a my_backup (IT-owned ongoing project) issue as the next real-world test of this workflow — no task filed yet, no details given; when Talbot describes it, it belongs in Core/IT/Tasks/.

Next Steps

If the SSOT+auto-load lesson recurs on a second project, promote it to GlobalDevRules.md.
When Talbot provides the my_backup issue, file it as a Core/IT/Tasks/ task per the now-documented dept-agent-handoff workflow.