---
type: types/instruction.md
name: page-lifecycle
description: Rename a page, delete one, or drop a single cross-reference without breaking the links that point at it.
---

# Rename, delete, or unlink a page

A page's title is the wiki's only identifier for it. The same title appears in other pages'
`[[wikilinks]]`, in the `[[Title]]` a `[^cite-id]` footnote definition points at, and in
frontmatter reference arrays (`related:`, `sources:`, `entities:`, `concepts:`).

**Never move, rename, or delete a page file by hand, and never edit a reference array by
hand.** Each of the commands below rewrites all three places at once; hand-editing rewrites
one and leaves the others pointing at nothing.

## Rename

```bash
tools/wikitool rename --from "<Old>" --to "<New>" --dry-run   # see the blast radius first
tools/wikitool rename --from "<Old>" --to "<New>"
```

Repoints body wikilinks (aliases and anchors preserved), a citation id derived from the old
title (both its Footnotes definition and every `[^cite-id]` reference to it), the page's own
H1, and every frontmatter reference array the type declares in `page_ref_fields:`.

**If `--from` is not a page but is referenced**, rename instead repoints those references onto
the existing `--to` page and moves nothing. That is the fix for a reference spelled
`act_runner` when the page is `Act Runner`.

## Delete

```bash
tools/wikitool rm --page "<Title>" --dry-run
tools/wikitool rm --page "<Title>"
```

It **refuses while other pages still reference the page**. That refusal is information, not an
obstacle: show the user the inbound list, and only re-run with `--yes` once they approve.

It strips reference-array entries and bare `- [[Title]]` / `- **label:** [[Title]]` bullets. It
leaves prose mentions and inline citations in place and reports them - those are an editorial
fix afterwards, not a reason to retry the command.

## Drop a single reference

```bash
tools/wikitool xref remove --a "<A>" --b "<B>"
```

Clears `<B>` from every reference field `<A>`'s type declares, plus the matching bullets.
`--b` need not still exist as a page, which is how a reference left behind by an earlier
hand-edit gets cleared. Idempotent.

## Afterwards

Always close out with [publish-cycle.md](publish-cycle.md), using
`--op rename` or `--op delete`. Then confirm nothing was left dangling:

```bash
tools/wikitool lint
```

`lint` reports every reference still pointing at nothing.

## Scope

This is for pages under `kb/`. Contracts, instructions, skills and type-specs are not pages -
they are moved with `git mv`, and their inbound links are ordinary markdown paths that have to
be updated by hand.