chemenu/instructions/dev/doc-pull-through.md

---
type: types/instruction.md
name: doc-pull-through
description: Which document makes a claim about a surface you are about to change - a wikitool command's behaviour, a stage's rules, an AGENTS.md rule/gate/invariant, a README-shaped human doc, a docs/ page's reasoning - and so needs updating in the same session, since tools/wikitool docs verify never reads a cell's prose.
---
# Update every document that makes a claim about the surface you changed

`tools/wikitool docs verify` is a hard oracle over presence, not content: it checks that a
command is *listed*, that a contract *exists*, that an ignore canary is (or isn't) caught - never
what a table cell, a contract section, or a README paragraph actually *says*. A command's flag
can change, a gate's threshold can move, a contract's wording can go false, and every one of
those checks stays green (Gitea #90; Gitea #91 narrows what the command-table check matches, but
adds no reading of cell content). Content quality of every document below is therefore session
work, the same duty AGENTS.md's Changelog section states for `README.md`, `tools/README.md` and
the pages under `docs/` - this instruction exists because that duty used to stop at the human docs
while the contracts rotted next to a green check (ten stale error-contract rows accumulated this
way; see Gitea #89 for one).

## When to run

Before `tools/wikitool docs verify`/`publish` in a build session that changed behaviour -
`stack-build` step 5 sends you here. Read the table below and update every row whose surface you
touched; a row that does not apply needs no action.

## Steps

1. **Name the surface(s) you changed.** A `wikitool` command's flags or behaviour, a stage's
   rule, an `AGENTS.md`-level rule/gate/invariant, a workflow a human runs by hand, or the
   reasoning behind a design decision - one change can touch more than one row.

2. **For each surface, update every document the table names - not only the one you were already
   editing:**

   | Touched surface | Document(s) that make a claim about it |
   |---|---|
   | A `wikitool` command's behaviour, flags, or interface | Its `cli_contract.CommandRecord` (name, synopsis, properties, exit status, retry policy - `tools/chemenu/cli_contract.py`), then `wikitool docs contract --apply` to regenerate its copy in [tools/CONTRACT.md](../../tools/CONTRACT.md) and `wikitool docs reference --apply` for the human reference under `docs/reference/` (a new group in `cli_contract.GROUPS` first needs its page there, with a title, a one-sentence head and the marker pair) |
   | A stage's authoring rules (`raw/`, `kb/`, `types/`, `reports/`, `work/`, `tools/`, `instructions/`) | The touched `<stage>/CONTRACT.md` |
   | A rule, gate, or invariant `AGENTS.md` itself states | The relevant `AGENTS.md` section (Invariants, Gates, File naming, Routing, ...) |
   | A workflow, stage, or command a human operates by hand | Whichever of `README.md`, `tools/README.md`, `INSTALL.md` or the pages under `docs/tutorials/`, `docs/how-to/` and `docs/reference/` names it - AGENTS.md § File naming says which document is for which reader. A new page goes into the area its kind of documentation belongs to; that area's `README.md` says which |
   | The reasoning behind a gate, boundary, or design decision | The `docs/explanation/` page that carries it, if one exists (AGENTS.md § File naming lists all seven reached from AGENTS.md itself, plus an eighth reached only from CLAUDE.md). **A decision with no page yet is the gap worth closing**: reasoning that lives only in a Gitea issue never ships - `dist export` carries `docs/explanation/` and no issue tracker, so a distributed instance gets the mechanism without the why |
   | A task-tracker adapter (`tools/chemenu/tasks/`), its recorded fixtures, or the live suite | [instructions/dev/tracker-testing.md](tracker-testing.md), and `MANIFEST.json` beside the fixtures when they were re-recorded |
   | A skill's own step sequence or catalogue | The skill's `SKILL.md` source under `instructions/<name>/` or `instructions/dev/<name>/`; for a shipped skill (not under `instructions/dev/`) whose name or `description` changed, or one added or removed, `wikitool docs reference --apply` for the skill catalogue `docs/reference/skills.md` |
   | A per-checkout configuration file an instance owns (`.wikitool-tasks.json`, `.wikitool-telemetry.json`, `.wikitool-remotes.json`, `.wikitool-upload.json`), or a section of the tiered settings (`wikitool.json`, `.wikitool-local.json`; `config_shapes.SETTINGS_SECTIONS`) | Its shape - a field, a default, what is required or tolerated - is its record in `tools/chemenu/config_shapes.py`, which the loader reads; change it there, then `wikitool docs reference --apply` for its region in [docs/reference/configuration.md](../../docs/reference/configuration.md). What a setting *does* is the hand-written prose around that region. Also the [setup-instance.md](../setup-instance.md) decision point that offers the file during setup, and `doctor`'s own row in [tools/CONTRACT.md](../../tools/CONTRACT.md), since `doctor` is what reports the file's state |
   | An installation instruction - [preflight.md](../preflight.md), [setup-instance.md](../setup-instance.md), [bootstrap.md](../bootstrap.md), [upgrade-instance.md](../upgrade-instance.md) - or `tools/prerequisites.txt` | [INSTALL.md](../../INSTALL.md), the human guide to the same procedure - for `upgrade-instance.md`, [docs/how-to/update-an-instance.md](../../docs/how-to/update-an-instance.md) instead. Read it against the instruction: what to prepare, the sentence for the agent, what the agent asks, where it stops and why. `docs verify` checks only the two enumerable overlaps - the prerequisites lists, which `wikitool docs prerequisites --apply` regenerates from the manifest, and the setup questions: a question the agent asks the user carries `<!-- setup-question: <key> -->` where it is asked in `setup-instance.md`, and `INSTALL.md` § "What the agent asks you" names it with the same marker. Every other sentence is this session's to compare. `INSTALL.md` does not retell the steps, so a change to their order or wording alone moves nothing there |
   | [dev-setup.md](dev-setup.md), the release workflow (`version bump`/`version release`/`publish`/CI), or another developer-facing process | [docs/dev/development.md](../../docs/dev/development.md), read against it the same way - nothing checks this pair at all. A page under `docs/dev/` is never shipped, so it may link into `instructions/dev/` and cite issue numbers |
   | A new page type the stack requires, or a new collection | Its type-spec and `COLLECTION.md` (both as the `.template` an instance adopts), the collection table in [kb/CONTRACT.md](../../kb/CONTRACT.md), and **both adoption paths**: [setup-instance.md](../setup-instance.md) for a fresh instance and [upgrade-instance.md](../upgrade-instance.md) for an existing one, where an unadopted template is what `docs verify` refuses. A new or changed `root: kb` type-spec or its schema - description, `layout:`, subtype enum, required fields - also needs `wikitool docs reference --apply` for `docs/reference/page-types.md` |

3. **A heading you changed means a table of contents to regenerate - by the tool, never by
   hand.** Every reference file over 100 lines carries one (`AGENTS.md`, the stage contracts,
   `kb/CONVENTIONS.md`, each `COLLECTION.md`, the flat `instructions/**.md` form, the
   type-specs, the `docs/` pages in all five areas - each with the `<name>.template` it ships
   as, where one exists, and a `SKILL.md` the one exception). Adding, renaming, reordering or
   deleting a `##`/`###` heading in one of them makes its region stale, and
   `docs verify` fails on stale exactly as it fails on missing:

   ```bash
   tools/wikitool docs toc          # dry run: which files would change
   tools/wikitool docs toc --apply  # write them
   ```

   The region is generated, so AGENTS.md invariant 1 applies to it like any other: editing the
   list by hand is the failure, not the fix - and a hand-written entry survives until the next
   `--apply` silently disagrees with it. It is cheap to over-run: `--apply` is idempotent and a
   file whose headings did not move is left untouched.

4. **Do not re-derive what `docs verify` already checks mechanically** - existence, table-row
   membership, ignore-canary state. That enumeration lives once, in
   [tools/CONTRACT.md](../../tools/CONTRACT.md)'s own `docs verify` row; copying it here would be a
   second copy that drifts, the exact failure this instruction exists to describe (Gitea #90).
   This instruction is only about the prose no check reads.

## Decision points

- **The change touched no document in the table?** Nothing to do - not every stack change moves
  a claim. A pure bugfix with an unchanged interface is the common case.
- **Unsure whether a `docs/explanation/` page's reasoning moved?** Read it. A `docs/` page carries no
  normative sentence and nothing verifies it by construction (AGENTS.md § File naming), so an
  unsure guess defaults to reading the page rather than skipping the question -
  [`stack-close`](stack-close/SKILL.md) step 3 asks it again in the closing phase as a
  backstop, not as the only time it is asked.
- **The surface is a whole new stage, collection, or gate?** The table's rows are the steady
  state; a new row-worthy category is itself a change to this instruction - add the row here
  rather than leaving the next session to rediscover the gap.

## Scope

Applies to stack-development sessions only - wiki content changes have their own provenance and
cross-reference rules (`kb/CONTRACT.md`, `wiki-manage`), which already pull the relevant pages
through as part of the normal skill. Not a replacement for `stack-close` step 3, which re-asks
the `docs/`-staleness question after the green CI run as the second, final check.