Process the material through Cairns

See the three levels on one example

Cairns is how the knowledge is organized. The physical folder remains library/.

The levels are numbered in the order a later job reads them: L1, then L2, then L3 when needed. Start here with L3 because that is the material you already have.

L3: the original. This is the selected message, document, or export as collected. Sallee preserves it so you can return to the wording. If you saved an edited copy yourself, its label and what you left out stay visible; it isn’t presented as an untouched copy of the whole source.

L2: the cards. L2 is the card catalogue: source cards plus one-fact cards. A source card holds a short summary, the key facts, and the questions it answers for one original; a one-fact card holds a single checked fact. Every key fact points at a passage in its original. A source card also carries a few labels: its source date, who may use it, its waypoint, what kind of source it is, the names and topics in it, and how confident the card is, with what remains uncertain. It describes what the source says without turning one observation into a rule for every case.

L1: the index and its waypoints. This tells a later job which cards to open for a question. Each waypoint is its own short L1 card for one topic, in library/knowledge/waypoints/, naming the cards to open first for questions on that topic. The index lists your waypoints and links each one, lists cards and their originals, and identifies what the collection must not be used for. For this exercise, start with four suggested waypoints: Personal, Professional, Projects and Team, described in your words. You can rename, reword or drop any of them before you say yes, and add one later when an original fits none of them. Each waypoint stays under about 6,000 tokens, and your library can have up to 16 of them. Camp caps a personal vault at five. A business library covers more ground, so Workforce allows up to 16: you start with 4 and split a waypoint when it fills. Before a filing adds a waypoint, a small read-only check counts your waypoints, estimates each one's size and confirms every index row has its card, so Sallee proposes a split or a merge instead of going past either limit. When one grows past that size, Sallee proposes splitting it in two, and that split waits for your yes like any filing. It is a map, not a gate: a question that fits no waypoint still gets a search of every card before anyone calls it a miss. You review changes to that guide. The answers and fuller source summaries belong in the cards and originals.

Here is the same fictional client-kickoff source at all three levels:

The condition before kickoff matters. “A brief is part of onboarding” would lose it. “The brief must arrive five days before kickoff” would add something the original does not say.

Confirm what your organization may keep

Before proposing cards, Sallee reads the collection receipt and the places you chose for your material. In Week 1 Lesson 4, “Give everything a place”, you gave each kind of material one of four places, and those choices are saved in work/course/staff/approved-sources.md. For each original, card and index change, Chief brings back where it would go and who could use it.

Placing a source says who may use it. Filing it gives it a card and a reviewed entry in the index. The four places are:

• Org-wide: every agent may use it.
• Department: one named department may use it.
• This job: only for this job; it stays out of durable knowledge.
• Private: keep out.

If you work with clients, decide where their material belongs before anything is filed. Use This job for material that should help this job without your organization remembering it afterward.

If your new material isn’t covered by a place you’ve already chosen, tell Chief, and decide its place before anything is filed.

Only material placed org-wide or in a department goes into the filing proposal, and the proposal keeps that limit.

If none of your selection is placed org-wide or in a department, stop there. Talk with whoever owns the material, or choose other material you’re allowed to keep. Don’t loosen a place just to finish the lesson.

Do this now: check the source boundary

Choose one item from the receipt. Confirm that it is the item you selected, that its saved original opens, and that the proposed place matches your decision.

Understand Chain of Density (CoD)

Sallee uses Chain of Density (CoD), a way of writing a summary in several passes, where each pass packs in more useful detail that the source supports, without making the summary longer. Here are the five passes Sallee uses to write the summary on a source card (L2). You don’t run Chain of Density yourself; Sallee does that work. Knowing the passes helps you see what to check.

1. Start with a short summary. What is this source about?
2. Look for missing important details. Which names, dates, conditions, or handoffs does the short version leave out?
3. Rewrite with those details included. Keep it about the same length, so it gets fuller rather than longer. Keep it easy to read, keep anything uncertain marked as uncertain, and keep what each source says separate.
4. Check again against the source. Did the rewrite add anything unsupported or still miss something that changes the meaning?
5. Check the questions the card should answer, then write the final summary. These are the questions a later job would ask that should lead it to this card. Check each one against the original, then write the final summary with its useful detail and anything still uncertain: about 120 to 180 words, shorter for a short original. Only the summary counts toward that length. The card's labels, key facts and references sit outside it.

In the fictional kickoff example, the early summary might say that the team prepared for kickoff. The detail check should recover the signed-brief condition. The final summary must retain it without inventing a deadline or treating a missing confirmation as proof that the brief never arrived.

A denser summary means more supported detail in about the same space. It doesn’t mean more certainty than the source gives.

Read the actual proposal

Your other agents don’t search the library on their own. They ask Sallee, so every answer from your library comes back with its sources, found the same way each time. Sallee works to four rules:

• It cites every claim. Each key fact on a card points to its original, at a line or a heading, with a date when the source has one. Originals never change, so those lines stay put. If it can't cite something, it doesn't go in as a claim.
• “Not found in the approved scope” is a complete answer. It means Sallee looked where it is allowed to look and the library did not have it. It must not fill the gap with something that sounds helpful.
• It is the only agent that writes your cards and index. Chief routes the job; Sallee prepares and files the approved update. Sallee never edits your originals.
• It files nothing without your explicit approval. A proposal is not approved knowledge.

Chief shows you the work order, names Sallee, and waits for your go. Sallee then reads the original you approved and returns a proposal. Chief should show it exactly as Sallee wrote it, separate from Chief's summary. A summary isn't the proposal.

Read the source card and the proposed index and waypoint changes. On a first filing, read the proposed index and waypoint cards themselves, including any limits on what the library should be used for. On later filings, inspect the changes without replacing earlier approved entries by accident.

Check that:

• The original is the source you selected and its reference works.
• Every key fact is in your original, at the passage it cites.
• Conditions, dates, and uncertainties survived the summary.
• The card is in Sallee's words, not the email's. Your library stays on your computer and out of Git: your originals, your cards, your waypoints and your index are all left out of your workbench's saved versions (Git save points). A card is still read by every later job, so a card made from an email or message leaves out its subject line, its sentences and personal details such as addresses or passwords. Numbers, dates and conditions stay exact. The original keeps the exact wording. If an earlier save point already holds cards or an index, library/README.md shows the one safe command that stops Git tracking them while keeping the files on your computer.
• The index says what the card is for, in words you would recognize, under the waypoint where you would look for it. Compare it with your source list. Check that its description and pointers accurately identify the source card.
• The proposed use and save locations match what you are approving.

Do this now: put one claim beside its original

Choose a claim that could change how someone carries out the process. Open its cited passage and compare them.

Then make your own judgment: it matches, it leaves something out, or it adds something the source does not support. Explain the difference if there is one. The Professor can help you find the passage, but your judgment remains yours.

Revise, decline, or approve

If something is wrong, send the correction through Chief to Sallee. Ask to see the revised proposal before making a filing decision. Preserve the earlier proposal and the reason for the change so the decision remains understandable.

If the source cannot support the claim, remove the claim or keep the uncertainty explicit. If the whole source is unsuitable, decline the filing and return to source selection. Leaving it unfiled is a proper ending for that proposal.

If the proposal is accurate and useful, approve it. Sallee shows you an exact line to copy back, shaped like this:

Yes, file as proposed in runs/<job>/filing-proposal.md into library/knowledge/<destination>

<job> is this job’s folder name and <destination> is where the card goes; Sallee fills both in for you. Read the line, then copy it back exactly. A plain “yes” isn’t accepted, on purpose: the full line ties your approval to the exact proposal and place you just read, so nothing else can be filed on the strength of it.

Check what was saved

After approval, have Chief show Sallee's saved card, index entry, and filing receipt. Open them, not just the success message.

The result should match the version you approved. The original should remain unchanged. The index should point to the card, and the card should point to the original.

Sallee runs these five checks as part of filing and records the results in the receipt:

1. The card has its labels, a summary, and its key facts. The index points at it. No secrets have entered either.
2. The card's source is an original you approved.
3. No other card covers the same original.
4. A question the card should answer gets answered, by going to the index first and then the card.
5. A question the card should not answer comes back as a miss.

The last two are Sallee’s supported-question and unsupported-question checks. You do not need to invent test questions or grade Sallee separately. Read their status in the receipt alongside the saved result. A missing or failed check goes back through Chief for recovery; it does not disappear because a file exists.

Continue through the records needed for all three completed instances. The number of cards depends on the sources, not on a required count of three files. Keep incomplete and declined items visible.

Expect one round like this for each original: a proposal, your yes, and the check of what was saved. Sallee files one original at a time on purpose. Each filing also updates the index, so every yes applies to exactly what you just read, and a later filing can't quietly change an earlier one. If you collected ten emails, that means ten short rounds. Before you start, look at your collection with Chief and pick the originals that actually show the start, the handoffs and the end of each instance. File those first. You can leave the rest unfiled, or file them later if the map needs them.

If a check fails after a write, ask Gigawatt to inspect what is actually on disk before retrying. Do not re-file the same original just to make a success message appear.

If you get stuck

A smaller step: Review one source card and one consequential claim. Follow its reference all the way back before continuing with the rest.

What you’ll keep

Selected originals in library/, approved L2 source cards, a reviewed L1 index, and the proposals, revisions, decisions, and receipts behind the filing. Rejected proposals stay distinct from approved knowledge.

Before you finish

You can point to a claim you checked and explain your decision. The saved result matches what you approved. The records needed for your three instances are filed. If a gap in collecting or filing stops you, note the next step to fix it, and fix it before the evidence goes to Cipher. Open questions inside records you can use are fine: they stay visible for Cipher's map.

Words you now own

• The original (L3): the preserved source you can return to.
• The source card (L2): a summary and supported facts pointing to that original.
• The card catalogue (L2): source cards plus one-fact cards.
• The index (L1): the reviewed guide to which cards to open.
• A waypoint: one L1 card for one topic, linked from the index, that names the cards to open first.
• Chain of Density: refining a summary with more supported detail at roughly the same length.
• A filing proposal: the exact update you review before approving it.

Next: Lesson 5, see your organized evidence and hand it to Cipher.