2026-09-16
Gap: Repository layout and pre-merge checks had grown ad hoc
Under fast iteration, the repository, its pre-merge checks, and its public development record had each drifted into disorder: thousands of disposable log files sat under version control, tooling had no grouping, an automated check re-ran everything on every change, and the development log carried inconsistent entries. This entry covers each gap and its fix.
Gap: Tracked logs and scattered tooling
Over a thousand log files, mostly disposable test output, had been committed to version control, and supporting scripts had accumulated with no grouping.
Disposable output was separated from records worth keeping; only the latter stayed tracked. Tooling was regrouped into folders named for its purpose (testing, capture, reporting, auditing, benchmarking, world generation). Evidence reports moved to one folder per report under a fixed size budget, with an index generated automatically.
Dead end: an earlier housekeeping pass had already permanently deleted about thirty historical reports, with no backup to recover them. They now appear as missing entries on the index rather than silently gone; reports are retired from the index going forward, never deleted.
Gap: A pre-merge check that re-ran everything
An automated check ran the full test suite plus a large battery of intentionally broken code variants before any change could merge, to prove the tests still catch real defects. The battery alone measured well over two hours in one loaded run, and ran in full every time regardless of what had changed.
The battery became incremental: a record keyed to each test's content and the code it covers lets it skip what's unchanged since it last passed, and a failing start now stops it within two minutes. Measured fresh on an idle machine, the full battery now takes about twenty-seven minutes.
Dead end, told plainly: the night this landed, one computer's default program setup was missing a required software library, so the record-keeping silently failed on every item, and the battery quietly re-ran from scratch instead of skipping the unchanged parts (the result was unaffected). Both were fixed the same night.
Gap: The public record was inconsistent and too long
The project keeps a plain-language public account of its own development, one entry per completed unit of work. Entries mixed labeled sections with flowing paragraphs, several ran past a comfortable length, and titles had drifted toward dramatic phrasing rather than plainly stating the problem solved.
Every entry converged on one flowing-paragraph style, was cut toward a shorter target under a firm upper limit, and was retitled to a flat statement of the problem it closed. An automated check now refuses any new entry breaking the format, length, image, or plain-language rules.
