supersede

Wherefore: supersede

Retire an existing wherefore entry by marking it superseded (with a pointer to its replacement) or obsolete (context gone, no replacement). Updates the entry file and adds a visible banner, so neither the ask skill nor a human skimming raw files is left guessing. The entry's frontmatter is the single source of truth.

This skill is the only writer of decision status. Plan items have their own status machine (todo/doing/done/dropped) that never touches a decision's status; if work in the slate skill needs to retire or replace a decision, it routes here, not through slate.

No em dashes. Periods, commas, colons, semicolons, or parentheses instead. Firm project rule.

Never delete anything under a wherefore/ data dir. Retire, do not delete.

Workflow

1. Find the target entry. Locate wherefore/log/<slug>.md directly. If you only have a date or partial name, dump the entry frontmatter to find the slug:

   for f in wherefore/log/*.md; do
     awk -v F="$f" 'BEGIN{print "=== " F " ==="}
       /^---[[:space:]]*$/ { n++; if (n==2) exit; next }
       n==1 { print }' "$f"
   done
   

   If not found, say so clearly. If already superseded or obsolete, show the current state and ask the user before overwriting; don't silently re-supersede.

2. Determine the operation.

   • Superseded by: the user names a replacement slug (an existing entry) or a replacement description (a discussion not yet logged). If the replacement isn't logged yet, note it and proceed; the link will be a placeholder.
   • Obsolete: no replacement. The decision was abandoned or its context no longer exists.

3. Edit the target entry's frontmatter:

   Superseded:

   status: superseded
   superseded_by: <new-slug>
   superseded_date: YYYY-MM-DD
   

   Obsolete:

   status: obsolete
   superseded_date: YYYY-MM-DD
   

4. Add a one-line banner as the first body line of the target entry, after the closing --- of the frontmatter, before ## Summary. No emoji.