compendium-curate

Compendium Curate — the pointer-not-paraphrase vocabulary discipline

You are about to record vocabulary. A generic note/vault tool will happily let you paraphrase a definition that already lives somewhere authoritative — and that copy will rot the moment the source changes. This skill is the opinion that a generic vault does not have. The store is plain markdown+frontmatter (any viewer reads it); what you are applying is the discipline.

The one rule (the wedge): pointer-not-paraphrase

An internal-register entry — a term whose authoritative definition is owned by some spec/doc — carries a one-line orientation gloss + a pointer to the owner, and never restates the owner's normative content. Restating creates a second source of truth that drifts. Compendium is a source of information, not a source of truth: authority is one-directional, entry → owner_spec.

If you find yourself copying an algorithm, a schema, a score formula, a numbered rule, a payload shape, or a version number — stop. Write a one-line gloss and a pointer instead.

The sole exception: general-register vocabulary that no spec owns (owner_spec: null). For that alone the entry IS the full-definition SSoT (nothing competes, zero conflict).

Dual register — one concept, two glosses

Every entry anchors one concept and carries two glosses so a reader at either altitude is served:

• expert gloss — dense, jargon-OK, for someone who knows the neighborhood.
• plain gloss — jargon unpacked, for someone meeting the term cold.

The two glosses describe the same concept; they are not two definitions. (This is the L2.2.2 dual-register convention.)

The frontmatter schema (the governance SSoT)

The frontmatter — not the prose — is the source of truth a tool reads. Minimum shape:

---
id: <kebab-case, == filename>          # immutable; the wikilink target
title: <Human Title>
type: glossary | concept | index
register_class: internal | general     # internal → owner_spec required; general → owner_spec null
owner_spec: <File.md#heading-slug> | null   # the authority pointer (one-directional, may point OUT of the store)
status: active | superseded
superseded_by: <id> | null
aliases: [<other surface forms>]
definition:
  text: "<one register-neutral sentence; ends in 'See owner_spec.' for internal>"
glosses:
  - { register: expert, text: "<dense one-liner>" }
  - { register: plain,  text: "<unpacked one-liner>" }
links: [<peer-ids>]                     # peer relations (term↔term); NOT the authority pointer
audit: { created: <YYYY-MM-DD>, updated: <YYYY-MM-DD> }
---
<body: a thin orientation primer that ENDS in the pointer — never a restatement.>