Adr

---
description: "Accepted decision that source-claim grounding is the promoted skill cp-skill-ground, the single advertised entry for choosing which quotes an ingest retains and the only writer of its Quotes section, with cp-skill-ingest confined to (re-)ingest"
type: ../types/adr.md
tags: []
status: accepted
---

# 076-Source-claim grounding is a promoted skill

**Status:** accepted
**Date:** 2026-08-25

## Context

[ADR 073](./073-untracked-source-snapshots-require-ingest-grounding.md) made one
procedure responsible for deciding what source evidence a claim needs: read the
ingest's `## Quotes`, then either declare them sufficient, retain the minimum
verbatim excerpts through `cp-skill-ingest`'s `quote_append_request`, or declare
`snapshot required`. That procedure was a plain instruction addressed by file
path.

Its only inbound routes were the stop-and-report handoff inside `cp-skill-write`
and `cp-skill-write-multistage`, ADR 073 itself, and the rollout workshop. A
request that does not start inside a writer — an operator asking to retain a
quote that supports a discussion — had no route at all. Because instructions are
addressed by path, the writers' handoff also had to carry two literal routes,
one for the source checkout and one for an installed project.

The unrouted request did not stay unrouted; it matched the wrong surface.
`cp-skill-ingest` advertised "mechanically append verified verbatim quotes", so
an agent holding that request matched the ingest skill, invoked it with a
natural-language target, and the skill selected quotes anchored to no claim.
That happened on 2026-08-25 and forced the choice: one request had two
advertised surfaces, and the one it reached did not own the decision.

Two standing claims decide where the procedure belongs.
[Capability placement should follow autonomy readiness](../../notes/capability-placement-should-follow-autonomy-readiness.md):
a bounded procedure that has already run repeatedly and autonomously — the
rollout cohorts — is promotion-ready.
[Skills are instructions plus routing and execution policy](../../notes/skills-are-instructions-plus-routing-and-execution-policy.md):
promotion changes discovery and invocation, not the procedure itself.

## Decision

**Grounding is the promoted skill `cp-skill-ground`.** It lives at
`kb/instructions/cp-skill-ground/SKILL.md`, is installed by `commonplace-init`,
and is user-invocable with arguments `Target` and `Claim needed`. Its body and
result protocol — `quotes sufficient`, `quotes added`, `snapshot required` — are
unchanged from the instruction it replaces.

**`cp-skill-ground` is the single advertised entry** for deciding which quotes
an ingest retains, and the only procedure that writes an ingest's `## Quotes`
section. `cp-skill-ingest` ingests a URL or local snapshot into a new
`.ingest.md` and executes bounded `re_ingest_request`s; it has no quote-append
path at all. One request, one matching surface.

**Selection and verification stay separate without a second skill**, because the
independent check is code. `commonplace-validate` resolves every `Source extract
(verbatim)` against the name-paired snapshot and fails the ingest on any extract
that does not occur there, so the agent that chose a passage never certifies its
own transcription.

**Writers still stop when Quotes are insufficient.** Their handoff becomes a
single route addressed by skill name — invoke `cp-skill-ground` with `Target`
and `Claim needed` — instead of a path branched on install layout.

## Considered alternatives

**Keep the instruction and add routing pointers.** An `AGENTS.md` pointer, or a
broader `cp-skill-ingest` description, would make the procedure findable without
promoting it. Rejected: it leaves two advertised surfaces for one request, which
is the failure that motivated the decision. The capability-placement rule puts
an autonomy-ready procedure on the skill surface rather than in a control-plane
inventory.

**Promote it and let writers invoke it automatically.** This is the candidate
direction of the proposal *Source-claim grounding skill and evidence-retention
boundary*. Deferred, not rejected: a request to write one artifact would then
mutate a second, and that mutation authority is a separate decision. Promotion
for explicit use carries no new mutation footprint, so it need not wait on that
question.

**Keep the append as a mechanical path inside `cp-skill-ingest`.** This is the
ADR 073-era shape: grounding selects the passages and hands a
`quote_append_request` to the ingest skill, which performs the mutation.
Rejected: it makes one skill two things — create a source record, and mutate an
existing one — and keeps a competing description trigger alive for exactly the
request this decision routes. Its claimed benefit, a mutation owner independent
of the selector, is already supplied by the validator's deterministic quote
resolution.

**Move retained evidence out of the ingest first.** The same proposal leaves the
evidence-retention boundary open. Left open here: the skill's result protocol
does not change if the append target later moves, so promoting now forecloses
nothing.

## Consequences

Operativity path: grounding and quote-retention requests reach
`cp-skill-ground` through harness skill discovery, with no competing match on
`cp-skill-ingest`; the force is routing, not validation. Writers report one
route, and installed projects need no path-branched handoff.

`cp-skill-ingest` has one job and carries no structured mutation request other
than re-ingest. A bad quote append is now diagnosed by `commonplace-validate`'s
`source quote` check against the pinned snapshot rather than by a second agent's
recheck of the first agent's selection.

The proposal retains only its undecided parts — automatic invocation from
writers, and the evidence-retention boundary.

Caveat on the expected benefit: on this harness a `context: fork` skill inherits
the invoking conversation, so promotion does not by itself isolate source
reading from target prose. Any later claim that grounding runs in a fresh
context must name the launch mode that actually provides it.

---

Relevant Notes:

- [Capability placement should follow autonomy readiness](../../notes/capability-placement-should-follow-autonomy-readiness.md) — rests-on: the readiness criterion under which a repeatedly-run bounded procedure belongs on the skill surface
- [Skills are instructions plus routing and execution policy](../../notes/skills-are-instructions-plus-routing-and-execution-policy.md) — rests-on: why promotion changes discovery and invocation while leaving the procedure intact
- [ADR 073 — Untracked source snapshots require ingest grounding](./073-untracked-source-snapshots-require-ingest-grounding.md) — extends: gives the grounding procedure it defined a routable entry point without altering its result protocol
- [Deterministic validation should be a script](../../notes/deterministic-validation-should-be-a-script.md) — rests-on: why the hard-oracle quote check belongs in `commonplace-validate` rather than in a second reviewing agent
- [Ground a source-dependent claim](../../instructions/cp-skill-ground/SKILL.md) — implemented-by: the promoted skill this decision installs