distributed-publication

Files (3)

• README.md
• SKILL.md
• manifest.json · examples/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# distributed-publication — gather the reading, not the authority

Load `interdependent-work-graph/SKILL.md` first or alongside this skill. The work-graph skill identifies participants, exact identities, authority roles, relations, and non-transfer boundaries. This skill specializes the publication edge: how independently owned source units become one bounded reading surface without losing their ownership.

## Core contract

```text
one reading surface != one source authority
publication order != ownership transfer
content identity != producer authentication
```

- Declare the complete ordered source spine before implementing routes or rendering.
- Resolve every displayed source to an exact commit or immutable artifact identity.
- Bind content to repository, path, expected title or identity marker, commit, blob or object identity, and content digest.
- Preserve source-local license, canon, theorem, proof, certification, measurement, empirical, and frontier status.
- Render source text exactly unless a separately labeled transformation is explicitly requested.
- Route corrections to the source owner; refresh the publication after the source changes.
- Fail closed in production when required current sources cannot be resolved.
- Make retained snapshots or offline copies visibly fallback, never silently current.
- Publish the source identities used by the built artifact so the live surface can be independently checked.
- Preserve unresolved signatures, licensing questions, renderer limits, and source conflicts as `hmmm`.

## Non-trigger

Do not load this skill for:

- a document whose authoritative content and release history live entirely inside one repository;
- a directory of outbound links that does not reproduce, transform, or order the linked content;
- ordinary package dependencies or a multi-repository code change with no publication surface;
- a one-time quotation or citation that already follows the source's normal attribution rules;
- a plain-language companion view over one source — use `plain-lens` for that transformation contract.

Load it when publication creates a new combined reading object whose truth depends on preserving several independently owned sources together.

## Authority model

Each publication has at least two kinds of participant:

```text
source owner          owns its content, license, status, and correction history
publication consumer  owns ordering, retrieval, rendering, navigation, indexing, and display provenance
```

Additional participants may include a canon source, research ledger, external corpus, renderer, static fallback, search index, or deployment environment. Their authority must be stated rather than inferred from proximity.

The publication consumer may say:

- which source was displayed;
- which immutable identity and digest were used;
- where it appears in the reading order;
- which license declaration and license-review state the source supplied;
- whether retrieval was current or fallback;
- which rendering and accessibility checks passed.

The publication consumer may not say, merely by displaying the source:

- that it owns or supersedes the source;
- that all source licenses have merged;
- that theorem or proof status crosses source boundaries;
- that an implementation chapter validates a theory chapter;
- that an exact digest authenticates who authored or transported the content;
- that a retained snapshot is the current source.

## Workflow

1. **Load the work graph.** Resolve every source owner, publication consumer, renderer, deployment surface, and other participant that can change the published result.
2. **Declare the publication object.** Name the textbook, report, standard, corpus, archive, or other combined reading surface. State whether order is load-bearing.
3. **Define the ordered source spine.** For every unit declare position, stable source identifier, repository or artifact owner, path or object locator, expected title or identity marker, source-local license and license-review state, source-local status, and correction destination.
4. **Resolve immutable identity.** Pin commit and blob/object identity where available, plus a content digest over the exact bytes displayed. Branch names remain navigation aids only.
5. **Declare non-transfer boundaries.** At minimum cover authorship, ownership, license, canon status, proof status, certification status, measurement validity, empirical validity, and frontier status.
6. **Choose rendering mode.** Prefer exact, static-first rendering. Disable source HTML unless it is explicitly trusted and sanitized. If content is transformed, label the output as interpretation and preserve a path to exact source.
7. **Define failure and fallback policy.** Required current sources fail closed in production. Offline or degraded builds may use a retained snapshot only when visibly marked with its retained identity and retrieval failure.
8. **Build navigable publication surfaces.** Provide an ordered index, stable unit routes, source evidence, previous/next navigation where sequence matters, search where useful, and a static/no-JavaScript reading path.
9. **Publish build identity.** Emit a machine-readable artifact binding the publication build to every displayed source identity and fallback state.
10. **Validate locally and across sources.** Check order, completeness, expected titles or identity markers, license fields, digests, exact source links, status labels, routes, accessibility, and the public build manifest.
11. **Route corrections upstream.** Patch source content only in its owning repository. Patch ordering, rendering, or provenance defects only in the publication consumer.
12. **Carry hmmm forward.** Preserve unresolved signatures, source conflicts, license ambiguity, inaccessible formats, renderer gaps, or deployment freshness as explicit boundaries.

## Distributed-publication reference contract

A machine-consumed publication manifest may use this reference shape:

```json
{
  "schema": "the-interdependency.distributed-publication",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "publication_id": "<stable-id>",
  "title": "<publication title>",
  "order_is_load_bearing": true,
  "sources": [
    {
      "position": 0,
      "source_id": "<stable-source-id>",
      "repository": "owner/name",
      "path": "path/to/source.md",
      "expected_title": "<expected source heading or identity marker>",
      "commit": "<40-hex commit>",
      "blob": "<immutable object identity>",
      "content_sha256": "<64-hex digest>",
      "authority": "what this source owns",
      "license": "SPDX expression|source-declared text|hmmm",
      "license_status": "declared|unknown|human-review-required",
      "status": "source-local status",
      "correction_target": "owner/name:path/to/source.md",
      "fallback": false
    }
  ],
  "consumer": {
    "repository": "owner/publication",
    "commit": "<40-hex commit>",
    "route_prefix": "/publication/",
    "renderer": "exact-markdown-static",
    "fallback_policy": "fail-closed-production|explicit-retained-snapshot"
  },
  "boundaries": {
    "authorship_transfer": false,
    "ownership_transfer": false,
    "license_transfer": false,

From The-Interdependency/skill-lib, MPL-2.0.

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