Knowledge-Base Sync

Use this skill when the task is to build or refresh the DocMason knowledge base.

This is a top-level operator workflow. Ordinary users should not need to name knowledge-construction or validation-repair themselves.

Required Capabilities

• local file access
• shell or command execution
• ability to inspect structured JSON output

If the agent cannot run local commands or inspect the resulting artifacts, stop and explain that the workspace cannot be synced reliably.

Procedure

1. Start with docmason status --json when you need the current stage, pending actions, or control-plane state.
2. Use docmason sync --json as the default build or refresh entry point.
   • let sync classify the physical cause before staging
   • zero-delta and foreground interaction-promotion-only checks return the current legal truth without full staging, validation, or publication; pending interaction promotion stays deferred maintenance rather than an answer-critical invalidation
   • for a source delta, preserve source-scoped transactional staging, cached validation for unchanged sources, compact global checks, and the existing atomic single-current publish model; do not improvise a parallel full-copy or publication path
   • use the reported cause, dirty/reused counts, phase timings, cache hits/misses, and physical clone/copy telemetry when diagnosing performance or unexpected work
   • keep workspace commands sequential while the sync lease is active
   • do not overlap status, sync, retrieve, trace, or validate-kb against the same workspace
3. Respect the control-plane result before reasoning about later workflow steps.
   • if sync_status=awaiting-confirmation, surface the confirmation prompt and continue with docmason sync --yes --json
   • if sync_status=waiting-shared-job, treat the existing shared sync job as the legal owner and wait or retry rather than starting a second path
   • if sync_status=action-required, surface the blocker directly
     • when the blocker is missing sync capability, route the operator to prepare
     • when the blocker is a repairable Office machine-baseline gap and the host can provide Full access, continue through docmason prepare --yes --json and then resume the same sync task instead of stopping at a passive blocker report
4. Treat successful sync as the deterministic truth-building path.
   • detect source changes
   • rebuild or reuse staged evidence
   • apply safe staged repairs
   • validate
   • publish to knowledge_base/current
5. If sync_status is valid or warnings, inspect hybrid_enrichment.
   • hybrid_enrichment describes whether deterministic sync left a remaining multimodal semantic gap
   • if mode is not-needed or covered, stop and return the publication result
   • if the sync payload also includes lane_b_follow_up.work_path, open that governed work packet first and treat it as the authoritative next step for this sync state
     • lane_b_follow_up is the bounded sync-time follow-up packet for that current staging state
   • when that governed packet is present, do not consume the broad queue blindly; only fall back to hybrid_work_path when no bounded packet was handed off
     • hybrid_work_path is the broader staged queue and is only the fallback when no bounded packet was handed off
   • if mode is candidate-prepared or partially-covered and no governed packet path was handed off, treat hybrid_work_path as the authoritative hard-artifact queue
   • do not improvise a second sync path or rewrite deterministic sidecars
   • write only additive semantic_overlay/ sidecars for units you can support honestly, then rerun docmason sync --json
6. Treat pending-synthesis as a compatibility or deliberate manual-mode state, not the normal operator destination.
   • route to knowledge-construction only when that legacy or manual path is actually intended
   • rerun docmason sync --json after staged authoring completes
7. If validation still blocks publication after the deterministic sync path finishes, route to validation-repair, then rerun docmason sync --json.
8. Return the final publication judgment to the main agent. Do not delegate final publication sign-off.

Escalation Rules

• Do not invent a second approval surface. The public approval command is docmason sync --yes.
• If Office rendering is required but unavailable, stop only when the governed prepare path still cannot repair or install LibreOffice honestly; otherwise continue through that repair path first.
• If staged or hybrid follow-up work requires per-source editing, that bounded work may be parallelized, but the final rerun and final judgment remain on the main path.
• Do not silently trigger this workflow from an ordinary answer path without surfacing the governed state transition.

Completion Signal

• The workflow is complete when docmason sync --json returns a final publication outcome for the current workspace state and any remaining hybrid state is either honestly covered, explicitly blocked, or explicitly surfaced through the governed follow-up packet and control-plane state.

Notes

• Bare docmason sync remains the deterministic published-truth builder.
• Shared-job reuse is part of the sync contract. Matching asks and operator sync commands should converge on one shared sync job, not parallel owners.
• PDF rendering uses Python dependencies. PPTX, DOCX, and XLSX rendering requires LibreOffice soffice.
• Interaction-derived memories may also be promoted through the same autonomous sync loop when the staged interaction path is relevant and supported.