/edikt:gov:compile

Compile accepted ADRs, active invariants, and team guidelines into topic-grouped governance rule files.

The output — .claude/rules/governance.md (index) and .claude/rules/governance/*.md (topic files) — is read by Claude automatically every session. Each topic file contains full-fidelity directives for a specific domain, loaded only when relevant files are being edited.

Usage

/edikt:gov:compile
/edikt:gov:compile --check

Arguments

Argument	Description
(none)	Compile and write governance index + topic rule files
--check	Validate only — report contradictions and conflicts without writing

How it works

Directive sentinels

Each governance document (ADR, invariant, guideline) can contain an LLM directive sentinel block:

## Directives

[edikt:directives:start]: #
paths:
  - "**/adapters/redis/**"
  - "**/cache*"
scope:
  - implementation
  - design
directives:
  - Use allkeys-lru eviction policy for all Redis instances (ref: ADR-008)
  - Max key size: 1MB. Max TTL: 24h for data caches, 5min for ACL caches (ref: ADR-008)
reminders:
  - "Before configuring Redis → MUST use allkeys-lru eviction (ref: ADR-008)"
verification:
  - "[ ] Redis eviction policy is allkeys-lru (ref: ADR-008)"
[edikt:directives:end]: #

When sentinel blocks exist, compile reads them verbatim — no extraction, no distillation. This is full-fidelity compilation.

Run /edikt:gov:review to generate sentinel blocks for documents that don't have them.

Fallback extraction

If a document has no sentinel block, compile falls back to extracting directives from the human content (the Decision section for ADRs, the Rule section for invariants). This is the v0.1.x behavior — it works but at reduced fidelity.

Topic grouping

Directives from all sources are grouped by topic. All caching rules from different ADRs and guidelines merge into governance/cache.md. All database rules merge into governance/database.md. Each directive keeps its source reference.

Three loading mechanisms

1. paths: frontmatter — Claude Code auto-loads the topic file when editing matching files. Platform-enforced, no reasoning step.
2. scope: tags — the routing table in governance.md maps activities (planning, design, review) to topic files. Claude matches its current task.
3. Signal keywords — the routing table lists domain keywords. Claude matches task context to signals.

Output structure

.claude/rules/
├── governance.md              ← index + invariants (always loaded)
├── governance/
│   ├── cache.md               ← all caching rules from all sources
│   ├── database.md            ← all DB rules from all sources
│   ├── multi-tenancy.md       ← all tenancy rules
│   └── architecture.md        ← cross-cutting decisions

Governance index (governance.md)

Contains:

• Non-Negotiable Constraints — invariant directives at the top (primacy bias)
• Routing table — maps signals and scopes to topic files
• Reminders — pre-action interrupts aggregated from all sources: "Before writing SQL -> MUST include tenant_id." Capped at 10.
• Verification Checklist — grep-verifiable self-audit items Claude checks before finishing. Capped at 15.
• Reminder: Non-Negotiable Constraints — invariant directives restated at the bottom (recency bias)

The reminders and checklist are generated by /edikt:invariant:compile and /edikt:adr:compile as reminders: and verification: lists inside each sentinel block. gov:compile aggregates them.

Topic files (governance/*.md)

Each contains:

• paths: frontmatter for auto-loading
• Full-fidelity directives with source references
• Source attribution comments

Compilation summary

✅ Governance compiled

  governance/cache.md
    ← ADR-008 (§Eviction, §TTL Strategy)
    ← guideline-database.md (§Caching)

  governance/database.md
    ← ADR-003 (§Queries, §Migrations)

  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  5 ADRs + 2 invariants + 1 guideline
  → 3 topic files + index
  → 27 total directives
  Sentinel coverage: 6/8 documents (75%)

Contradiction detection

Before writing, the command checks for contradictions:

CONTRADICTION DETECTED
  ADR-001: "Claude Code only — no multi-tool support"
  ADR-007: "Support Cursor for rule distribution"

  Resolve before compiling. Supersede one or reconcile both.

Invariant conflicts are errors — invariants always win. ADR conflicts are warnings.

Cross-reference validation

Every directive that references an ADR or invariant (ref: ADR-NNN, ref: INV-NNN) is verified against the actual source file. If the referenced identifier doesn't exist in the source document, the reference is stripped — preventing fabricated cross-references from reaching the compiled output.

This also runs in /edikt:gov:review when generating sentinel blocks.

CI validation

/edikt:gov:compile --check

Reports contradictions, conflicts, sentinel coverage, and directive counts without writing any files.

Migration from v0.1.x

If you have an existing flat governance.md from v0.1.x, running /edikt:gov:compile automatically migrates to the new format:

1. Detects the old format
2. Generates topic files from existing directives
3. Replaces the flat file with the new index
4. Reports what changed

For best results, run /edikt:gov:review first to generate directive sentinel blocks in your source documents.

When to run

Run after:

• Capturing a new ADR with /edikt:adr:new
• Adding an invariant with /edikt:invariant:new
• Updating a guideline file
• Running /edikt:gov:review to generate or update sentinels

What's next

• /edikt:gov:review — generate directive sentinels and review language quality
• /edikt:adr:new — capture an architecture decision
• /edikt:invariant:new — add a hard constraint