Operational Specification · Feb 2026
Documentation Decay
The tool is never the problem. Prose documentation has no natural maintenance signal. Without structure, every
wiki page is a liability waiting to happen.
01/The Decay Mechanism
ANALYSIS: The half-life of a prose wiki page is ~90 days before it becomes misleading.
- Prose pages look "finished"—they
lack signals for updates.
- Authority Bias: Readers assume text
is current because it is "official."
- Friction: Updating prose requires
rewriting entire paragraphs.
! No one wants to edit "someone else's
work," so errors accumulate.
02/The CLN Difference
Signal
. Every line has an implicit
freshness signal.
* @updated lines show
exactly when facts were verified.
* ? lines are
explicitly flagged as unverified.
+ Granular: Updating one line doesn't
require touching others.
+ Low friction: New team members can
add a ? line without feeling intrusive.
03/Outcome: Aging Gracefully
= CLN docs age gracefully: stale parts
are visible, fresh parts are trusted.
= Maintenance cost drops: Update 1 line
vs. rewrite 1 page.
04/The Maintenance Test
* Find a page edited 6+ months ago.
Which facts are true?
* In prose, you can't tell. In CLN, the
operators @ and ? reveal the truth.