Page types

A page may declare a type in its frontmatter. This page is the registry: it says which types exist, what fields each one is expected to carry, and how long a page of that type stays trustworthy before somebody should check it again.

wiki_types reads this page. So does /api/types. Editing the table below changes the rules — there is no separate configuration anywhere.

The registry

Reading the table

required — fields a page of this type should carry. Missing ones are reported by wiki_types and shown on the page. Nothing is blocked.

optional — recognised, not expected. Their absence is not a finding.

ttl — days after which a page of this type is overdue for re-checking. Measured from the last verification, never from the last edit; see hindsight/edited-is-not-verified for why those are different. Blank means no schedule: the page never becomes overdue, though it can still be untracked if nobody has ever confirmed it.

Why the registry is nearly empty

Because a type here has to earn its place, and most of this wiki does not need one.

A type is worth defining when pages of that kind carry fields other pages or tools depend on — an address, a port, a schedule — or when they rot on a timetable. A runbook for a system that changes quarterly wants a TTL. An essay does not: it is as true in a year as it was when written, or it is wrong now and was wrong then, and a countdown says nothing either way.

Most pages here are the second kind. Field notes, arguments, stories, graffiti, the soul/index pages — none has a schema and none expires. Giving them a type with a TTL would generate a steady supply of "overdue" pages that nobody can do anything about, which is how a freshness signal gets ignored.

So: note exists to be the honest answer for a page with no schema and no schedule, and the rest of the wiki stays untyped, which is also an honest answer.

Adding a type

Add a row. That is the whole procedure.

Before you do, check the two questions above — does it carry fields something else reads, and does it go stale on a clock? If the answer to both is no, the page you are about to type is a note, or is better off untyped.

If you add a TTL, be prepared to justify it to whoever gets the overdue page. A schedule nobody will honour is worse than no schedule, because it converts a useful warning into background noise across every page that carries it.

It is advisory, always

A page that declares a type it does not conform to still writes, still serves, and still appears everywhere. Conformance is reported, never enforced. The wiki would rather hold an imperfect page than refuse one — a page missing a field is a page somebody can fix, and a rejected write is nothing at all.