memorize: stacked-PR doc-ancestry rule (general) + sparta website hook

[d-morrison]

Captures the lesson from sparta PR #185, where website docs were written for a feature (order_response_delay) that lived in a sibling branch, not in the PR's own ancestry — the reviewer flagged it as a hallucinated feature.

Per review feedback, split into two scopes instead of a single sparta-only note:

• General rule → memories/preferences.md: "only document features present on the current branch's ancestry — grep first." Fires in any repo, framed as a specific case of the standing "NEVER assume; ALWAYS verify" rule.
• Sparta hook → memories/repo/sparta.md: the sparta-specific website-update policy that makes this trap likely, the concrete ums: gha#92 post-merge learnings #185 example, and a pointer to the general rule.

Local validators pass (validate-skills.py, check-vendored-drift.py).

[claude]

Claude finished @d-morrison's task in 2m 56s —— View job

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Code Review — PR #162

• Gather context and read changed files
• Review the memory file content
• Check cross-file consistency
• Post findings

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Verdict: Approve with one cross-file fix needed

The content is correct and well-structured. The rule is clear, the motivation is concrete (referencing PR #185 specifically), and the Why/How-to-apply format matches the memory spec. No AI tells, no hallucinated references.

One finding — not in the changed file, but triggered by it:

memories/tools.md lines 253–255 are now factually wrong

The tools.md memory says:

Memory files (memories/*.md) have no YAML frontmatter — the file starts directly with a # heading. grep -r "^name:" memories/ always returns empty; don't use frontmatter fields to locate or identify a memory file.

Both memories/repo/rme.md (already merged) and memories/repo/sparta.md (this PR) use YAML frontmatter with name:, description:, and metadata.type: fields. The grep claim is no longer true.

A future session reading tools.md may:

• strip frontmatter it finds in memory files (treating it as a mistake)
• grep for ^name: in memories and draw a wrong conclusion when it finds nothing

The tools.md section should be updated to reflect current practice — either delete the no-frontmatter claim or rewrite it to match how rme.md and sparta.md are actually structured.

This can be fixed in this PR or a follow-up. Since it's cross-file and already an existing gap (rme.md predates this PR), a follow-up is fine — but a tracking issue would keep it from being lost.

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[claude]

Claude finished @d-morrison's task in 4m 0s —— View job

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Code Review — PR #162

• Gather context
• Read changed files
• Check what changed since prior review
• Post findings

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Confirming review — prior verdict stands, new commit is clean

The prior review (2026-06-22) approved the original sparta.md with one cross-file finding: the tools.md claim that memory files have no YAML frontmatter (memories/tools.md:276–278) is stale.

The new commit (0ed747d) since that review — split doc-ancestry rule into general preference + sparta hook — is clean and is an improvement on the original. It:

• Adds a portable general rule to memories/preferences.md (lines 105–110): only document features present in the current branch's ancestry; grep for the symbol first; move docs to the branch where the code lives.
• Trims memories/repo/sparta.md to cross-reference that rule instead of restating it, keeping only the sparta-specific context (the website/ policy, the concrete PR ums: gha#92 post-merge learnings #185 case).

The split is the right structure. No new issues in either changed file. No AI tells, no line-number citations, no hallucinated references in the new content.

Still open from the prior review

memories/tools.md:276–278 still claims memory files have no YAML frontmatter and that grep -r "^name:" memories/ returns empty. Both are now false (sparta.md and rme.md both use frontmatter). A future session reading that section may strip frontmatter it finds, or draw wrong conclusions from the grep.

The prior review said a follow-up issue is fine since the gap predates this PR. If one hasn't been filed yet, please track it — that's the only open item blocking a fully-clean verdict.

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[d-morrison]

Addressed the one open item. The stale tools.md:276–278 claim that memory files have no YAML frontmatter is now false — this PR itself adds the frontmatter'd memories/repo/sparta.md — so rather than defer, I fixed it in 01e9ce2: the section now says frontmatter is optional (name/description/metadata), shows how to grep for it, and warns to preserve rather than strip it. No follow-up issue needed.

Validators still pass. The push re-triggers the review automatically.

[claude]

Claude finished @d-morrison's task in 1m 10s —— View job

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Code Review — PR #162

• Gather context
• Read changed files
• Verify the tools.md fix addresses the prior finding
• Post findings

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Confirming review — PR is fully clean

The second prior review (2026-06-23) approved the content changes (preferences.md, sparta.md) and left one open item: memories/tools.md still falsely claimed memory files have no YAML frontmatter. That item is now closed.

Commit 01e9ce2 rewrites memories/tools.md:275–280 correctly:

• Before: asserted memory files have no YAML frontmatter and that grep -r "^name:" memories/ always returns empty.
• After: says frontmatter is optional (may carry name/description/metadata), gives the correct grep to find frontmatter'd files, and explicitly warns to preserve rather than strip existing frontmatter.

The fix is accurate, complete, and directly counters both failure modes the prior review identified (a session stripping frontmatter it finds, or drawing wrong conclusions from a grep). The example file cited (memories/repo/sparta.md) is the file this PR adds — no stale reference. No AI tells, no hallucinated symbols.

All three changed files are clean. No new findings.

[d-morrison]

ARDI complete — the latest review confirms all three changed files clean with no findings, and all CI is green. PR is ready to merge.