ingest: Governance — three-tier model for variants
A new Foundation page documenting where features belong as the wiki-llm
pattern spreads from base template into specialized variants (e.g.
chrissweet/llm-wiki-tutor-template, future codebase-onboarding and
grant-authoring siblings).
Extends Template-vs-Derived-Projects by introducing a third tier
between the base and an instantiated project: the variant template.
The two-layer model in Template-vs-Derived-Projects compresses variant
+ base into "the template" — once a variant exists, the distinction
matters because feature placement decisions cascade differently across
three tiers than two.
The page covers:
- The placement rule for new features ("would a project unrelated to
this variant's behavior still benefit?") with a table mapping base
vs variant vs derived project, and examples from the current
ecosystem.
- Variant-fork vs feature-flag criteria, including the canonical
example of a grant-authoring variant whose "write it for me" rule
would conflict with a tutor variant's "never deliver the answer."
- Rebase discipline referencing Sync-Flow's ALWAYS_FILES contract,
escalated one tier (variants rebase from base the same way derived
projects rebase from variants).
- When a feature graduates from variant to base (two variants
implementing the same thing, or a base-level user asking).
- Ownership / drift detection so variants don't silently reimplement
each other's wheels.
- Three open questions for resolution as the variant population grows:
variant discovery, versioning, cross-variant features.
Cross-references Template-vs-Derived-Projects, Sync-Flow, Applied-
Example-Microelectronics-Tutor-Demo, and Lesson-Parallel-File-Drift
(the same footgun, escalated to the variant tier).
Home and index updated under Foundation, adjacent to Template-vs-
Derived-Projects.