People Registry

People Registry Management

Build and maintain people profiles from document context. The registry grows organically as documents are processed.

Person Profile Structure

Each person gets a profile at knowledge/people/<firstname>-<lastname>.md:

---
type: person
created: YYYY-MM-DD
updated: YYYY-MM-DD
sources:
  - processed/source1.md
  - processed/source2.md
name_variations:
  - John
  - John S.
  - John Smith
  - jsmith
  - @john.smith
---

# John Smith

## Basic Info

| Field | Value | Confidence | Source |
|-------|-------|------------|--------|
| Role | Senior Engineer | High | sprint-review.md |
| Team | Platform Team | High | team-sync.md |
| Department | Engineering | Medium | inferred |
| Location | San Francisco | Low | mentioned once |

## Expertise Areas

| Area | Evidence |
|------|----------|
| Backend systems | Presented architecture review |
| API design | Led API redesign initiative |
| Python | Mentioned as primary language |

## Responsibilities

- Lead technical design for Project Alpha
- Code review for platform services
- On-call rotation for data pipeline

## Active Projects

| Project | Role | Since |
|---------|------|-------|
| Project Alpha | Tech Lead | 2024-01 |
| API Gateway | Contributor | 2023-10 |

## Document Mentions

| Date | Document | Context |
|------|----------|---------|
| 2024-01-15 | sprint-review.md | Led sprint review presentation |
| 2024-01-10 | team-sync.md | Discussed migration timeline |
| 2024-01-05 | 1-on-1-notes.md | Performance review mentioned |

## Working Relationships

| Relationship | Person | Context |
|--------------|--------|---------|
| Works with | Jane Doe | Same project team |
| Reports to | Bob Wilson | Mentioned as manager |
| Collaborates | Sarah Kim | API design partner |

## Notes

- Prefers async communication
- Usually presents in sprint reviews
- Expert on legacy migration

Name Recognition

Identifying the Same Person

Track name variations to recognize the same person:

Matching Criteria:

• Same full name (case-insensitive)
• First name matches with contextual confirmation
• @mention username maps to known name
• Email prefix matches known name

Variation Examples:

John Smith
├── John
├── John S.
├── J. Smith
├── jsmith
├── @john.smith
├── john.smith@company.com
└── JS (initials, if contextually clear)

Handling Ambiguity

When name is ambiguous:

1. Check context clues (team, project, role)
2. If still ambiguous, create separate entry with note
3. Flag for human review
4. Later merges can consolidate

## Review Needed

- "John" mentioned without last name - could be John Smith or John Davis
- Context suggests Platform team, likely John Smith

Information Extraction

Role Detection

Look for role indicators:

• Explicit titles: "John, our Tech Lead..."
• Action indicators: "John will present the architecture"
• Responsibility context: "John is handling the deployment"

Role confidence levels:

• High: Title explicitly stated
• Medium: Role inferred from consistent actions
• Low: Single mention or ambiguous

Team Detection

Look for team associations:

• Explicit: "the Platform team's John Smith"
• Meeting context: "Platform team sync" with John speaking
• Project association: If project maps to team

Expertise Detection

Infer expertise from:

• Topics they present or explain
• Questions directed to them
• "Ask John about X" patterns
• Technologies they discuss in detail

Profile Updates

Adding New Information

When new document mentions a known person:

1. Read existing profile
2. Compare new information with existing
3. Add new information with source
4. Update confidence if evidence strengthens
5. Update updated date
6. Add document to sources list

Handling Contradictions

If new info contradicts existing:

## Possible Updates

**Role Change?**
- Previous: Senior Engineer (source: doc1.md, 2024-01)
- New: Staff Engineer (source: doc2.md, 2024-03)
- Action: Likely promotion, update role

Information Aging

Note when information might be stale:

• Roles may change over time
• Team assignments shift
• Project involvement ends

Mark old information:

## Historical

| Field | Value | Period |
|-------|-------|--------|
| Team | Mobile Team | 2023-01 to 2023-09 |
| Role | Junior Engineer | 2022-06 to 2023-06 |

Cross-Linking

Link to Projects

See also:
- [[project-alpha-status]] - Current project
- [[project-alpha-tasks]] - Active tasks

Link to Other People

## Team

- [[jane-doe]] - PM for Project Alpha
- [[bob-wilson]] - Engineering Manager

Quality Guidelines

Minimum for New Profile

• Full name (or best guess with flag)
• At least one context mention
• Source document reference

Don't Create Profile For

• Mentioned once with no context
• External people (unless relevant to project)
• Clearly hypothetical mentions

Flag for Review

• Name conflicts (multiple Johns)
• Inferred information
• Significant role/team changes
• First-name-only mentions

Registry Maintenance

Periodic Review Tasks

• Merge duplicate entries
• Update stale information
• Consolidate name variations
• Remove irrelevant entries

Merge Procedure

When merging two profiles:

1. Keep the more complete profile as base
2. Add unique info from other profile
3. Combine sources lists
4. Update name_variations
5. Archive or delete duplicate