# Artifact Resurfacing > Four-phase protocol for clearing accumulated drift between memory claims, CLAUDE.md citations, and on-disk reality. Detects stale citations, missing files, and orphan plans; classifies findings; emits proposed diffs; codifies prevention. Companion to closeout (closeout discovers orphans; this skill polishes them). Discovery ≠ remediation — Phase 3 emits proposed diffs only; constitutional doc edits require explicit conductor authorization. - Skill: `organvm-iv-taxis/artifact-resurfacing` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 8 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add organvm-iv-taxis/artifact-resurfacing` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/organvm-iv-taxis/artifact-resurfacing/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Product & Planning - License: MIT - Author: organvm-iv-taxis (https://skillmd.com/u/organvm-iv-taxis) - Updated: 2026-09-09 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/organvm-iv-taxis/artifact-resurfacing --- # Artifact Resurfacing Open the drift on the table. Surface the buried artifacts — stale citations, missing referenced files, orphan plans, cross-scope memory entries pointing at paths that moved. Polish them in proposal form. Codify the lesson so the next session does not have to re-discover the same drift. ## Authority boundary (read first) This skill is **propose-not-apply** for any constitutional surface. It produces drift tables, edit diffs, and IRF row proposals. It does not commit edits to `CLAUDE.md`, `MEMORY.md`, `governance-rules.json`, `registry-v2.json`, or any `seed.yaml` without explicit conductor authorization in the same session. - **Closure for plans** — defer to [`closeout`](../closeout/SKILL.md). This skill does not assign DONE-NNN / IRF-XXX-NNN labels; it surfaces orphans for closeout's classifier. - **Memory operations** — defer to [`consolidate-memory`](../../knowledge/consolidate-memory/SKILL.md) for memory file mutations. This skill emits proposed memory diffs. - **Cross-session continuity** — defer to [`cross-agent-handoff`](../cross-agent-handoff/SKILL.md). This skill writes the polish-log entry; handoff carries it forward. - **Verification of claimed transitions** — defer to [`qa-audit`](../qa-audit/SKILL.md). Discovery ≠ remediation. The skill *finds* and *proposes*. The conductor *applies*. ## When to use - "Resurface buried artifacts in " - "Find stale citations in this CLAUDE.md" - "Reconcile memory drift between scopes" - "Audit this domain for orphans" - "Polish referenced-but-missing files" - "Future-fix this so it doesn't drift again" - Closeout has surfaced ≥3 follow-ups whose root cause is drift between memory and disk - A `MEMORY.md` walkback flags ≥1 stale path citation - A `find` for a CLAUDE.md-cited path returns zero results ## Four-phase protocol ### Phase 1 — Detect Enumerate the domain's surface. For a target `CLAUDE.md` or `MEMORY.md`, extract every: - File path (absolute or `~/`-anchored) - Function/script identifier (`foo.py`, `bar()`, `--flag`) - Issue/ledger ID (`IRF-XXX-NNN`, `DONE-NNN`, `GH#123`) - External reference (URL, package name, doc anchor) - Plan filename (any `~/.claude/plans/*.md` referenced by path) Run the citation audit: ```bash bash scripts/audit-citations.sh ``` The script emits one JSONL record per citation: `{cited, kind, exists, found_at, status}`. A path is **present** if `test -f` (or `test -d`) succeeds. It is **stale** if a different path on disk holds the same canonical content (e.g., the institution moved from `~/Workspace/...` to `~/Code/...`). It is **missing** if no candidate path holds the artifact. Run the orphan-plan scan: ```bash bash scripts/find-orphan-plans.sh [glob] ``` Default glob is `~/.claude/plans/*.md`. Output: one JSONL record per plan, with `{path, mtime, has_done_ref, has_irf_ref, has_delivered_research_marker}`. Plans lacking all three markers are orphan candidates. Surface a four-column finding table to the user before classifying: | artifact | cited-at | status | candidate-action | |---|---|---|---| | ... | ... | present \| stale \| missing \| orphan | (proposed action, no execution yet) | ### Phase 2 — Classify For each finding, assign one class: - **Present** — no action. - **Stale-citation** — the artifact exists on disk; the citation points at the wrong path. Polishable via citation rewrite. - **Missing-but-probably-never-written** — citation appears to run ahead of an unwritten artifact (e.g., a paper title cited with no draft, no commit history, no cross-scope mention). Polishable via citation annotation (`(planned — not yet written, YYYY-MM-DD)`) rather than reconstruction. - **Missing-but-lost** — citation points at an artifact whose creation history exists somewhere (a session transcript, an old commit, a cross-scope memory file) but the artifact itself is gone. Polishable via deep search; if search fails, propose reconstruction-from-context or citation removal. - **Orphan-plan** — pass through to [`closeout`](../closeout/SKILL.md)'s classifier (EXECUTED / IN-PROGRESS / ABANDONED / DELIVERED-RESEARCH). This skill does not assign closure labels. For ambiguous classifications, surface the finding to the conductor and stop. Universal Rule #21 ("Do what is asked — never preempt") applies. See `references/buried-bodies-taxonomy.md` for the full taxonomy with worked examples. ### Phase 3 — Polish (propose, do not apply) For each classified finding, generate a polish artifact. **Never write directly to constitutional files.** Emit diffs and proposals instead. For **stale citations**, run the proposer: ```bash python3 scripts/propose-citation-fix.py \ --file \ --stale-path \ --canonical-path ``` Output: a unified diff to stdout. The conductor reviews and applies (or rejects) the diff via Edit. The script never writes the file itself. For **missing-probably-never-written**, emit a one-line annotation diff: ```diff - See ~/path/to/cited-but-missing.md for details. + See ~/path/to/cited-but-missing.md for details (planned — not yet written as of YYYY-MM-DD). ``` For **missing-but-lost**, emit the deep-search command set first: ```bash find /Users/4jp -name "*" 2>/dev/null | grep -v node_modules grep -rl "" ~/.claude/projects/*/memory/*.md 2>/dev/null grep -rl "" ~/Code/organvm/praxis-perpetua/prompt-corpus/ 2>/dev/null ``` If the search returns hits, the finding reclassifies as stale-citation and the citation-fix proposer runs. If the search returns zero hits across the deep corpus, the finding reclassifies as probably-never-written and the annotation diff applies. For **orphan plans**, hand the plan path to `closeout` with a classification request. Do not move plans to `abandoned/` from this skill — closeout owns that decision. See `references/constitutional-doc-policy.md` for the full rule set on what may/may not be auto-edited. ### Phase 4 — Codify (future-fix) Polishing one drift instance is tactical. Codifying so the *next* drift self-corrects is strategic. For each polished finding, append an entry to a `polish-log.md` in the affected repo's root (create if absent): ```markdown ## YYYY-MM-DD — - **Artifact**: - **Class**: stale-citation | missing-never-written | missing-lost | orphan-plan - **Finding**: - **Action**: - **Authorization**: - **Codification**: ``` Then check for compound patterns: - **Same stale citation in ≥2 scopes** — propose updating the workspace `CLAUDE.md` autogen footer (under `` sentinels) to assert the canonical path. The next `organvm refresh` will re-write it, making the truth periodic rather than ad-hoc. - **Same orphan-plan class in ≥5 plans** — propose adding a detector clause to `closeout`'s SKILL.md so the class is auto-recognized in future sessions. - **Cross-scope memory drift** — propose a `reference__canonical_path.md` memory at the workspace scope so all sibling scopes can grep-find one truth. Emit one IRF row proposal per unresolved finding (Universal Rule #1: N/A = vacuum). Format: ```yaml - id: IRF-- # next available title: ": drift surfaced in session " status: open domain: surfaced_by: artifact-resurfacing resurfacing_session: action_required: authorization_required_from: conductor ``` The IRF row is a *proposal*. Writing it into `INST-INDEX-RERUM-FACIENDARUM.md` requires conductor authorization (Universal Rule #21). ## What this skill explicitly does NOT do - Edit `CLAUDE.md`, `MEMORY.md`, `governance-rules.json`, `registry-v2.json`, or any `seed.yaml` without same-session conductor authorization - Assign DONE-NNN or IRF-XXX-NNN closure labels (that's `closeout`'s job) - Move plans to `~/.claude/plans/abandoned/` (also `closeout`'s job) - Auto-reconstruct missing artifacts from context (proposes reconstruction; conductor authorizes) - Run as a background daemon, cron, or LaunchAgent (Universal Rule #9 — HARD RULE) - Walk a domain it was not asked to walk (scope visibility principle, memory rule #39) - Batch-close orphan plans (memory rule #53) ## Scripts - `scripts/audit-citations.sh` — citation audit; emits `{cited, kind, exists, found_at, status}` JSONL - `scripts/find-orphan-plans.sh` — orphan-plan scan; emits `{path, mtime, has_done_ref, has_irf_ref, has_delivered_research_marker}` JSONL - `scripts/propose-citation-fix.py` — propose-only unified diff for stale citation rewrites ## References - `references/buried-bodies-taxonomy.md` — the four classes with worked examples from this skill's genesis session - `references/composition-with-closeout.md` — how this skill chains with `/closeout` (closeout discovers; this polishes) - `references/constitutional-doc-policy.md` — the propose-not-apply rule set ## Examples - `examples/2026-05-17-praxis-perpetua-resurfacing.md` — the genesis case: praxis-perpetua moved from `~/Workspace/meta-organvm/` to `~/Code/organvm/`, leaving stale citations in pipeline `CLAUDE.md` + memory and three referenced-but-missing 2026-03-15 papers. The session that built this skill *is* the case study. ## Anti-patterns - Treating Phase 1 detection as license to Phase 3 polish without conductor sign-off - Editing the pipeline `CLAUDE.md` "Academic & Institutional Context" block in the same session that discovered it was stale (discovery ≠ remediation — surface, do not silently fix) - Inventing the canonical path when ≥2 candidates exist on disk (ask the conductor which is truth) - Treating cross-scope memory entries as fungible — each scope has its own `MEMORY.md`, each is independently mutable, all need their own proposed-diff - Running on a domain the conductor did not name — buried-body hunting is *invited*, not autonomous - Calling this skill's findings "fixed" when only the propose-diff has been emitted ## Universal rules this skill is built around - **Universal Rule #1** — N/A is a vacuum. Every unresolved finding becomes an IRF row proposal. - **Universal Rule #2** — Nothing local only. The skill source pushes to remote; polish-log entries commit. - **Universal Rule #6** — Fix bases, not outputs. Phase 4's "codify" leg adds the prevention to the source (autogen sentinel, closeout SKILL.md, canonical-path memory), not to the symptom. - **Universal Rule #8** — Plans are versioned, never overwritten. Orphan-plan reclassification emits `-v2` revisions when polish requires content change. - **Universal Rule #9** — No LaunchAgents. Audit is on-demand only. - **Universal Rule #12** — Memory is hypothesis. Every claim re-verified against current disk state before being acted on. This skill's Phase 1 is the operationalization of #12. ## Why this exists Drift between memory claims, CLAUDE.md citations, and on-disk reality is the entropy of a multi-session, multi-scope, multi-repo workflow. Sessions name artifacts; artifacts move; sessions end; memory persists the old name; the next session re-discovers the same drift. Without a ritual, drift compounds until the system's self-description no longer matches the system. The genesis session (2026-05-17) found four classes of drift in one domain (the institutional-authority / SGO / praxis-perpetua surface). Closeout caught the four as "follow-ups"; this skill exists to give those follow-ups a protocol instead of an ad-hoc fix-or-defer decision. Pairs with `closeout` (which surfaces) and `consolidate-memory` (which prunes). Three skills, one entropy regime. ## Related - `~/.claude/plans/where-on-my-local-enchanted-meerkat.md` — genesis plan, Phase 2 section - `~/.claude/plans/closeout-2026-05-17-plugin-surface-reconciliation.md` — genesis closeout - `~/.claude/plans/2026-05-17-handoff-plugin-surface-reconciliation.md` — genesis handoff - `references/buried-bodies-taxonomy.md`, `references/composition-with-closeout.md`, `references/constitutional-doc-policy.md`