# Recall > Answer from the bureau canon with citations and trust tiers — read dossiers as memory, honor each page's status, and never present an unverified claim as fact. Use when running bureau:query, or when the user asks what the project knows / what was decided / what the canon says about something. - Skill: `xiaolai/recall` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add xiaolai/recall` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/xiaolai/recall/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: xiaolai (https://skillmd.com/u/xiaolai) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/xiaolai/recall --- # Recall — read the canon, tier-aware The cabinets are repo memory. Recall is the read side of the trust gate: it answers from the **compiled canon** (not raw retrieval), cites what it used, and carries each claim's tier into the answer so an unverified claim can never masquerade as fact. ## Steps 1. **Locate the workspace** (`bureau.json`; default `canon`). If none, tell the user to run `bureau:init` first and stop. 2. **Find the pages that bear on it.** Search the cabinet drawers for pages on the question — by title, by drawer topic, and by following `[[links]]` between pages. EXCLUDE `logbook/`, `lint/`, `crew/`, and every `_`-prefixed entry (history, source-of-agents, or state, not canon) — plus, **only in the contained layout** (a workspace named `bureau`), the configured board dir (`bureau.json.board`, default `gazette`), which there nests inside the workspace. In a default-layout workspace the board renders outside, so a same-named child is ordinary content — do NOT exclude it. 3. **Check freshness (the recursion engine).** Run `node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/press/bin/gazette.mjs" gate --dir ` and note which of the pages you're about to use are `needs-review` (they rest on a changed upstream claim) or `stale` (a broken dependency). Freshness is a SECOND axis, independent of trust: a page can be `canonical` yet `needs-review`. If the command isn't available, note that freshness is unverified and continue. 4. **Answer only from those pages.** Synthesize a direct answer. Do NOT add knowledge the canon does not contain; if you must reason beyond it, mark that clearly as inference. 5. **Cite with tier AND freshness — and read the tier from the PROJECTION, not raw `status:`.** The effective trust tier is a projection of the decision log (ADR-0004 Decision C): an approved page keeps its authored `status:` INTENT (often `proposed`) while the log makes it effectively `canonical`, and — conversely — a content-bound approval whose page was edited since is **not** effectively canonical (stale). So read the **`effective_status:`** key when present (the derived cache; refresh it with `node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/press/bin/gazette.mjs" fsck --dir --materialize-pages`), and cross-check `gazette fsck`: a page it flags `stale-approval` or `unbacked-canonical` is **not** effectively canonical no matter what its `status:` says. A page carrying a derived **`superseded_by:`** marker is **superseded** — a later approved decision replaced it (ADR-0006); treat it as settled history, not current fact, and cite its successor — UNLESS `gazette fsck` flags it `stale-superseded-marker` (the marker no longer holds; re-run `fsck --materialize-pages` and don't trust it). For each claim used, name the page, its effective tier (`canonical` / `verified` / `proposed` / `stale` / `contested` / `superseded`), its **freshness** if not `current`, and the `[[session …]]` provenance. 6. **Never state a non-`canonical` OR non-`current` claim as fact.** Fact requires *both*: an effective `canonical` tier **and** freshness `current`. `verified` is "checked, not approved"; `proposed`/`contested` are claims to confirm; a `needs-review`/`stale` page — or one whose approval went stale (edited past its review) — is **not current fact even if it was approved**. Flag it and route it to `bureau:review`. 7. **Name gaps.** If the canon does not cover the question, say so; do not fabricate. Suggest the next step (file a session, run `bureau:lint`). 8. **Offer to keep it.** If the synthesis reaches a conclusion worth remembering, offer to capture it (`bureau:note`) so it enters capture → compile → review, never straight to canon. ## Rules 1. **Compiled canon only.** Read dossiers; never re-derive an answer from raw sources or the logbook prose — that is what compile is for. 2. **Tier AND freshness travel.** Every cited claim carries its trust tier AND its freshness; the answer's confidence is capped by the weaker of the two on its weakest load-bearing claim. A `canonical` page that is `needs-review`/`stale` is not current fact. 3. **No invention.** A gap is reported as a gap, not filled with a guess. 4. **Read-only.** Recall never edits cabinets; capturing a new conclusion goes through the gate. ## Examples Context: A repo with a bureau canon; the user asks a settled question. user: "bureau:query \"how long do auth tokens last?\"" assistant: "From **Token TTL** (`canonical`, sourced to session a1b2c3): auth tokens last 24h. That's an approved fact." A canonical page answers as fact, with the page, its tier, and its provenance cited. Context: the page that answers it is unreviewed. user: "What did we decide about the queue retry policy?" assistant: "The canon has **Queue retry** but it's `proposed` (unreviewed, from session d4e5f6) — so treat this as unverified: it says 3 retries with backoff. Want me to put it through bureau:review before you rely on it?" A non-canonical claim is answered WITH its tier and an explicit 'not fact yet' flag — never presented as settled. Context: the answering page is approved but sits on a changed upstream. user: "bureau:query \"is the wiki the source of truth for current state?\"" assistant: "**SSOT model** says yes — and it's `canonical` (approved). But the gate shows it `needs-review`: the **Logbook model** claim it rests on changed since it was confirmed. So treat this as *approved-but-not-current* — the foundation moved. I'd re-confirm it via bureau:review before relying on it." Freshness is orthogonal to trust: a canonical page that needs-review is flagged as not-current, not stated as fact. ## Scope note This skill covers ONLY reading the canon to answer a question. It does **not** capture sessions (`capture` / `bureau:file-session`), **not** distil the logbook (`compile`), **not** approve claims (`review`), and **not** render the gazette (`bureau:inspect`). It is invoked by the `bureau:query` command, and auto-triggers when the user asks what the project knows.