Ingest a source

Ingesting is where a wiki compounds or rots. Done well, one source updates the ten pages it bears on and every claim can be traced back to it. Done badly, it adds one more summary page that repeats the source, links to nothing, and hardens an unchecked claim into a "fact" that later pages cite.

Steps

1. Keep the raw copy. Save the source as markdown under raw/ (for example raw/articles/2026-09-28-vendor-pricing-update.md) with this frontmatter:

   ---
   source_url: https://example.com/post
   ingested: YYYY-MM-DD
   sha256: <hex digest of the body after the closing --->
   ---
   

   Compute the hash over the body only (python3 -c "import hashlib,sys; print(hashlib.sha256(open(sys.argv[1],'rb').read().split(b'\n---\n',1)[1]).hexdigest())" file.md, or hash the text before you add frontmatter). Before saving, search raw/ for the same hash or URL. Same hash: already ingested, stop. Same URL, new hash: the source changed; save the new version beside the old one and note what changed. Never edit a raw file after ingestion.

2. Orient (wiki-orient) on the source's main subjects.

3. List the claims the source makes that matter to this wiki. For each, note whether it is new, confirms a page, updates a page, or contradicts a page.

4. Update the pages the claims belong on (wiki-record, steps 3 to 7). One source often touches many pages: the entity it is about, the concepts it uses, a comparison it changes, a decision it bears on. Cite the raw file or URL at each claim.

5. Label trust as you write, in the sentence that makes the claim:

   • vendor-sourced: a company's claim about itself (pricing, user counts, benchmarks).
   • self-reported: an individual's claim about their own results.
   • unverified: anything you recalled rather than read in this source.
   • estimate: a figure the source or you derived rather than measured.
   • The sampling frame, for any rate or percentage: who was counted, and who could not have been. "4 of 21 founders on the list" means nothing without what the list selected on.

6. Handle contradictions with wiki-conflicts. Never let a newer source silently overwrite an older claim unless it is clearly the more authoritative record.

7. Write a summary page only if the source is itself a subject: a landmark paper, a decision memo, a meeting that set direction. Otherwise the updated pages are the summary.

8. Leave one change note per page naming the source, and tell the person which pages changed.

Batches

For many sources, ingest one at a time and finish each before the next. Parallel ingestion by several agents collides on the same shared pages; if you must parallelize, split the batch by subject so no two agents touch the same page, and follow wiki-shared.

Pitfalls

• A summary page per source with nothing else changed. That is a document folder with extra steps; the value of the pattern is that existing pages get better.
• Dropping the provenance during synthesis. A claim with no source attached will be repeated by the next agent as settled fact.
• Quoting a vendor's number without the label. Vendor figures are hypotheses until checked against something the vendor does not control.
• Ingesting what should stay out: secrets, private data, or content under terms that forbid copying. Summarize and link instead of storing the full text when in doubt.