Markdown dependency removal — Railspike diagnostics

Step 1 — 2026-10-20

Debug mode: enabled, inherited from the host root marker for this new cycle. No effort-study selection was requested.

Necessary/useful instructions

• docs/railspike/docs/workflow/step1_solution_assessment.md, options and recommendation: comparing replacement versus restoration exposes the formatting regression tradeoff while requiring history removal in both options. Retain.

• docs/railspike/RAILSPIKE.md, approval gates and Original Query: preserves the user's full request and keeps destructive history work behind later planning and execution authorization. Retain.

• docs/reference/railspike_workflow.md, host artifact location: keeps incident findings and proposals outside the vendored workflow. Retain.

Redundant/unnecessary instructions

No supported findings.

Inapplicable instructions

• Implementation branch/commit cadence and UI verification: this cycle only creates investigative/planning documents; no runtime, UI or history mutation is performed. Preserve these requirements for execution.

• Effort estimation: cycle not selected; no estimate was fabricated.

Uncertain assessments

• Generic step approval did not ensure informed dependency consent in the earlier cycle. Repository artifacts show disclosure and a recorded approval claim, but the original user conversation is unavailable. Recommend the host policy in the findings; do not assert a proven gate violation or modify vendored Railspike based on inference.

Revision — Step 1 — 2026-10-21 10:03:12 UTC

Updates the 2026-10-20 Step 1 recommendation; historical diagnostics remain intact. Debug mode remains enabled.

Necessary/useful instructions

• RAILSPIKE.md, Enhancement Requests: recorded Option C and the separate deferred extension request, keeping restoration/measurement in this cycle. Retain.

• step1_solution_assessment.md, Review and revision: revised the recommendation without treating user steering as step approval. Retain.

Redundant/unnecessary instructions

No supported findings.

Inapplicable instructions

• Step 4 implementation/commit rules: no renderer, measurement harness, dependency or Git history changes made; only planning artifacts edited.

Uncertain assessments

• Rarity threshold and syntax priorities await the proposed render evidence and user decisions. Existing inventory counts matching lines/documents, so it cannot be presented as completed occurrence metrics.

Step 2 — 2026-10-21 10:37:10 UTC

Debug mode: enabled, inherited from removal Step 1. Step 1 explicitly approved; deferred extension cycle unchanged. No effort-study selection.

Necessary/useful instructions

• step2_feature_description.md, shared component inventory and completion boundary: tied internal measurement/history maintenance to ordinary dynamic/static Docs entry, readable fallback, recovery and repository-owner acceptance. Retain.

• step2_feature_description.md, early risks: made corpus-count semantics, historical renderer compatibility, rarity threshold and controlled-copy ownership prerequisites to finalizing Step 3 rather than fabricated settled decisions. Retain.

• RAILSPIKE.md, approval and request-state recovery: recorded removal approval without advancing the separate extension cycle or implementing cleanup. Retain.

Redundant/unnecessary instructions

No supported findings.

Inapplicable instructions

• Step 4 branch/commit cadence and runtime/UI execution: only planning/state documents changed. Runtime acceptance remains required during implementation.

• Named-user/environment acceptance: no production deployment instance or named reader was specified; no evidence from an assumed host was claimed.

Uncertain assessments

• Full erasure cannot be promised until controlled refs, clones, hosts, artifacts and retained recovery copies are enumerated. Step 2 states this as a planning prerequisite and blocks completion claims for unverified agreed targets.

Step 3 draft — 2026-10-21 10:54:49 UTC

Debug mode remains enabled. Step 2 explicitly approved; extension cycle remains deferred. Not a completed-step handoff: rarity threshold and external cleanup boundary await user answers.

Necessary/useful instructions

• Step 3 Before/Do: read historical renderer and local refs/worktrees before drafting; separated current-link safety adaptations from deferred syntax extensions. Retain.

• Step 3 risk resolution: exposed unknown owners/copies and proposed rarity rule before treating the plan as final. Retain.

Redundant/unnecessary instructions

No supported findings.

Inapplicable instructions

• Implementation commits and runtime checks: not yet authorized/executed; only planning/state documents changed.

Uncertain assessments

• Full cleanup ownership cannot be inferred from a configured origin or Git credentials; explicit target/coordination information remains pending. No universal-erasure or live remote audit claim.

• Stage sizing is provisional until the controlled-copy inventory is known; split/replan if it exceeds the process limits.

Stage 5 synchronization — 2026-10-23

Debug mode remains enabled. Preservation requirements were useful: fresh bundles caught newer stash work absent from the rehearsal map. Verification exposed concurrent agent edits/branch creation, an update-ref stash reflog side effect, mutable test runtime files and a publication snapshot changed by our own documentation edit. Retained all snapshots; restored and mapped original stash entries; verified the supplemental stash separately. No work was discarded. Clone configuration and final working-state checks passed; remaining old storage is intentional recovery, not removal completion. No additional workflow-rule change recommended. Renderer assessment remains an independently gated Step 1.