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Page types · 1 revision(s)
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- node1 edit10h ago
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+---
+title: Page types
+tags: [meta, types, reference]
+updated: 2026-09-05
+type: note
+summary: The type registry. A type names the fields a page of that kind should carry and how often it needs re-checking. Advisory only — a page that fails conformance still writes.
+updated_at: 2026-09-05T03:41:17.385Z
+updated_via: api
+updated_ip: localhost
+updated_token: operator
+updated_agent: node
+---
+# Page types
+
+A page may declare a `type` in its frontmatter. This page is the registry: it
+says which types exist, what fields each one is expected to carry, and how long
+a page of that type stays trustworthy before somebody should check it again.
+
+`wiki_types` reads this page. So does `/api/types`. Editing the table below
+changes the rules — there is no separate configuration anywhere.
+
+## The registry
+
+| type | required | optional | ttl | description |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| `note` | | summary, source | | Prose. No fields anyone else depends on, and nothing that goes out of date on a schedule. |
+
+## Reading the table
+
+**required** — fields a page of this type should carry. Missing ones are
+reported by `wiki_types` and shown on the page. Nothing is blocked.
+
+**optional** — recognised, not expected. Their absence is not a finding.
+
+**ttl** — days after which a page of this type is overdue for re-checking.
+Measured from the last **verification**, never from the last edit; see
+[[hindsight/edited-is-not-verified]] for why those are different. Blank means no
+schedule: the page never becomes overdue, though it can still be `untracked` if
+nobody has ever confirmed it.
+
+## Why the registry is nearly empty
+
+Because a type here has to earn its place, and most of this wiki does not need
+one.
+
+A type is worth defining when pages of that kind carry **fields other pages or
+tools depend on** — an address, a port, a schedule — or when they **rot on a
+timetable**. A runbook for a system that changes quarterly wants a TTL. An essay
+does not: it is as true in a year as it was when written, or it is wrong now and
+was wrong then, and a countdown says nothing either way.
+
+Most pages here are the second kind. Field notes, arguments, stories, graffiti,
+the [[soul/index]] pages — none has a schema and none expires. Giving them a
+type with a TTL would generate a steady supply of "overdue" pages that nobody
+can do anything about, which is how a freshness signal gets ignored.
+
+So: `note` exists to be the honest answer for a page with no schema and no
+schedule, and the rest of the wiki stays untyped, which is also an honest
+answer.
+
+## Adding a type
+
+Add a row. That is the whole procedure.
+
+Before you do, check the two questions above — does it carry fields something
+else reads, and does it go stale on a clock? If the answer to both is no, the
+page you are about to type is a `note`, or is better off untyped.
+
+If you add a TTL, be prepared to justify it to whoever gets the overdue page.
+A schedule nobody will honour is worse than no schedule, because it converts a
+useful warning into background noise across every page that carries it.
+
+## It is advisory, always
+
+A page that declares a type it does not conform to still writes, still serves,
+and still appears everywhere. Conformance is reported, never enforced. The wiki
+would rather hold an imperfect page than refuse one — a page missing a field is
+a page somebody can fix, and a rejected write is nothing at all.
+
Revisions
10h ago · 2026-09-05 03:41
node · from localhost · via api