venues, and a guide staleness check that could not see an arrival

Adopts bedrock/venues.md and reconciles externals.md, which dropped its four-line
venue section in favour of the one sentence that is actually about externals.

The staleness check compared only documents present in both the stamp and the
locks, so a section gaining a page never flagged its guide — and the bedrock
guide enumerates its pages by hand. It went silently incomplete the moment venues
was adopted. Now reports changed, added and gone separately, in words that fit
each case.

Found the same way as the sidebar: by adopting something real for the first time.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

.loom/externals/.locks

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/publication.md	https://git.hypertheory-lab
 git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/recording-decisions.md	https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/recording-decisions.md	"d190eeae7929b9a99ecf09211d94e7e5b32635bd"	public
 git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/sibling-facets.md	https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/sibling-facets.md	"a46446a34ccb8bfc533d3cce19f4c88548c4fa04"	public
 git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/starting.md	https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/starting.md	"b9eefba0f4668a496ccfc6a1377277f0721456d2"	public
+git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/venues.md	https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/venues.md	"35e940195e2ba9a30b4b4dc81a57f9383c709f64"	public
 git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/cart/cart.md	https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/cart/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/cart.md	"15331f1a9cc81bf61a44830cfbb7c274f4c2b119"	public
-git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/externals/externals.md	https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/externals/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/externals.md	"50673ccffc14d57150ac0a9027b0712d9dcf940d"
+git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/externals/externals.md	https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/externals/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/externals.md	"772c67f460f0ff3b9563aee9b38a64c0f3423dbd"
 git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/loom-cli/guarantees.md	https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/loom-cli/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/guarantees.md	"e8c697ea61df47838f38af7353e29d9ae3f7070c"

.loom/externals/git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/venues.md

@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+# Venues
+
+**`.loom/venues/<name>.md` — a choice you made about something that has no
+document of its own to hang it on.**
+
+*Kafka. React. HTTP. The organisation you work for.* **Things that constrain what
+you build without ever being invoked, and without publishing anything at you that
+you could adopt.**
+
+---
+
+## Venue and external are two questions, not two kinds of thing
+
+**`external` is *who published it*. `venue` is *whether you had to decide
+anything about it*.** *They are orthogonal. A thing may be both, either, or
+neither.*
+
+| | published at us | we recorded a choice | files |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| Kafka, React, HTTP | yes, by the world | yes — *protobuf for schema* | venue only |
+| a service another team owns | yes, by them | not yet — the use is in the code | external only |
+| a cluster your own org publishes | yes | yes | both |
+| a library you use exactly as documented | yes | no | neither |
+
+**Both files are governed by the same rule, applied to two different ambients:**
+
+> **An external entry exists when the reader cannot be assumed to know the
+> thing.** *A venue file exists when you made a choice worth recording.*
+
+**Nobody needs telling what Kafka is, so there is no external entry** — *but "we
+use protobuf for schema" is a choice, so there is a venue file.* **Nobody outside
+can know what your internal API is for, so there is an external entry** — *and
+until using it requires an exception or a preference, there is nothing to
+accommodate and no venue file, because the actual use is in the code.*
+
+*This is why sorting things into two bins does not work and people keep trying.
+The bins were never the problem. The question was.*
+
+## A venue file is an account of your own decisions
+
+**Which is what makes it local by construction.** *An external is a copy of
+somebody's document and could in principle be centralised.* **A venue file has no
+upstream** — *there is nobody to reconcile with, because the only party who
+decided anything was you.*
+
+**So it does not go stale the way a copy does.** *It goes stale when you change
+your mind and do not say so*, which no fetch will ever detect.
+
+> **A venue file that carries no delta should not exist.** *If you use the thing
+> exactly as documented, write nothing.* **Recording the adoption is ceremony.**
+
+## If there is a document, hang the choice on the document
+
+**Put a choice where reconciliation will look for it.** *When the thing you
+decided about publishes something you have adopted, the choice belongs in the
+`.usages.md` beside that copy and not in a venue file* — **because that is the
+file somebody opens when the document moves**, *and a venue file is not.*
+
+*The venue file is for what is left: the constraints of a thing that publishes
+nothing you can hold.*
+
+## A venue is where an authority claim belongs
+
+**Because a venue fact carries a reason and can therefore be shown wrong.**
+
+*The alternative is worse and common: somebody with authority enters a
+conversation as a voice, and "we do it this way" arrives with no reason attached
+and nothing that could contradict it.* **Written as a venue constraint, the same
+instruction becomes a claim about the world**, *and a claim about the world is
+something a later reader can discover was false.*
+
+## Checking it is still true
+
+**Nobody will tell you.** *There is no publisher to ask, no `ETag`, and no
+conditional request that will ever come back `200`.*
+
+**So a venue file needs what a published document needs: a date, and the reason
+underneath the choice.** *The reason is the whole of it* — **"we use protobuf for
+schema" is unfalsifiable a year later; "we use protobuf because the consumers are
+in three languages and JSON schema drift was costing us a release a quarter" can
+be checked against a world that may have changed.**

.loom/externals/git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/externals/externals.md

@@ -147,13 +147,16 @@ do; a closed gap is what you needed and got.*
 **The new copy replaces the old pair wholesale.** *There is no merging a document
 you do not own.*
 
-## Venues, for things you cannot fetch
+## A choice about something you adopted does not go in a venue file
 
-**`.loom/venues/<name>.md`** — *Kafka, React, HTTP.* **Choices we made about
+**Put a choice where reconciliation will look for it.** *When the thing you
-something with no document to hang them on.**
+decided about publishes a document you hold a copy of, the choice belongs in the
+`.usages.md` beside that copy* — **because that is the file somebody opens when
+the document moves.**
 
-*If there is a document, hang it there instead: **put a choice where
+*Venues are for what is left: things that constrain you without publishing
-reconciliation will look for it.***
+anything you could adopt.* **See
+[venues](https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/venues.md).**
 
 ## Gaps that belong to nobody
 

scripts/generate.mjs

@@ -154,13 +154,25 @@ function guidePage(repo, records, existing) {
   let data = { title: repo, loom: {} }
   let body = GUIDE_TEMPLATE(repo)
   let stale = []
+  let changed = []
+  let added = []
+  let gone = []
 
   if (existing) {
     const split = splitFrontmatter(existing)
     data = { ...split.data }
     body = split.body
     const was = new Map((data.loom?.writtenAgainst ?? []).map((s) => [s.path, s.etag]))
-    stale = records.filter((r) => was.has(r.path) && was.get(r.path) !== r.etag).map((r) => r.name)
+    // A section gaining or losing a document changes the guide too, and this
+    // did not notice until bedrock grew a fifth page under a guide that
+    // enumerates its pages by hand. Comparing only what is present in both is a
+    // comparison that cannot see an arrival.
+    changed = records.filter((r) => was.has(r.path) && was.get(r.path) !== r.etag).map((r) => r.name)
+    added = records.filter((r) => !was.has(r.path)).map((r) => r.name)
+    gone = [...was.keys()]
+      .filter((p) => !records.some((r) => r.path === p))
+      .map((p) => p.split('/').pop().replace(/\.md$/, ''))
+    stale = [...changed, ...added, ...gone]
   }
 
   data.title ??= repo
@@ -175,9 +187,16 @@ function guidePage(repo, records, existing) {
     // only ever know that they differ. The first time it fired in real use, the
     // guide was written against a version newer than the copy here, and a
     // message claiming "an older X" was confidently backwards.
-    const which = stale.map((s) => `<code>${s}</code>`).join(', ')
+    const code = (xs) => xs.map((x) => `<code>${x}</code>`).join(', ')
+    const parts = []
+    if (changed.length)
+      parts.push(
+        `${code(changed)} differs from the version this page was written against — so one of the two is behind`,
+      )
+    if (added.length) parts.push(`${code(added)} was adopted after this page was written`)
+    if (gone.length) parts.push(`${code(gone)} is no longer adopted`)
     data.banner = {
-      content: `Written against a different ${which} than the copy in this repository — so one of the two is behind. Run <code>loomctl external check</code>, or re-read this page, then <code>npm run ack</code>.`,
+      content: `${parts.join('; ')}. Run <code>loomctl external check</code>, or re-read this page, then <code>npm run ack</code>.`,
     }
   } else {
     delete data.banner

src/content/docs/bedrock/index.mdx

@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ loom:
       etag: '"a46446a34ccb8bfc533d3cce19f4c88548c4fa04"'
     - path: git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/starting.md
       etag: '"b9eefba0f4668a496ccfc6a1377277f0721456d2"'
+    - path: git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/venues.md
+      etag: '"35e940195e2ba9a30b4b4dc81a57f9383c709f64"'
 ---
 
 Read [starting](/bedrock/starting/) first — it is two questions and a directory,
@@ -29,6 +31,20 @@ repository starts depending on you:
   by whoever wrote the facet.
 - [loom-directory](/bedrock/loom-directory/) — type by location. A stream is a
   file; a collection of things with identity is a directory.
+- [venues](/bedrock/venues/) — a choice you made about something that publishes
+  nothing you could adopt. Kafka, React, the organisation you work for.
+
+## Venue and external are two questions, not two bins
+
+Worth reading [venues](/bedrock/venues/) alongside
+[externals](/externals/externals/), because sorting things into two kinds is the
+mistake almost everybody makes first, and we made it for a day.
+
+**`external` is who published it. `venue` is whether you had to decide anything
+about it.** They are orthogonal, so a thing can be both, either, or neither —
+and the same rule governs both files: record only the delta. Nobody needs telling
+what Kafka is, so there is no external entry; *we use protobuf for schema* is a
+choice, so there is a venue file.
 
 ## The one that gets skipped
 

src/content/docs/bedrock/venues.md

@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+---
+title: Venues
+editUrl: false
+loom:
+  generated: true
+  path: git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/venues.md
+  source: https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/venues.md
+  etag: '"35e940195e2ba9a30b4b4dc81a57f9383c709f64"'
+  visibility: public
+---
+**`.loom/venues/<name>.md` — a choice you made about something that has no
+document of its own to hang it on.**
+
+*Kafka. React. HTTP. The organisation you work for.* **Things that constrain what
+you build without ever being invoked, and without publishing anything at you that
+you could adopt.**
+
+---
+
+## Venue and external are two questions, not two kinds of thing
+
+**`external` is *who published it*. `venue` is *whether you had to decide
+anything about it*.** *They are orthogonal. A thing may be both, either, or
+neither.*
+
+| | published at us | we recorded a choice | files |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| Kafka, React, HTTP | yes, by the world | yes — *protobuf for schema* | venue only |
+| a service another team owns | yes, by them | not yet — the use is in the code | external only |
+| a cluster your own org publishes | yes | yes | both |
+| a library you use exactly as documented | yes | no | neither |
+
+**Both files are governed by the same rule, applied to two different ambients:**
+
+> **An external entry exists when the reader cannot be assumed to know the
+> thing.** *A venue file exists when you made a choice worth recording.*
+
+**Nobody needs telling what Kafka is, so there is no external entry** — *but "we
+use protobuf for schema" is a choice, so there is a venue file.* **Nobody outside
+can know what your internal API is for, so there is an external entry** — *and
+until using it requires an exception or a preference, there is nothing to
+accommodate and no venue file, because the actual use is in the code.*
+
+*This is why sorting things into two bins does not work and people keep trying.
+The bins were never the problem. The question was.*
+
+## A venue file is an account of your own decisions
+
+**Which is what makes it local by construction.** *An external is a copy of
+somebody's document and could in principle be centralised.* **A venue file has no
+upstream** — *there is nobody to reconcile with, because the only party who
+decided anything was you.*
+
+**So it does not go stale the way a copy does.** *It goes stale when you change
+your mind and do not say so*, which no fetch will ever detect.
+
+> **A venue file that carries no delta should not exist.** *If you use the thing
+> exactly as documented, write nothing.* **Recording the adoption is ceremony.**
+
+## If there is a document, hang the choice on the document
+
+**Put a choice where reconciliation will look for it.** *When the thing you
+decided about publishes something you have adopted, the choice belongs in the
+`.usages.md` beside that copy and not in a venue file* — **because that is the
+file somebody opens when the document moves**, *and a venue file is not.*
+
+*The venue file is for what is left: the constraints of a thing that publishes
+nothing you can hold.*
+
+## A venue is where an authority claim belongs
+
+**Because a venue fact carries a reason and can therefore be shown wrong.**
+
+*The alternative is worse and common: somebody with authority enters a
+conversation as a voice, and "we do it this way" arrives with no reason attached
+and nothing that could contradict it.* **Written as a venue constraint, the same
+instruction becomes a claim about the world**, *and a claim about the world is
+something a later reader can discover was false.*
+
+## Checking it is still true
+
+**Nobody will tell you.** *There is no publisher to ask, no `ETag`, and no
+conditional request that will ever come back `200`.*
+
+**So a venue file needs what a published document needs: a date, and the reason
+underneath the choice.** *The reason is the whole of it* — **"we use protobuf for
+schema" is unfalsifiable a year later; "we use protobuf because the consumers are
+in three languages and JSON schema drift was costing us a release a quarter" can
+be checked against a world that may have changed.**
+
+
+<div class="loom-provenance">
+
+This page is a copy of a document published by `loom/bedrock`, rendered here.
+The source is [https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/venues.md](https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/venues.md) and is what the copy is checked against.
+
+
+</div>

src/content/docs/externals/externals.md

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ loom:
   generated: true
   path: git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/externals/externals.md
   source: https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/externals/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/externals.md
-  etag: '"50673ccffc14d57150ac0a9027b0712d9dcf940d"'
+  etag: '"772c67f460f0ff3b9563aee9b38a64c0f3423dbd"'
   visibility: unknown
 ---
 **How a repository records what it depends on, and finds out when it changes.**
@@ -155,13 +155,16 @@ do; a closed gap is what you needed and got.*
 **The new copy replaces the old pair wholesale.** *There is no merging a document
 you do not own.*
 
-## Venues, for things you cannot fetch
+## A choice about something you adopted does not go in a venue file
 
-**`.loom/venues/<name>.md`** — *Kafka, React, HTTP.* **Choices we made about
+**Put a choice where reconciliation will look for it.** *When the thing you
-something with no document to hang them on.**
+decided about publishes a document you hold a copy of, the choice belongs in the
+`.usages.md` beside that copy* — **because that is the file somebody opens when
+the document moves.**
 
-*If there is a document, hang it there instead: **put a choice where
+*Venues are for what is left: things that constrain you without publishing
-reconciliation will look for it.***
+anything you could adopt.* **See
+[venues](https://git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/bedrock/raw/branch/main/.loom/published/venues.md).**
 
 ## Gaps that belong to nobody
 

src/content/docs/externals/index.mdx

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: externals
 loom:
   writtenAgainst:
     - path: git.hypertheory-labs.dev/loom/externals/externals.md
-      etag: '"50673ccffc14d57150ac0a9027b0712d9dcf940d"'
+      etag: '"772c67f460f0ff3b9563aee9b38a64c0f3423dbd"'
 ---
 
 A copy of somebody's document, a lock recording where it came from, and — beside
@@ -38,6 +38,14 @@ request cannot tell two repositories private to *different people* apart — and
 that is precisely the case where private-into-private genuinely widens access.
 Record the word you can verify.
 
+## What does not go in a `.usages.md`
+
+A choice about something you have *not* adopted — Kafka's wire format, the
+organisation's policy — is a [venue](/bedrock/venues/), not a usage. This
+document used to define venues in four lines and no longer does, which is the
+right way round: put a choice where reconciliation will look for it, and a
+`.usages.md` is what somebody opens when a document moves.
+
 ## Why this site can only hold public documents
 
 *Do not adopt from a source less readable than the repository you are adopting