Standing docs accrete a paragraph per PR with nothing pushing back; the
root AGENTS.md reached 8,130 words in 50 commits with the same rule
stated two and three times. This encodes the counter-pressure:
- docs/AGENTS.md becomes the documentation standard: the tier taxonomy
(one home per fact), target word budgets, and the slop checklist.
- verify-doc-budgets joins doc-sync: word ceilings for the six
accretion-prone standing docs, manifest-driven, frozen at current
sizes and ratcheted down as each doc is brought to target.
- .agents/skills/dsh-doc-standards: the thin placement/audit/red-gate
workflow over the standard, mirroring the dsh-translate-docs split.
- RFC (implemented/process) records the decision, alternatives, and
the first audit cycle's deferred work list.
The gate's first catch was the standard itself (1,057 > 1,000); it
ships condensed to 984 words rather than with a raised ceiling.
Redesign per review: neither language is canonical. A pair is three
sibling files — foo.md, foo.zh.md, foo.i18n.yaml — and either language
may be authored first (a Chinese-first RFC is as legitimate as an
English-first one). The sidecar record holds the FULL git blob hash of
both sides as of the last confirmed-consistent state, replacing the
in-file one-directional fingerprint; editing either side without
re-confirming the pair goes red. New --write mode re-records a pair
after both sides are brought in line, making the confirmation a
reviewable yaml diff. Pairs merge whole (completeness enforced).
- gate rewritten around pair anchors (union of .zh.md and .i18n.yaml
remnants) so half-deleted pairs are caught from either side; red/green
proven for en-only edit, zh-only edit, missing record, and a record
for an excluded file
- verify-rfc-classification now skips .zh.md counterparts (same RFC,
indexed via its English filename; the pairing gate owns consistency)
- docs/i18n/README.md + translation-rules.md reframed bidirectionally
(terminology table binds both directions; typography section governs
the Chinese side); zh counterparts updated; skill workflow updated
- RFC amended to the shipped design, records the English-canonical
in-file-fingerprint model as considered-and-revised; RFC translated
(docs/rfc/.../2026-07-02-bilingual-docs-and-pairing-gate.zh.md) and
added to the required frontier
- generated docs stay excluded with the follow-up recorded: teach the
generators to emit Chinese, then de-list
Tianyi Cui
Ziya