Codex Validation Hardening Handoff 2026-04-28

Current State

The repo is clean and main is synced to origin/main.

Recent validation improvements already landed:

• 3933b49 — ci: run Python and Rust tests in vault validation
• b19200f — feat(validation): parse and enforce YANP frontmatter
• d14644a — feat(validation): improve broken link diagnostics

What Changed

CI

• .github/workflows/validate-vault.yml
• CI now runs:
  • pytest 02_System/test_chunker.py 02_System/test_memory_mcp.py
  • cargo test --manifest-path 00_Raw/tier-0/Cargo.toml

YANP Validation

• 02_System/audit-yanp.ps1
• Replaced regex-only validation with frontmatter parsing.
• Validates required fields: title, author, date, status, type.
• Enforces allowed type and status.
• Recurses through 01_Wiki, including subfolders.
• Reports duplicate aliases and titles as warnings, not failures.

Schema Fix

• 01_Wiki/lit-verbalized-sampling-paper.md
• Added missing type: literature.

Broken Link Validation

• 02_System/check-broken-links.ps1
• Reports broken links with source path, line number, target, and line preview.
• Ignores fenced code blocks.
• Ignores non-markdown asset wikilinks such as ...pdf.
• Exits nonzero on real broken links.

Next Recommended Task

Tighten 02_System/orphan-check.ps1.

Why

• It is still much cruder than the other validators.
• It uses non-recursive file discovery.
• It scans the whole vault as one string.
• It lacks path-aware reporting.
• It has no line-level or summary diagnostics.
• It likely has false positives and false negatives around aliases and path forms.

Recommended Direction

Upgrade 02_System/orphan-check.ps1 to match the newer validator standard:

• Recurse through 01_Wiki.
• Build a real note set from filenames.
• Scan source files line-by-line or file-by-file with the same wikilink semantics used in check-broken-links.ps1.
• Report orphan notes with relative path, title, type, and status.
• Add a summary count.
• Decide whether to fail nonzero on orphans or only warn.

Constraints

• Keep the pass small.
• Prefer compatibility with current vault conventions over idealized schema changes.
• Do not broaden into a full graph-health refactor unless explicitly requested.
• Reuse parsing and link-normalization patterns from audit-yanp.ps1 and check-broken-links.ps1.

Verification Targets

• pwsh -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File 02_System/orphan-check.ps1
• Optionally pwsh -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File 02_System/run-maintenance.ps1 if time permits

Git Hygiene

• Commit the orphan-check improvement separately.
• Suggested message: feat(validation): improve orphan note diagnostics