Supersession and Temporal Decay

LLM Wiki memory does not need mystical decay. It needs visible freshness rules, supersession links, contradiction records, review dates, and retrieval behavior that stops old material from acting current after its scope changes.

Temporal Fields

Field	Use	Agent behavior
`last_reviewed`	Date a responsible reviewer checked the page.	Warn when older than freshness rule.
`last_verified`	Date a time-sensitive external claim was checked.	Use for vendor, price, law, model, protocol, or security claims.
`freshness_rule`	Event or cadence that triggers review.	Mark stale when the rule is exceeded.
`supersedes`	Older page, policy, schema, claim, or route replaced by this one.	Prefer this page but preserve history.
`superseded_by`	Newer replacement.	Do not use this page as current guidance.
`contradicts`	Known incompatible source or page under a scope.	Name conflict and ask reviewer before synthesis.
`conflict_status`	open, scoped, resolved, or blocked.	Resolve retrieval behavior without hiding the conflict.

State Transitions

From	To	Allowed when	Required record
current	stale	Freshness rule elapsed, source changed, owner absent, or support boundary changed.	Stale reason and review owner.
current	contradicted	A source or reviewed page conflicts under the same scope.	Contradiction edge, source span, and next review step.
reviewed	superseded	A newer route or artifact intentionally replaces it.	Forward link, release note, and route/discovery impact.
candidate	blocked	A promotion gate fails.	Gate, reason, withheld detail if applicable, and reviewer.
stale	current	Reviewer verifies sources and updates relevant claims.	Last verified date, source hash or canonical source, and changed claims.

Retrieval Rules

Prefer current reviewed pages over historical, stale, contradicted, or superseded pages.
If a stale page is the only source, say it is stale and avoid operational recommendations.
If a page is superseded, route to the replacement before answering.
If a conflict is open, show both sides with scope and source dates.
Never update review dates mechanically; review date means someone checked the claim.

Supersession Record

supersession_id: SUP-YYYYMMDD-001
old_route: /reference/old-pattern/
new_route: /reference/new-pattern/
changed_claims:
  - claim_id: claim-003
    disposition: replaced
reason: "Support boundary changed after review."
last_verified: YYYY-MM-DD
reviewer: Publication owner
discovery_updates:
  - sitemap
  - llms.txt
  - source-map
rollback_note: "Restore old route only as historical if new guidance is withdrawn."