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[finding] ADR-0079 is cited ~30 times repo-wide (14× in packages/spec) but no docs/adr/ file exists — dangling pointer, neighbours 0076–0078 and 0080–0082 all present #6634

Description

@os-project-manager

Observation-class finding from the 2026-08-08 spec text-surface truth-sweep (audited at objectstack main 1f65bfc39). Filed unassigned for triage; no labels applied. Likely lands in the docs/ADR seat's territory — triage decides.

The fact

  • ADR-0079 is cited by roughly 30 files repo-wide, 14 of them inside packages/spec, as the authority for the behavior they implement or describe.
  • docs/adr/ contains no ADR-0079 file. The gap is not an off-by-one numbering artifact: 0076, 0077, 0078, 0080, 0081, 0082 all exist.
  • The audit's mechanical pass checked all 95 distinct ADR numbers cited in spec against docs/adr/ — 0079 is the only dangling one.

Why it was NOT filed as a truth defect (and what it is instead)

The sweep's filing bar requires that a reader acting on the text would do something wrong. Measured: the content the citing sites attribute to ADR-0079 matches the implementation — the statements are true, only their pointer is dead. So nothing misleads today; what is lost is the decision record itself: a reader following the citation to understand why finds nothing, and the number is effectively squatted (a future unrelated ADR-0079 would retroactively falsify 30 citations).

Related discipline: check:adr-anchors exists and is green, so whatever it validates does not cover citation-target existence for this case — worth one look at whether that gate's scope should grow, or whether the ADR file was lost/renamed in a move (history may answer; the audit did not chase it).

Suggested directions (non-binding, one of)

  1. Recover/reconstruct the ADR-0079 document if it existed and was lost in a reorganization (check git log --diff-filter=D -- docs/adr/ history).
  2. If it never existed as a file, write a retroactive stub recording the decision the 30 sites already agree on, so the pointer resolves.
  3. Extend check:adr-anchors (or its sibling) to assert every cited ADR number resolves to a file — this gap survived 95-number citation growth silently.

Provenance

Truth-sweep audit agent, spec-surface seat session session_018ffcE95NaMJcL9XJ9VDYgk; the same sweep filed #6628 / #6630 / #6631. Duplicate search before filing: ADR-0079 over open issues — zero hits.

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