docs: clarify protocol authority and generated copies

[dnlrsls]

🔗 Linked Issue

Closes #1426

Related to #737, which remains the global documentation tracker.

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🏷️ PR Type

• type:bug — Bug fix
• type:feature — New feature
• type:question — Question requiring tracked work
• type:docs — Documentation only
• type:refactor — Code refactoring (no behavior change)
• type:chore — Maintenance, dependencies, tooling
• type:breaking-change — Breaking change

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📝 Summary

• Clarify the existing documentation authority map's reader roles, living/historical status, and default review ownership.
• Distinguish the canonical agent-facing Memory Protocol from separately maintained setup/plugin skills and the verified generated OpenCode plugin copy.

📂 Changes

File	Change
DOCS.md	Add a small reader/status guide and explicit protocol source-to-copy guidance to the existing Documentation Authority section.

🧪 Test Plan

• Unit tests pass locally: go test ./... (not run; CI owns the broad suite)
• E2E tests pass locally: go test -tags e2e ./internal/server/... (not run; documentation-only)
• Lint passes locally: make lint (not run; documentation-only)
• Manually checked CODEOWNERS, the canonical DOCS anchor, setup protocol constant, plugin skill files and the OpenCode generation/test path.

Focused check passed: go test ./internal/setup -run '^TestEmbeddedOpenCodePluginMatchesSourceByteForByte$' -count=1 -timeout=60s. The existing relative links and anchor resolve, and git diff --check passed. The focused test verifies the current embedded OpenCode copy, not a generation run or synchronization of other prose. No runtime behavior changed.

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🤖 Automated Checks

CI is pending. All required checks must pass before merge.

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✅ Contributor Checklist

• I linked an approved issue above (Closes #1426)
• I added exactly one type:* label to this PR
• I ran unit tests locally: go test ./... (CI owns the broad suite)
• I ran e2e tests locally: go test -tags e2e ./internal/server/... (documentation-only)
• I ran lint locally: make lint (documentation-only)
• Docs updated
• Commits follow conventional commits format
• No Co-Authored-By trailers in commits
• I checked every changed path against the Transient Artifact Policy (DOCS.md only)

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💬 Notes for Reviewers

Start with the existing authority table and read the two small new blocks around it. The Memory Protocol remains canonical agent-facing prose, but the other setup/skill texts are not claimed to be generated from it. Only the OpenCode source-to-embedded-copy relationship has a verified generation path. This PR does not add a second document inventory.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation
  • Clarified which documentation is canonical and where to find authoritative information.
  • Explained how maintained documentation relates to generated copies, including the verified OpenCode generation direction.
  • Added guidance on the canonical memory-protocol documentation and its relationship to setup and skill guides.

[coderabbitai]

Navigate logical layers of code changes, visualize relationships, and explore their blast radius.

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Repository UI

Review profile: ASSERTIVE

Plan: Advanced

Run ID: 4ec7a3ec-b3ec-4dd8-8aaa-074a36b0142d

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 0359b8d and 8f2dbcc.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• DOCS.md

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 8 included reviews per hour; 1 remains after this review.

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

DOCS.md adds guidance on documentation roles, default ownership, and the authority and maintenance status of memory-protocol documentation.

Changes

Documentation authority

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Documentation roles and protocol sources DOCS.md	DOCS.md distinguishes the README, technical reference, contributor guides, and CODEOWNERS roles. It identifies the canonical memory-protocol prose and distinguishes independently maintained surfaces from the verified generated OpenCode copy.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~4 minutes

Change: Other

Suggested reviewers: gentleman-programming, alan-thegentleman

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 8f2db

This documentation-only change clarifies documentation roles and protocol sources without changing runtime behavior. The described source relationships are consistent, so it is ready to merge.

Architecture Summary

Architecture risk: 🔵 Low · up to 8f2db

The change affects 1 system.

Changed systems: DOCS.md

Architecture concerns
No architecture-level concerns identified.

Review details

Systems and components

• observed — DOCS.md (service) was modified; 1 changed file maps to changed impact.

Before / after behavior

• observed — Modified behavior in DOCS.md: Adds guidance distinguishing the concise README from this technical reference, describing documentation as maintained and checked against code and tests, and clarifying CODEOWNERS’ default ownership without making every document canonical.
• observed — Modified behavior in DOCS.md: Adds maintainer guidance that DOCS.md is the canonical living memory-protocol prose; setup text and host-adapted skills are independently maintained, while the OpenCode plugin copy is generated from its source and checked byte-for-byte.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main documentation change: clarifying protocol authority and documenting generated copies.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR changes only the Documentation Authority section in DOCS.md. The changes clarify reader roles, document status, CODEOWNERS review ownership, canonical agent-facing prose, separately maintained …
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The reported change is limited to documentation in DOCS.md and supports the directly linked documentation objective. No unrelated source changes, runtime behavior changes, duplicate inventory, or unsu…
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0…

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create a new PR

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