Sub 7 of Epic #10733. This follow-up exists because PR #10741 restored load-bearing anti-drift paradigms into turn-loaded AGENTS.md after PR #10739 over-extracted them. That restoration was correct and merged, but the restored section 13 and section 15.5 prose can likely be tightened without losing the anchors that make it effective for agent turn-based memory.
The immediate trigger is the post-merge compression proposal after PR #10741: keep the restored paradigms in the Map, but reduce their prose footprint by roughly 35-40 percent while preserving source-of-authority hooks, search keywords, and boot-verifiable loaded-context behavior.
The Problem
AGENTS.md is per-turn memory. Every retained sentence competes with reasoning budget, but over-compression can silently remove the exact anchors that prevent category drift and rule-friction drift. PR #10741 proved both sides of the tradeoff:
Removing section 13 / section 15.5 entirely, or moving them only to the Atlas, loses per-turn priming.
Restoring them verbosely fixes priming but leaves room for a narrower Map-shaped version.
A future edit must not repeat the modularization-as-reduction trap: smaller prose is only a win if correction cycles and fresh-session boot behavior do not regress.
This is not a rewrite of the identity model or the Rule Friction Capture model. It is a measured compression pass on already-restored turn-loaded content.
The Architectural Reality
Target surface:
AGENTS.md section 13: Self-Evolving Systems / Continuous MX Rule-Refinement Loop
Only carries detailed source-of-authority links if Map stays compact
Keep all source links inline in AGENTS.md
AGENTS_ATLAS.md
grep and manual trigger audit
Acceptance Criteria
(AC1) AGENTS.md section 13 is compressed while preserving "Synthesize friction into gold", runtime obedience vs mutability, Rule Friction Capture, ticket-vs-ideation routing, and no-retire-by-aesthetic evidence gate.
(AC2) AGENTS.md section 15.5 is compressed while preserving both false reductions, four co-load-bearing pillars, Body-only engine framing, primitive-transcends-web-UI framing, MX, RLAIF, and ANI.
(AC3) Source-of-authority anchors remain discoverable: README.md, learn/benefits/Introduction.md, Discussion #10119, and Discussion #10137 are either inline in AGENTS.md or reachable through an explicit Atlas trigger/pointer.
(AC4) AGENTS.md byte count decreases compared with the PR #10741 baseline of 117 lines / 13,260 bytes; target is roughly 35-40 percent reduction across the touched section 13 / section 15.5 prose, not across the entire file.
(AC7, post-merge) Fresh-session boot transcript or harness memory audit confirms the compressed anchors are still present in the loaded turn-based memory surface.
Out of Scope
Moving section 13 or section 15.5 back out of AGENTS.md.
Rewriting README.md, learn/benefits/Introduction.md, Discussion #10119, or Discussion #10137.
Compressing unrelated AGENTS.md sections.
Editing skill payloads or templates; those belong to other #10733 subs.
Avoided Traps
Trap: byte-count win that loses source authority. Rejected. The compression must preserve either inline citations or explicit trigger routing to the deeper source material.
Trap: treating engine-only framing as the fix. Rejected. Engine framing is valid only for the Body layer; Neo-as-whole remains the four-pillar digital organism.
Trap: aesthetic trimming. Rejected. The ticket requires grep anchors, byte measurement, and post-merge boot validation.
Trap: bundling with #10740. Rejected. #10740 restored missing paradigms; this is a separate refinement after restoration was merged.
Context
Sub 7 of Epic #10733. This follow-up exists because PR #10741 restored load-bearing anti-drift paradigms into turn-loaded AGENTS.md after PR #10739 over-extracted them. That restoration was correct and merged, but the restored section 13 and section 15.5 prose can likely be tightened without losing the anchors that make it effective for agent turn-based memory.
The immediate trigger is the post-merge compression proposal after PR #10741: keep the restored paradigms in the Map, but reduce their prose footprint by roughly 35-40 percent while preserving source-of-authority hooks, search keywords, and boot-verifiable loaded-context behavior.
The Problem
AGENTS.md is per-turn memory. Every retained sentence competes with reasoning budget, but over-compression can silently remove the exact anchors that prevent category drift and rule-friction drift. PR #10741 proved both sides of the tradeoff:
This is not a rewrite of the identity model or the Rule Friction Capture model. It is a measured compression pass on already-restored turn-loaded content.
The Architectural Reality
Target surface:
Consumer surface:
Source-of-authority anchors that must survive either inline or via an explicit trigger pointer:
The Fix
Compress only the restored paradigms that were intentionally returned to AGENTS.md by PR #10741:
Rewrite section 13 into a compact Map entry that preserves:
Rewrite section 15.5 into a compact Map entry that preserves:
Preserve source-of-authority coverage:
Verify by measurement, not taste:
Contract Ledger
Acceptance Criteria
Out of Scope
Avoided Traps
Related
Origin Session ID: 2821a9d4-7634-4fe7-a8a2-daf49253b929
Retrieval Hint: query_raw_memories(query="AGENTS.md section 13 section 15.5 compression Neo Identity Anchor Rule Friction Capture source authority 10119 10137 PR 10741")