Corpus Coherence

Coherence is what separates a library from a pile. Three conditions have to hold simultaneously: no two rules give conflicting instruction on the same case; every cross-reference points at something that exists; and any incoming question reaches the rule that should govern it rather than one that merely appears related. The third is the hardest and the most consequential, because a question routed to the wrong rule produces a confident answer governed by the wrong authority — indistinguishable in the output from a correct one. Coherence degrades with every addition unless something actively maintains it, which means it is a process property rather than a design property.

The Centralpoint skill corpus is maintained as a coherent whole. Routing is explicit rather than incidental, so a question is disambiguated and directed to the owning rule before a specialist rule answers. Inbound references are discovered rather than assumed, which is what makes it possible to say what would break if a given rule changed — and therefore safe to change it.