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HCW Knowledge Management & Documentation Standards (KCS v6)

Archived record

This page describes the Firebase-era platform or a migration step that has completed. It is kept as history and is not a current runbook. The current platform is described from the home page.

Owner: Persona 10 (KCS/ITIL Master) Status: Active Standard 🟢 Last Updated: February 10, 2026

1. Core Principles (KCS v6)

  • Solve Once, User Many: Document solutions immediately after verification.
  • Single Source of Truth: Never duplicate knowledge; link to the authoritative source.
  • Context-Complete: Documentation must provide enough context for an agent (AI or Human) to act without external queries.
  • Lifecycle Managed: Documents are created, updated, and archived systematically.

2. Naming Convention (Strict)

All files in /documentation must follow the 3-part format: [AREA]-[SPECIALTY]-[PURPOSE].md

Component Definition Context Examples
AREA Broad Tech Domain The "Where" INFRASTRUCTURE, FRONTEND, SECURITY, PROCESS, ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING, DATABASE
SPECIALTY Specific Technology The "What" BACKEND, FIREBASE, SECRETS, GITOPS, REACT, PERSONAS
PURPOSE Document Type The "Why" GUIDE, ARCHITECTURE, STANDARD, REVIEW, MAPPING, POPULATION

✅ Valid Examples

  • architecture-infrastructure-complete.md
  • security-secrets-guide.md
  • frontend-firebase-architecture.md
  • process-documentation-standards.md

❌ Invalid Examples

  • deployment.md (Too vague)
  • backend-plan.md (Plans are transient, not knowledge)
  • new-architecture-final.md (No versioning in filename)

3. Formatting Standards

3.1 Structure

Every document must start with:

# Title of Document

**Version:** 1.x **Maintainer:** [Persona Name] **Status:** [Draft/Active/Deprecated]

---

## Executive Summary

(2-3 sentences explaining what this document covers)

3.2 Visuals (Mermaid.js)

Prefer Code-Based Diagrams (Mermaid) over static images for maintainability.

graph LR
    A[User] --> B[Frontend]
    B --> C[Backend]

3.3 Code Blocks

Always use fenced code blocks with language identifiers:

# Good
npm run build

4. Lifecycle & Archiving

  • Active Docs: Live in /documentation/. Must be accurate to the current main branch.
  • Archived Docs: Moved to /documentation/archive/.
  • Triggers for Archiving: Feature deprecated, Version superseded (Old vs New), One-time reports (e.g., "Feb 10 Status").

5. Golden Knowledge Base (The "Must Read")

Domain Authoritative Document
Architecture architecture-system-overview.md
Frontend frontend-firebase-architecture.md
Backend architecture-infrastructure-complete.md
Security security-secrets-guide.md
Pipelines pipeline-deployment-guide.md
Standards process-documentation-standards.md
Git Commits process-commit-standards.md

Maintained By: KCS Expert (Persona 10)