Polaris/.agents/skills/polaris-archive/SKILL.md

name

description

polaris-archive

Archive a whole Area (with all its Projects) into a bundle under 5. Archive/, or restore one that's resuming. Moves the Area and Project folders, keeps reusable research in place, downgrades people whose only tie was this Area, writes a tombstone manifest, and repoints every inbound link. People, Threads and Decisions never move. Fully reversible. Triggers on: archive [name], archive area, wind down [name], resume [name], restore [name], unarchive [name].

polaris-archive — retire or restore a whole Area

Never delete. Everything moves to 5. Archive/; nothing is discarded. The tombstone exists so a later session can find and restore it.

Archive or close?

Is the Area going away (ended or paused)? → this skill. Is the Area staying and one workstream done? → polaris-close. Don't close every workstream before archiving an Area — archive the bundle; they travel with it.

Archiving is a change, not a repair. Confirm with the owner before moving anything.

---

The bundle

5. Archive/<Area>/
  _index.md                  ← tombstone manifest (required)
  1. Projects/<Area>/...     ← every Project under the Area, moved wholesale
  2. Areas/<Area>/...        ← the Area folder, including knowledge/
  <ID>/...                   ← closed workstreams already here from polaris-close — merge, don't collide

If only one Project is being retired and its Area stays live, it's not an archive — close it (polaris-close) or pause it.

What moves, what doesn't

1. Projects/<Area>/ and 2. Areas/<Area>/	Move into the bundle
3. Resources/Research/ (reusable, no single Area)	Stays
People	Never move. Downgrade — see below
Threads	Never bundled. A thread may span Areas; resolve or drop it separately
Decisions	Never move, never edited (dead link targets still get repointed)
Outbox, lint reports	Stay flat — they describe more than one Area

The ownership test: does this content have exactly one owning Area? Yes → bundle it. No → leave it where it is.

People — downgrade, don't move

For each person whose only live tie was this Area:

• Set tier: contact. Remove cadence: and follow_up_by: — a contact carries neither.
• Add a dated Contact History line: archived, tier changed.
• Keep their Area tag. It records where they entered the vault.

People with ties elsewhere keep their tier; if their follow-up was specifically for this Area's work, don't change it — list them on a Released: line in the log entry for the owner to decide.

---

Sequence

1. Inventory — every file under the Area and its Projects; every person whose context is this Area; threads naming it.
2. Confirm with the owner.
3. Move the folders into the bundle (git mv if the vault is a git repo, to keep history).
4. Write the tombstone — format below.
5. Repoint inbound links, everywhere — hubs, people, threads, hot.md, and ledgers (log.md, folds, decisions). Method: scan every [[…]] (ignoring code blocks), resolve each against the real tree, change only the link target, never the prose, keep display aliases. Rescan and confirm zero new dead links.
6. Downgrade people per the rule above.
7. Retire the Area tag in wiki/meta/tags.md (mark it archived; pages keep it).
8. Log ([vault], with Released: if any) and suggest cascade.

Tombstone — 5. Archive/<Area>/_index.md

---
type: archive
subject: <Area> — archive bundle
date: YYYY-MM-DD
tags: [archive, <area-tag>]
---

# <Area> — archived YYYY-MM-DD

**Why:** one or two sentences — what happened, no speculation.

## In this bundle
- 1. Projects/<Area>/ — <which workstreams, by ID>
- 2. Areas/<Area>/ — hub and knowledge/

## Deliberately not in this bundle
- People — <who stayed, downgraded to contact>
- Threads — <which, and their status>
- Decisions — untouched in 4. Decisions/

## Links
Repointed N inbound links; rescan: 0 dead.

## If this resumes
Run `resume <Area>` — polaris-archive, restore path.

---

Restore — resume <Area>

1. Read the tombstone. Don't reconstruct from memory.
2. Move the folders back to their exact original paths.
3. Re-promote people listed as downgraded: restore their previous cadence: (check git history of their page rather than guessing) and set a real follow_up_by:. Add a Contact History line; don't edit the old one.
4. Repoint links back — same method as archiving, ledgers included, rescan to zero.
5. Keep the Area's workstream_counter: as it was. IDs issued before the archive stay spent.
6. Retire the tombstone, don't delete it: append ## Resumed YYYY-MM-DD. The bundle folder's end state is that one file.
7. Un-archive the tag in tags.md. Log. Cascade.

Output

## Archive — <Area>

Moved: 1. Projects/<Area>/ (N workstreams) · 2. Areas/<Area>/
Stayed: <research, threads, etc.>
People downgraded: <names> · Released: <names or none>
Links repointed: N — rescan 0 dead
Tombstone: 5. Archive/<Area>/_index.md

Next: run cascade.

Rules

• Never delete. Always reversible.
• Confirm before moving — archiving is a change.
• People, Threads, Decisions never move. People downgrade to tier: contact; follow-up fields removed.
• Area tags are never stripped.
• Repoint every dead link the move creates, ledgers included. Only the target changes. Rescan to zero.
• A tombstone is required for every bundle.