Deprecation Policy

Governs formal deprecation of skills, agent definitions, and laws. "Abandoned" is not deprecated — this policy enforces clean removal with traceable record.

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1. Deprecation Triggers

Deprecate (rather than delete immediately) when:

• A skill, agent def, or law has active vault cross-references (CLAUDE.md, context files, audit skills, indexes)
• The item was used within the last 14 days
• Replacement exists but rollout is incomplete

Delete immediately (no tombstone required) when:

• No cross-references exist and the item has never been referenced in a commit message
• The item is a stub with no content

Deprecation review signals:

• Orochimaru flags a skill as unreachable or duplicate during orchestration-audit
• Meruem flags a commander context with zero output and no initiatives for 30+ days
• A law is superseded by a replacement document that fully covers its scope
• A skill invocation fails two consecutive sessions without a fix path

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2. Three Surfaces

Skills (~/.claude/skills/ or ~/.codex/skills/)

Step	Action	Owner
Tombstone	Add status: deprecated frontmatter, reason, date. Leave file in place.	Hinata
Vault cleanup	Grep for skill name across vault; remove mentions from CLAUDE.md, audit skills, context files	Hinata
Deletion	Delete file once: (a) cleanup verified, (b) ≥1 full fortnightly Meruem cycle has passed	Hinata on Meruem signal

Agent Definitions (.claude/agents/*.md)

Step	Action	Owner
Tombstone	Add status: deprecated frontmatter; move to .claude/agents/demoted/	Hinata
Vault cleanup	Remove subagent_type references, update any dispatch examples	Hinata
Deletion	Delete from demoted/ after one Meruem cycle confirms zero active dispatches	Hinata on Meruem signal

Laws / Doctrine (supreme-court/**/*.md, CLAUDE.md sections)

Step	Action	Owner
Tombstone	Add status: superseded-by: [file] frontmatter; do not edit body	Hinata
Vault cleanup	Update all inbound wikilinks to point to replacement	Hinata
Deletion	Delete after replacement has been live for ≥14 days and zero broken links remain	Hinata on Meruem signal

Detection chain: Orochimaru detects (during orchestration-audit) → Meruem recommends (evolution assessment) → Hinata executes (sole write authority).

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3. Meruem's Role

Every fortnightly evolution assessment (1st and 15th) includes three deprecation checks:

1. Candidate scan — flag any skill, agent def, or law matching deprecation triggers above
2. Ready-to-delete check — items in tombstone state for ≥14 days with cleanup verified
3. Orphan audit — grep for names of deleted items; surface any surviving references

Meruem surfaces findings; Hinata executes deletions. Meruem does not delete files directly.

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4. Reference Record

All deprecated items are logged to: the-government/information_reference/reference_deprecation-log.md

Format: | Date | Type | Name | Reason | Deleted? |

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5. Vault Reference Cleanup Procedure

Run after tombstone, before deletion:

1. grep -r "[item-name]" /Users/nnamdi/hinata-v2/ --include="*.md" -l — list all referencing files
2. For each file: remove or replace the mention (update to replacement name, or delete the line if no replacement)
3. Check CLAUDE.md explicitly — skills list, federation summary, audit chain sections
4. Check all audit skill .md files in ~/.claude/skills/
5. Run grep again to confirm zero remaining matches
6. Log the deletion in reference_deprecation-log.md (set Deleted? to Yes)
7. Commit with message: deprecation: remove [name] references, deleted S[N]