Rendered from docs/obligations/0084-debt-that-no-rule-states-cannot-enter-a-payload.md in the Headwater corpus. Every document on this half of the site is typed by the taxonomy the descriptor names: corpus.json.

Debt that no rule states cannot enter a payload

Context

A payload holds findings. A route ranks on the facet in the scent role, so a document with no summary is reachable by its path and its anchors alone. Where a facet contract requires a summary, the missing one is a finding and a payload can hold it. Where no contract requires one, there is no finding, and the corpus is unsearchable with nothing to declare.

Obligation

This is the clearest case of debt that is not a rule violation, and first contact creates it. No document says whether the base package should require a summary of every concrete kind.

Discharge

headwater infer reports the count as a separate line for that reason. A ruling that the base requires a summary turns the second case into the first, and nothing else reaches it.