ars-mark-read

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name: ars-mark-read description: ARS /ars-mark-read — record a user-attested reading signal for one or more citation keys model: sonnet

Record the user's USER_ATTESTED_READ declaration for the source(s) backing the named citation key(s). This is a user statement, not independent evidence that a person read or understood the source. A finalizer may promote <!--ref:slug LOW-WARN--> to <!--ref:slug ok--> only when the declared scope covers that citation's anchor. Per v3.6.8 spec §3.6, the signal is stored in a session-scoped peer file <passport-stem>_human_read_log.yaml next to the active Material Passport; literature_corpus[] is adapter-owned and is NEVER mutated to carry reading state.

The dispatching agent substitutes <path> below with the active Material Passport path from session context before executing (the quoting is preserved so paths containing spaces remain a single argument). The CLI handles validation (citation_key must exist in literature_corpus[]; on miss emit [ARS-MARK-READ ERROR: citation_key '<slug>' not in literature_corpus[]] and refuse to write), 4 fail-fast environment checks (no active passport / passport not found / parent unreadable / read-log unwritable), and append-only write per §3.6 firm rule 3.

Read scope is required for every new mark (#738; declaration-only — pass through whatever the user states, never infer): --scope {full_text,sections,abstract_only,toc_only,unknown} records the declared coverage; --locator "<text>" (repeatable, requires --scope sections) names the read sections/pages; --note "<text>" free text (requires --scope). Use --scope unknown when the user cannot specify coverage. Missing scope is accepted only in legacy ledger records. Explicit unknown and legacy missing scope remain coverage_unknown; they acknowledge the declaration but can never promote an anchored citation to ok. Page coverage requires an explicit page, p., or pp. locator—bare numbers and section <n> never count as page ranges. The deterministic resolver in scripts/human_read_attestation_resolver.py strictly validates the current ledger and computes a transient routing decision on every finalizer pass; its output is not a persisted audit receipt.

Implementation:

python3 scripts/ars_mark_read.py $ARGUMENTS --passport-path "<path>"

Mode reference: docs/design/2026-04-30-ars-v3.6.8-trust-provenance-and-drift-transparency-spec.md §3.6 + Step 7.