Correction Pipeline

Convention: see conventions/brain-first.md — Step 1 of the root-cause chain IS the brain-first lookup chain (search for exact tokens, query for concept-shaped questions) before anything else.

Convention: see _brain-filing-rules.md — corrections edit pages in place; the page stays filed by primary subject.

Trigger

ANY factual error the user identifies. No exceptions. No "I'll note that."

(Routing here is a harness convention, not a mechanical guarantee — but once this skill is in play, the no-exceptions contract above is the discipline.)

Immediate Response

1. Acknowledge the error. Don't defend. Don't explain. Just: "You're right. I got that wrong."
2. Quote the specific wrong claim so the user can see you know exactly what was wrong.
3. State the correct fact as the user gave it.

Root Cause Analysis (do THIS, not just a memory note)

Run these steps IN ORDER. Report findings to the user.

Step 1: Search the brain

gbrain search "<relevant terms>" --limit 10

For concept-shaped or synonym-phrased claims, escalate to gbrain query "<question>" (LLM expansion recovers phrasings search misses). Also grep the brain repo checkout directly — resolve it once from config:

BRAIN_DIR=$(gbrain config get sync.repo_path)
grep -ri "<wrong claim terms>" "$BRAIN_DIR/people/" "$BRAIN_DIR/companies/" "$BRAIN_DIR/concepts/" 2>/dev/null

Question: Is the wrong fact IN the brain? If yes → the brain is the contamination source. Fix the brain page (Step 6).

Step 2: Search memory files

Grep the harness's always-loaded memory files (e.g. the workspace MEMORY.md and any memory/*.md companions — the exact location depends on your harness):

grep -ri "<wrong claim terms>" <memory files> 2>/dev/null

Question: Is the wrong fact in memory? If yes → memory is the contamination source. Fix the memory file.

Step 3: Check SOUL.md and USER.md

grep -i "<relevant terms>" <workspace>/SOUL.md <workspace>/USER.md 2>/dev/null

Question: Is there a misleading passage that could have led to the wrong inference? SOUL.md and USER.md are in every context window — a vague or ambiguous line here propagates into every session.

Important: on gbrain installs these files are RENDERED from the bootstrap answer bank (state/interview.json). Note the finding here; the fix goes through the answer bank in Step 6, never through a direct edit.

Step 4: Check the facts table

gbrain recall <entity-slug>            # facts about the subject, newest first
gbrain recall --grep "<claim terms>"   # substring filter when the entity is unclear

Is there a wrong fact with high confidence? Note its fact id.

Step 5: Classify the error

Classification	Description	Fix surface
BRAIN_ERROR	Wrong fact exists in a brain page	Edit the page in the brain repo, commit, re-sync
MEMORY_ERROR	Wrong fact exists in memory files	Fix the memory file
SOUL_USER_ERROR	Misleading passage in SOUL.md or USER.md	Fix the ANSWER BANK, re-render — never the rendered file
FACTS_TABLE_ERROR	Wrong fact in the gbrain facts table	recall → forget <fact-id> → remember the correction
HALLUCINATION	No source — LLM confabulated from partial signals	Name the contamination vector (what partial signals led to it), write a guard fact
STALE_DATA	Fact was once true but is no longer	Update the source with current truth; supersede the stale fact
CROSS_CONTAMINATION	Correct fact about person A attributed to person B	Fix attribution in the source — on BOTH entities

Step 6: Fix the source

• BRAIN_ERROR: Edit the page file in the brain repo. Include [Source: user correction, YYYY-MM-DD] on the corrected line. Commit, then gbrain sync so the DB reflects the fix. (Editing the DB row without the repo file — or vice versa — leaves the two out of agreement until the next sync overwrites one of them.)
• MEMORY_ERROR: Edit the memory file. Add a correction note with date.
• SOUL_USER_ERROR: NEVER edit SOUL.md / USER.md directly — they are rendered files, and a hand edit is silently lost on the next render. Fix the underlying answer in the shared bootstrap answer bank, then re-render:

  gbrain bootstrap interview --set KEY "corrected value"   # verbatim, user's words
  gbrain bootstrap interview --show                        # read back
  gbrain bootstrap interview --status                      # get the confirm hash
  gbrain bootstrap interview --confirm <hash>
  gbrain bootstrap render --only SOUL.md --force           # repeat per affected file
  

  The full interview discipline (read-back ritual, verbatim answers, backup behavior) lives in skills/soul-audit/SKILL.md — route through it for anything beyond a single-key fix.
• FACTS_TABLE_ERROR: Expire the wrong row and write the correction with provenance:

  gbrain recall <entity-slug>                                  # find the fact id
  gbrain forget <fact-id>                                      # expire the wrong fact
  gbrain remember "<correct fact>" \
    --provenance "user correction, YYYY-MM-DD" --entity <entity-slug>
  

• HALLUCINATION: There is no source to fix. Identify the partial signal that seeded the confabulation, then write a guard so it can't reseed:

  gbrain remember "WRONG: <what was said>. RIGHT: <what is true>. Guard: <instruction to prevent recurrence>" \
    --provenance "user correction, YYYY-MM-DD (hallucination guard)" --entity <entity-slug>
  

• STALE_DATA: Update the source page with current truth (BRAIN_ERROR flow), and supersede any stale facts rows (forget + remember with the current truth and fresh provenance).
• CROSS_CONTAMINATION: Fix the attribution at the source, then check BOTH entities: person A's page and facts (does the fact now live where it belongs?) and person B's page and facts (is every trace of the misattribution gone?).

Step 7: Check for propagation

The wrong fact may have propagated into OTHER brain pages, synthesis output, or memory files.

grep -ri "<wrong claim terms>" "$BRAIN_DIR" 2>/dev/null | grep -v ".git"
gbrain search "<wrong claim terms>" --limit 20

Fix ALL instances, not just the first one found. Re-sync after repo edits.

Step 8: Report to the user

Short report:

**Error:** [what was wrong]
**Root cause:** [BRAIN_ERROR | HALLUCINATION | etc.]
**Source:** [specific file/line or fact id, or "no source — confabulated from X"]
**Fixed:** [what was changed, where]
**Propagation:** [other files fixed, or "no propagation found"]

Severity Tiers

Tier	Description	Action
S1 — Identity error	Wrong facts about the user's family, heritage, history, core identity	Fix immediately. These contaminate EVERYTHING — every synthesis, every book mirror, every conversation.
S2 — Entity error	Wrong facts about a person, company, deal in the brain	Fix brain page, check propagation
S3 — Context error	Wrong inference about the user's current state, feelings, situation	Guard fact via remember. Usually hallucination.
S4 — Minor factual	Wrong date, wrong number, wrong detail	Fix source, no propagation check needed

Recurring Error Patterns to Watch

Pattern	Example	Guard
Projecting therapeutic narratives	"You've been avoiding the hard conversation with your cofounder" (no evidence)	Check calendar/behavior data before making claims about the user's actions or state
Autocorrecting names to famous people	A contact named alice-example Cho silently becomes the similarly-named celebrity	The user's people outrank world-famous people — resolve against people/ first
Confusing takes with facts	Dumping takes-table beliefs into facts	Takes = other people's beliefs. Facts = the user's personal knowledge.
Enumerative claims from session context only	"You've worked at two companies" — missing the one only recorded in the brain	NEVER make enumerative claims ("all your X," "every Y," "the three times you Z") without searching the brain first. Session context is always incomplete.
Missing data in always-loaded files	A core fact lives only in a brain page, not in USER.md/MEMORY.md, so every session re-derives it wrong	When a correction reveals a gap in an always-loaded file, ADD the missing data through the proper surface (answer bank for rendered files, direct edit for memory files) so it's in every future context window

Complement: the contradictions probe

This skill is REACTIVE — it fires when the user catches an error. The shipped contradictions probe is the PROACTIVE side of the same discipline: it finds intra-brain conflicts before the user does.

gbrain eval suspected-contradictions   # run the probe
gbrain find-contradictions             # read the latest run's findings

If a correction reveals a class of conflict (e.g. two pages disagreeing about a date), run the probe afterward — the same contamination pattern may exist elsewhere in the brain.

Contract

This skill guarantees:

• Every factual error gets root-caused, not just noted
• Source fixes land at the REAL fix surface for the error class (page edit + commit + re-sync; forget/remember for facts rows; answer bank + re-render for SOUL/USER — never a direct edit to a rendered file)
• Propagation is checked (whole-brain grep + gbrain search)
• The user gets a clear report of what was wrong, why, and what was fixed
• Routing matches the canonical triggers in the frontmatter
• Privacy contract preserved: no real names, no fork-specific filesystem path literals, no upstream-fork references

Output Format

The skill's output is the Step 8 root-cause report delivered inline during the conversation, plus all source fixes applied (brain-repo edits committed and re-synced; facts rows expired/superseded; identity files re-rendered from the answer bank).

Dedup (sharp boundaries)

• skills/maintain/SKILL.md — PROACTIVE brain health (stale pages, orphans, citations, doctor). This skill is REACTIVE: a specific user correction gets traced to its contamination source. If nobody said "that's wrong," it's maintain's territory.
• The contradictions probe (gbrain eval suspected-contradictions / gbrain find-contradictions) — PROACTIVE intra-brain conflict detection. Complementary, not overlapping: the probe finds conflicts between two brain sources; this skill starts from a correction supplied by the user.
• skills/soul-audit/SKILL.md — the full identity re-interview surface. This skill DELEGATES to it for SOUL_USER_ERROR fixes; it never re-implements the interview or render flow.
• skills/citation-fixer/SKILL.md — citation FORMAT compliance. Correcting a claim's truth is this skill; fixing how a true claim is cited is citation-fixer.
• frontmatter-guard (host-side) — structural page validation (YAML shape), not claim truth.

Anti-Patterns

• "Noted, I'll remember that." NO. Trace the source. Fix the source.
• Fixing only memory without checking the brain. The brain is the persistent store. Memory gets flushed.
• Editing SOUL.md / USER.md directly. They're rendered from the answer bank; the hand edit dies on the next render and the error comes back. Fix the answer, re-render.
• Editing the brain-repo file without re-syncing (or the DB row without committing). The two stores drift and the next sync resurrects the error.
• Fixing one instance without checking propagation. Wrong facts spread.
• Blaming the hallucination without identifying the partial signal. Every hallucination has a seed — find it.
• Defensive response. Never explain why you got it wrong before acknowledging it's wrong.