Define the in-file RFC contract in docs/rfc/README.md § The file format:
the header block (`# RFC: <title>` plus a dateless Status enum
cross-checked against the lifecycle folder), the per-lifecycle body
skeleton (a Problem opener everywhere; Proposal/Alternatives considered/
Acceptance criteria/Risks in proposed/; present-tense Decision/
Consequences with proposal-era headings banned in implemented/; the
frozen proposal shape in rejected/), and a mandatory Alternatives
considered section with a date-fenced grandfather comment for pre-format
RFCs whose alternatives are not reconstructible from the record.
Enforce it with a new doc-sync gate, scripts/verify-rfc-format.ts, and
normalize all 112 RFCs to it: ~15 Status-line spellings collapse to the
enum, 29 Context openers become Problem, the 39 legacy-format XXX debt
markers are resolved and banned from reappearing, proposal-era sections
in implemented RFCs are rewritten to shipped reality (including the
web/fs/subagent seam RFCs' migration plans and test checklists, closing
the doc-tiers deferred-work item on the web seam), every RFC gains an
Alternatives considered section or the grandfather comment, and the
bilingual pair is re-mirrored and re-recorded.
Move the generated index tables out of README.md into a fully generated
docs/rfc/INDEX.md — gen-rfc-index now writes the whole file, and
verify-rfc-classification checks its freshness and rejects index-shaped
rows in the curated README — which makes room for the format contract to
live in the README front door instead of a separate FORMAT.md.
The decision record, and the first RFC written in the new format, is
docs/rfc/implemented/process/2026-07-05-uniform-rfc-format.md.
Redesign per review: neither language is canonical. A pair is three
sibling files — foo.md, foo.zh.md, foo.i18n.yaml — and either language
may be authored first (a Chinese-first RFC is as legitimate as an
English-first one). The sidecar record holds the FULL git blob hash of
both sides as of the last confirmed-consistent state, replacing the
in-file one-directional fingerprint; editing either side without
re-confirming the pair goes red. New --write mode re-records a pair
after both sides are brought in line, making the confirmation a
reviewable yaml diff. Pairs merge whole (completeness enforced).
- gate rewritten around pair anchors (union of .zh.md and .i18n.yaml
remnants) so half-deleted pairs are caught from either side; red/green
proven for en-only edit, zh-only edit, missing record, and a record
for an excluded file
- verify-rfc-classification now skips .zh.md counterparts (same RFC,
indexed via its English filename; the pairing gate owns consistency)
- docs/i18n/README.md + translation-rules.md reframed bidirectionally
(terminology table binds both directions; typography section governs
the Chinese side); zh counterparts updated; skill workflow updated
- RFC amended to the shipped design, records the English-canonical
in-file-fingerprint model as considered-and-revised; RFC translated
(docs/rfc/.../2026-07-02-bilingual-docs-and-pairing-gate.zh.md) and
added to the required frontier
- generated docs stay excluded with the follow-up recorded: teach the
generators to emit Chinese, then de-list
Tianyi Cui