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Typed relationships

Typed relationships are the graph that lets /query answer path questions deterministically instead of guessing by similarity. Pages declare typed edges to other pages in frontmatter, and the agent walks those edges to answer questions like “how is X connected to Y” or “what does X depend on transitively”.

The optional relationships field

Section titled “The optional relationships field”

The optional relationships: frontmatter field declares typed edges between pages.

relationships:
  - type: depends-on
    target: "[[page-slug]]"

Pages without the field are valid. See Page frontmatter for where this sits in the full frontmatter.

Canonical edge types

Section titled “Canonical edge types”

Six canonical edge types cover most cases:

  • depends-on
  • part-of
  • relates-to
  • supersedes
  • caused-by
  • used-by

A wiki may extend the vocabulary by documenting additional types in wiki-config.md. /lint flags any type outside the canonical plus wiki-declared set.

Rules for writing edges

Section titled “Rules for writing edges”
  • Edges are recorded only when a source states the relationship explicitly. The content trust and provenance rules apply; never infer edges speculatively
  • Edges are traversable in both directions for path queries. A depends-on B also answers “what depends on B”
  • The graph is read frontmatter-only. Commands grep relationships: blocks and never read page bodies for traversal
  • A target must be an existing page or a deliberate redlink. /lint flags targets that do not exist and unknown edge types

Why this makes deterministic path queries possible

Section titled “Why this makes deterministic path queries possible”

Because the edges are typed, explicit, and stored in frontmatter, /query can walk them mechanically rather than ranking by embedding similarity. Path questions run a bounded breadth-first search over the frontmatter graph: at most 4 hops, edges traversable in both directions, rendering the full chain with edge types along the way. The result is a path you can inspect and reproduce, not a similarity score you have to trust. Recording an edge only when a source states it keeps the graph honest, so a traversal never leans on a connection the agent merely guessed. /lint keeps the graph sound by flagging edges that point at pages that do not exist and edge types outside the allowed set.

Section titled “Related reference”