Fulcra: pipeline, decisions, audit findings

A comprehension artifact. Built from docs/fulcra-reconstruction-2026-08-05.md, which was itself compiled by reading code, git, gh, in-repo documents and session transcripts.

repo state c29f775 · branch overfetch-24 · origin/main d621cfa · compiled 2026-08-05

← the essay this came out of · Fulcra

verified read off code, git, gh or a named artifact unverified not confirmed; hatched and dashed everywhere it appears measured an experiment exists unmeasured chosen once or inherited

The retrieval pipeline as it actually runs

Entry point runRetrievalPipeline() at src/mastra/rag/retrieval-pipeline.ts:611, called once per advisory turn, returning relevantContext, sources and rerankStatus. The file is 1,049 lines. Click any stage. The eleven stage names are a typed union in stage-debug-types.ts, so drift between the pipeline, the dev script and the span names becomes a compile error.

synchronous, no model calls
parallel arms
merge and narrow
final

Measured surface

Four things in this pipeline have an experiment behind them. Everything else was chosen once, ported from the earlier Convex implementation, or copied from a paper.

ComponentStatusEvidence, or what is missing

Decision timeline

Dates are commit dates, PR merge timestamps, issue timestamps or artifact mtimes. Reversals are marked and are worth more than the decisions, because each one records a belief that was held confidently and turned out to be wrong.

show

Reversal ledger

Thirteen recorded cases where the belief and the finding came apart. Every row here is verified against the artifact named in the last column.

What was believedWhat was foundRecorded

Audit findings

Every audit in this project was performed by AI agents. No human reviewer appears anywhere in the record. The human role throughout was direction, acceptance and pre-registration authorship, not review. Where an audit recorded totals but not per-item severity, the individual items carry no severity tag rather than an invented one.

severity
status
source
search

What is still open

Stated as gaps rather than as a plan, because the reconstruction records several of these as things it could not determine rather than things nobody has got to yet.

Documented contradictions

Places where two in-repo sources disagree. In each case code and git win, and the disagreement is recorded rather than quietly reconciled.

ConflictWhat the document saysWhat the code says