Tracking Freshness — Oversight INDEX Rebuild and Staleness Report

Purpose: Prevent tracking-system drift (PLAN-028 P0-4c, RC-1/RC-2). Scans every oversight/bugs/BUG-*.md and oversight/tech-debt/TECH-DEBT-*.md, classifies each record as open or closed from its authoritative **Status** header, compares against current INDEX placement, and reports divergences. With --write, regenerates both INDEX files (and their CLOSED.md shards).

Usage

SCRIPT=~/.ai-memory/_ai-memory/pov/skills/aim-tracking-freshness/scripts/tracking_freshness.py

# Read-only staleness report (no writes; the CI gate):
python "$SCRIPT" --check --oversight-root /path/to/oversight

# Regenerate both INDEX.md files (+ CLOSED.md shards) and print the report:
python "$SCRIPT" --write --oversight-root /path/to/oversight

# Add phantom-open code-state verification (cross-checks open records vs git):
python "$SCRIPT" --check --oversight-root /path/to/oversight \
  --verify-code-state --source-repo /path/to/source-git-repo

Oversight root also reads AI_MEMORY_OVERSIGHT_ROOT; with neither it nor --oversight-root set, it defaults to ./oversight under the CWD (run from the workspace root containing oversight/).

Modes

--check (read-only) — reads every record file and the current INDEX files and compares. Reports companions excluded, no-status warnings, divergences (file Status vs INDEX section — the BUG-301 class), orphan INDEX rows, and missing records. Id-parsing spans INDEX.md and CLOSED.md, so sharded closed records are not falsely flagged as missing. Exits non-zero on any divergence, orphan, missing, or no-status record; exits 0 only when fully in sync.

--write — same analysis, then regenerates both INDEX files (exit 0 is a successful write; gate CI on --check). Each INDEX opens with the D2 register front-matter (class, read_path, owns, cap_lines/cap_kb, rotation_trigger: none, archive_target: ./CLOSED.md); ## Open cells summarize the status (≤ 8 words / 64 chars) while classification uses the full raw status; ## Closed lists the most recent 10 plus a [Full closed history → ./CLOSED.md] (N) pointer, with the full history in bugs/CLOSED.md / tech-debt/CLOSED.md (idempotent overwrite). Written size is asserted against the cap (bugs ≤ 100 lines / 12 KB, TD ≤ 150 / 18); over-cap emits a loud stderr WARNING (a sensor — open records cannot be shed). Nothing outside the two INDEX files and their CLOSED.md shards is touched.

Extended checks

• --verify-code-state — advisory phantom-open sweep (file says OPEN, git says FIXED); does not affect the --check exit code.
• Decision-log body coverage — folded into --check; flags header DEC IDs with no ### DEC-… body entry (DRIFT-DEC-MISSING → exit 1).

References

• references/parsing-and-contract.md — status-token contract, filename convention, status-header formats, companion-file exclusion, core-scan degradation modes.
• references/extended-checks.md — --verify-code-state and decision-log coverage: flags, algorithm, output, degradation modes.

Notes

• The **Status** header in each record file is authoritative. Status is never inferred from filename or INDEX section placement.
• The TD pattern is TECH-DEBT-\d+(?:-[a-z0-9-]+)?\.md (slug optional); files matching TD-*.md are not matched (wrong prefix).
• No .claude/skills/ shim is needed — the installer auto-generates POV skill shims at install time.