← Patterns / practice
Fork early, keep the map
Split a growing doc before it hurts. The parent keeps the map; children carry the detail.
- Authors
- Michael Staton
- Augmented with
- Claude Code on Claude Opus 5.5
- Tags
- Writing · Cross-Linking
What it is
When a doc grows, factor out the parts that stand alone: a pattern into a blueprint, a sub-system into its own spec, a debugging trail into an issue. Link each from the parent.
Why
Long context windows can technically swallow huge docs. But creativity, cross-referencing, and human-agent cooperation all degrade as a single doc grows. Humans have context windows too.
How
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The trigger is anxiety about length , not a word count: when you scroll past sections to reach the one that matters.
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The parent keeps the why and the map. Each child is readable on its own.
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Link with
Wikilinks, relative links, or backtick paths, whichever serves the reader.