← Patterns / practice
Three families of dates
When the file changed, when the thinking changed, and when the work happened are three different questions.
- Authors
- Michael Staton
- Augmented with
- Claude Code on Claude Opus 5.5
- Tags
- Dates · Frontmatter
What it is
| Family | Keys | Answers |
| Filesystem |
date_created
,
date_modified
|
When did these bytes appear and last change? |
| Editorial |
date_authored_initial_draft
,
date_authored_current_draft
,
date_authored_final_draft
|
When was this really written, meaningfully revised, finished? |
| Lifecycle |
date_first_published
,
date_work_started
,
date_work_completed
|
When did it ship? When did the work happen? |
Why
Docs in
context-v/
keep evolving, and the filesystem lies in both directions. Opening a file in some editors bumps its modified time. A machine restore can reset creation dates. Telling a doc that moved last week from one stable since spring is the whole job, and one date can't do it.
How
-
date_modifiedmoves on every edit. -
date_authored_current_draftand the version move only on a substantive revision. -
An empty
date_authored_final_draftmeans "not final yet." Leave it empty; don't delete it. -
Work dates: omit rather than guess.