MCP: Knowledge and governance

This is the Knowledge plane over MCP: the tools an AI client uses to read the team’s context before acting and to write a clean Note after learning. For setup, authentication, and the OAuth scopes referenced below, see MCP & OAuth. Every read carries a flat trust field (reviewed = Knowledge, the team’s source of truth; proposed / draft = a Note, a hint), so a client can key on trust === "reviewed" directly.

Retrieval and reading

Start with driftless_context_retrieve when you have a task but no slug. Bodies come back brief by default (the durable why, not the full content); fetch one full body with driftless_context_get.

Tool	Purpose	Main params	Returns
`driftless_context_retrieve`	Ranked, drifted-first context for a task and/or files	`task`, `files`, `view`, `limit`	`{ shown, has_more, next_action, results[] }`
`driftless_context_search`	Full-text search, relevance-ranked	`query`, `tags`, `stale`, `limit`	top 5 summaries, `has_more`
`driftless_context_list`	List topics, drifted-first	`status`, `stale`, `tags`, `limit`	top 40 summaries
`driftless_context_get`	One topic by slug (full body)	`topic`, `view`	the full topic
`driftless_context_get_for_files`	Match topics to file paths	`files`, `view`, `limit`	top 10, brief

Permission: context:read. Availability: Available.

driftless_context_retrieve task:'harden the webhook handler' files:['src/webhooks/handler.ts']
  → { results: [ { slug, trust, why_matched, confidence } ], has_more }

Writing and editing

Tool	Purpose	Main params	Notes
`driftless_context_create`	Create a topic (defaults to Up for review)	`title`, `content`, `pattern`, `rels`	returns `anchor_validation`
`driftless_note_add`	Capture a private Note (stays a draft)	`content`, `title`	never auto-submitted
`driftless_context_update`	Append-safe update	`topic`, fields, `rels`	returns `anchor_validation`
`driftless_context_delete`	Delete a topic (destructive)	`topic`	irreversible
`driftless_context_merge`	Fold a duplicate into a survivor	`source`, `into`	archives the source
`driftless_context_share`	Publish a public page and/or share with members	`topic`, `to_web`, `with_members`	sharing, not merging

Permissions: topics:create / topics:write; work:write for merge and share. Availability: Available. Write responses carry anchor_validation (ok / overbroad / zero), which never blocks the write.

{ "topic": "refund-flow", "rels": [ { "to": "billing-flow", "type": "depends_on" } ] }

Graph and health

Tool	Purpose	Main params	Returns
`driftless_context_relations`	A topic’s typed relations	`topic`	incoming + outgoing
`driftless_context_graph`	Local relation graph	`topic`, `depth`	nodes + edges
`driftless_context_doctor`	Audit the context layer	(none)	stale / zombie / orphaned / draft
`driftless_context_events`	Recent activity for a topic	`topic`	the event stream

Permission: context:read. Availability: Available.

Registries: tags and areas

Tool	Actions	Purpose
`driftless_tags`	`list`, `create`, `delete`	The tag registry (per-tag counts; curation)
`driftless_areas`	`list`, `create`, `update`, `delete`	The area registry (the domains topics file under)

Permissions: list is member-level; create / update / delete need work:write. Availability: Available.

Governance

A topic becomes Knowledge only once an owner or admin merges it. An MCP client always proposes; it can merge only with owner/admin authority, and only when the authorizing person explicitly asks.

Tool	Purpose	Main params	Permission
`driftless_context_propose`	Put a Note up for review (draft → proposed)	`topic`	`work:write`
`driftless_context_approve`	Merge into Knowledge (proposed → reviewed)	`topic`	owner/admin, only when asked
`driftless_context_create_proposal`	Open a Suggested edit to existing Knowledge	`topic`, `summary`, `content`	`work:write`
`driftless_context_proposals`	List Notes up for review (the review queue)	(none)	member

Availability: Available. Automatic merge or auto-approval is Not available: a person always decides.

driftless_context_propose topic:'token-verification'

Permissions

Scope	Covers
`context:read`	Read topics, retrieve, search, list, graph, doctor, coverage, events
`topics:create`	Create topics
`topics:write`	Update existing topics
`work:write`	Tag/area curation, merge, share, propose, and Suggested edits
`context:diff`	Read topic diff for local changes

Merging into Knowledge additionally requires owner/admin authority, not just a scope.

Topics, Governance, Drift - the concepts.
Govern agent learning, Clean workspace context - the workflows.
CLI: Context Commands - the same surface from the terminal.
MCP & OAuth - setup, auth, and scopes.

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MCP: Knowledge and governance

Retrieval and reading

Writing and editing

Graph and health

Registries: tags and areas

Governance

Permissions

​Retrieval and reading

​Writing and editing

​Graph and health

​Registries: tags and areas

​Governance

​Permissions

​Related

Retrieval and reading

Writing and editing

Graph and health

Registries: tags and areas

Governance

Permissions

Related