# Editing a wiki Every edit disturbs what the wiki already says, so most of editing happens around the change: reading before it, then restoring, cutting and checking after it. ## Reading before writing ### The rules are re-read at each new phase The next action, not the length of the session, says when a phase has changed. ### Absence in a truncated read proves nothing A topic counts as missing only after three reads in order: the whole outline, including every page of results, then the relevant page itself, then a search. ### A new node starts from its parent's children The claim may belong in an existing sibling, and children that no longer share one subject are reorganized before anything is added. ## Finishing an edit After the change, the author reads every page it affects whole, as a reader who does not know the intent. In a finished edit every such page is consistent: no claim repeats another block, every heading still covers its children, and nothing the edit made stale remains. All of this belongs to the same edit, since the changed block alone cannot show it. ## Cutting Cutting starts from the [compactness test](block:54716). In a cut page: - places that made the same claim are merged into the one that explains it; - repeated examples and explanations the principles already give are gone; - no sentence repeats its title or restates a limit; - the rule that generates a list of instances stands in its place; - several related rules are stated through their common principle. ### Cutting comes after the text settles and before the second reader Cutting text that is still changing is wasted, and several cuts together change what the page asserts, so the second reader has to see their result. ## The second reader An author misses what they meant but did not write, so a second reader checks the finished edit. ### The author reads, then review checks, then lint polishes once The author's own whole reading comes first. Then [review](block:8219) runs on the affected pages by an agent that did not write them, and lint runs once after it. Both apply the [checklist](block:59952) the wiki keeps for them in its rules. ### Review checks finished work rather than finishing it Many findings may indicate that the author's own reading was skipped or rushed, though an honest reading of a hard page can leave many too. Review confirms finished work; it does not stand in for that reading. ### A rejection with a stated reason closes a finding Findings are observations, and which to apply is the author's decision: a reasoned rejection closes a finding as surely as applying it, and every finding ends closed one way or the other. Contradictions are resolved before misplaced nodes are moved, and wording fixed after lint does not restart review. --- ## Links here - [Additional setup](page:59333) - [Human and agent roles](page:2988) - [Rules](page:39339) - [Wikilayer skills](page:59340) - [Wiki rules](page:55269) - [Wording](page:54729) - [Writing a wiki](page:59315) --- [All pages](https://wikilayer.org/smee-again/wikilayer-howto/en/index.md)