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Concept · files

Use when

You must choose which Files to open from a search or a list, before you read or cite any of them.

Looking for something else?

The File’s description, which the project sets and reviews (card File). The text you cite (card Passage and citation). Finding Files by their content (card Search).

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For

A synopsis is a short account of one File version. It says what the File is: its kind, its subject, the parties it names, the period it covers and its status. Penumbra writes it from the file itself, once for each version. No person or agent writes or edits it. An agent that searches a project often gets more Files than it can open. The synopsis is how it chooses. It reads one short account for each File, opens the few that matter, and cites passages from them (card Passage and citation). A synopsis tells you where to look. It does not say what the File says. A new version has its own synopsis. The File shows the synopsis of its current version, so it changes when a new version is ready (card File). A File can also have no synopsis yet, because Penumbra writes it after the version is stored. The synopsis is not the File’s description. The project sets and reviews the description, in its own words. The synopsis is automatic and unreviewed. One never replaces the other.

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Use when

  • A search returns many Files and you must decide which to open.
  • You list the Files of a collection and need to know what each one is.
  • You tell a person what a File is without reading all of it.

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Not this

  • What the File is called or how the project describes it: read the File (card File).
  • The exact words that support a claim: use a passage and its citation (card Passage and citation).
  • Finding Files by what they say: use search (card Search).

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Rules

  1. synopsis.1 A synopsis belongs to one File version. Penumbra writes it automatically. Enforced: nobody can set or edit one. A new version gets its own, and the File shows the synopsis of its current version.
  2. synopsis.2 A File can have no synopsis, and the result says why. A synopsis is “not written yet”, “being written”, “could not be written”, or “not written for this type of file”. Your job: read a missing synopsis as unknown. It says nothing about the File. Open the File to learn what it holds.
  3. synopsis.3 Cite passages, not the synopsis. Your job: use a synopsis to choose Files, then read and cite their passages (card Passage and citation). A synopsis is an automatic account. It is not the text of the File.
  4. synopsis.4 The synopsis is not the description. Enforced: they are two separate fields of a File, and writing a synopsis never changes the description. Your job: read the description as the project’s own words and the synopsis as Penumbra’s.
  5. synopsis.5 Search can return a synopsis with each File. Your job: ask for Files, not passages, when you must choose. Use --results files in penumbra search, or results:'files' in the MCP tool omnisearch and in penumbra.search. Add --no-synopsis, or synopsis:false, to leave the synopses out. The MCP tools browse_files and file_gallery show it too.

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Failure signs

  • A File shows no synopsis: rule synopsis.2.
  • You are about to cite a synopsis as a source: rule synopsis.3.
  • A person asks why a synopsis differs from the description: rule synopsis.4.
  • A search shows passages and you need to choose among Files: rule synopsis.5.

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Doors

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Keep going

File · Search · Passage and citation