Saving data or editing pages

Pensieve has two places an agent can write. The choice is about where the material belongs, not whether it might change later: a keyed source can be updated in place, and Pages are edited constantly.

Save what the company should keep

Use save_data for material that should be ingested and perpetuated through the context layer: research, interview findings, a confirmed decision, or an agent's finished work that should survive beyond its current run.

The write becomes an ordinary source document. It passes through the same ingestion and curation pipeline as connected material, can be deduplicated against other evidence, and can be cited from every relevant Page. It does not directly replace Page prose, and it is not a way to force one exact sentence into the tree. Curation decides where the evidence belongs and how the curated account should change.

For a continuing topic, give the source a stable source_key. That key is the source's context-wide identity: saving again with the same key updates the same source instead of creating a new one. Search saved Data for the topic and reuse an exact returned key.

After an MCP save, the receipt returns a process: reference for following ingestion and echoes the source_key when one was supplied.

Edit the curated account itself

Use edit_page when an existing Page is wrong. Use create_page only when the subject genuinely has no Page and belongs in the organisation tree; search first, because adding a second Page for the same subject usually creates a duplicate for curation to merge.

A direct Page write changes what readers see now, but it does not turn that prose into source evidence. Page prose should cite the Data behind its claims, and the write tools require those citations when an agent authors the body.

The Page remains part of the living curated layer. Automatic curation may rewrite it as sources change, or rename, move, merge or remove it to keep the tree coherent. A Page an external agent creates is no more permanent than one created anywhere else.

Use a lock for a deliberate exception

A member can choose to freeze a Page’s wording or a branch’s arrangement. Locks apply to Pages, not saved source Data, and are not needed for an ordinary correction. See Editing and organising for their scope and trade-offs. An agent may offer a lock, but must not decide to apply one itself.

How writes stay safe

• Revision checks. Page writes name the revision they expect to change. A stale write is rejected rather than applied over a newer edit.
• Client confirmation. Write tools carry destructive-action hints. Whether a proposed action requires confirmation depends on the client; the server does not add a separate approval step.
• History. Writes are recorded for inspection through search_changes and read_change. Page versions can also be read and brought forward from History.

Identity and attribution

An MCP write uses the signed-in member's authority and permissions. A direct Page change is attributed to that member. Content and structure changes carry the same member UserIntent they would through another Pensieve surface.

For Page changes, Pensieve also records that MCP was the route used. That is provenance about the access path, not a second author identity. The MCP session id only attributes calls to a client; it is not an author identity either.

A quick decision