block · nahiyankhan · Aug 19, 2026 · Aug 18, 2026 · Aug 18, 2026 · Aug 19, 2026
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@design-intelligence/ghost": minor
+---
+
+The node retrieval frontmatter field is `for`: the situation or activity the guidance is for. `context` and `description` are rejected at validation with a pointer to `for`; gather/pull output, the embed API, coverage reporting (`withoutFor`), and the lint rule (`node-for-missing`) all use `for`.
@@ -50,9 +50,9 @@ glossary.md           # the author's category vocabulary + what each kind means
 checks/               # optional review assertions; never a node source
 ```
 
-The **corpus is flat**. A node is a markdown file: a `context` in
-frontmatter (the retrieval payload), optional `materials`, and brand guidance in
-the prose body. A node's identity is its filename minus `.md`; its kind is the
+The **corpus is flat**. A node is a markdown file: a `for` payload in
+frontmatter (the retrieval payload: the situation or activity the guidance is
+for), optional `materials`, and brand guidance in the prose body. A node's identity is its filename minus `.md`; its kind is the
 filename prefix before the first dot, declared in the glossary. There is no
 hierarchy, no inheritance, no edges; nesting into folders is a browsing
 convenience only.

@@ -107,13 +107,13 @@ repeatable commands for scaffolding, validation, retrieval, and review.
 The package is a **flat set of nodes**. The optional `cover:` in
 `manifest.yml` may name any node; `ghost gather` inlines it before the menu.
 The default skeleton calls that node `brand`, but the filename is not reserved.
-A node is one markdown file: a `context` in frontmatter, optional
-`materials`, and brand guidance in the prose body. `description` remains a
-deprecated read alias for one release, and `ghost validate` warns on its use.
+A node is one markdown file: a `for` payload in frontmatter (the situation or
+activity the guidance is for), optional `materials`, and brand guidance in the
+prose body.
 
 ```markdown
 ---
-context: Placing, sizing, or choosing a logo lockup or glyph.
+for: Placing, sizing, or choosing a logo lockup or glyph.
 materials:
   - brand/logo-lockup.svg
   - brand/logo-glyph.svg

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-context: Any visual surface at risk of generic AI-product spectacle or card chrome.
+for: Any visual surface at risk of generic AI-product spectacle or card chrome.
 materials:
   - apps/docs/src/pages/index.astro
   - apps/docs/src/styles/marked-doc.css

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-context: Any expression of the ghost brand.
+for: Any expression of the ghost brand.
 materials:
   - apps/docs/src/styles/marked-doc.css
   - apps/docs/src/pages/index.astro

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-context: Composing any ghost page or adapting its layout across viewport sizes.
+for: Composing any ghost page or adapting its layout across viewport sizes.
 materials:
   - apps/docs/src/components/DocSection.astro
   - apps/docs/src/components/SectionWrapper.astro

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-context: Translating the ghost visual expression into another surface or medium.
+for: Translating the ghost visual expression into another surface or medium.
 materials:
   - apps/docs/src/pages/index.astro
   - apps/docs/src/components/Hero.astro

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-context: Using yellow, selection, intervention, or active-choice states.
+for: Using yellow, selection, intervention, or active-choice states.
 materials:
   - apps/docs/src/styles/marked-doc.css
   - apps/docs/src/components/docs/gather-demo.tsx

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-context: Anything that moves, transitions, reveals in sequence, or changes position or emphasis.
+for: Anything that moves, transitions, reveals in sequence, or changes position or emphasis.
 materials:
   - apps/docs/src/components/docs/gather-demo.tsx
   - apps/docs/src/styles/marked-doc.css

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-context: A reader needs to inspect an example, table, code sample, comparison, palette, diagnostic, or interactive result.
+for: A reader needs to inspect an example, table, code sample, comparison, palette, diagnostic, or interactive result.
 materials:
   - apps/docs/src/pages/index.astro
   - apps/docs/src/components/docs/gather-demo.tsx

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-context: Any ghost visual expression, independent of surface, medium, or implementation.
+for: Any ghost visual expression, independent of surface, medium, or implementation.
 materials:
   - apps/docs/src/pages/index.astro
   - apps/docs/src/components/DocSection.astro

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-context: Choosing or implementing color, typography, spacing, shape, elevation, interaction, or accessibility for ghost.
+for: Choosing or implementing color, typography, spacing, shape, elevation, interaction, or accessibility for ghost.
 materials:
   - apps/docs/src/styles/marked-doc.css
   - apps/docs/src/styles/docs.css

@@ -1,21 +1,21 @@
 import { useEffect, useMemo, useRef, useState } from "react";
 
 const nodes = [
-  { id: "brand", context: "any task that should express this brand" },
-  { id: "voice", context: "anything with words" },
-  { id: "motion", context: "anything that moves on screen" },
+  { id: "brand", for: "any task that should express this brand" },
+  { id: "voice", for: "anything with words" },
+  { id: "motion", for: "anything that moves on screen" },
   {
     id: "email.transactional",
-    context: "money moved and the reader is checking",
+    for: "money moved and the reader is checking",
   },
   {
     id: "layout.spacing",
-    context: "laying out a page",
+    for: "laying out a page",
   },
-  { id: "never.ai-defaults", context: "any first-draft visual surface" },
+  { id: "never.ai-defaults", for: "any first-draft visual surface" },
   {
     id: "logo.usage",
-    context: "placing or sizing the mark",
+    for: "placing or sizing the mark",
   },
 ] as const;
 
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ export function GatherDemo() {
             >
               <div className="font-bold">{node.id}</div>
               <div>
-                {node.context}
+                {node.for}
                 {node.id === "brand" ? (
                   <span className="text-[var(--doc-middle)]">
                     {" "}

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ const steeringDiagnoses = [
     signal: "delivery gap",
     read: "the relevant guidance existed but did not reach the task",
     repair:
-      "add the node, sharpen its description, or inspect why it was skipped",
+      "add the node, sharpen its `for` payload, or inspect why it was skipped",
   },
   {
     signal: "correction gap",
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ const guidanceExamples = [
     label: "visual decision",
     path: "pattern.crop-with-intent.md",
     body: `---
-description: Photography. Gather when a composition uses a photo.
+for: Photography. Gather when a composition uses a photo.
 materials:
   - brand/photography/**
 ---
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ Reject cautious full-object framing and collages that avoid choosing a focal poi
     label: "product pattern",
     path: "condition.blocked-progress.md",
     body: `---
-description: Blocked progress. Gather when someone cannot continue a task.
+for: Blocked progress. Gather when someone cannot continue a task.
 materials:
   - src/components/error-state/**
 ---
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ If the person cannot resolve the problem, state what happens next. Do not end on
     label: "exact material",
     path: "asset.color-roles.md",
     body: `---
-description: Exact color roles and values. Gather before assigning color.
+for: Exact color roles and values. Gather before assigning color.
 materials:
   - src/styles/brand-tokens.css
 ---
@@ -245,12 +245,12 @@ Ink carries content. Signal marks selection. Correction marks review.
                 <p>
                   Gather shows the complete menu before the agent chooses. If useful
                   guidance does not reach the work, you can see whether the node was
-                  missing, its description was unclear, or the agent skipped it.
+                  missing, its <code>for</code> payload was unclear, or the agent skipped it.
                 </p>
 
                 <h3 class="pt-4 font-bold lowercase">efficiency</h3>
                 <p>
-                  Gather represents every node with a compact ID and description.
+                  Gather represents every node with a compact ID and <code>for</code> payload.
                   Pull loads the full prose and materials only for the selected
                   nodes. The agent sees the shape of the whole brand while keeping
                   generation context small and free of unrelated instructions.

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ into folders is a browsing convenience only.
 | `manifest.yml` | Schema version and package id; the package's anchor. |
 | `glossary.md` | The author's dictionary: every term with defined meaning in the corpus. ghost ships no fixed vocabulary. |
 | Prose nodes (`<kind>.<slug>.md`, `<slug>.md`) | Durable brand guidance; each body answers why (the stance), with what (the materials), or how it is assembled (the patterns). Altitude lives in prose; narrower guidance names its condition. |
-| Node frontmatter | `context` (retrieval payload) and optional `materials` (explicit repo-relative file paths or supported external locators, with optional retrieval notes; see the schema reference for the supported schemes). |
+| Node frontmatter | `for` (retrieval payload) and optional `materials` (explicit repo-relative file paths or supported external locators, with optional retrieval notes; see the schema reference for the supported schemes). |
 | `checks/` | Optional review assertions binding to nodes with `references`. Never a node source and never generation input. |
 
 One resolution mechanism, read-only:
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ Two rules keep the reservation honest:
 1. **Retrieval needs pushed into the shape.** When selection feels imprecise, the
    temptation is to encode routing in data: proliferating filename kinds until
    they become destinations, or turning the glossary into a dispatch table.
-   *Fix: `context` is the retrieval payload; sharpen contexts, show the
+   *Fix: `for` is the retrieval payload; sharpen `for` payloads, show the
    menu, let the agent pick.*
 
 2. **Filing by destination.** A node authored as `for-emails.md` smuggles a

@@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ measures whether the right guidance even makes it into context. Selection is
 the unit. No generation, ever.
 
 `ghost gather` does no filtering: the menu is always the whole catalog, and
-selection happens in the model's head against each node's `context`.
-So what this bench actually tests is whether contexts are good enough
-retrieval payloads — a node with a vague context is invisible at
+selection happens in the model's head against each node's `for` payload.
+So what this bench actually tests is whether `for` payloads are good enough
+retrieval payloads — a node with a vague `for` is invisible at
 selection time no matter how good its body is.
 
 ## Run
@@ -30,15 +30,15 @@ else `ghost` on PATH).
 ## Screens
 
 **package** — the catalog rendered as the selection surface the model
-sees: id, kind, context, material count, coverage line. Click a node to
-see its real `ghost pull` output in a drawer. Review contexts as
-retrieval payloads, not file contents; a node with no context is flagged
+sees: id, kind, `for` payload, material count, coverage line. Click a node to
+see its real `ghost pull` output in a drawer. Review `for` payloads as
+retrieval payloads, not file contents; a node with no `for` is flagged
 as invisible.
 
 **bench** — type an ask (or run the whole asks suite), fire N single-shot
 selection trials, and read the heatmap: nodes × asks, each cell the
 fraction of trials that selected the node. Solid column = confident
-context. Speckled = coin-flip. Empty row = dead node. Blue outline =
+`for` payload. Speckled = coin-flip. Empty row = dead node. Blue outline =
 the ask's expected set. Scores above the map: consistency (mean pairwise
 Jaccard), mean per-trial precision and recall, poison-selection rate, unknown
 ids, and nodes ever selected.

@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ export function fakeModel() {
       const selected = [];
       for (const entry of menu) {
         const nodeTokens = tokens(
-          [entry.id.replaceAll(/[.-]/g, " "), entry.kind, entry.context]
+          [entry.id.replaceAll(/[.-]/g, " "), entry.kind, entry.for]
             .filter(Boolean)
             .join(" "),
         );
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ function selectUser(ask, menu, cover) {
     const flags = [entry.materials ? `${entry.materials} materials` : null]
       .filter(Boolean)
       .join(", ");
-    return `- ${entry.id}${entry.kind ? ` [${entry.kind}]` : ""}${flags ? ` (${flags})` : ""}: ${entry.context ?? "(no context)"}`;
+    return `- ${entry.id}${entry.kind ? ` [${entry.kind}]` : ""}${flags ? ` (${flags})` : ""}: ${entry.for ?? "(no for payload)"}`;
   });
   const coverLine = cover
     ? `Cover already in context: ${cover.id}\n\n${cover.body}\n\n`

@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ <h1><b>context-control</b> · selection is the unit</h1>
     </div>
     <div class="legend">
       Each column is one ask; each cell is the fraction of trials that selected the node.
-      Solid = confident context. Speckled = coin-flip. Empty row = invisible node.
+      Solid = confident `for` payload. Speckled = coin-flip. Empty row = invisible node.
       Blue outline = in the ask's expected set. The cover is already in context and
       is not part of the menu. Selection runs the ghost skill's recall protocol;
       live agents additionally carry task
@@ -168,12 +168,12 @@ <h1><b>context-control</b> · selection is the unit</h1>
   const c = data.coverage;
   $("#coverage").textContent =
     `${c.nodes} nodes · ${c.concrete} concrete` +
-    (c.withoutContext ? ` · ${c.withoutContext} without context` : "");
+    (c.withoutFor ? ` · ${c.withoutFor} lack for` : "");
   $("#menuRows").innerHTML = state.menu.map((n) => `
     <tr class="node" data-id="${n.id}">
       <td class="id">${n.id}${n.materials ? `<span class="badge mat">${n.materials} mat</span>` : ""}</td>
       <td class="kind">${n.kind ?? ""}</td>
-      <td>${n.context ?? '<span style="color:var(--danger)">no context — invisible at selection time</span>'}</td>
+      <td>${n.for ?? '<span style="color:var(--danger)">no for payload — invisible at selection time</span>'}</td>
     </tr>`).join("");
   document.querySelectorAll("tr.node").forEach((row) => {
     row.onclick = () => openDrawer(row.dataset.id);
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ <h1><b>context-control</b> · selection is the unit</h1>
   const node = data.nodes?.[0];
   drawer.innerHTML = `<button class="close">close ×</button><h2>${id}</h2>` +
     (node
-      ? `<p style="color:var(--dim)">${node.context ?? ""}</p><hr style="border:0;border-top:1px solid var(--line)" />${escapeHtml(node.body)}`
+      ? `<p style="color:var(--dim)">${node.for ?? ""}</p><hr style="border:0;border-top:1px solid var(--line)" />${escapeHtml(node.body)}`
       : `<p class="flag">pull returned nothing (${escapeHtml(JSON.stringify(data))})</p>`);
   drawer.querySelector(".close").onclick = () => drawer.classList.add("hidden");
 }

@@ -100,8 +100,8 @@ function menuCoverageLine(menu: GhostGatherResult): string {
     `${coverage.nodes} nodes`,
     `${coverage.concrete} carry payloads (${payloadParts.join(", ")})`,
   ];
-  if (coverage.withoutContext > 0) {
-    parts.push(`${coverage.withoutContext} lack context`);
+  if (coverage.withoutFor > 0) {
+    parts.push(`${coverage.withoutFor} lack \`for\` payloads`);
   }
   return parts.join(" · ");
 }
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ function formatMenuMarkdown(menu: GhostGatherResult): string {
   if (menu.ask) {
     lines.push(
       "Complete, unfiltered, unranked list from the ghost package. ghost has not selected nodes for this ask.",
-      "Pull every node whose context indicates its stated situation applies and whose guidance, material, structure, or refusal governs the work. Skip inapplicable nodes. Topic overlap alone is not applicability. Do not add nodes for completeness or omit applicable nodes to meet a count.",
+      "Pull every node whose `for` payload indicates its stated situation applies and whose guidance, material, structure, or refusal governs the work. Skip inapplicable nodes. Topic overlap alone is not applicability. Do not add nodes for completeness or omit applicable nodes to meet a count.",
       "Next: `ghost pull <id> [<id>…]`.",
       "If nothing applies, name the package's silence, follow the cover silence posture, and do not invent ghost-backed guidance.",
       "",
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ function formatMenuMarkdown(menu: GhostGatherResult): string {
   for (const entry of menu.nodes) {
     const kind = entry.kind ? ` _(${entry.kind})_` : "";
     lines.push(`- \`${entry.id}\`${kind}`);
-    if (entry.context) lines.push(`  - ${entry.context}`);
+    if (entry.for) lines.push(`  - ${entry.for}`);
     if (entry.materials !== undefined) {
       lines.push(`  - materials: ${entry.materials}`);
     }

@@ -113,9 +113,7 @@ function formatPullJson(
     nodes: result.nodes.map((node) => ({
       id: node.id,
       ...(node.kind !== undefined ? { kind: node.kind } : {}),
-      ...(node.context
-        ? { context: node.context, description: node.context }
-        : {}),
+      ...(node.for ? { for: node.for } : {}),
       ...(node.declaredMaterials !== undefined
         ? {
             materials: inlineMaterials
@@ -134,7 +132,7 @@ function formatPullMarkdown(result: GhostPullResult): string {
   for (const node of result.nodes) {
     const kind = node.kind ? ` _(${node.kind})_` : "";
     const lines = [`# \`${node.id}\`${kind}`];
-    if (node.context) lines.push("", `> ${node.context}`);
+    if (node.for) lines.push("", `> ${node.for}`);
     lines.push("", node.body.trim());
     if (node.materials !== undefined && node.materials.length > 0) {
       lines.push("", "Materials:");

@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ export function gatherContract(ask: string | undefined): GhostGatherContract {
     selection: {
       basis: "applicability",
       instruction: ask
-        ? "Pull every node whose context indicates its stated situation applies and whose guidance, material, structure, or refusal governs the work; skip inapplicable nodes."
+        ? "Pull every node whose `for` payload indicates its stated situation applies and whose guidance, material, structure, or refusal governs the work; skip inapplicable nodes."
         : "Bare gather is catalog inspection. Do not treat the menu as task grounding until an ask is supplied; when grounding a task, pull every applicable node and skip inapplicable nodes.",
       topicOverlapAloneIsApplicability: false,
       addForCompleteness: false,
@@ -76,8 +76,8 @@ export function gatherContract(ask: string | undefined): GhostGatherContract {
 export function menuCoverage(
   menu: readonly CatalogMenuEntry[],
 ): GhostGatherCoverage {
-  const withoutContext = menu.filter(
-    (entry) => !entry.context || entry.context.trim().length === 0,
+  const withoutFor = menu.filter(
+    (entry) => !entry.for || entry.for.trim().length === 0,
   ).length;
   return {
     nodes: menu.length,
@@ -87,8 +87,7 @@ export function menuCoverage(
       fencedExamples: menu.filter((entry) => entry.hasFencedExample).length,
       skeletons: menu.filter((entry) => entry.hasSkeleton).length,
     },
-    withoutContext,
-    undescribed: withoutContext,
+    withoutFor,
   };
 }
 

@@ -67,9 +67,7 @@ export async function pullGhostNodes(
     nodes: pulledNodes.map(({ node, materials }) => ({
       id: node.id,
       ...(node.kind !== undefined ? { kind: node.kind } : {}),
-      ...(node.context
-        ? { context: node.context, description: node.context }
-        : {}),
+      ...(node.for ? { for: node.for } : {}),
       ...(node.materials !== undefined
         ? { declaredMaterials: [...node.materials] }
         : {}),