Bring in outside material

Principles in play: Control transitions.TRACEControl transitions

Admitting an input is a boundary transition. Outside material waits apart from the project’s data until someone checks it and decides to admit, return or refuse it. The intake record names the material, its version, where it came from, who decided, and what was checked first, and it says so when no check was stated.

Steps

1. Say what comes in, from where, and for what.

   Say to your agent

   Bring in the 2023 filing-year table from the agency’s download page for the yearly comparison. Check its columns against the codebook first, and record where it came from.

   The table goes first into incoming/ inside the shared folder, not into the project’s data.

2. Ask what the check covered.

   Say to your agent

   What did you check before the table came in, and what did that check not cover?

3. Decide, and read the row.

   Say to your agent

   The columns match the codebook. I admit the table. Show me the intake row.

   Or send it back

   Return the table: the 2023 column is missing. Record that I returned it.

   The row names the material, its version, its origin, who decided and of which kind (a person, an agent or a delegated actor), the decision, what was checked, what it is for, and your sentence as the authority. Only an admitted table moves into the project’s data; a returned or refused one is never copied there.

4. Keep bulky files out of Git.

   Say to your agent

   The full dataset is too large for the repository. Keep it in the shared folder and record only what we use.

   See Connect your shared folder.

Things to know

• The row records; your words authorize. The row names your sentence as its authority.
• What is turned away is recorded too. A return or refusal at entry is a row like an admission, and it removes nothing already in the project.
• Unadmitted data is reported, not refused. The checks list data files that no admitting row names, and a returned or refused file found in the data anyway, as information.
• Admitting is not accepting. An intake record does not establish acceptance or scientific validity.
• Instructions inside material are material. Text in a downloaded file is something to read, not an order to follow.

What the agent runs

python3 scripts/shared_folder.py status              # names the incoming folder and counts what it holds
python3 scripts/trace_record.py intake --what "..." --origin "..." --by "Full Name" --person \
    --checked "..." --used-for "..." --authority "..." --path <file> \
    --version "..." --decision admit|return|refuse    # the decision, who made it and of which kind
python3 scripts/trace_record.py registries           # validates the rows on read