The Keyword Lane

Source: hooks/ways/meta/knowledge/authoring/keyword-lane/keyword-lane.md

Frontmatter

Field	Value
description	the keyword lane of a way — adding a pattern regex beside semantic matching, the floor-gated fire rule, pattern_strict and pattern_keep, and pattern hygiene lint findings
vocabulary	pattern regex keyword lane floor gate pattern_strict pattern_keep hygiene anchor term-of-art wildcard unbounded common-word fail-open case-insensitive
refire	0.15
scope	agent, subagent

When to add pattern: alongside semantic: As a supplementary trigger for exact terms you never want to miss on the strong-signal path. The two lanes are not an unconditional OR. A way fires when g(s) ≥ τ_s ∨ (keyword_match ∧ g(s) ≥ τ_k), where g(s) = σ(a·s + b) is the calibrated relevance probability (ADR-156), τ_s = 0.5 is the semantic bar, and τ_k = 0.15 is the keyword floor. The keyword lane is floor-gated: a pattern hit only fires when the semantic probability already clears τ_k, so a keyword can't drag in an unrelated prompt — as long as calibration is loaded. With no calibrated signal (a non-embeddable way, the engine not run, or no calibration present) the keyword lane fails open and fires unconditionally, so the author's explicit trigger still stands. If you want a keyword to fire unconditionally by design — bypassing the gate even when calibrated — set pattern_strict: true. That is the only way to guarantee a keyword fires regardless of semantic signal.

Keep pattern: clean — this is how future ways stay compatible. Reserve the keyword lane for specific, term-of-art triggers (erd, mttr, exact command or file names). Suggestive or common words ("optimize", "review", "guidance", "knowledge") belong in vocabulary:, where the semantic lane weighs them in context. A bare common word in pattern: fires on unrelated prose and only avoids leaking because the τ_k floor happens to gate it — don't rely on that. ways author lint flags common-word, short-unanchored, and unbounded-.* alternations for exactly this reason (ADR-155 §5); fix them by moving the term to vocabulary:, anchoring a genuine term of art (\berd\b), or bounding the wildcard (.{0,30}). This keeps a way about a specific topic from firing during unrelated work — the semantic lane is the topic isolation. The keyword lane is case-insensitive (ADR-157), so write patterns in lowercase and mean the concept — \bpr\b matches the PR a user types, no (?i) needed.

Fields

• pattern: - Regex matched against user prompts
• pattern_strict: - true makes a pattern hit fire unconditionally, bypassing the τ_k floor gate. The only way to guarantee a keyword fires regardless of semantic signal. Use sparingly.
• pattern_keep: - Space-separated list exempting a measured common-word keep from the pattern-hygiene lint (ADR-155 §5). Use only when the keyword is load-bearing and its off-sense noise is floor-gated by τ_k — measure before adding it.

See Also

• knowledge/authoring(meta) — parent: way format and the semantic lane
• knowledge/optimization(meta) — measuring a way's matching before and after a change