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DR-006: Plain-text section notation

Status

Accepted — 2026-04-14 · CEO-approved · Codified in CLAUDE.md v1.2.2 + swept vault-wide

Context

CLAUDE.md v1.2.1 and earlier used the Unicode section sign character § (U+00A7) for references like §10A.8. This is a legitimate typographical convention for governance documents, BUT:

  • Monday.com sometimes renders § as a garbled character or box
  • Slack occasionally corrupts the character in certain clients
  • Notion and Gmail have been observed to strip or replace it
  • Terminal outputs in some configurations (Termius in particular) render it inconsistently
  • Copy-paste across apps frequently loses the character

The eco|monetize™ operating system moves content across many interconnected apps (vault → Monday.com → Slack → Gmail → browser → terminal). A character that renders inconsistently across the app stack is a liability, not a feature.

Rick asked directly: "Can you tell me what this set of characters should display as? format per §10A.8. The word after per does not compute for me." — which confirmed the rendering problem empirically.

Decision

Always write the literal word "Section" followed by the section identifier. Never use the § character in any vault content, chat output, memory files, agent prompts, SOPs, task briefs, status reports, incidents, or documentation.

Correct: Section 10A.8, per Section 11, CLAUDE.md Section 3.4 Incorrect: §10A.8, per §11, CLAUDE.md §3.4

Exception: when quoting source material that uses § verbatim, preserve it inside the quote. Everywhere else, plain text.

Alternatives considered

Option A — Keep § as the canonical reference format

Rejected. The rendering problem is real and repeated. Rick cannot read his own governance docs reliably across his tool stack.

Option B — Use Sec. abbreviation

Rejected. Saves 4 characters but loses readability. "Sec. 10A.8" is uglier than "Section 10A.8" and the savings aren't worth it.

Option C — Use full word "Section"

Accepted. Most readable. Universal rendering. Copy-paste safe.

Consequences

What becomes easier: - All cross-app content renders consistently - Copy-paste from vault → Slack → Monday.com → Gmail works reliably - Future readers (including future agents) don't encounter garbled text - The rule is trivially enforceable via grep

What becomes harder: - CLAUDE.md is 4-8 characters longer for every reference (accepted — readability wins) - One-time sweep required: 62 files touched across the vault on 2026-04-14 to replace 413 § occurrences

Trade-off accepted: Verbosity in exchange for universal rendering.

Implementation

Executed 2026-04-14:

  1. CLAUDE.md swept first (41 § replacements) → v1.2.2 bump
  2. Vault-wide sweep next (62 additional files, 372 replacements) with exclusions for archive/, .venv/, .obsidian/plugins/, binary files, and Jordan's active session file (to avoid mid-session collision)
  3. Chief.staff feedback memory feedback_section_notation.md captured for future session enforcement
  4. Rule applied going forward to all new content
  • [[CLAUDE]] Section 14 changelog entry for v1.2.2
  • Chief.staff memory feedback_section_notation.md
  • Script migration task brief (includes ongoing vigilance for § creeping back in from production sources)

Date: 2026-04-14 · Author: chief.staff · Stakeholders: ceo, all agents · Codified in: CLAUDE.md v1.2.2