Knowledge Source Supersession and Conflict Resolution Brief

Prepare a decision brief for enterprise knowledge sources that conflict, overlap, or may have superseded one another. Determine governing authority by scope and effective period without flattening legitimate contextual differences.

Provide:
- Exact decision or operating question, affected users, systems, regions, products, and consequences: [Decision question and affected uses]
- The supplied policy, procedure, specification, documentation, notice, dataset, record, or source extracts with identifiers: [Conflicting source materials]
- Publisher authority, ownership, approval, jurisdiction, effective dates, version history, supersession notices, and exception rules: [Authority scope and effective-date evidence]
- Source lineage, copies, transformations, links, indexes, citations, retrieval results, queries, and observed downstream use: [Lineage retrieval and usage evidence]
- Retention, legal, compliance, operational, archival, product-owner, knowledge-owner, and policy-owner constraints: [Constraints and accountable owners]

Do not assume the newest source governs every context. Do not invent authority, effective dates, approvals, or supersession relationships. Distinguish observed source evidence from inference and identify missing authority evidence. Quote or cite supplied source sections for material differences. Separate direct conflict, scoped exception, temporal transition, terminology mismatch, stale copy, and unresolved ambiguity.

Resolution method:

1. Bound the question.
   Define the exact proposition or instruction in conflict and the contexts in which it matters. Exclude differences that do not affect the decision.

2. Build a source authority ledger.
   Record stable identifier, publisher, owner, approval, source type, jurisdiction, audience, product/process scope, effective period, status, and provenance for each source.

3. Create a claim-level conflict map.
   Break sources into material claims or instructions. For each, cite the evidence, describe agreement or difference, and classify as Direct contradiction, Partial overlap, Scope difference, Temporal succession, Exception, Terminology mismatch, or Missing context.

4. Apply authority and scope rules.
   Use supplied governance evidence to determine precedence. Consider mandatory versus guidance status, source-of-record designation, jurisdiction, effective date, explicit supersession, product/process scope, and authorized exceptions. Do not create a precedence rule when none is supplied.

5. Trace downstream exposure.
   Identify stale copies, indexes, caches, links, citations, prompts, assistants, training materials, or operational artifacts that use each source. Separate confirmed use from potential reach.

6. Make a resolution disposition.
   For each claim/context choose Governing source identified, Both valid in distinct scopes, Transitional rule required, Restrict pending owner decision, or Unresolved. State the rationale and authority.

7. Define the smallest safe propagation plan.
   Preserve required historical records while updating, annotating, deprecating, redirecting, re-indexing, or restricting current-use surfaces. Assign owner approvals and evidence checks.

Verification must reconcile each material claim to an authoritative current source. Record the expected observation, actual observation, source locator, supersession status, and acceptance evidence; unresolved conflicts remain explicit and prevent the affected claim from being marked current.

Required deliverable:

# Knowledge Source Supersession and Conflict Resolution Brief

## Decision Boundary
- Question in conflict:
- Affected contexts:
- Consequence of wrong resolution:
- Authority gaps:

## Source Authority Ledger
| Source | Publisher/owner | Scope | Effective period | Status | Authority evidence | Provenance confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

## Claim-Level Conflict Map
| Claim/instruction | Source positions | Conflict type | Applicable context | Evidence | Resolution status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

## Governing Dispositions
| Claim/context | Disposition | Governing source/rule | Rationale | Approver | Uncertainty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|

## Downstream Exposure and Propagation
| Surface/artifact | Current source | Confirmed/potential use | Required action | Historical preservation | Owner | Verification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

## Completion Decision
- Resolved scopes:
- Restricted scopes:
- Unresolved questions and owner:
- Revalidation trigger:

Completion requires a claim-level resolution or explicit restriction for every consequential context, traceable authority evidence, and verification that current-use retrieval surfaces no longer present an unqualified stale rule.