Main idea

When every object card mentions the others through a link, the cards and their links form a network, and that network can be visualised: one node per card, one edge per link. A link pointing to a card that does not exist yet is immediately visible — it dangles in the void.

The tooling reflex is to see an anomaly to resolve by deleting the link. It is the opposite: that link is a work order the writing placed all by itself. An "Order" card that cites an attachment designates the object "Attachment" as still to be described, without anyone having to keep a task list on the side.

The network view then stops being a pretty picture: as long as there are links pointing into the void, there are cards to write.

Why it matters

It removes a steering artifact — the list of objects to describe — by having the writing produce it. The tracking no longer has to be kept up to date: it is a side effect of writing, so it cannot fall out of sync.

It also gives a natural order of work: the objects claimed by several cards stand out by their number of edges, and they are the ones most sorely missing.

Nuances and limits

This queue contains only what the cards already written claim. A central business object that nothing cites dangles nowhere — that is exactly the blind spot of the device, and the reason a closed network does not prove coverage.

The mechanism also assumes the file name is the object's name, failing which links stop resolving on their own and the anomaly becomes noise.

Open questions

• Should a link to an object you deliberately decided not to describe be allowed, and how do you tell it apart from an oversight?