Operate a mesh

The hard part — discovery, scaffolding, the first batch of pages — is behind you. Day-to-day operation is calmer than that, and it follows one rule: you don’t bootstrap again. Once the registry exists, you never start from scratch. You change an input and let GoToMesh reconcile the difference.

That reconcile is three commands you’ll run again and again:

gtmesh extract --cluster slack   # pull newer keyword data into the bag
gtmesh plan                      # see the diff (read-only — prints to stdout)
gtmesh apply                     # enact it (idempotent — safe to re-run)

The mental model is the same one from mental models: the committed registry is desired state. You edit what feeds it — a keyword pull, a config rule, a reference table — and apply makes reality match. Nothing happens until you apply, and apply only acts where there’s a real difference, so it’s always safe to run.

What you’ll find in this section:

• The refresh loop — the steady-state rhythm: re-extract cadence, why the keyword bag is frozen and timestamped, and why plan is free to re-run as often as you like.
• Lifecycle & reconcile — the heart of operations. Exactly what each kind of edit triggers (rewrite, restamp, redirect, prune…), who acts on it (the writer, the engine, or you), and the deliberate human moves: promote/demote, seal, publish, recreate, amend.
• Tuning — the practical “the plan says X is unresolved — which file do I edit?” guide, knob by knob.