swaitsandClaude Opus 5.5
6c587086a0
The P3 cutover review's open point 1: entries carry projects (classes, B-37), but the QuickBooks Desktop file (B-34) left the CLASS field empty on every line, and neither B-34 nor the README said so, though B-34 rule 6 says nothing changes silently. Intuit's IIF Import Kit (vendored in docs/spec/sources/intuit-iif.md, the kit's SHA-256 unchanged): the `!CLASS` header help says "Only the NAME column is required" and a subclass's NAME is its parents' names first, joined by colons; the kit's "Import First - List Declarations" example declares `!CLASS` rows before any transaction, and its "2004 Deposit (Income)" example names the class line by line in CLASS. So the file now declares every class in a `!CLASS` list after the accounts and before `!TRNS`, and writes each line's class in CLASS (empty where the line has none). Books with no class write no list, byte for byte as before. A line whose class wasn't declared is refused (IifError::UndeclaredClass), never written classless. A class's NAME follows B-34's rules for an account's own name: plain ASCII (rule 3), a colon written '-' (it would start a subclass), trimmed, '?' if nothing is left, cut to 31 characters: Intuit's qbXML Onscreen Reference gives `ClassAdd`'s Name "maxDT" : 31 (and 31 in the Canadian, UK and Australian desktop editions; 100 only in Online), the same as its `AccountAdd` Name (both JSON files vendored by SHA-256); Conductor's QuickBooks Desktop API reference agrees and says the name is case-insensitive. Classes whose NAMEs would match ignoring case get " (id)", round after round, as accounts get " (code)", except that among names that match, those already written differently from the books (made safe, or tagged) yield first, a second " (id)" if need be: a class's own name is kept unless another class's own name is the same ignoring case (classes 1 "Café", 2 "Cafe", 3 "Cafe (1)" are written "Cafe (1) (1)", "Cafe", "Cafe (1)"). Each class is tagged twice at most and ids differ, so none is left alike (a hand-built list is refused). Each class name written differently is an IifChange (IifField::ClassName), said one line each in the warnings and in the package README, whose "written differently" paragraph now names class names' limits; its IIF line says CLASS is each line's project when there are classes. The MCP and viewer notes count "account or class name(s)". API: `iif_classes(ledger)` builds the list; `journal_to_iif` takes it (`&[]` for none). Docs: rules.md B-34 rule 8 with its sources; intuit-iif.md (the `!CLASS` help, the list declarations and deposit examples, Intuit's SDK department page, the qbXML Onscreen Reference's ClassAdd and AccountAdd and Conductor's class reference, each with SHA-256); mcp-interface.md (books.export iif, the package note); the bookspec example iif-quickbooks-journal-file.toml (two projects: one carried and renamed, one only declared; every line derived by hand); testing.md; STATUS (open point 1 done; point 3 waits for the close, the owner said). Tests: ledger-import `iif_writes_each_lines_class_and_declares_the_classes_first`, `iif_class_names_fit_quickbooks_and_every_change_is_listed`, `iif_class_names_written_as_the_books_have_them_are_kept`, `iif_refuses_an_undeclared_or_unfit_class`, property `iif_class_names_never_clash`; ledger-package `the_package_iif_carries_each_lines_project` and the bookspec example. Broken to confirm: CLASS written empty fails the two exact-file tests, the package test and the bookspec example; the " (id)" tag dropped fails the names test and the property; tagging every name that meets (no yielding) fails the kept-names test and the property (its shrunk case, "A-B" beside "A\uFF1AB", kept in the regressions file). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01T3gXMVt7XJPi6ens1or9Dj
Specification sources
wanderbooks' rules come from documents, not from anyone's memory. This
directory holds the authorities the engine's specs cite (docs/spec/rules.md
is the rule catalog), and every spec block in the code carries a SOURCE:
line pointing into it.
The authority stack
There is no single "bible" of US bookkeeping. Authority is layered, and the layers differ in what they cover and in whether we may copy them:
| Layer | What it governs | Copyright | Here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacioli (1494), Geijsbeek translation (1914) | The mechanics of double entry: debits equal credits, the trial balance, one money, writing only forward, correcting by opposite entry, closing into capital. No modern standard restates these; they predate every regulator. | Public domain | Vendored verbatim: sources/pacioli-1494.md |
| IRS: Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations, publications, form instructions | Records and supporting documents, retention, accounting periods and methods, information returns (1099), capitalization (de minimis, 12-month rule), partners' capital, tax basis of purchased and contributed property (sources/irs-partnership-basis.md), payroll taxes, rounding on returns, return line items for tax categories (sources/irs-tax-lines.md) |
Public domain (17 U.S.C. §105; IRS.gov's content policy) | Vendored verbatim: sources/irs-*.md, sources/us-public-domain-status.md |
| File formats: Intuit (QuickBooks Online bank CSV, QuickBooks Desktop IIF), ECMA-376 Office Open XML, Microsoft Excel limits, Avery label sheets | What ledger-import reads and writes: bank/card CSV layouts and signs, IIF journal entries, how XLSX stores numbers and Excel's 15-digit precision, asset-label sheet geometry (Avery 5160) |
© Intuit Inc.; © Ecma International; © Microsoft; © Avery Products Corporation | Cited with short quotes, URLs, and hashes: sources/intuit-bank-csv.md, sources/intuit-iif.md, sources/xlsx-numbers.md, sources/avery-5160.md |
| FASB Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) | Authoritative US GAAP: cash flows (ASC 230), revenue and principal vs agent (ASC 606), foreign currency (ASC 830), credit losses and aging (ASC 326), property and depreciation (ASC 360) | © Financial Accounting Foundation | Cited by paragraph with short quotes only (in rules.md; the paragraphs read, with where and when, in sources/fasb-asc.md and below) |
| FASB Concepts Statement No. 8, Chapter 4 (2021) | Definitions of the five elements (it replaced Concepts Statement 6) | © Financial Accounting Foundation; non-authoritative | Cited with short quotes only |
| Textbooks (OpenStax Principles of Accounting, Vol. 1) | Conventions no standard states: normal balances, closing-entry mechanics, straight-line depreciation arithmetic | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (incompatible with this repo's license) | Cited with short quotes and attribution only |
| Convention or decision | Where no authority speaks: aging bucket edges, cent rounding among members, closed-period locks | — | Stated as CONVENTION or DECISION, with who decided and when |
How to read a SOURCE line
SOURCE: Pacioli ch. 36 (sources/pacioli-1494.md); IRS Pub. 583 (sources/irs-records.md)
SOURCE: ASC 830-20-30-1 (cited, rules.md B-3)
SOURCE: DECISION (the owner, 2026-10-13)
SOURCE: CONVENTION (QuickBooks aging); nearest authority ASC 326-20-55-38 (illustrative)
A rule whose only source is CONVENTION or DECISION is a candidate for a human to confirm or overturn; nothing else is.
Rules added later never lock out older books
When a rule is tightened (a check added to a command), books written
before it must still open. Journal replay and the SQLite cross-check read
history through the engine's replay_* commands, which skip checks added
later; new commands go through the checked ones. Pinned by
books_written_under_older_rules_still_open (ledger-store).
Vendoring rules
- Public-domain texts are copied verbatim (whitespace normalized), each with its URL, retrieval date, and the SHA-256 of the retrieved file, so anyone can check the excerpt against the original.
- Copyrighted sources are cited by paragraph, quoted briefly, never copied.
- When an authority changes (the IRS revises a publication; a statute is amended), add the new text beside the old with its effective date. Rules that depend on dates (1099 thresholds) must say which text applies when.
- Rules that change with the law are registered in
crates/ledger-core/src/rules.rswith the years they are known for and a review date. Past what it knows, the engine refuses rather than guesses; from the review date, the MCP digest and the viewer flag the rule. Whoever updates one (human or agent) vendors the new official text here, extends the rule, and sends the change upstream: a pull request at https://github.com/swaits/wanderbooks (best), or an issue.
Open: sources we could not verify
Read on 2026-10-13 through Deloitte's free DART roadmaps, which reproduce
ASC text: ASC 230-10-45-16 and -28, 326-20-55-37/38, 606-10-25-23, 45-2,
55-37/38, 830-20-30-1. Read directly in the ASC basic view on 2026-10-14
(sources/fasb-asc.md): 360-10-35-4, 340-10-05-2/4/5, 210-10-45-1/2/5,
230-10-45-7/10/12/13/14/15, 606-10-55-36 through 55-38. Read on
2026-10-20 where public sources reproduce the Codification (EY's FRD on
the statement of cash flows, July 2026; FASB ASUs 2016-15 and 2016-18;
Deloitte's public DART Roadmap): ASC 230-10-10-1, 45-1, 45-4, 45-5,
45-8, 45-9, 45-12(c), 45-13(c), 45-14(a), 45-15(a)/(c), 45-16(a)/(b),
45-17, 45-24 to 45-26, 45-28 to 45-31, 50-3 to 50-8, and 830-230-45-1;
each checked again against the same sources in the P3 review (numbers,
pages and wording hold). Open: 105-10-05-1 to 05-3, read only in their
2009 text (ASU 2009-01, and as Wiley GAAP 2020 quotes them); their
current wording is unconfirmed. Also open (P3 surface review, 2026-10-21): ASC 230-10-45-15(f) (debt
issue costs, cited by B-14 rule 11) is in neither list above; ASC
606-10-25-31, 25-32 and 55-20 (B-16's over-time method) are not yet read;
B-15 rule 6 cites ASC 250 with no paragraph; B-17's 606-10-55-39 is in
neither list. Each is to be read in the ASC basic view and listed in
sources/fasb-asc.md before it is relied on further.