--- title: Concepts description: Understand how repository boundaries, document discovery, versioned policy, read-only Validation, and Check outcomes fit together. --- Presswork separates repository policy, document discovery, Validation, and reporting. This page explains the relationships between those parts. ## One Repository Root, one Profile Presswork evaluates one Repository Root at a time. By default it discovers the nearest ancestor of the current directory containing a `.git` file or directory. The Repository Root is the boundary for Presswork Configuration, Recognized Documents, and local link targets. The Repository Root may contain `presswork.json`. Presswork reads only that file and does not merge configuration from nested directories. A present configuration selects one complete Profile identity and can add repository-specific locations and declarative policy. Without the file, the Basic Profile at `basic@1` applies. A Profile contains repository-wide Rules, defaults, Templates, Documentation Directories, and Root Documents. Selecting a Profile replaces the Basic Profile instead of extending it. Its Profile Version fixes the documentation contract independently of the installed Presswork version. ## Recognized Documents A Documentation Directory is a directory inside the Repository Root whose documentation is governed by a Profile. A repository can have more than one Documentation Directory. Presswork discovers lowercase `.md` and `.markdown` files recursively in these directories. A Root Document is a Profile-recognized agent document located directly in the Repository Root. Presswork Configuration can add Root Documents to those supplied by the selected Profile. Root Documents and discovered files can become Recognized Documents; missing configured locations contribute no documents. Git supplies discovery candidates, so ignored paths are excluded. Presswork does not traverse directories reached through symbolic links. A directly encountered symbolic link is eligible only when it resolves to a regular file inside the Repository Root. ## Rules and declarative policy Validation is the read-only evaluation of repository documentation against the selected Profile's Rules, defaults, and Templates. A Rule evaluates Recognized Documents against one requirement without changing them. Generic Rules cover Markdown destinations, Document Types and Templates, and documentation indexes. A Built-in Profile can add declarative requirements for specific documents. Presswork Configuration cannot add executable Rules. It can add Document Types, Index Policies, and other strict declarative data interpreted by the selected Profile's built-in behavior. ## Templates, Document Types, and indexes A Document Type combines a Documentation Directory, filename pattern, Template, declared fields, index entry, and Creation Policy. The same readable Template validates completed documents and initializes Document Drafts. A Document Draft remains unfinished while Template Directives or placeholders need author input. An Index Policy names the Index Document and Index Section for a Documentation Directory or disables the policy. Enabled index Rules validate authored membership and loading guidance. They do not rewrite an index. ## Check outcomes A Violation means a Rule completed its evaluation and found documentation that does not satisfy the policy. An Operational Diagnostic means an operation needed for the Check could not complete. This distinction lets an incomplete Check retain established Violations without presenting unevaluated documentation as valid. A Check Report records the selected Profile, Markdown Dialect, document counts, ordered Violations, and ordered Operational Diagnostics. Its `complete` field distinguishes reports that finished all required operations from reports that did not. Continue with [Check a repository](/check-a-repository/) for the task, [Presswork Configuration](/configuration/) for exact fields, or [Rules and diagnostics](/rules-and-diagnostics/) for stable identifiers.