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ContextCake

Override syntax

By default the resolver merges concepts per section: a higher layer wins the sections it speaks to, and everything else is inherited from below. Two pieces of syntax let a layer override that default — one that replaces the whole concept, and one that suppresses a single inherited section.

Syntax Behavior
(default) Section/field merge — higher layer wins per key
override: full in frontmatter Whole-concept replacement; everything below is dropped
{#anchor override=none} Null/tombstone — suppresses the inherited section. Retained as suppressed: true for audit.

Default: section merge

Section titled “Default: section merge”

With no override syntax, each section (by heading) and each frontmatter field is won by the highest-precedence layer that defines it; the rest are inherited. A layer only needs to speak to what it wants to change.

decisions/primary-db.md
---
type: decision
---


## Decision {#decision}


Use Postgres 14.


## Rollback {#rollback}


Restore from the nightly snapshot.
decisions/primary-db.md
---
type: decision
---


## Decision {#decision}


Use Postgres 16 with read replicas.

The team layer (level 2) wins #decision; the company layer’s #rollback is inherited unchanged. The effective concept has both sections, and the #decision section carries a conflicts entry recording the company layer’s dissenting value. See Merge semantics.

override: full

Section titled “override: full”

Set override: full in a layer’s frontmatter to replace the entire concept. Every contributor below that layer in the stack is dropped — no section merge, no inherited sections, no conflicts from lower layers.

decisions/primary-db.md
---
type: decision
override: full
---


## Decision {#decision}


Local experiment: SQLite. Do not promote.

The resolved concept is exactly this file. The team and company layers below it are discarded for this concept. Use it sparingly — it opts out of inheritance entirely.

Anchor tombstone: {#anchor override=none}

Section titled “Anchor tombstone: {#anchor override=none}”

To suppress a single inherited section without replacing the whole concept, define that section in a higher layer with override=none on its anchor. This is a tombstone: the section is hidden from the effective concept, but retained in the resolved output as suppressed: true so the suppression is auditable.

decisions/primary-db.md
---
type: decision
---


## Rollback {#rollback override=none}

The company layer’s #rollback section no longer appears in the effective body. In the resolved output the section is present but marked:

{
  "key": "rollback",
  "heading": "## Rollback {#rollback}",
  "content": "",
  "sourceLayer": "team",
  "sourceUpdated": "2026-01-22",
  "suppressed": true
}

A suppressed section emits no conflicts — the tombstone is the answer. See Conflicts and provenance for how suppressed and conflicts appear in a read_file response.

Section titled “Related”