# Knowledge Base Update Policy

**Last updated:** 2026-02
**Applies to:** ms-ai-architect plugin (5 skills, 364 reference files)

---

## Update Frequency

| Priority | Category Pattern | Threshold | Rationale |
|----------|-----------------|-----------|-----------|
| Critical | cost, pricing, pris | 30 days | Azure prices change monthly |
| High | responsible-ai, norwegian-public-sector-governance, ai-security-engineering | 60 days | Regulations and compliance evolve quarterly |
| Medium | platforms, copilot-extensibility, azure-ai-services, multi-modal, performance-scalability, monitoring-observability, agent-orchestration, data-engineering, api-management, hybrid-edge, bcdr, rag-architecture, mlops-genaiops, prompt-engineering | 90 days | Feature updates follow Azure release cycles |
| Low | architecture, development, patterns | 180 days | Foundational patterns change slowly |

## Category-to-Skill Mapping

| Category | Skill Directory | File Count |
|----------|----------------|------------|
| rag-architecture | ms-ai-engineering | ~20 |
| azure-ai-services | ms-ai-engineering | ~25 |
| copilot-extensibility | ms-ai-engineering | ~15 |
| prompt-engineering | ms-ai-engineering | ~15 |
| data-engineering | ms-ai-engineering | ~20 |
| api-management | ms-ai-engineering | ~10 |
| agent-orchestration | ms-ai-engineering | ~15 |
| multi-modal | ms-ai-engineering | ~10 |
| mlops-genaiops | ms-ai-engineering | ~15 |
| performance-scalability | ms-ai-engineering | ~10 |
| monitoring-observability | ms-ai-engineering | ~10 |
| responsible-ai | ms-ai-governance | ~25 |
| norwegian-public-sector-governance | ms-ai-governance | ~25 |
| cost-optimization | ms-ai-security | ~15 |
| ai-security-engineering | ms-ai-security | ~15 |
| hybrid-edge | ms-ai-infrastructure | ~15 |
| bcdr | ms-ai-infrastructure | ~15 |
| platforms | ms-ai-advisor | ~20 |
| architecture | ms-ai-advisor | ~20 |

## Operational Procedure

### Regular Check (Monthly)

1. Run staleness check:
   ```bash
   bash scripts/kb-staleness-check.sh --json --output kb-status.json
   ```

2. Review stale files by priority:
   ```bash
   bash scripts/kb-staleness-check.sh --priority-only
   ```

3. Update critical/high priority files:
   ```
   /architect:generate-skills --update --priority critical
   /architect:generate-skills --update --priority high
   ```

### Quarterly Review

1. Run full staleness report
2. Update all medium+ priority files
3. Review and archive obsolete files
4. Update this policy if thresholds need adjustment

### Update vs Regenerate

- **Update** (preferred): Preserves existing structure, updates facts/dates/URLs. Uses Edit tool.
- **Regenerate**: Full rewrite. Use when file structure is outdated or content is >50% stale.

## Quality Gates

- Updated files must pass: `bash tests/validate-plugin.sh`
- Updated files must have "Verified (MCP {month})" markers on MCP-sourced facts
- Updated files must maintain 7-15 KB size range
- No broken links or stale Microsoft Learn URLs

## Automation

The SessionStart hook (`session-start-context.mjs`) automatically reports KB staleness levels at session start. The `kb-staleness-check.sh` script supports both human-readable and JSON output formats for integration with CI/CD or monitoring.