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    "story_id": "mp-2026-11-08-008",
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    "headline": "Understanding Becomes a Software Deliverable",
    "slug": "understanding-becomes-a-software-deliverable",
    "dek": "Cognitive Tours links needs, decisions, code, tests and open questions while leaving humans responsible for the narrative.",
    "summary": "Cognitive Tours links needs, decisions, code, tests and open questions while leaving humans responsible for the narrative.",
    "body_text": "Agentic coding can create cognitive debt when a team can no longer explain how a system works, and intent debt when goals and constraints disappear from view. Cognitive Tours is a web prototype for curated paths through user needs, design decisions, code, tests and unresolved questions. AI-assisted skills flag possible stale waypoints and suggest additions, but people verify relationships and decide what belongs in the tour. The paper presents a design and evaluation agenda rather than evidence that the tool reduces debt in production teams.",
    "why_it_matters": "Cognitive Tours links needs, decisions, code, tests and open questions while leaving humans responsible for the narrative.",
    "limitations": [],
    "importance": 8,
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    "tags": [
      "software engineering",
      "cognitive debt",
      "documentation"
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      "source_id": "source-2026-11-08-008",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2611.08456, original v1",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
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      "published_at": "2026-11-05T13:48:06.000-05:00",
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  "publisher": {
    "name": "The Machine Press",
    "url": "https://themachinepress.com",
    "description": "A daily newspaper for the age of artificial intelligence."
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  "cite_this_report": {
    "title": "Understanding Becomes a Software Deliverable",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
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