Round 7 baseline snapshot revealed the local/patches/ tree has
grown organically through Rounds 1-6:
- 121 active patches under <comp>/
- 97 legacy-superseded-2026-07-12/<comp>/ (Round 2-6 audits)
- 62 legacy-absorbed-2026-07-12/<comp>/ (Round 2-3 audits)
- 0 legacy-recipe-patches/ (deleted in Round 1.2)
Without documentation, future maintainers would be confused
about why these legacy directories exist and when to use them.
This README explains the distinction between:
- 'superseded' (content NOT in fork, re-applying causes work)
- 'absorbed' (content IS in fork, re-applying is a no-op)
The README also documents:
- Layout diagram
- Recovery procedure
- Round 7 snapshot (280 total cataloged patches)
- Tooling references
- How new orphans should be handled
