Manage the centralized todo list

The specs index tracks all future work and todo items for the home lab in its "Specifications to write and TODOs" section, so that specifications carry no future work sections or todo items of their own. This guide describes the conventions that keep that list useful.

Structure

• The section is organized in themed subsections (for example Security, Networking, Monitoring and alerting). Add new items to the matching themed subsection; create a new subsection only when no existing theme fits.
• The "Current focus" subsection lists the items being actively worked toward, in priority order: data-loss and reliability risks first, then security exposure, then automation. Keep it short (three to five items), each item a one-liner linking to its themed subsection.

Dependencies

• Record dependencies between items as trailing sentences with consistent phrasing, so they stay greppable: Depends on: ... and Blocks: ....
• Depends on: and its inverse Blocks: record hard prerequisites only, items without which the work cannot be done. An ordering preference (doing one item first because it shrinks another) is a plain sentence, not a dependency: a preference recorded as a dependency later has to be untangled.
• Link cross-subsection references to the themed subsection anchors (for example [Networking](#networking)).

Completing items

When an item is implemented (and reflected in the relevant specification) or explicitly discarded:

• Remove it from its themed subsection.
• Remove it from "Current focus" if it is listed there, and promote the next priority if needed.
• Update or remove the Depends on: and Blocks: annotations of other items that referenced it.