DR-301g · Module 2

Incremental Synthesis

3 min read

Production intelligence is not a one-time synthesis. New sources arrive daily. The synthesis must be updated incrementally — integrating new information into the existing picture without re-processing the entire source set from scratch. Incremental synthesis processes only the delta: new sources since the last synthesis, sources whose credibility scores have changed, and findings that were flagged for future verification and can now be resolved.

Do This

  • Process new sources against the existing synthesis — does the new source confirm, contradict, or extend existing findings?
  • Flag when new sources shift the confidence level of existing findings — a finding that was HIGH confidence may drop to MEDIUM with contradicting new evidence
  • Maintain a synthesis changelog — what changed, what triggered the change, what the previous assessment was
  • Periodically run a full re-synthesis to catch accumulated drift from incremental updates

Avoid This

  • Re-process the entire source set for every update — this does not scale past twenty sources
  • Add new sources without checking their impact on existing findings — incremental does not mean additive-only
  • Let the synthesis drift without periodic full refreshes — incremental updates can accumulate distortions that only a fresh synthesis reveals