No temporal ordering capability for concept evolution queries

[aaronsb]

Summary

When exploring how concepts evolved over time (e.g., "how did the system evolve from X to Y"), there's no way to query or display concepts in temporal order.

Observed Behavior

During introspection of "evolution from web visualizer to workstation":

• Found relevant concepts about different architectural phases
• No way to determine which came first
• Had to manually piece together timeline from evidence text
• Relationships don't encode temporal direction

Expected Behavior

The knowledge graph should support:

1. Temporal Queries

"Show me concepts related to 'architecture' ordered by when they were introduced"
"What concepts emerged after ADR-020?"

2. Evolution Relationships

• PRECEDED_BY / FOLLOWED_BY relationship types
• EVOLVED_INTO / REPLACED_BY for concept succession
• Temporal metadata on relationships

3. Timeline Visualization

• See concept emergence over time
• Track how ideas developed and changed
• Identify architectural decision sequences

Use Cases

1. Architecture Archaeology: Understanding how current architecture emerged
2. Decision Tracing: Following the sequence of ADRs and their impacts
3. Concept Genealogy: Tracking how ideas split, merged, or evolved
4. Project History: Narrative reconstruction from graph data

Implementation Ideas

1. Source timestamps: Preserve document dates, use for temporal ordering
2. Temporal relationships: Add PRECEDED, EVOLVED_INTO vocabulary types
3. Ingestion order: Track when concepts were first seen
4. ADR numbering: Use ADR numbers as temporal proxies

Related

• ADR ingestion from git-repo-knowledge example
• Graph traversal and storytelling use cases
• Vocabulary relationship types