Kival keeps discussion attached to the object being discussed. Commentary is working context around knowledge; object versions remain the canonical authored record.
Start discussions where the knowledge lives
Anyone who can view an active object can participate in its commentary. A root comment starts a thread, and replies stay grouped under that root rather than forming an unrestricted nested tree.
Threads are useful for questions, review, conflicting evidence, missing constraints, and changes that should be discussed before becoming canonical.
Move durable conclusions into the object
Resolving a discussion does not change the object body. If the discussion produces a better conclusion, corrected fact, or revised procedure, someone with edit access should update the object and create a new immutable version.
A useful boundary is:
comments capture the conversation around a change;
versions capture the canonical authored state that results from it.
Do not leave an important decision only in commentary.
Replies, mentions, and attention
Replies update the activity of their thread. A resolved thread cannot receive new replies or edits until it is reopened.
Comments can mention users with @username, but Kival only accepts mentions of people who can currently view the object. Mentions and replies can produce directed inbox notifications without granting access to the underlying knowledge.
Use mentions when a specific person's attention is needed, not as a substitute for sharing the object correctly.
Resolve, edit, and moderate
The root author or an object administrator can resolve and reopen a thread. Comment authors can edit their own active comments, and authors or object administrators can delete comments where authorized.
Deletion tombstones the comment rather than rewriting the surrounding thread as if it never existed. Comment edits and deletions remain part of the commentary lifecycle and do not create object versions.
Notifications and realtime
Kival's inbox can surface mentions, replies, access grants, and object activity. Ordinary object activity can be muted per object, while directed attention remains distinct.
Realtime invalidations tell open clients that state may have changed; HTTP remains authoritative. If access is later revoked, notification visibility is checked against current authorization rather than becoming a side channel into inaccessible knowledge.
Commentary has retention
Commentary is not as durable as object versions. Comments can expire and lose their body, and retained commentary can eventually be purged according to its lifecycle.
That makes the intended workflow straightforward: discuss uncertainty on the object, update canonical content when understanding changes, then resolve the thread when the question is settled.