Editorial standards
How we make books
Every Rolling Edition book is written with AI and verified by people. Here is what that means, how a book stays current, and what you can rely on when you read one.
Written with AI. Verified by people.
AI drafts the text and the examples, and critic agents review every chapter against our writing standards. People verify a book in the open: it's public, so anyone can check what it says, and anyone who finds a mistake can fix it. Nobody is named as having verified a book, and its stamp names no reviewer. We name the AI plainly and never sell it as a feature.
Every change, whether it comes from a person or from an agent, is a pull request on the book's repository. It passes the same checks either way.
Every example runs
Each edition pins the exact Python version and library versions its examples were tested against. Every example runs in that environment with the network turned off, and its output has to match what the book shows. If any example fails, no new edition is stamped.
Every example also runs again every week, and whenever our build environment changes. If one starts failing, the book keeps showing its last verified edition with an "Update in progress" note, and a fix is opened within 24 hours.
The checks on every change
- Every example runs in its pinned environment and its output matches.
- A security and dependency scan. A vulnerable or newly added dependency waits for a Rolling Edition maintainer.
- A check against published text, to catch passages copied from elsewhere.
- A link check.
- Every chapter, section and example keeps its permanent ID, so links and citations keep working from one edition to the next.
- The book's catalog entry is valid.
- A check for text addressed to an AI system rather than to readers.
- Every change is labeled with what kind of change it is. The history tape shows those kinds, and whether anyone outside Rolling Edition contributed.
How a change ships
A change that passes every check merges itself, whatever it changes. Agents approve it, and it doesn't wait for a person. If something is still wrong, anyone can correct it with another pull request, and the next edition carries the fix.
| Kind of change | What happens |
|---|---|
| A typo or formatting fix | Merges once its checks pass |
| A library version update | Merges once every example passes in the new version |
| Anything that changes what the book says or what an example does | Merges once its checks pass. Anyone can correct it afterwards |
| A change with a serious risk | Waits for a Rolling Edition maintainer |
Only a serious risk waits for a person: a security problem such as malicious code or a vulnerable dependency, inappropriate content, a copyright or legal problem, or a question of scope or brand. Until agents assess each change's risk themselves, fixed rules flag a change that:
- Changes the automation that checks and publishes the book.
- Adds a new package to the examples, or installs one from anywhere but the package index. A new version of a package the book already uses isn't flagged.
- Adds, changes or removes a file that isn't part of a book: its chapters, its examples and their data, the library versions they use, its recorded model outputs and its settings.
- Changes the book's name, web address, credits, sponsor or whether it's listed.
A flagged change waits until a maintainer has looked at it, and meanwhile the book stays on its last verified edition. Routine changes never wait.
Rolling Edition makes every book the same way. Agents research and draft it, critic agents review it chapter by chapter, and checks run every example. Once they all pass, its first edition is stamped and published. No person approves it; from then on, anyone can check it and correct it.
Contributors are volunteers, credited by name or pseudonym in the editions their changes appear in. Nobody is credited for approving or checking a book. A change drafted by an agent is labeled as one and never credited to a person.
Check a book, or correct it
Every book is open, so anyone can check it. We're building a way to say so: a reader signed in with GitHub will be able to mark a section they've read as looking right, and the book will show how many people have, such as "Checked by 5 people". It shows counts only, never names, a section's count starts again when its text changes, and nothing waits for a check. Until anyone has checked a book, it says "Anyone can check this book or correct it."
Found something wrong? Report it on the book's repository with the section's ID: the last part of the link beside each heading, such as rank-with-bm25. Or fix it yourself with a pull request. The contributing guide explains both.
How fast a book is updated
These are our targets: the time from each event below to a stamped edition that covers it. Updates are automated, so most take hours. A new library release waits first: we adopt it only once it's 3 days old, because a broken or compromised release is usually withdrawn within days, and the targets for a library release include that wait. A security fix doesn't wait. Across the catalog we track the median time from a library release to a new edition, and aim to keep it at 4 days or less.
| What happens | Target |
|---|---|
| A security advisory in a pinned library | 24 hours |
| A typo or formatting fix | 1 hour |
| A library release that changes nothing readers must act on | 4 days |
| An error a reader reports | 24 hours |
| A breaking library release | 6 days |
Editions, codes and corrections
Each released state of a book is an edition, numbered by year, month and release within the month, such as Edition 2026.10.3. Every edition is kept, and the book's changelog lists each one with a link to its exact text in the book's repository. A citation names the edition and links to the section, which notes if its text has changed since. An edition's stamp, its cover and its edition code are generated from its release record, never typed.
The edition code under the tape on every cover tells you which edition a copy claims to be. Check a copy answers whether it's current and what changed since. A code isn't proof that a file is ours, because anyone can copy a code.
When a fix corrects something significant, the stamp says so with a correction note that links to what changed.
Sponsors
A company can fund a new book. Sponsors are named on the book they fund, see it only when it's published, and can't request changes.
Free to read, free to reuse
Every book is free to read online, with no paywall and no ads, and free to reuse. Book text is CC BY 4.0: credit Rolling Edition, link back to the book and to the licence, and say what you changed. Code examples are MIT: keep the notice “Copyright (c) Rolling Edition and contributors” and the MIT terms with any code you copy.
"Copy the reuse credit", on every book and chapter page, copies that credit for you: it names Rolling Edition and the book, and links to the section you used and to the licence. Add what you changed yourself.
Each book's LICENSE-CODE file holds the code's notice and the MIT terms, and we'd be glad of a link back for the code too. Assistants reading the machine copies on rollingedition.ai get the same credit with every chapter.