> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://defendable.science/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # ADR-0035: Rename the project from Honest Scholar to Defendable Science > The project shipped v0.1.0 (2026-07-19) and v0.1.1 (2026-07-21) as honest-scholar: a GitHub repo, a Claude Code plugin, a PyPI distribution, a CLI, and a docs… * Status: accepted · Date: 2026-07-28 · Deciders: Davor Runje ## Context The project shipped `v0.1.0` (2026-07-19) and `v0.1.1` (2026-07-21) as `honest-scholar`: a GitHub repo, a Claude Code plugin, a PyPI distribution, a CLI, and a docs site at `honest-scholar.science`. The name leads with *honesty* — a property of the researcher. The methodology leads with *defensibility* — a property of the work, and the thing the tool can actually verify. Every load-bearing mechanism is about defence: the exploration→resolution firewall (no skill both proposes a claim and adjudicates it), `defend` as a Socratic tutor-examiner, `digest` as its inbound counterpart, named human sign-off on every material decision. The tagline was already "research you can defend". A new visual identity built on the QED tombstone (∎, "demonstrated") made the mismatch plain. `honest-scholar` also overstates what the tool does. It cannot certify that research is honest — `DISCLOSURE.md` says so explicitly — and a name that implies otherwise is exactly the kind of unearned claim the project's own voice rules reject. ## Decision drivers * The name should describe what the tool verifies, not a virtue it cannot audit. * Alignment with the new visual identity and the QED mark, already authored. * Cost of renaming rises monotonically with adoption; nine days after first release it is near its lifetime minimum. * Two artifacts version independently (ADR-0026), so the rename must not couple them. ## Considered options 1. **Rename everything to `defendable-science`**, drop the old PyPI distributions with no forwarding release. *(chosen)* 2. **Keep `honest-scholar`.** Zero cost, permanent mismatch between the name, the identity, and the methodology. 3. **Dual-name**: rename the project, keep the distribution and CLI as `honest-scholar`. Avoids breaking installs, but leaves the most-typed identifier contradicting everything around it, and doubles the vocabulary a new contributor must learn. 4. **Rename with a forwarding release**: publish a final `honest-scholar` version whose only content is a deprecation notice depending on `defendable-science`. Kinder to existing installs, but the population is very likely zero and the shim would outlive its usefulness on PyPI forever. ## Decision Option 1. The full naming map is recorded in `docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-28-defendable-science-rename-design.md`. In summary: repo, plugin, marketplace, PyPI + TestPyPI distribution, console script (`defendable-science`, short alias `dsci`, replacing `hsch`), Python module (`defendable_science`), project config dir (`.defendable-science/`), environment variables (`DEFENDABLE_SCIENCE_*`), commit trailer (`DefendableScience-Skill:`), and the docs home at `defendable.science`. Both artifacts move to `0.2.0` — a breaking change under `0.x`. The alignment is coincidental; they continue to version independently. The word *honest* is retained as vocabulary. "Failure honesty", "honest stop", "an honest ledger", and the `honest AI use` citation keyword are precise technical terms and are unaffected. ## Consequences * **The old PyPI and TestPyPI distributions are abandoned with no forwarding release.** Anyone who ran `uv tool install honest-scholar` is stranded at `0.1.1` with no in-band signal that the project moved. Mitigated only by this ADR, the CHANGELOG, and GitHub's repo redirect. * **Existing consumer repos break** and must be migrated by hand: 1. `git mv .honest-scholar .defendable-science` 2. rename `HONEST_SCHOLAR_KEYS_PATH` → `DEFENDABLE_SCIENCE_KEYS_PATH` and `HONEST_SCHOLAR_LIVE` → `DEFENDABLE_SCIENCE_LIVE` wherever they are set 3. update `.gitignore` entries pointing at `.honest-scholar/` 4. reinstall the plugin: `/plugin install defendable-science@defendable-science` 5. reinstall the CLI: `uv tool uninstall honest-scholar`, then `uv tool install defendable-science` * **ADRs 0001–0034 were rewritten to the new name**, trading some historical fidelity for a repo that reads as one coherent artifact. This ADR is the single place that records the former name. * **The `0.1.0` and `0.1.1` CHANGELOG entries keep the old name verbatim.** Those releases really did ship under it; rewriting them would be the kind of tidy lie the failure-honesty rule exists to prevent. * **Two names had to be secured, and neither was held when the rename was designed.** The `defendable.science` domain appeared registered in a registrar panel but was absent from the registry (RDAP 404); it was re-registered on 2026-07-28. A registrar panel is not evidence of registration; RDAP is. The `defendable-science` distribution on PyPI/TestPyPI remains **unreserved** — both indexes still 404 — and is an outstanding prerequisite that must be secured before the first release under the new name. ## Rejected alternatives See *Considered options* 2–4 above. Option 4 was the closest call: it is strictly kinder to existing users, and was rejected only because the user population nine days after first release is very likely zero, and a permanent deprecation shim on PyPI is a lasting cost to avoid a transient one. ## Links `docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-28-defendable-science-rename-design.md` (the full naming map this ADR defers to); `docs/superpowers/plans/2026-07-28-defendable-science-rename.md` (the implementation plan); `resources/ensure-tooling.md` (carries the compatibility pin this rename bumped); `docs/design/visual-identity.md` (the v2 identity, built on the QED mark, that motivated the rename); `CHANGELOG.md` (the retained `0.1.0`/`0.1.1` entries, which keep the old name verbatim); ADR-0026 (independent versioning of the two artifacts — this rename's `0.2.0` alignment is coincidental); ADR-0030 (the docs site, whose domain moved from `honest-scholar.science` to `defendable.science`).