Dependencies & Ordering

Source nodes can depend on other source nodes. The resolver uses these dependencies to determine hydration order — ensuring upstream data is available before downstream sources execute.

Declaring dependencies

Use depends_on in the source frontmatter:

source:
  transport: mcp
  server: jira
  tools: [jira_get_sprint_issues]
  depends_on:
    - contextnest://sources/project-config

Topological ordering

The resolver sorts source nodes in topological order based on their dependency graph:

project-config → current-sprint-tickets → sprint-risk-analysis

At each step, the agent has the upstream results available in its session context when it reads the downstream source's instructions.

Cycle detection

Circular dependencies are forbidden. If the dependency graph contains a cycle, validation fails with a Rule 15 error:

Circular dependency detected: A → B → C → A

Body-level references

Dependencies can also be expressed in the markdown body:

Before fetching sprint tickets, ensure you have the project
configuration from [Project Config](contextnest://sources/project-config).

Both the frontmatter depends_on and body references should point to the same targets. If they diverge, validation flags the inconsistency.