Document shallow cloning and shared hydration

[dahlia]

clone() shares nested objects, so resolving a property through a clone can also change the source's nested object. The manual and clone() JSDoc now distinguish replacing property values from hydrating shared objects.

Show a JSON-LD round trip for resolving a separate object graph, explaining how cached JSON-LD, custom loaders, and trust in embedded objects affect the result.

Fixes #1242.

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⛔ Files ignored due to path filters (3)

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• docs/manual/vocab.md
• packages/vocab-tools/src/constructor.ts

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The vocabulary manual and clone() documentation now describe hydration caching, shallow clone behavior, shared nested objects, and serialize-and-reparse as a way to create a separate object graph.

Changes

Vocabulary object behavior

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Hydration caching and serialization docs/manual/vocab.md	The manual explains where fetched objects are cached and how shared references, toJsonLd() output, and cached JSON-LD relate to hydration.
Clone sharing and separate object graphs docs/manual/vocab.md, packages/vocab-tools/src/constructor.ts	The documentation describes separate clone property arrays, shared nested objects and URLs, and serialize-and-reparse behavior, including its stated limitations. The clone documentation links to the manual.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~5 minutes

Change: Other

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 453e5

The documentation clarifies existing hydration and cloning behavior without establishing a concrete regression. No material merge risk remains beyond normal checks.

Architecture Summary

Architecture risk: 🔵 Low · up to 453e5

The change affects 2 systems.

Changed systems: docs, packages/vocab-tools

Architecture concerns
No architecture-level concerns identified.

Review details

Systems and components

• observed — docs (service) was modified; 1 changed file maps to changed impact.
• observed — packages/vocab-tools (library) was modified; 1 changed file maps to changed impact.

Before / after behavior

• observed — Modified behavior in docs/manual/vocab.md: Specifies that successfully cached hydration replaces the property URL only on the accessor’s instance, while an unverified portable claim may be returned without replacing it or clearing the JSON-LD cache. Describes shared nested references, separate clone property arrays, and effects on toJsonLd() and per-instance versus parent JSON-LD caches.
• observed — Modified behavior in docs/manual/vocab.md: Replaces the blanket immutability description with the distinction between immutable property assignment and hydration caching, and states that clone() supplies replacement values while leaving the source unchanged.
• observed — Modified behavior in docs/manual/vocab.md: Documents that clone() accepts constructor-compatible values and is shallow: property arrays are separate but nested objects and URLs are shared. Hydration of a shared nested object can affect both instances; parsed embedded objects with their own @context may instead be reparsed on each access.
• observed — Modified behavior in docs/manual/vocab.md: Adds a serialize-and-reparse workflow for a separate object graph, distinguishing it from clone(). States that the round trip does not preserve original JSON bytes or embedded-object trust, custom loaders must be passed again, and accessors may refetch cross-origin objects.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the documentation changes about shallow cloning and shared hydration.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description explains the clone hydration behavior and the related documentation updates.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Issue #1242 asks for documentation of shallow cloning, shared-object hydration, serialization effects, and guidance for preserving a separate object graph. The manual and clone() JSDoc explain that …
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The reported changes are limited to the vocabulary manual and clone() JSDoc. Both directly support issue #1242. No unrelated change is established by the whole-PR summary.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 1…

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Inline comments:
Review comments at @docs/manual/vocab.md:
- Line 838: Update the hydration caching statement in the manual to clarify that
only cacheable results replace the URL in the property array and are cached;
note that an unverified portable claim may be returned without being cached,
allowing a later accessor call to fetch it again.

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ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

• Configuration used: Repository UI
• Review profile: ASSERTIVE
• Plan: Advanced
• Run ID: 0afa6992-7587-4b13-9bc8-06023df45a49

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 1b6133f and e65aea4.

⛔ Files ignored due to path filters (3)

• packages/vocab-tools/src/__snapshots__/class.test.ts.deno.snap is excluded by !**/*.snap
• packages/vocab-tools/src/__snapshots__/class.test.ts.node.snap is excluded by !**/*.snap
• packages/vocab-tools/src/__snapshots__/class.test.ts.snap is excluded by !**/*.snap

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• docs/manual/vocab.md
• packages/vocab-tools/src/constructor.ts

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[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ All tests successful. No failed tests found.

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
packages/vocab-tools/src/constructor.ts	100.00% <ø> (ø)

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