The pooled-accounts guide opens by placing memos in the past, then tells readers to keep supporting memos

[kalepail]

Note

Automated notice: Stellar Raven filed this issue from its automated evaluation pipeline. The issue includes evidence and a public source record. Please verify the live surface before you act.

Finding

The pooled-accounts guide opens with a past-tense statement about memos. The
same page later tells the reader to keep supporting memos.

The lead says: "We used memos in the past for this purpose, however, using muxed
accounts is better in the long term."

The intro note then says: "At this time, there isn't support for muxed accounts
by all wallets, exchanges, and anchors, so you may want to support both memos
and muxed accounts, at least for a while."

The "Memo - differentiated accounts" section repeats the second position:
"Supporting muxed accounts is better in the long term, but for now you may want
to support both memos and muxed accounts as all exchanges, anchors, and wallets
may not support muxed accounts."

A reader who stops at the lead concludes that memos are historical. That
conclusion is wrong. Memos remain the required path for many exchanges,
anchors, and wallets today. The page is the canonical guide for this decision,
so the lead controls the reader's first impression.

Evidence

The live page read on 2026-08-14 returned all three sentences above.

Two unrelated eval rows in the 2026-08-14 round read the page and repeated the
past-tense framing. The rows are separate questions with separate transcripts.
This is a page-wording defect, not a single reader error.

Additional recorded evidence:

• 2026-08-14 live read of https://developers.stellar.org/docs/build/guides/transactions/pooled-accounts-muxed-accounts-memos returned the past-tense lead and the current-practice recommendation on the same page
• eval round 2026-08-14, main stamp 2026-08-14T03-56-23-variantA, Stellar Docs rows 10 and 14 both reproduced the misleading lead

Recommendation

Change the lead to state current practice. One sentence is enough. For example:
"Memos and muxed accounts both identify a user inside a pooled account today.
Muxed accounts are the better long-term choice."

Keep the existing "support both" guidance. Remove the past tense from the lead
so the page states one position.

Source Record

Raven recorded this finding as sd-041 (stellar-docs, discovered 2026-08-14).

Public source record: improvements/stellar-docs/sd-041-pooled-accounts-memo-past-tense-lead.md

Immutable source snapshot: dbc466e55105

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[devtechedge]

Hi, I'd like to work on this. The opening note frames memos as a thing of the past, while the rest of the guide (the FAQ and the "Memo - differentiated accounts" section) correctly tells custodial services to keep supporting memos until muxed account support is consistent across wallets, exchanges, and anchors.

I'll rework the intro and the note so the framing is consistent throughout: muxed accounts are preferred going forward, memos are the legacy mechanism, and both need support during the transition. Happy to adjust the approach if you'd prefer different wording.

[kaankacar]

Working this because Raven filed it (label raven).

I verified the finding. It is not stale. main and the live page still open with "We used memos in the past for this purpose".

PR #2853 from @devtechedge fixes it. I will not open a second PR.

The PR changes the two passages this issue names:

• The intro paragraph now names memos beside muxed accounts.
• The note now says many services still use memos.

The "Memo - differentiated accounts" section already gives the same position, so the page reads as one position after the merge.

After #2853 merges, this issue still needs the Raven sd-041 handoff.