Merge pull request 'Playbooks 01 and 02: review by architectural domain, sections named by title with no file references, and storage forms that fit (the operator, 2026-11-02)' (#499) from docs/review-by-aspect into main

This commit was merged in pull request #499.
This commit is contained in:
2026-11-02 18:27:14 +00:00
5 changed files with 69 additions and 20 deletions
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@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ All through the mesh MCP server (`mesh_describe` gives each verb's arguments).
number is spent; never pick one by hand.
3. **Propose the effort.** `mesh_call knowledge-base.propose` with `kind: research`, the reserved `number`,
`title`, `status: active`, `date` (today), `sections` (the documents in order, each `name` and `text`;
the first `00-overview.md`: **what** is investigated, **why**, and **what it touches**), and `links`
each named by a plain title, never as a file; the first, **Overview**: **what** is investigated, **why**, and **what it touches**), and `links`
of kind `touches` for every record, effort, issue or design it touches (`cites` for one it only names).
4. **Do the research** in further documents of the same effort. Each change is `propose` again with the
effort whole and `why`. A refusal names every rule broken: fix them all and propose again. On review
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@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ is listed under [Homonyms](#homonyms), with the qualified form each domain uses.
- **mesh** — the whole: the nodes, the modules assigned to them, the controller that decides and the
records it keeps. One mesh per operator; a second mesh is a second everything.
- **domain** — an area of the mesh that owns a set of concepts and the one word for each, as described
in the section above (ADR 0244).
in the section above (ADR 0244); its qualified form is **mesh domain**. Bare, "domain" keeps this sense; the
review's sense is always written **architectural domain** (Homonyms).
ADR 0006 called seven of them the controller's *contexts*; they carry over as domains under the same
names, except *observability*, which is now **Health and repair**. Where a domain's records live in
the controller, the domain owns that store alone (ADR 0008).
@@ -988,6 +989,11 @@ Not a domain of the mesh but of the way it is built, listed because its words me
- **design** — a record of the knowledge base, named "design NN", with a **to-be** section (what is being built)
and an **as-is** section (what runs), its owning repositories and its links to its decisions and other designs
(ADR 0423). Until the move, a document in `03-DESIGN/`, in `01-to-be/` or `00-as-is/`.
- **architectural domain** — one of the eight concerns a research effort's direction and a design are reviewed
against before they are proposed or merged: security, seams, running qualities, health, events and logs,
testing, upgrade and tools (playbook 01, *Review by architectural domain*; the operator, 2026-11-02). A reviewer
judges whether the settled direction is complete and sound in its architectural domains and never reopens a
decision. Not to be confused with a **mesh domain** (Homonyms).
- **design state** — of a design: proposed, designed, in progress or implemented, worked out by the knowledge base
from the issues with a design link to it and whether their deliveries are done; never written by anyone
(ADR 0424).
@@ -1050,6 +1056,8 @@ renaming one sense, the old sense moves to a *Not:* line and becomes mechanical.
| | whether the machines a change touches still compose | **composition check** | Delivery |
| membership | the subjects a bus account is issued | **membership** | Provisioning |
| | an account in a group of the machine | **account group** | Placement |
| domain | an area of the mesh that owns a set of concepts and the one word for each (ADR 0244), the sections of this page; the one sense "domain" keeps bare | **mesh domain** | The record |
| | one of the eight concerns a direction and a design are reviewed against (playbook 01); never written bare | **architectural domain** | The record |
| push | the controller giving nodes their declarations, until release 6 | **send** (verb `push`) | Placement |
| | a git push | **git push** | The record |
| | a phone notification | **push notification** | Operator and conversation |
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@@ -43,16 +43,22 @@ An idea arrives in one of two forms, and the first step differs:
is spent whether or not the effort is ever proposed; one never proposed is withdrawn after a week. Never
pick one by hand.
4. **Propose it.** `knowledge-base.propose` with `kind: research`, the `number`, a one-line `title`,
`status: active`, `date` (the day it began), and `sections`, each a `name` and its markdown `text`:
- `00-overview.md`: the idea in the operator's words, what exists, the operator's answers (dated), and the
`status: active`, `date` (the day it began), and `sections`, each a `name` and its markdown `text`. A
section is a part of the record, never a file: its `name` is a plain title, a reference to another section
names that title ("the Direction's test 8"), and code evidence names the repository, the commit and the
function, never a path or a line (the operator, 2026-11-02: "don't use file references or local files
anymore"; the knowledge base is to be shown as a web page, where a file name links to nothing). Once
proposed, the record is the only copy: it is changed by `knowledge-base.get` and `propose`, never kept
in a local draft. The first sections:
- **Overview**: the idea in the operator's words, what exists, the operator's answers (dated), and the
words the effort uses that the glossary lacks, each defined in one line;
- `01-questions.md`: the questions to answer, the first ones first;
- `02-method.md`: what will be tried and measured, and on what.
- **Questions**: the questions to answer, the first ones first;
- **Method**: what will be tried and measured, and on what.
Name what it touches as `links` of kind `touches` (`"0276"`, `"research 045"`, `"issue 365"`, or a
design's path), and what it names for another reason as `cites`.
5. **Do the research.** Try, measure and read, smallest question first. Each finding goes into
`04-findings.md`: what was tried, what it showed (with numbers), what it means. Each change of the effort
the section **Findings**: what was tried, what it showed (with numbers), what it means. Each change of the effort
is `knowledge-base.propose` again, whole, with `why`; every version is kept, and `knowledge-base.history`
lists them and gives the difference between two. Until issue 844 is delivered, the knowledge base
takes a new version of an accepted, active effort only as a progressive insight: give `insight`, saying
@@ -69,20 +75,49 @@ An idea arrives in one of two forms, and the first step differs:
server, a protocol) is tried in process, on the machine's loopback, in minutes. Lab runs (about 12 to
16 minutes fresh) are for the mesh's own code; before that code exists, a lab run tests nothing an
in-process test does not, and its lab scenario is written as the build's acceptance test instead.
6. **Place it in the domains.** Before the direction, write `03-domains.md`: the domain or domains the idea
6. **Place it in the domains.** Before the direction, write the section **Domains**: the domain or domains the idea
belongs to (the glossary's sections, ADR 0244); the modules and seats it lands in, each new, changed or
retired; what it does to each domain's words, each word added (with its domain and a one-line meaning),
changed or retired, and none on a *Not:* line or already meaning something else (the glossary's homonyms);
and whether a domain grows or shrinks, a concept moving between domains included. The direction names its
decisions in those words. Asked when the idea is set up, too: an option that lands a concept in the wrong
domain is offered with that cost named, like one that breaks a rule.
7. **Settle the direction with the operator.** When the questions are answered, write `05-direction.md`:
7. **Settle the direction with the operator.** When the questions are answered, write the section **Direction**:
the proposed decisions in a few lines each, the options rejected and why, and the build's acceptance
tests: what the build must prove before it is done, carried by its milestones (playbook
[04](04-build-handoff.md)). Nothing else is left open: each question closes by a test, by a decision the
effort records with its reason (a small design limit is the lead's), or by the operator. Ask the
operator to confirm or change the direction, one point at a time, then propose it once. Then the effort
graduates through playbook [02](02-graduation.md).
operator to confirm or change the direction, one point at a time. Then review it by architectural domain (below) and
propose it once. Then the effort graduates through playbook [02](02-graduation.md).
## Review by architectural domain
A direction the operator settled can still be wrong where nobody looked. Before it is proposed, and again
before a design is merged (playbook [02](02-graduation.md)), it is reviewed against each **architectural domain**
(the operator, 2026-11-02), by reviewers on the larger model, about two architectural domains each, side by side:
- **security**: who may call each new verb, how its grants are scoped, which credentials go or remain, what
can be replaced or forged, and what enters from outside the mesh;
- **seams**: where each piece of state lives on the bus, which seat, verb or event joins two parts, and any
link that is not NATS-native. Each piece of state is kept in the bus storage form that fits it (a key-value
bucket, a stream, an object store); a form the manifest lacks is added to mesh-sdk, and the review names that change
and its cost (a mesh-sdk change rebuilds every module) to the operator, never folds it in silently (the
operator, 2026-11-02);
- **running qualities**: build capacity, speed, storage growth, and what happens while a part, the bus or the
control-node is down;
- **health**: what each part's health check says, which conditions are raised and cleared, and whether any
failure can pass silently;
- **events and logs**: what each step says on the bus, and what can be read back later;
- **testing**: an acceptance test for every decision, each one checkable and within the test budget, and the
failure paths;
- **upgrade**: how what runs today moves to the new shape without a delivery breaking, in which order, and
how it is rolled back;
- **tools**: which tool reads each new piece of state and which one steers each new behaviour.
A reviewer judges only whether the settled direction is complete and sound in its architectural domains; it never reopens
a decision. Each finding is a sentence for the direction or a new acceptance test; a finding that changes a
decision goes to the operator. The direction ends with a section *Reviewed by architectural domain*: per architectural domain, what was
found and how it was answered, or that nothing was found.
## Bounds and models
@@ -93,6 +128,7 @@ An idea arrives in one of two forms, and the first step differs:
| each experiment or reading task (5) | 30 minutes | smaller, one agent at a time unless the operator allows more |
| placing it in the domains (6) | 15 minutes | larger |
| the direction (7) | 30 minutes | larger |
| the review by architectural domain | 20 minutes | larger, about two architectural domains per reviewer |
A step past its bound is said to the operator at once, with what is being done about it. The lead reports
as playbook 07 does: every ten minutes and at once when something is found, stops or needs the operator,
@@ -134,7 +170,8 @@ The rules on an effort are the knowledge base's: `propose` refuses one that brea
record (the module's table test holds one case per rule), and the rules that judge the whole record set run
after every acceptance and raise a condition when one fails. The habits of steps 2, 5, 6 and 7 (options checked
against the rules, one version per settled set, the cheapest level, nothing left open) are the lead's, read by
the reviewer; of the pre-check, `propose` refuses a link to nothing and a retired word, and the review returns
the reviewer; the review by architectural domain is read in the direction's *Reviewed by architectural domain* section (nothing refuses a direction
without it yet: the lead and the reviewer hold it); of the pre-check, `propose` refuses a link to nothing and a retired word, and the review returns
a record named but not linked, an untracked deferral and a figure not as measured. That this repository holds
no effort is the records test's `no-records` check, on every pull request. An active effort with no new version
for seven days is the smell of research left behind: its lead closes or continues it.
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@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ clauses in force for a topic or a record).
## Graduating research
The effort's `05-direction.md`, confirmed by the operator (playbook [01](01-research.md), step 7), is what
The effort's Direction, confirmed by the operator (playbook [01](01-research.md), step 7), is what
graduates. The lead writes the records and the design on the larger model; it is one sitting, bounded at
about an hour, and said to the operator if it runs past.
@@ -49,9 +49,11 @@ about an hour, and said to the operator if it runs past.
---
```
The design lists the direction's acceptance tests: what the build proves before it is done.
The design lists the direction's acceptance tests: what the build proves before it is done. Before it is
merged, the design is reviewed by architectural domain as playbook [01](01-research.md#review-by-architectural-domain) says, and
ends with its own *Reviewed by architectural domain* section; a design amended without an effort is reviewed the same way.
The words of the effort's `03-domains.md` go into the glossary in the same change, each in its domain: a
The words of the effort's Domains go into the glossary in the same change, each in its domain: a
word added gets its entry, a word whose meaning changed gets its entry rewritten, and a retired word moves to
its replacement's *Not:* line. A word that already means something else in another domain is named as a
homonym with the qualified form each domain uses.
@@ -129,7 +131,8 @@ A design changes only through a decision.
1. Write the decision record (above). If it reverses an earlier one, it `supersedes` it.
2. Edit the to-be design document, add the record to its `decisions:` as `"ADR NNNN"`, and set `updated:`
to today.
to today. Review it by architectural domain before it is merged (playbook [01](01-research.md#review-by-architectural-domain)), and
rewrite its *Reviewed by architectural domain* section.
3. If the amendment came from an issue, give the issue the document path in the issue tracker:
`amended-design` on its `issue-tracker.move` to `resolved`, or `issue-tracker.link` with kind
`design` before then — never in the report's frontmatter
@@ -164,7 +167,8 @@ record (its module's table test holds one case per rule), and the four rules tha
changes, an accepted record extending a superseded one) run after every acceptance and raise a condition
when one fails. In this repository, the records test checks that a design's `decisions:` entries and every
"ADR NNNN" in the text are well formed, and that no record is written here; the index test checks the reading
order's six topics, which the knowledge base reads. The three habits of graduating step 2 (side by side, clauses
order's six topics, which the knowledge base reads. A design's *Reviewed by architectural domain* section is read by the
reviewer of its pull request; nothing refuses a design without it yet. The three habits of graduating step 2 (side by side, clauses
from the direction, the pre-check) are the lead's, read by the reviewer; `propose` refuses a link to nothing,
a deferral no issue tracks and a retired word, and the review returns a record named but not linked.
The rounds are read in `knowledge-base.get` (its reviews, one per version): a question to the operator about a
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@@ -416,15 +416,15 @@ const P = [
{n:"01",name:"Research",kind:"idea",c:"--idea",
trig:"An idea worth investigating before it is committed to design. A symptom is not research.",
who:"The session that heard the idea leads.",
steps:["Read what is known: ask, get, the tracker's list.","Ask 3 to 5 setup questions, one at a time, each with a recommendation.","Check every option against the mission and how-we-build first.","Reserve a number (kind research), never pick one by hand.","Propose the effort: overview, questions, method, with links.","Research; findings in 04-findings, one version per settled set.","Try at the cheapest level that answers the question.","Write 03-domains: modules, seats, glossary words added or retired.","Write 05-direction: decisions, rejected options, acceptance tests.","Ask the operator to confirm the direction, one point at a time.","If the review asks changes: propose again, at most three times."],
steps:["Read what is known: ask, get, the tracker's list.","Ask 3 to 5 setup questions, one at a time, each with a recommendation.","Check every option against the mission and how-we-build first.","Reserve a number (kind research), never pick one by hand.","Propose the effort: Overview, Questions, Method, sections named by title, no file references.","Research; findings in the section Findings, one version per settled set.","Try at the cheapest level that answers the question.","Write the Domains: modules, seats, glossary words added or retired.","Write the Direction: decisions, rejected options, acceptance tests.","Ask the operator to confirm the direction, one point at a time.","Review the direction by architectural domain: security, seams, running qualities, health, events and logs, testing, upgrade, tools.","If the review asks changes: propose again, at most three times."],
prod:"A research effort in the knowledge base, status active, every version kept. Nothing in hq.",
next:"02",bounds:"Setup 30 min · proposing 15 min · each experiment 30 min · direction 30 min · report every 10 min",
next:"02",bounds:"Setup 30 min · proposing 15 min · each experiment 30 min · direction 30 min · review by architectural domain 20 min · report every 10 min",
prev:["Research that measured nothing","A recommendation the operator must argue back","Efforts copied into hq"],
check:"propose refuses rule breaks; the knowledge base reviews; the records test on every PR."},
{n:"02",name:"Graduation & design change",kind:"idea",c:"--dec",
trig:"A research effort concludes, or an existing design must change.",
who:"The lead, on the larger model; the decision is recorded before the design moves.",
steps:["Check the conclusion against mission, context and effect.","Reserve a number per decision.","Propose one record per choice that can be reversed on its own.","Pre-check, then propose siblings together.","On changes: revise whole; after three rounds fix findings yourself.","A finding that would change what was decided: ask the operator.","needs-operator: wait for the operator's Approve.","Amend the design, or create a to-be design with status designed.","Add the decisions, updated:, and the effort's glossary words.","Hand the design to the breakdown (04).","Close the effort: graduated with became links, or abandoned.","When it ships: write the as-is, set the to-be implemented."],
steps:["Check the conclusion against mission, context and effect.","Reserve a number per decision.","Propose one record per choice that can be reversed on its own.","Pre-check, then propose siblings together.","On changes: revise whole; after three rounds fix findings yourself.","A finding that would change what was decided: ask the operator.","needs-operator: wait for the operator's Approve.","Amend the design, or create a to-be design with status designed.","Add the decisions, updated:, and the effort's glossary words.","Review the design by architectural domain before it is merged.","Hand the design to the breakdown (04).","Close the effort: graduated with became links, or abandoned.","When it ships: write the as-is, set the to-be implemented."],
prod:"Decision records; a to-be design with frontmatter; glossary entries; later the as-is.",
next:"04",bounds:"One sitting of about an hour",
prev:["A decision rewritten silently","A deferral nothing tracks","A design amended without a decision"],