Merge pull request 'Feature 57 (config and provisioning): release hq's record' (#378) from release/57-config-and-provisioning into main

The research playbook named acceptance tests the milestones carry, which
playbooks 02 and 04 did not know; its pre-check also disagreed with the
knowledge base's deferral rule.

00-META/glossary.md

@@ -69,7 +69,8 @@ is listed under [Homonyms](#homonyms), with the qualified form each domain uses.
 **Recorded in** the catalogue, one manifest per module. **Upstream of** every other domain; its words
 are a published vocabulary, fixed by the manifest's schema. **Decided by** ADR 0040, 0126, 0174, 0188,
 0207, 0236, 0262.
-**Uses:** module, seat, provision (Provisioning), data class (Data), health (Health and repair).
+**Uses:** module, seat, config value (Config), provision (Provisioning), data class (Data), health (Health
+and repair).
 
 - **manifest** — the file a module is defined by (`module.json`): what it is, what it provides and
   requires, the seats it claims, the resources it declares, its tools, its data and its health. Say
@@ -83,18 +84,9 @@ are a published vocabulary, fixed by the manifest's schema. **Decided by** ADR 0
   it guards: the `mesh-controller`, `postgres` and `nats` modules claim the `mesh-controller`,
   `mesh-store` and `mesh-broker` seats (ADR 0079,
   ADR 0116).
-- **setting** — a value a manifest declares and an assignment gives, one of the two ways a node varies
-  a module (ADR 0174).
-  What a "flavor" once varied is a setting or a separate module.
-  *Not:* ~~flavor~~
-- **preference** — a setting whose manifest gives it a default, because its value is true of the
-  software and only tuned per node: a font size, a width
-  (ADR 0262).
-  A setting with no default is the operator's own value: a domain, an identity.
-  *Not:* ~~tunable~~ (hq)
 - **kept region** — a marked block in a managed file the mesh writes *into*, where the operator's own
   lines survive every send and are given back when the module goes (ADR 0174). The other way a node
-  varies a module.
+  varies a module, besides a config value; a **managed** file's marked block is one (Provisioning).
 - **bundle** — the artifact a module's own code is built into — its tools, a seat's implementation, a
   daemon — in any language the mesh has a toolchain for; never an image. A **tools bundle** speaks MCP to
   the tool runner. One module may declare several
@@ -111,6 +103,55 @@ are a published vocabulary, fixed by the manifest's schema. **Decided by** ADR 0
   (ADR 0236).
   The controller's verb `upgrade` shows it.
 
+## Config — the values someone may change
+
+**Purpose.** To hold, check and resolve every value a module reads that someone may change, and to say
+where each resolved value came from. **Recorded by** the `mesh-config` module, in its buckets on the bus,
+with its store as the history behind them. **Upstream of** Provisioning, which places the values;
+downstream of Module and Placement. **Decided by** ADR 0262, 0277, 0348.
+**Uses:** module, node, manifest (Module), assignment (Placement), provision (Provisioning), proposal
+(Operator and conversation).
+
+- **config value** — anything a module reads that someone may change: a font size, a domain, an address.
+  A module declares every one it reads under `config` in its manifest, with a type, a description,
+  validation, whether it is trusted, optionally the predefined key it falls back to, and a default or
+  `required`; it lands in a template file as `${config:<key>}` or is read by the module's code at runtime.
+  It resolves from four sources, the most specific winning: the default in the manifest; **mesh config**,
+  the value of the predefined key it falls back to for the whole mesh; **node config**, that key's value
+  on one node; and **module-assignment config**, the module's own value on one node. There is no module
+  value for the whole mesh. *Config* is the concept, the verb (`config`) and the manifest field
+  (ADR 0348). Mesh config is a source level, the value set for the whole mesh; `mesh-config` is the module
+  that keeps every level. The controller holds, mirrors and resolves no config value (ADR 0348 §9).
+  Older records and documents say "setting" for a config value and "settings" for the concept; new writing
+  says config value and config. The word goes on this entry's *Not:* line once the documents in force that
+  still use it in running prose are reworded, which is issue 683; until then it is checked by review. The
+  manifest field and the verb "settings" are kept as aliases until every module has moved (ADR 0348 §1,
+  issue 630), and are named on the line below with the rest once issue 683 is done.
+  *Identifier until renamed:* `takes-settings`, `${setting:}` — manifest forms kept as aliases until every
+  module has moved to their config names (ADR 0348 §1, issue 630).
+  What a "flavor" once varied is a config value or a separate module.
+  *Not:* ~~flavor~~
+- **predefined key** — a key of the catalogue's `predefined.json`, the fixed list of keys for which mesh
+  config and node config hold values, each with its type, description, validation and whether it is
+  trusted, such as `font-size`. A config value may name the predefined key it falls back to, of its own
+  type; one that names none resolves from its default and the module's own value only. The list is the
+  catalogue build's: a change to it is validated with every manifest naming a key, and removing a key still
+  named or still holding a value is refused (ADR 0348).
+- **trusted** — said of a config value that decides what runs or who can reach what. At every level it is
+  set only at the controller's terminal or through `config` with propose, on the operator's Approve; a
+  module value that falls back to a trusted predefined key is itself trusted (ADR 0277, ADR 0348 §8). Not
+  the trusted sender of an operator message (see [Homonyms](#homonyms)).
+- **preference** — a config value whose manifest gives it a default, because its value is true of the
+  software and only tuned per node: a font size, a width
+  (ADR 0262).
+  A config value with no default is `required`: the operator's own value, such as a domain or an
+  identity, and while nothing sets it the module's files are not written (ADR 0348).
+  *Not:* ~~tunable~~ (hq)
+- **`mesh-config`** — the module that owns every config value, and not the source level mesh config: it
+  holds the seat `mesh-config` once for the mesh, validates, takes a trusted value only from the
+  controller's terminal or the operator's Approve, keeps the history with who set it and why, and resolves
+  the four sources (ADR 0348).
+
 ## Core — the mesh's own machinery
 
 **Purpose.** To keep the controller, the bus, the store and every node's engine running and agreed, so
@@ -190,9 +231,10 @@ every other domain has something to run on. **Recorded by** the controller and t
 **Purpose.** To decide, send and apply what each node runs, and to say why.
 **Recorded by** the controller's `inventory` database. **Upstream of** Provisioning, Connectivity, Data
 and Health and repair. **Decided by** ADR 0100, 0126, 0176, 0181, 0207, 0221, 0252, 0261.
-**Uses:** node, machine, module, seat, setting (Module), manifest (Module).
+**Uses:** node, machine, module, seat, manifest (Module), config value (Config).
 
-- **assignment** — a module put on a node, with the settings that node gives it.
+- **assignment** — a module put on a node. Its config values on that node (module-assignment config,
+  Config) are `mesh-config`'s, never part of what the controller records (ADR 0348 §9).
 - **pending assignment** — an assignment of a module whose build is still running, kept, and made by the
   controller when that build registers the module, or ended with why when it does not
   (ADR 0261).
@@ -227,7 +269,7 @@ and Health and repair. **Decided by** ADR 0100, 0126, 0176, 0181, 0207, 0221, 02
   (ADR 0181).
   Not a name a manifest carries.
 - **agent account** — the login every coding agent on a node runs as, when the node names one of its own;
-  stated on the node record at the controller's terminal, never by a verb or a setting. Empty means agents
+  stated on the node record at the controller's terminal, never by a verb or a config value. Empty means agents
   run as the operator account. It cannot become root without a person, and the node-engine judges that on
   every look (ADR 0266).
 - **account group** — a group of the machine's group database that a module puts an account in, by
@@ -238,15 +280,21 @@ and Health and repair. **Decided by** ADR 0100, 0126, 0176, 0181, 0207, 0221, 02
 
 ## Provisioning — one module serving another
 
-**Purpose.** To resolve which module serves a provision for which consumer, and to wire the two.
+**Purpose.** To resolve which module serves a provision for which consumer, to wire the two, and to
-**Recorded by** the controller. **Upstream of** Data; downstream of Module, Placement and Identity.
+place every value a module needs into its files on its node. **Recorded by** the controller and
-**Decided by** ADR 0027, 0084, 0138, 0225, 0230, 0263.
+`mesh-provisioner`. **Upstream of** Data; downstream of Module, Placement, Config and Identity.
-**Uses:** module, seat, credential (Identity and access).
+**Decided by** ADR 0027, 0084, 0138, 0225, 0230, 0263, 0349.
+**Uses:** module, seat, node-engine (Core), declaration (Placement), config value (Config), credential
+and vault (Identity and access).
 
 - **provision** — a service one module `provides` and others `require`; the mesh resolves a provider
   and wires the two with an endpoint and a credential. A provision is a service you offer, a seat is a
   role you occupy, and the two meet where a seat delivers a provision: occupying the seat is what makes
   a module *the* provider of it.
+  Every value a module needs is a provision from the domain that owns it: placement from the controller,
+  config values from `mesh-config`, shared secrets from the vault, a consumer's values from the module
+  providing it, an item of a collection from its contributor. A module says only what it needs and where
+  it lands (ADR 0349).
 - **provider** and **consumer** — the module that provides a provision, and the module that requires
   it. Which of several providers serves a consumer is resolved
   (ADR 0084).
@@ -264,6 +312,28 @@ and Health and repair. **Decided by** ADR 0100, 0126, 0176, 0181, 0207, 0221, 02
   node seat `node-mounts`, as a mount unit and an automount unit, mounted on access (ADR 0263).
 - **occasional source** — a share on a device that is not a node and comes and goes, such as a USB disk;
   its absence is a state, *not present*, never a fault (ADR 0263).
+- **mesh-provisioner** — the module that places provisions on the nodes: it holds the seat
+  `mesh-provisioner` once for the mesh, keeping which domain answers which kind of placeholder, what each
+  module on each node needs, what is applied where and the items of every collection, and the seat
+  `node-provisioner` on every node, which its provisioner client serves (ADR 0349).
+- **provisioner client** — mesh-provisioner's part on one node. For each module there it reads the
+  placeholders of its template files, records the needs, watches each owner's values for the node, fills a
+  template only once every value is there, has the node-engine write the file through a narrow local verb,
+  makes the program take the change as the file declares (`restart-on`, `reload-on`, `read-on-use`), and
+  reports `prov.applied`. It runs as a service with a bus account of its own, never in the tool runner
+  (ADR 0349).
+- **collection** — a provision with many providers. The **collector**, a module that takes additions from
+  others (a shell's snippets, a bar's blocks), requires it; each **contributor** ships its **item** as a
+  template in its own repository and provides it. The provisioner client fills the collector's template
+  from the items of the contributors placed on its node, and an item goes when its contributor leaves the
+  node (ADR 0349).
+- **owned** — a placed file that is the mesh's whole: the provisioner writes it back whenever it differs.
+  It is one of three answers a manifest gives for each file it places (`owner-at-runtime`): **owned**,
+  **seed** or **managed**. Whichever it is, the file has one writer: the node-engine writes it only on the
+  provisioner client's word (ADR 0349).
+- **seed** — a placed file the provisioner writes once; from then on it is the program's.
+- **managed** — a placed file of which only its named keys or a marked block (a kept region, Module) are
+  the mesh's; the program keeps the rest.
 
 ## Identity and access — who may do what
 
@@ -278,7 +348,7 @@ and the operator act. **Recorded by** the controller's `identity` and `licences`
 - **secret** — a credential or other value the vault keeps sealed and the node-engine unseals into a
   file at apply (ADR 0085).
 - **secret family** — a module's own secrets declared as one name ending in `-*`; each member is the prefix
-  and a name (`smb-password-<source>`, one per source the module's settings name), given by its full name
+  and a name (`smb-password-<source>`, one per source the module's config values name), given by its full name
   and never made by the mesh
   (ADR 0283).
 - **vault** — the module that owns every secret (`mesh-vault`,
@@ -422,7 +492,7 @@ becomes a message). **Decided by** ADR 0227, 0231, 0240, 0252, 0283.
   running session, started before, does not have that group yet. Said by the node-engine as the module's
   resource of kind `account`; it clears at the first look after a new login (ADR 0252).
 - **waiting** — a resource's health when its module's tool check says it waits for the operator: a named own
-  secret or setting of the module, not given yet, without which a part cannot work. Not a fault: the
+  secret or config value of the module, not given yet, without which a part cannot work. Not a fault: the
   controller checks it and says it as the condition `needs-operator`, naming the act, and the first-node gate
   reads it as *waits for a person*
   (ADR 0283).
@@ -546,7 +616,7 @@ asking, never the act. **Decided by** ADR 0152, 0175, 0234, 0259, 0272.
   published for that asker alone. The only thing an asker acts on (ADR 0259).
 - **proposal** — a change an agent, or anyone the bus admits, puts forward through a verb and that takes
   effect only on the operator's warrant, bound to the exact thing shown: a shared instruction section (ADR
-  0274), a trusted setting's layer (ADR 0277).
+  0274), a trusted config value (ADR 0277, ADR 0348).
   A proposal changes nothing by itself; declined, expired or refused, it is discarded.
 - **approval mark** — a tool's or verb's declaration in its manifest (`needs-approval`) that each call to it runs
   only on the operator's warrant for that one call, with its exact arguments; the tool runner that serves it, or
@@ -563,7 +633,7 @@ asking, never the act. **Decided by** ADR 0152, 0175, 0234, 0259, 0272.
   build seat's holder, whose seat name `node-build-agent` is an identifier to rename.
 - **instruction section** — one named section of the managed instruction file, which every agent session on the
   nodes it is for reads first, as the mesh's word: set at the controller's terminal in the agent module's
-  settings, or **proposed** by an agent and made active on each node only by the operator's warrant, which that node
+  config, or **proposed** by an agent and made active on each node only by the operator's warrant, which that node
   proves itself (ADR 0274). A hand-over between sessions is one.
 - **personal rule** — one short text in the operator's own words about how the operator wants their agent
   to work with them, registered for the operator (the **operator scope** of the agent module) and rendered
@@ -578,10 +648,10 @@ asking, never the act. **Decided by** ADR 0152, 0175, 0234, 0259, 0272.
 ## Media — what a person watches, listens to and reads
 
 **Purpose.** To find, fetch and file copies of the works a person watches, listens to and reads, each in
-the library its kind names. **Recorded by** the `media-importer` module's settings and its memory of what
+the library its kind names. **Recorded by** the `media-importer` module's config values and its memory of what
 it was told, and the servarr apps' own libraries. **Upstream of** nothing. **Decided by** ADR 0295, 0296,
 0302.
-**Uses:** module, seat, setting (Module).
+**Uses:** module, seat, config value (Config).
 
 - **content** — a work a person watches, listens to or reads: a film, an album and its tracks, an
   episode, a book, a session of a sport event. It is known by an identity from a catalogue outside the
@@ -592,7 +662,7 @@ it was told, and the servarr apps' own libraries. **Upstream of** nothing. **Dec
 - **media release** — one copy of a work an engine can fetch, such as an NZB or a video. Downloaded, it
   sits in the downloads folder, not yet filed. ADR 0302 says *release*.
 - **library** — one folder of one kind, filed by one importer: the media-importer's, named in its
-  settings, or a servarr app's. Several libraries may hold one kind, as TV Shows and Anime both hold
+  config, or a servarr app's. Several libraries may hold one kind, as TV Shows and Anime both hold
   series.
 - **media file** — a file on disk together with its metadata: its kind, the fields that identify the
   work, and what part of the work the file is. It is what the media-importer takes.
@@ -712,6 +782,10 @@ renaming one sense, the old sense moves to a *Not:* line and becomes mechanical.
 | | a question someone must answer | **issue** | The record |
 | deploy | the per-node part of a delivery plan | **deploy plan** | Change and delivery |
 | | a wrapped program's own deploy | its own word | — |
+| managed | a placed file of which only named keys or a marked block are the mesh's | **managed** (`owner-at-runtime`) | Provisioning |
+| | a file the mesh writes, such as the agent's instruction file or `managed_settings` | the file's own name, or *a file the mesh places* | — |
+| trusted | a config value that decides what runs or who can reach what | **trusted** config value | Config |
+| | a sender on the operator's own list | **trusted** sender, its message an **operator message** | Operator and conversation |
 
 ## How this page is kept
 

00-META/how-we-build.md

@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 ---
 status: canonical
-updated: 2026-10-11
+updated: 2026-10-16
 derives: the constitution page
 decisions:
   - "ADR 0020"
+  - "ADR 0391"
 ---
 
 # How we build
@@ -172,6 +173,30 @@ quietly stop being true, and nobody will learn that from a document.
 Not test-driven development as a blanket rule — a test written first against undiscovered
 behaviour asserts a guess. The obligation is that every decision has a defender.
 
+### Tests run at the lowest level that proves them, within a time budget
+
+Three levels, by how much real system a test uses (ADR 0391):
+
+| Level | Uses | Budget | Runs |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| **Unit** | one piece of logic alone: no database, network, bus, running service or other process | well under a second per test | locally, the tests of what changed, while working; and in the forge's checks |
+| **Integration** | the real thing beside it: a database, the bus, a catalogue tree | the repository's whole suite in seconds, never over sixty | only in the forge's checks, once per push |
+| **End to end** | the whole mesh, or a lab mesh, from the outside | — | only when the operator asks |
+
+- **Test each behaviour at the lowest level that can prove it.** A defect found higher up gets a test at the
+  lowest level that reproduces it, before its fix.
+- **A test that needs longer than a second, or a database, the network or a service, is not a unit test.**
+- **A suite over sixty seconds is a defect with its own issue**: it is made faster or split, not accepted.
+- **Never run a merge check, a throwaway database or an integration suite locally.** The forge's checks do,
+  on the builder.
+- **A report names its tests and how long they took**, so a test over its budget is seen when it is added.
+
+### Tests within a time budget — how it was earned
+
+On 2026-10-16 a feature's fixing agents ran the catalogue's whole merge check (about ten minutes), a
+throwaway database and a locally built gate during local development. Each round cost tens of minutes and
+caught neither real failure; the forge's checks found both.
+
 ### A report is read from the system, never from what asked for it
 
 The same rule as the two above, pointed at reporting rather than at verification. **Anything

00-META/process/01-research.md

@@ -30,6 +30,15 @@ An idea arrives in one of two forms, and the first step differs:
 2. **Ask the operator to set it up.** A few questions, one at a time, each answerable with a choice and
    carrying a recommendation: what comes first, what is out of scope, which options must be tried, what
    done looks like. Three to five questions is usual; the answers are the effort's first findings.
+   - **Check every option against the mesh's own rules before offering it.** An option that breaks one
+     (the core values in [`mission.md`](../mission.md), among them *the mesh owns the truth* and
+     *sovereignty: external dependencies are deliberate and few*; the rules in
+     [`how-we-build.md`](../how-we-build.md); and everything between modules over the bus, research 036) is
+     dropped, or offered only with the rule it breaks named. A recommendation the operator has to argue back
+     costs a version.
+   - **Explain each question with a concrete picture** in the operator's words: what they would see, do or
+     lose under each option. No internal names (a record number, a verb, a word the glossary lacks) without
+     what it is beside it.
 3. **Take a number.** `knowledge-base.reserve` with `kind: research` and `for`: the effort's title. The number
    is spent whether or not the effort is ever proposed; one never proposed is withdrawn after a week. Never
    pick one by hand.
@@ -48,10 +57,25 @@ An idea arrives in one of two forms, and the first step differs:
    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
    what the effort held before the new finding, and mark the finding in the text with its date.
+   - **Propose a version per settled set, not per answer.** While the operator answers a run of questions,
+     or while experiments run, keep the answers and findings in the session's save point and propose once
+     when the set is settled. Each version is reviewed and resent whole, so a version per answer multiplies
+     the reviews.
+   - **Pre-check before proposing**, against what the review sends back most: every record, issue or design
+     the text names is in `links`; work put off names the issue that tracks it (an acceptance test is not
+     put-off work: it is what the build proves, step 6); each figure is given as measured (a range, not a
+     rounded claim); no word on a glossary *Not:* line.
+   - **Try at the cheapest level that answers the question.** A program's own behaviour (a library, a
+     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. **Settle the direction with the operator.** When the questions are answered, write `05-direction.md`:
-   the proposed decisions in a few lines each, the options rejected and why, what is left open. Ask the
+   the proposed decisions in a few lines each, the options rejected and why, and the build's acceptance
-   operator to confirm or change it, one point at a time. Then the effort graduates through playbook
+   tests: what the build must prove before it is done, carried by its milestones (playbook
-   [02](02-graduation.md).
+   [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).
 
 ## Bounds and models
 
@@ -100,6 +124,9 @@ and why, is the more expensive half to rediscover.
 
 The rules on an effort are the knowledge base's: `propose` refuses one that breaks a rule that judges one
 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. That this repository holds no effort is
+after every acceptance and raise a condition when one fails. The habits of steps 2, 5 and 6 (options checked
-`records.py`'s `no-records` check, on every pull request. An active effort with no new version for seven
+against the rules, one version per settled set, the cheapest level, nothing left open) are the lead's, read by
-days is the smell of research left behind: its lead closes or continues it.
+the reviewer; 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 `records.py`'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.

00-META/process/02-graduation.md

@@ -23,6 +23,16 @@ about an hour, and said to the operator if it runs past.
    say which, in writing, before proceeding.
 2. **Record the decisions** (below, *Writing a decision record*): one record per choice that could be
    reversed on its own, not one record for the whole effort.
+   - **Write them together, not one after another.** Reserve every number first, then propose each record
+     as soon as it is written, without waiting for the review of the one before; the reviews run side by
+     side, and the operator's asks for the records that need them arrive together. A record that
+     `rests-on` or `extends` a sibling is proposed once that sibling is accepted.
+   - **Take the clauses from the confirmed direction** and cite the effort (`cites`, `"research NNN"`) for
+     the evidence instead of retyping its findings: a record's Context holds the few facts its decision
+     rests on, with the effort named for the rest.
+   - **Pre-check each record before proposing it**, as for research (playbook [01](01-research.md), step
+     5): every record, issue or design it names is in `links`; each deferral names its issue; each figure
+     is given as measured; no word on a glossary *Not:* line.
 3. **Write the design.** Create the document under `03-DESIGN/01-to-be/` with frontmatter:
 
    ```yaml
@@ -36,6 +46,8 @@ 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.
+
 4. **Hand it to the work breakdown.** The design goes on through playbook [04](04-build-handoff.md):
    milestones, issues, and each milestone built as one feature step (playbook [07](07-feature-branches.md)).
 5. **Close the effort.** `knowledge-base.propose` the effort again, whole, with `status: graduated` and a
@@ -141,4 +153,6 @@ 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, `records.py` checks that a design's `decisions:` entries and every
 "ADR NNNN" in the text are well formed, and that no record is written here; `index.py` checks the reading
-order's six topics, which the knowledge base reads.
+order's six topics, which the knowledge base reads. 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.

00-META/process/04-build-handoff.md

@@ -28,10 +28,11 @@ A design becomes **milestones**, and each milestone becomes **issues**:
    there; if it is not, write it before changing it. Building against an undocumented as-is is how a shipped
    behaviour gets lost.
 4. **Break it into milestones.** Write them into the design, in a section *Milestones*: for each, its number,
-   its one-sentence outcome, the repositories it touches, and what it depends on. Order them so each is
+   its one-sentence outcome, the acceptance tests of the design it proves, the repositories it touches, and
-   usable as soon as it is delivered, the smallest useful one first.
+   what it depends on. Order them so each is usable as soon as it is delivered, the smallest useful one
-5. **Ask the operator to confirm the milestones**, in a short table: number, outcome, repositories, the
+   first.
-   parts each repository builds. Change what they change.
+5. **Ask the operator to confirm the milestones**, in a short table: number, outcome, the acceptance tests it
+   proves, repositories, the parts each repository builds. Change what they change.
 6. **Open the issues.** For each confirmed milestone, `issue-tracker.open` one issue per repository part, its
    title the symptom or capability in plain words, its report naming the design, the milestone and the
    decisions it builds with; link the order with `depends-on`. Write the issue numbers into the milestone's
@@ -61,5 +62,5 @@ Read by the lead and the reviewer today; a check in hq's merge-check is tracked
   issues; an in-progress design without one is the smell of building without a breakdown.
 - Every issue a milestone names exists in the tracker (`issue-tracker.get`), and an issue in `fixing` names
   its milestone in its report.
-- A milestone whose issues are all `resolved` has had its delivery plan done; its outcome sentence is proven on
+- A milestone whose issues are all `resolved` has had its delivery plan done; its outcome sentence and
-  the mesh before the next milestone starts.
+  acceptance tests are proven on the mesh before the next milestone starts.

00-META/process/07-feature-branches.md

@@ -61,7 +61,8 @@ never into the running one, unless it blocks the running one.
      hold, and the patterns to copy (file:line);
    - what not to touch, and what lands beside it in other repositories;
    - the local facts: the worktree, the branch, the check commands, a temporary directory for tests outside
-     the home (`TMPDIR`), a throwaway database server if the store tests need one.
+     the home (`TMPDIR`), and the unit tests to run (never a database server: tests that need one are
+     integration tests, which the forge's checks run).
    When the reading is large, a read-only agent on the smaller model answers the lead's exact questions with
    file:line, and the lead writes the file from its answers.
 5. **Move the issues to `fixing`**, `by` naming the feature's agent for that repository.
@@ -72,7 +73,8 @@ never into the running one, unless it blocks the running one.
   issues one after another, committing each locally with a message naming the issue ("Keep the assignments
   on the bus (issue 652)"). It is not replaced per issue: the lead continues the same agent (by its id) with
   the next instruction, so its context is paid for once.
-- **Unit tests only.** Each issue's first test fails before its change and passes after; `gofmt`, `go vet`
+- **Unit tests only, of what changed, each well under a second** (how-we-build §5, ADR 0391). Each issue's
+  first test fails before its change and passes after; `gofmt`, `go vet`
   and the repository's unit tests stay green. The integration tests (`merge-check.sh` with the store and the
   bus) wait for phase 3.
 - **Nothing is pushed** and no pull request is opened in this phase. Never land on a red check: run the

00-META/process/08-small-fixes.md

@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@ one delivery**. Everything before the push is local and fast.
    need a decision or a second repository stops here and becomes a feature.
 2. **Move the issue to `fixing`** with `by` as who@node.
 3. **Build on a local branch** `fix/<issue>-<slug>`, in a worktree of its own branched from `main`. Write the
-   test that fails today first; make the change; keep `gofmt`, `go vet` and the repository's unit tests green.
+   test that fails today first; make the change; keep `gofmt`, `go vet` and the unit tests of what changed green
+   (each well under a second; never a merge check or a database locally: how-we-build §5, ADR 0391).
    Commit, naming the issue. For a playbook or design edit, run the repository's own checks (in hq,
    `sh merge-check.sh`).
 4. **One review of the local commit, before anything is pushed** (a reviewer that did not write it, larger

03-DESIGN/01-to-be/47-delivery-from-commit-to-delivered.md

@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@
 layer: to-be
 status: in-progress
 code: [mesh-controller, mesh-catalog modules/mesh-delivery]
-updated: 2026-10-13
+updated: 2026-10-16
 decisions:
+  - "ADR 0382"
   - "ADR 0350"
   - "ADR 0335"
   - "ADR 0323"
@@ -371,6 +372,12 @@ only once it is built.
   group's members puts the composed check out of date: the group reads `checking` with the reason, and the
   composed check runs again once a member is judged again. Checked by mesh-delivery's
   `TestAGroupsComposedCheckGoesOutOfDateOnAMergeThatIsNotItsMember` and `TestARebasedMemberIsComposedAgainNotHeld`.
+- **Each member's own check reads its siblings** (ADR 0382): the group's other open members into a base of
+  the same name are read beside a member's own check at their head merged onto their base, and a mesh-controller
+  sibling's merge judges it, so changes that are only consistent together pass their own checks. The controller
+  learns the siblings from mesh-delivery's `groups`; the verdict names each one. A sibling's new head, close or
+  base move puts that verdict out of date, and the merge tool merges such a member only when
+  `mesh/delivery-group` passed at the heads read and every sibling head read is reviewed.
 - **Delivering**: in order. A member waits in `published` until the one before is `delivered` or `covered`.
   A member published while its group's composed check is asked and not answered waits there for the answer;
   one held because that check had not passed is *lifted* back to `published` once it passes or warns for the

RELEASE-57.md

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# Release 57: config and provisioning
+
+This branch carries the work of design 57 (ADR 0348, ADR 0349) in this repository. Each package
+merges here through its own reviewed pull request; the branch reaches main as one pull request, in one
+delivery group with the branch of the same name in mesh-controller, mesh-host, mesh-sdk, mesh-catalog
+and hq, after a rehearsal in the lab. This file is deleted by the last commit before that pull request.