hq/00-META/process/02-graduation.md

Playbook 02 — Graduation and design change

Trigger. A research effort concludes, or an existing design must change.

Who runs it. Anyone, with the decision recorded before the design moves.

Graduating research

1. Check it against GENESIS. An effort graduates only if its conclusion is traceable to mission.md, context.md and effect.md. If it conflicts, either the effort is wrong or GENESIS is — say which, in writing, before proceeding.

2. Record the decision. Write a record in 02-DECISIONS/ taking the next free number. Format and rules are in 02-DECISIONS/README.md. State evidence, not assertion, and record the options that were rejected — that is the half worth keeping. A record that puts work off — a rename, a check, a case it does not handle — names the issue that tracks it and the owner who will do it, in the sentence that defers it ("tracked by issue N"), or the deferral is not accepted: a deferral nothing tracks reads as done (issue 354, ADR 0244's code renames). cycle.py holds every accepted record dated from 2026-10-09, and an older one corrected under the rule, to it.

3. Write the design. Create the document under 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/ with frontmatter:

   ---
   layer: to-be
   status: designed
   code: []             # owning code repo(s); set at build handoff, empty before
   updated: YYYY-MM-DD
   decisions: [02-DECISIONS/NNNN-....md]
   ---
   

4. Close the effort. Set the effort's 00-overview.md frontmatter to status: graduated and became: pointing at the design document and the decision record.

Amending an existing design

A design changes only through a decision.

1. Write the decision record. If it reverses an earlier one, the earlier record's status: becomes superseded-by: 02-DECISIONS/NNNN-....md — its reasoning is never rewritten. If the earlier record is sound and only a fact in it went stale, that is a progressive insight, corrected in place and marked in the record rather than superseded (02-DECISIONS/README.md).
2. Edit the to-be design document and set updated: to today.
3. If the amendment came from an issue, set that issue's amended-design: to the document path.

When something ships

Implementation state is a third axis, independent of both design and decision.

1. Write or update the matching document under 03-DESIGN/00-as-is/ so it describes what now runs — including anything that shipped differently from the intent. A design that shipped bent is an as-is fact, not a design amendment.
2. Set the to-be document's status: implemented and its code: to the owning repositories from repos.md.
3. status: implemented must be defensible from the owning repository's main branch, not from intent. If it cannot be checked, it is in-progress.

Do not

• Do not move a to-be document into 00-as-is/. Write the as-is document; both stand.
• Do not edit an as-is document to describe an intention. That is what the to-be layer is for.
• Do not change a decision record's meaning. Supersede it. Correcting a fact it got wrong, while the decision stands, is a progressive insight — marked and dated in the record, never silent.