Files
hq/03-DESIGN
jschoubben 77f3a4cea7 Consolidate: 65 decision records to 23
Every remaining cluster merged. Each was one design that had been split across
several records because it was worked out over days rather than at once.

  the node host          8 -> 1    applies not decides, depends on nothing,
                                   per operating system, root service, the
                                   launcher, episodic, what a declaration is,
                                   actions from the bundle only
  a node and how it joins 4 -> 1   what a node is, joining, the link as
                                   security boundary, the enrolment token
  modules and the graph   7 -> 1   everything is a module, no domain modules,
                                   three edges, provisioning, the core library
  substrate and control   6 -> 1   the test, seven contexts, one control plane,
    plane                          the authority is not a database, the named
                                   products, the pinned bundle
  connectivity            3 -> 1   a route is a grant, reachability declared,
                                   filter rules
  delivery                5 -> 1   reconciliation not a pipeline, artifacts,
                                   the three silos, a failed step, the verdict
  the lab                 5 -> 1   (earlier)
  how this repository     10 -> 1  (earlier)
    works

Nothing was dropped. Each consolidated record carries the reasoning of the ones
it absorbs -- the measurements, the incidents, the alternatives rejected --
because that reasoning is the only reason to keep a record at all. What is gone
is the fragmentation: eight files to read to understand tier 0, when tier 0 is
one component.

The four superseded records went too. They existed to point at their
successors, and the successors now contain what they said.

The checker made this safe. Each merge left dangling links -- 38 files after
the host merge alone -- and it named every one. Nothing was found by reading,
and a manual pass would certainly have missed some, including references inside
AGENTS.md which every session loads.
2026-08-28 20:03:24 +02:00
..

03-DESIGN

The authoritative specification. Implementation is built against what is written here.

Two layers

Folder What it is
00-as-is/ The mesh that exists today. Shipped behaviour, described as it is — including behaviour nobody would choose again.
01-to-be/ The mesh being built toward. Every statement traceable to a record in 02-DECISIONS/.

They are never mixed. A statement about the future does not belong in an as-is document, and an as-is document is never edited to describe an intention.

When a to-be design ships, it does not move. Its as-is counterpart is written or updated, the to-be document's status becomes implemented, and both stand — one describing what runs, the other recording what was intended. Deleting the intention loses the reasoning, which is the expensive half.

Frontmatter

Every design document (not the READMEs) carries:

---
layer: as-is | to-be
status: designed | in-progress | implemented | abandoned
code: []                 # owning code repo(s), from 00-META/repos.md
updated: YYYY-MM-DD      # date of the last status change, not of text edits
decisions: []            # 02-DECISIONS/ records this document rests on
---

For an as-is document, status: implemented is the normal state — it describes something that runs — and code: names where that implementation lives.

Status changes when implementation state changes, never because design text was edited. An implemented claim must be defensible from the owning repository's main branch, not from intent. If it cannot be checked, it is in-progress.

Cross-cutting views are generated from this frontmatter by the hq-status skill and never written to disk.

What belongs here

Functional analysis, architectural description, and specification — prose and diagrams only, no code. A manifest field may be named; a manifest may not be pasted. A document enters the to-be layer only after the decision behind it is recorded in 02-DECISIONS/ and the research that produced it is closed.

Subfolders are encouraged where a layer grows enough to need them.