Files
hq/03-DESIGN
jochen 8a5dbaeb98 To-be 40 revised for the tools refactor; the manager starts every exchange (ADR 0183 dated note, designs 36 and 39)
Design 38's WP1-WP4b ran: the node's tool runtime is live on all four machines as the operator
account, tools are bundles given only their declared words, and a bundle has no bus credential.
So the wait on design 38 WP3 is over, the agent module calls nothing and the manager starts every
exchange (key, hand-over, waiting login, reconcile), and the manager's daemon now waits on WP4c's
record instead. Accounts are stated on all four, sudo -n works for each, the agent is installed on
all four; the plan's WP0 shrinks and WP2 gets a configuration-only live proof before any licence.
2026-10-03 16:01:37 +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.