Files
hq/00-GENESIS/process/03-issues.md
T
jschoubben 702efca6bb Base layer: the mesh as it is, under the mesh as it should be
HQ held only the to-be. Every reader had to already know the system the
decisions were about, and an as-is claim had nowhere to live except inside
an intention.

Adds 02-DESIGN/00-as-is — eleven documents written from the implementation
and the operational record, not from intent, including the parts nobody
would choose again. The two existing designs move under 01-to-be. Layers
are declared in frontmatter and never mix: a design that ships does not
move, its as-is counterpart is written, and both stand.

Back-fills adr/0001-0014 for decisions taken in implementation and never
recorded — the broker, the module abstraction, the mesh database, managed
files, provisioning, migrations, the workspace removal, failing loudly,
the constitution, application placement, linking, the employee model, the
artifact, the three silos. Each marked reconstructed, dated from the
history, and citing the evidence it was recovered from. The two existing
records renumber to 0015 and 0016 so the ledger runs oldest first;
0017 extends 0015 to modules outside the core, principle only — the
domain list is deliberately not invented here.

how-we-build.md becomes the source of the mesh constitution, with a sync
playbook, so the enforced copy stops being the only one that is true.

Process becomes explicit: five playbooks, eight thin skills that defer to
them, a repository map, and AGENTS.md with CLAUDE.md as its include.

The five Observations become 04-ISSUES 001-005 where they can be owned and
closed. 006 is new and uncomfortable: HQ is not indexed into the knowledge
base. That claim is what decision 27 rests on, it was never checked, and
the README now says so instead of repeating it.

Also corrects the ADR index into something generated, the "02-DESIGN is
empty" claim, the VISION.md pointer that did not survive the repo split,
and a note asserting the symlink rule was contradicted — it was a
misreading; the rule forbids hand-made links, the installer links by design.
2026-08-23 03:08:26 +02:00

2.1 KiB

Playbook 03 — Issues

Trigger. Something is wrong at the level of the mesh's design or governance — a rule that turns out to be unenforced, a stated behaviour that does not happen, a silent failure the design permits.

Who runs it. Anyone may open an issue. No localisation is required to report one.

What belongs here, and what does not

Belongs in 04-ISSUES Belongs in the knowledge base
The design permits a failure to be silent How to fix one occurrence of it
A documented rule is enforced by nothing A command that works around it
A stated invariant is false in practice A node-specific quirk
The owning component is unknown and finding it needs the whole mesh in view Symptom → fix, once the answer is known

The knowledge base already holds the operational record and is indexed on symptoms. This folder is not a second copy of it. An issue here is a question HQ must answer, not an incident someone must clear.

Steps

  1. Take the next free number. Create 04-ISSUES/NNN-short-name/00-report.md:

    ---
    status: open
    opened: YYYY-MM-DD
    located-in: []       # owning repo(s)/module(s), filled by diagnosis
    fixed-by:            # PR or commit reference, filled at resolution
    amended-design:      # design doc path, when the root cause was a design gap
    ---
    

    Then the symptom as observed, in plain terms, with the evidence that it happened.

  2. Investigate in 01-diagnosis.md in the same folder — the trail, dated, including what was ruled out. Move status: to diagnosing, then located once the owner is known.

  3. Resolve. Set status: resolved, fill fixed-by:, and if the root cause was a design gap, run playbook 02 and fill amended-design:.

Rules

  • Closed issues are never deleted — they are the mesh's symptom-to-component memory.
  • An issue whose answer is a general lesson should also be written to the knowledge base, so the next person searching a symptom finds it. Both, not either.
  • status: wontfix is legitimate and requires a sentence saying why.