jschoubben
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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.
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6.7 KiB
layer, status, code, updated, decisions
| layer | status | code | updated | decisions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| to-be | designed |
|
2026-08-23 |
|
Work breakdown — the decomposition
How ADR 0015 gets built, in what order, and where a human must look.
Ordering is not preference. Each phase removes a constraint the next one needs gone.
Rules of engagement
These exist so the work can run largely unattended without accumulating the kind of damage this refactor is meant to remove.
Autonomous by default
An agent may, without asking:
- read anything, measure anything, query any database read-only
- create branches, write code and tests, open pull requests
- run the test suite and typechecks
- write and update
hq/documents
Always stop and ask
- destroying or overwriting data — dropping a table, deleting a provision, rotating a live credential, removing a module from a node
- merging anything — every merge is a human checkpoint, without exception
- a decision the ADRs do not already answer — record the question in the relevant research effort rather than picking and moving on
- any change to
hq/00-GENESIS— it is stable by nature
Definition of done for every task
- tests written and failing first, then passing
- typecheck clean in every package the change touches
- the local mesh (Phase 0) comes up, and the behaviour is demonstrated in it
hq/updated if the task changed or answered anything documented- deployed, and delivery verified on every node — not "the pipeline was green"
Non-negotiables carried from the current system
- Never edit mesh-managed files on disk. Use the owning tool.
- Never write to production databases directly. Migrations for schema, application code for data.
- Every schema change ships twice — consolidated schema and an incremental migration.
- Expand, then contract. Add the new shape, migrate, verify, and only then remove the old one — never in a single step.
- A green pipeline proves transport, not effect. Verify the effect.
Phase 0 — A mesh that runs locally (prerequisite)
Nothing else starts until this exists. Every fault this refactor addresses was found in production because there was nowhere else to find it.
| # | task | done when |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Container image for a node runtime | a node process starts in a container and registers |
| 0.2 | Compose topology: broker, registry DB, object store, n nodes | up yields a mesh that elects a provider node and settles |
| 0.3 | Seed a minimal mesh: nodes, one module, one provision | a module deploys end-to-end with no external service |
| 0.4 | Run the pipeline inside it | a push-equivalent produces a cascade and a deployed artifact |
| 0.5 | Fixtures for the failure modes already known | credential rotation reaching a running session; a provider deploy rotating a shared credential; a migration that ships nothing — each reproducible on demand |
Checkpoint: a human confirms the local mesh reproduces at least one bug from 2026-08-22 before any decomposition begins.
Phase 1 — Make the model expressible
The decomposition is impossible while a feature is a singleton per module.
| # | task | done when |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Decision record — named features, per-node opt-in (next free number) | accepted |
| 1.2 | Manifest: declared features: with type + directory |
a module declares two of one kind and both build |
| 1.3 | Selection: always / flavor-selected / optional |
a node installs a subset; artifacts stay flavor-blind |
| 1.4 | requires: moves onto the feature |
a schema feature's database is not provisioned where the feature is not installed |
| 1.5 | Assignment carries the opted-in feature set | opting a node in requires no rebuild |
Checkpoint: one existing module converted to declared features, deployed, verified — before any others follow.
Phase 2 — Draw the boundary the domain already has
Cheapest first, and each one proves the extraction pattern before the expensive ones.
| # | task | extracted from | risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | hal/knowledge — one store, review workflow ported |
hippocampus + noxflow knowledge_* |
low — additive |
| 2.2 | hal/stream — the record; notifications and messaging as views |
axon, synapse, notifications, meetings, conversations | medium |
| 2.3 | hal/agents — identity, licence, runs, memory, thoughts |
noxflow agents, hal/thoughts |
high — touches credentials |
| 2.4 | hal/work — what remains of noxflow |
noxflow tasks | medium |
| 2.5 | hal/ai — provider integration, flavored |
hal/claude* |
medium |
Each extraction is expand-then-contract: new context alongside, dual-write, verify, cut over, remove. Never a move commit.
Checkpoint: after 2.1, a human confirms the extraction pattern before 2.2 begins. After 2.3, a human confirms credentials still reach every agent on every node.
Phase 3 — Reclaim the kernel
Only possible once domains have modules to own their code.
| # | task | done when |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | Move work-domain code out of hal/sdk |
workflow-engine.ts, task-commands.ts live in hal/work |
| 3.2 | Move provider code out | claude-credentials.ts lives in hal/ai |
| 3.3 | Move delivery code out | feature handlers, artifact manager, build executor live in hal/delivery |
| 3.4 | Decide the residue | ADR: what hal/sdk keeps (open question 4) |
Measure: hal/sdk line count, tracked per task. Today: 34,636 across 155
files.
Phase 4 — Separate what the mesh runs from the mesh
| # | task | done when |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | Decide the destination (open question 3) | ADR accepted |
| 4.2 | Cross-repository dependency resolution proven | a catalogue module builds against a published @hal/* |
| 4.3 | Move the 91 catalogue modules | this repository contains only mesh contexts |
Checkpoint: move one application first and run it for a week before the rest follow.
Sequencing constraints
- 0 before everything. Unverifiable refactors are how this list got long.
- 1 before 2. Extracting into contexts without per-node features recreates the module count inside the new names.
- 2 before 3. A domain can only own its shared code once the domain has a module.
- 2.3 after 2.1 and 2.2. Agents touch credentials; do it once the pattern is proven on cheaper contexts.
- 4 last. It is the only phase that is pure movement, so it is the only one safe to defer indefinitely.
What "done" looks like
Eight contexts. hal/sdk holding only what is genuinely cross-cutting. A mesh that stands
up on a laptop. A module count that grows only when the domain does.