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Architecture Intent

Strategic Vision

  • What we are building: An end-to-end Architecture Intelligence Platform that connects Business Intent, Target Architecture, Code Implementation, and Architectural Decisions into an observable, self-aligning feedback loop.
  • Why it exists: To eliminate architectural drift, bridge strategic business rationale with codebase reality, eliminate unratified runtime capabilities, and embed continuous, verifiable architecture governance directly into software delivery lifecycles.

Project Context

primary_context: ideas-to-life-cas aw_count: 30 alignment_findings: 4

Current State Alignment

The architecture displays critical alignment tensions: core orchestration capabilities are actively executing prior to foundational ADR ratification (ALIGN-001), synthetic placeholder strings contaminate the Architecture Work registry (ALIGN-002), unratified items have been prematurely promoted to stage 'NEXT' (ALIGN-003), and business intent integration lacks machine-readable schema contracts (ALIGN-004). Restoring baseline governance integrity is a prerequisite for subsequent platform expansion.

Focus Areas / Roadmap

  • P1: Formalize and ratify the Core Orchestration Pipeline ADR through the Architecture Forum to establish the foundational execution baseline.
  • P2: Purge synthetic mock entries from the Architecture Work registry and implement strict schema validation pre-commit gates.
  • P3: Implement CAS Runner gate checks to restrict stage 'NEXT' promotion strictly to items backed by accepted ADRs.
  • P4: Define and enforce machine-readable Pydantic schemas for Business Intent integration in src/cas_runner/schemas/.
  • P5: Operationalize the continuous Detect-Analyse-Execute governance loop within CI/CD pull request validation pipelines.
  • P6: Develop Architecture Knowledge Graph capabilities and interactive Architecture Intelligence Map (AIM) navigation.

Gaps & Tensions (Risks)

  • Operational execution precedes architectural ratification: Core Orchestration Pipeline actively executes workflows while its foundational ADR remains in [READY] status without formal Architecture Forum approval (ALIGN-001).
  • Planning registry semantic corruption: Synthetic placeholder strings ('dummy_string') contaminate Architecture Work items and distort quantitative metrics (ALIGN-002).
  • Lifecycle stage promotion inversion: Unratified items marked [READY] and [PENDING] have been advanced to execution stage 'NEXT' without accepted decision backing (ALIGN-003).
  • Uncontracted business intent: Absence of machine-readable Pydantic schemas for Business Intent artifacts blocks end-to-end intent-to-code traceability in the Alignment Engine (ALIGN-004).
  • Governance triage accumulation: 22 unprogressed proposal items indicate an operational bottleneck in architecture forum review throughput.

Principles

  • {'id': 'PRIN-01', 'name': 'Decisions Drive Reality', 'statement': 'Architectural decisions (ADRs) serve as the authoritative single source of truth; operational execution must not precede formal ratification.'}
  • {'id': 'PRIN-02', 'name': 'System Proposes, Architect Governs', 'statement': 'Automated reasoning systems and agents propose architectural work and identify drift, but human architects hold sole authority to accept decisions.'}
  • {'id': 'PRIN-03', 'name': 'Deterministic Rule-Grounded Compliance', 'statement': 'Conformance audits must rely on deterministic rule verification and AST-level evidence rather than non-deterministic heuristic assertions.'}
  • {'id': 'PRIN-04', 'name': 'Strict Semantic and Schema Integrity', 'statement': 'All architectural knowledge artifacts must adhere to strongly-typed contracts, rejecting synthetic placeholders or undefined lifecycle tags.'}
  • {'id': 'PRIN-05', 'name': 'Continuous Operational Participation', 'statement': 'Governance must operate as an inline, frictionless participant across delivery workflows rather than a disconnected retrospective milestone.'}

Emergent Heuristics

stage_promotion_gate: Never promote an Architecture Work or AEM item to stage 'NEXT' without an accepted ADR recorded in the decision registry. forensic_validation_precedence: Empirical AST diagnostics and symbol extractions take precedence over subjective textual documentation when resolving structural discrepancies. intent_contract_immutability: External business drivers must be ingested as immutable, typed semantic contracts before downstream architectural derivation can proceed.