Architecture Vision (living)
This directory holds the current and future architecture vision for Spec Kitty —
forward intent that may still change. It is one of the living architecture surfaces
(see ../README.md for the boundary and decay rules).
What belongs here
- The synthesized "where the architecture is going" narrative for the active era.
- Forward-looking structural intent that has not yet been ratified as an ADR.
What does NOT belong here
- Ratified decisions — those are ADRs under
docs/adr/<era>/(immutable, era-stamped). - Explorations / spikes — those are research notes under
docs/plans/research/. - Historical vision — when a vision statement is no longer current/future it is
demoted into its era's history slot,
vision/README-<era>.md(the decay path; nothing is deleted).
Vision vs Decision vs Spike
| Artifact | Meaning | Home | Mutability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vision | Forward intent | docs/architecture/vision/ (top-level, living) |
May change |
| Decision (ADR) | Ratified decision | docs/adr/<era>/ |
Immutable, era-stamped |
| Spike | Exploration | docs/plans/research/ |
Dated record |
Forward signal for the 4.x line (2026-09-30)
4.0.0 is the active cycle, at release-candidate stage. The authority for its intent is the 4.0.0 milestone roadmap; in architecture terms it points at:
- Hosted collaboration lives outside open-core. The hosted client surfaces
(
zeitgeist_client/,saas_client/, hosted auth and the moment publisher) were removed from open-core (#6164; the code is preserved inspec-kitty/event-router), and the retired sync transport stays retired. See Team Kitty and Zeitgeist. - Structural finish. One canonical event store stays the single source of lifecycle truth.
- One governed front door. A stable, versioned application API that the CLI, UI, MCP and SDK consumers build against, rather than parallel ad-hoc surfaces.
- Charter service strangler. Move charter reads, then writes, behind the stable boundary described by ADR 2026-10-03-1 and the living C4 model.
- No new shadow paths. Route or extract onto an existing authority; never build a parallel one.
The 3.x-era forward signal (2026-08-12) was demoted to the 3.x history slot.