Digital system development and maintenance
A screen breaks in front of a user before anyone notices the system had fallen behind. Every detail of the operation was written down, and the team has nothing to run it on.
Someone can describe their operation in full detail and still have nothing their people can use. And a system already in their hands falls behind the substrate it was built on, quietly, until a screen breaks in front of a user.
A described situation becomes a system people work in, and it stays in step with what it was built on instead of drifting behind it.
One run, start to finish. A box with an accent tick is a tool acting and opens its own page; a rounded box is an artefact or a record; a diamond is a decision the work cannot pass without. A dashed line is a hand-off the suite has not mechanised yet.
- appends signal
- One append-only row of signal. It survives the session, and reaches a reader on that record’s own cadence.
- reads the declared contract
- Nothing is sent. The downstream tool reads the upstream tool’s declared contract at call time, which is why substrate tools have no invoke step.
- writes current state
- Current state, replacing the prior value. A registry holds what is true now, not how it got there.
- opens work for a person
- A unit of work whose executor is a person.
The situation is read into a specification, composed into a system on the framework, verified, and re-synced whenever the framework underneath it changes.
Each step in the order it runs, and where one stops before the next begins.
- 01RECORDA CLIENT PROBLEM OR REQUEST A record the run reads, writes or hands on.Nothing in this run reaches it. Hands on to COMPASS.
- 02RECORDSUBSTRATE CONTRACT CHANGE A record the run reads, writes or hands on.Nothing in this run reaches it. Hands on to FORGE (MAINTAIN).
- 03PROPOSE · toolCOMPASS Resolve the ask into a proposition + instructions.Reached from A CLIENT PROBLEM OR REQUEST. Hands on to DEMAND RECORD.
- 04RUN · toolFORGE (MAINTAIN) Compose the app.Reached from SUBSTRATE CONTRACT CHANGE. Hands on to WORKING NOTES, GAUGE.
- 05PROPOSE · toolGAUGE .Reached from FORGE (MAINTAIN). Hands on to RUNNING APP, RE-SHIP GATE.
- 06RECORDDEMAND RECORD A record the run reads, writes or hands on.Reached from COMPASS. Hands on to NOT MECHANISED YET.
- 07RECORDWORKING NOTES A record the run reads, writes or hands on.Reached from FORGE (MAINTAIN). The run parks here.
- 08RUN · toolNOT MECHANISED YET the tools that actually carry the work.Reached from DEMAND RECORD. Hands on to FRAME, OUTCOME LOG.
- 09RUN · toolSCRIBE Conform whatever data the app must ingest.Nothing in this run reaches it. Hands on to FRAME.
- 10RUN · toolSPINE Exchange gating.Nothing in this run reaches it. Hands on to FRAME.
- 11RECORD · decisionRE-SHIP GATE The work cannot pass this point without a decision.Reached from GAUGE. Hands on to RE-SHIPPED APP.
- 12RECORDOUTCOME LOG A record the run reads, writes or hands on.Reached from NOT MECHANISED YET. The run parks here.
- 13RECORDRE-SHIPPED APP A record the run reads, writes or hands on.Reached from RE-SHIP GATE. Hands on to CONSOLE, THE TEAM BOARD.
- 14SUBSTRATE · toolFRAME The app runs on it.Reached from NOT MECHANISED YET, SCRIBE, SPINE. Hands on to RUNNING APP.
- 15OBSERVE · toolCONSOLE Renders apps behind the substrate / apps maintained / substrate syncs.Reached from RE-SHIPPED APP. The run parks here.
- 16RECORDRUNNING APP A record the run reads, writes or hands on.Reached from FRAME, GAUGE. The run parks here.
- 17RECORDTHE TEAM BOARD A record the run reads, writes or hands on.Reached from RE-SHIPPED APP. The run parks here.
- 01picked upCOMPASS A CLIENT PROBLEM OR REQUEST.Matter the run starts from. No member of the suite put it there.
- 02nothing crossesCOMPASS → NOT MECHANISED YET Demand record.This hand-off is not mechanised yet. A person notices, or nobody does.
- 03reads the declared contractNOT MECHANISED YET → FRAME App config.Nothing is sent. The downstream tool reads the upstream tool’s declared contract at call time, which is why substrate tools have no invoke step.
- 04parks hereNOT MECHANISED YET OUTCOME LOG.Forge corpus.Nothing later in this run reads it, so this is where that branch of the run stops.
- 05hands onSCRIBE → FRAME hands on.A step following the one before it.
- 06hands onSPINE → FRAME hands on.A step following the one before it.
- 07parks hereFRAME RUNNING APP.Nothing later in this run reads it, so this is where that branch of the run stops.
- 08nothing crossesGAUGE RUNNING APP.This hand-off is not mechanised yet. A person notices, or nobody does.
- 09picked upFORGE (MAINTAIN) SUBSTRATE CONTRACT CHANGE.Projection.Matter the run starts from. No member of the suite put it there.
- 10parks hereFORGE (MAINTAIN) WORKING NOTES.Allocation + capture/drift.Nothing later in this run reads it, so this is where that branch of the run stops.
- 11hands onFORGE (MAINTAIN) → GAUGE hands on.A step following the one before it.
- 12writes current stateGAUGE → CONSOLE The suite registry.RE-SHIP GATE. The work cannot pass this point without a decision.Current state, replacing the prior value. A registry holds what is true now, not how it got there.
Compass → Forge is a signal append then a human reading it, i.e. The proposition is written to demand record and there is no dispatch (see gaps); Forge → Frame is a contract read (the app config is the deliverable, Frame executes it); build learnings are a signal append into Forge's own corpus.
Change detection → re-sync is a contract read (the substrate's published contract is the trigger); re-sync → verify a signal append; verify → re-ship is a gate; re-ship → Console is a state write (the suite registry via updateRegistry()); maintenance work is a board issue, in-repo improvement files retired.