Status: active
Updated: 2026-05-19
One-page map of what counts as the protocol, where normative detail lives, and how surfaces should relate. Use this before pasting long excerpts of doctrine into skills, contracts, or operator prompts.
Northstar is a docs spine + execution grammar: direction in vision/,
shape in architecture/, durable rules in contracts/, time-ordered work in
roadmaps/, evidence in logs/. Optional research/ and provisional specs/
feed promotion into architecture and contracts before execution bets on them.
Full picture: visual-map.md and glossary.md.
| Posture | Spine | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline | vision/, architecture/, contracts/, roadmaps/, logs/ |
Single repo, clear scope, normal routing |
| Strict | Baseline + product-guardrails, indexed contracts, specs/, roadmaps/gNN/batch-cards/ |
High-risk boundaries, longer hands-off runs |
Lane-first strict adoption is the normal migration path, not a permanent mixed-mode excuse. See glossary.md (Lane-first adoption).
Do not maintain parallel copies of the same bullet lists across skills, templates, and doctrine unless a surface is intentionally binding (repo contracts).
| Topic | Doctrine (authoritative full detail) | Binding in a strict repo |
|---|---|---|
| Planning completeness and execution authority | sections/06-planning-and-contract-gates.md | Same expectations; repo records gaps in its own planning files |
| Batch cards, ready-state, closeout shape, autonomy levels, master specs | sections/07-delivery-framework-and-autonomy.md — see Batch card rule, Ready-state rubric, Operator-facing summary rule, Autonomy support levels | docs/contracts/001-working-rules.md (from template-bundle/contracts/001-working-rules-template.md); keep compact, point here for full enumerations |
| Spec lifecycle and archive | sections/08-specs-and-promotion.md + template-bundle/specs/README.md | docs/specs/ + docs/specs/archive/ in the installed repo |
| Automation defaults | sections/10-automation-runtime-policy.md | AGENTS.md / Effigy config in each repo |
Northstar maintainers: the live repo may tighten wording in
docs/contracts/001-working-rules.md, but expanded checklists should stay in
bundle-docs/sections/07-… unless the contract intentionally narrows behavior.
- Operators: operators/operator-quick-start.md
- Agent skill (one install):
skills/northstar/+ skills/README.md — always runreferences/router.mdfirst.
Skills should name modes and file paths, not restate full batch-card field lists. When an agent needs doctrine depth, prefer this kernel → linked section → glossary, in that order.
- cheat-sheet.md — file patterns,
gNN.NNN, log names - Repo validation:
effigy qa/effigy check:bundleas wired in each repo - Optional drift triage:
effigy check:posture-advisory(non-blocking; see../scripts/README.md)