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CONSTITUTION.md — 16 Engineering Principles

The non-negotiable principles governing Forge:

  1. Zero Core LLM Calls: The kernel is strictly deterministic; zero non-deterministic API dependencies.
  2. Exit Code Governance: All gates block via system exit codes (0 = proceed, non-zero = halt).
  3. Git is the Single Truth: No external database, service, or cache.
  4. Data-Driven Artifacts: Workflow stages are nodes in a deterministic DAG.
  5. AST Anchors: Knowledge is bound to syntax trees, not brittle line numbers.
  6. Mechanical Drift Detection: Staleness is computed mathematically from diffs and digests.
  7. Pre-Implementation Specification: Behavioral delta specs must be written before code.
  8. Strict TDD: Implementation proceeds task by task under Red-Green-Refactor.
  9. Claim-Touch Accounting: Diff $\cap$ Anchors must be 100% accounted for.
  10. One-Way Ratchet: Complexity can escalate tracks, never downgrade.
  11. Evidence Before Claims: No completion claims without fresh verification command execution.
  12. Host Neutrality: Skills contain zero proprietary vendor prompts; mechanism lives in CLI.
  13. Deterministic Derived Tier: Derived files are formatted with LF and sorted keys.
  14. Controlled Retirement: Claims can only be retired on 4 legitimate grounds.
  15. Pre-Commit Enforcement: Drift prevention hooks guard the repository boundary.
  16. Version Skew Pinning: Repositories detect and warn against kernel version discrepancies.