Project Manifest

Archon hot-path reads only the sections needed for the current route. Updated by Archon after each delivery.

Platform

Logical Name	Actual Path	Note
Archon Core	.archon/	Universal across platforms
Rules Directory		Platform-specific
Skills Directory		Platform-specific
Agent Directory		Platform-specific
Commands Directory		Platform-specific

Product

Concept Glossary

Product-specific terminology included in current-state hot paths. Prevents AI from reverting to dictionary/training-data meanings. Keep entries lean (one-line definitions). Add new terms during close-out when a concept could be misinterpreted.

Term	Meaning in This Project	≠ Common Meaning

User Language Index

Maps stakeholder phrases to canonical project artifacts for fast lookup. Use for aliases, nicknames, and repeated user wording; keep Concept Glossary focused on product-domain meanings. Row format: User Phrase(s) separated by ·; Canonical Target names the artifact class + identifier (e.g., Home landing page / HomePage); Lookup lists route · file · anchor pointers. When two phrases would resolve to different targets, create separate rows rather than merging.

User Phrase(s)	Canonical Target	Lookup

Tech Stack

Layer	Choice	Version

Validation Command

Context Budget

Per soul.md §Mechanical Budget Enforcement, every hot-path governance file MUST carry a hard line cap asserted by the project's test suite.

File	Hard Cap (lines)	Hot Path	Remediation on Breach
.archon/soul.md (core)		Section-scoped	Move mode-specific material to soul/<mode>.md or trim recursive restatement
.archon/soul/delivery.md		demand only	Move shared material back to core; trim redundancy
.archon/soul/review.md		plan + review	Move shared material back to core; trim redundancy
.archon/manifest.md		Yes	Keep current state hot; move long latest-review detail to .archon/manifest/archive/<year>-Q<N>.md
.archon/drift.md		Yes	Keep as hot index; move older complete rows to .archon/drift/archive/<year>-Q<N>.md
.archon/debt.md		Yes	Clean resolved items
.archon/memos.md		Yes	Migrate oldest to memos-archive/<year>-Q<N>.md
<decisions log>		On demand	Archive superseded entries

Latest review stays hot as a compact summary: keep the validation target, command, bundle evidence when useful, and an archive pointer; do not repeat volatile N files / M tests counts in the hot row.

Archive files (memos-archive/*.md, .archon/drift/archive/*.md, .archon/debt/archive/*.md, .archon/manifest/archive/*.md) are NOT counted — only keyword headers/indexes are loaded unless a demand, review, debt, ADR, or keyword points to that period.

Soul on-demand loading: soul.md core ships with two mode extensions (soul/delivery.md — demand only; soul/review.md — plan + review). Boot and mode hot paths read only the required core sections; each command loads its extension when needed. This keeps the perpetual context tax low while preserving full specification depth per mode.

Governance Ratio

Per soul.md §Knowledge Hygiene, governance files / source files should stay within [0.1, 0.5]. Below 0.1 = tribal knowledge risk; above 0.5 = bloat. Both bounds asserted by the project's test suite.

Agent Model Assignment

Per soul.md §Sub-Agent Independence, sub-agents should use a model family different from the main agent.

Role	Model Family Constraint	Current Assignment	Rationale
Main
archon-capture-auditor	≠ main family (fast)		Per-delivery lightweight independence check
archon-reviewer	≠ main family		Cycle-level heavyweight independence check

If the platform cannot route sub-agents to a different family, the model_family: different-from-main frontmatter acts as forward declaration.

Git Strategy

Setting	Value
Mode	prompt / auto / off
Branch Model	direct / feature-branch / trunk-based
Commit Convention

Directory Structure

Top-level outline and responsibilities. File-level details are discovered via ls / Glob as needed — not maintained here.

Directory	Responsibility

Source Modularity Map

Per ADR-29 (framework). Decision Gate modularity_probe: matches changed paths against this map and emits target=<path>|axes=<axis-cell,...>|status=<aligned|fan-out-needed|undeclared>. Each row declares the concept axes a file (or glob) is allowed to mix; folding a second axis-cell into a file already responsible for one fires fan-out-needed. Empty map = every path is undeclared and the probe is advisory. Maintain by axis (role / surface / medium / lifecycle), not by line-count threshold.

The mechanism is language-agnostic. Examples below cover web frontend, scripting backend, JVM, and systems languages so adopters in any stack can adapt the row shape. Pick the smallest concept-axis vocabulary that already explains how files in your project differ from each other today — do not invent axes you have no current pressure for.

Path Glob	Split Axes (one cell per future file)	Fan-Out Trigger

Knowledge Assets

Rules (Rules Directory)

File	Responsibility	Constraint Scope
archon.mdc	Archon decoupling rules	Archon-related files

Skills (Skills Directory)

Lifecycle Hooks (Agent Directory)

Agent	Trigger	Responsibility
archon-capture-auditor.md	After every delivery close-out	Knowledge capture + blindspot reflection + delivery hygiene
archon-reviewer.md	drift ≥ 12 or manual trigger	Full project review

Architecture Decisions

Universal Module Guard

Project and stack terms that must not appear inside universal Archon modules. Keep this list project-specific; the portable checker reads it from here. Replace the empty array during adoption so the guard has real project terms to enforce.

[]

Project path patterns that Blink Dispatch treats as high-risk for this repository:

[]

Extensions (.archon/extensions/)

Project-specific capabilities that hook into core lifecycle points. Not exported with core. Install = create directory with extension.md; uninstall = delete directory. See soul.md §Extension Points.

Milestones & Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance criteria are dynamic project contracts. When a delivery introduces a new technology, architecture layer, module, pattern, or validation-changing optimization, update this section or the Validation Command in the same delivery.

M0 — Infrastructure ⬜

Feature Acceptance:

• [ ]

Quality Gates:

• [ ] Validation command passes green

Persona

Current State

• Current milestone: M0
• Completed: —
• Known issues: see debt.md

Stakeholder Memos

Separated to .archon/memos.md; loaded on-demand during archon-demand pre-scan.