Process and provenance
UAR uses four record types because no single artifact answers intent, behavior, execution order, and learning equally well.
| Record | What it answers | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| ADR | Which significant architecture choice was accepted and why | That every consequence shipped or remains current |
| OpenSpec | Which observable behavior a change must add, modify, or remove | That implementation or verification occurred |
| KBD | Which phase/stage/change was active, ordered, blocked, or completed | That a status projection alone satisfies the underlying requirement |
| Prometheus history | Which decision, defect, constraint, or lesson was retained | That raw working context is safe or suitable for public release |
KBD and OpenSpec together
OpenSpec owns the behavioral delta. KBD owns the lifecycle around it: Assess, Plan, Execute, and Reflect. A complete public account can cite both, but neither replaces current source inspection. KBD projections may also contain machine context, so the public site uses reviewed synthesis rather than embedding them.
The private synthesis boundary
The 2026-08-23 snapshot included 546 Prometheus-history files, of which 536
were generated wiki records. Those files and KBD artifacts are classified
private-synthesis-only. A maintainer may use them to locate a decision, then
must verify it against retained decisions, ADRs, OpenSpec, current source, and
the relevant reflection before publishing a summary.
Public output rejects exact raw copies, machine-local paths, credential-shaped assignments, private-key material, and raw event/session payloads. Wiki records cannot be named as direct authority because they are unreviewed projections of other material.
Traceability model
The architecture-history manifest maps each public decision ID to dated source records, its disposition, any superseded position, and a current authority. The site presents the reviewed result. Repository maintainers can audit the mapping without turning the raw source into web content.
The uncomfortable limit
Synthesis is interpretation. Counting every source does not remove selection bias, and a source path can remain present after its semantics drift. The controls prove classification, required corrections, and reference integrity; they do not prove that the narrative is the only defensible reading. Current product claims therefore remain subordinate to current source, specification, and observed behavior.