ADR 0066: Propose A Bounded 1.x Contract After Salvageist

Status: Accepted by the owner for 1.0 on 2026-09-27

Date: 2026-09-27

Context

The owner reports that Salvageist's pilot succeeded and asks whether its learnings support moving to 1.0. The nine-change retrospective records real delivery, repeated human correction, regressions, and escaped defects. Its workflow-cost follow-up identifies an unconditional engine gate, unnecessary downstream work after failure, and a history-heavy recovery entry. These are useful operating findings even though human attention and productivity were not measured consistently.

The 0.7 candidate already repaired preservation and publication defects and removed routine workflow ceremony. Another version-zero cycle is not required merely to collect independent adoption evidence or complete a measurement quota.

Decision

Release plugin 1.0.0 / method 1.0, including the unshipped 0.7 work. Adopt the small stable surface in compatibility throughout 1.x: kernel obligations, four routes, supported maps, installed read-only operations, orientation/verification inventory, and repository-backed migration. Preserve historical study schemas without promising a universal research API. Keep instructions, templates, reference layout, and engine-specific guidance maintainable. Installation creates no project artifacts or migration.

Apply the pilot lessons as conditional guidance: select checks over the whole task delta; stop costly dependent stages after prerequisite failures; let tools own waiting; reuse evidence only within unchanged relevant inputs and policy; keep current context short; assign shared integration and release to one owner when delegation is authorized. Preserve gate strength and the complete release route. Do not mandate a model or a planner–implementer–reviewer chain.

The owner accepts the compatibility commitment and release; the agent prepares and checks the concrete candidate first. Publication and plugin activation remain separately authorized operations. A successful personal pilot is not a causal productivity result, independent adoption, or a formal revision-bound gameplay verdict. Missing research evidence does not block this bounded release.

Relationships And Consequences

• Applies 0016: separate compatibility, owner usefulness, and transferability.
• Preserves 0065's four-step loop, checked local commits, authority boundaries, and optional-tool support policy.
• Clarifies 0056 and 0058 using observed verification and context costs.
• Replaces the 0.x compatibility policy for 1.x releases; it does not rewrite historical ADRs, trials, or release records.

The readiness review records the owner acceptance. Dated commands, results, limitations, and remaining release operations belong in the 1.0.0 release record. Further real-change observations remain lightweight feedback, not a new release gate.