the-custodian/SCOPE.md

# SCOPE

> This file helps you quickly understand what this repository is about,
> when it is relevant, and when it is not.
> It is intentionally lightweight and may be incomplete.

---

## One-liner

Central cognitive infrastructure and coordination hub for seven project domains — provides governance canon and coordinates through the standalone State Hub API/MCP service.

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## Core Idea

The Custodian repository is the **governance substrate**: canon, constitution, values, domain charters, workplans, and runtime scaffolding. The operational State Hub service (PostgreSQL + FastAPI + MCP server + Observable dashboard) now lives in the standalone `/home/worsch/state-hub` repository and acts as episodic memory and coordination layer for work across repos.

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## In Scope

- Canon layer: governance constitution, foundational values, six domain charters/roadmaps
- Coordination through the standalone State Hub API: topics, workstreams, tasks, decisions, progress events, contributions, SBOM, goals
- MCP session protocol: use the State Hub MCP tools from registered agent sessions
- Memory: append-only episodic archive (working notes + immutable event logs)
- Agent runtime scaffolding: policies, kaizen agent copies, tool adapters
- Cross-domain coordination: dependency tracking, human-intervention flags, next-steps suggestions
- Publishing lifecycle events on NATS JetStream (`org.statehub.>`) so activity-core can react via declarative ActivityDefinitions

---

## Out of Scope

- Domain-specific implementation work (Railiance, Markitect, etc. each own their repos)
- Financial/legal transactions or external publication
- Storing plaintext credentials
- Direct writes to `canon/` without a human-approved review gate
- State Hub implementation work; use `/home/worsch/state-hub`
- Maintenance task *creation* in response to lifecycle events — that responsibility lives in activity-core (see `/home/worsch/state-hub/docs/activity-core-delegation.md`). The state hub remains a **read model**, not a task factory.

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## Relevant When

- Starting or closing any session in a registered domain repo (orientation via `get_domain_summary()`)
- Tracking cross-domain decisions, blockers, or workplan progress
- Registering a new project into the ecosystem (`make register-project`)
- Consulting governance rules or domain charters
- Running the standalone State Hub API locally for MCP connectivity

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## Not Relevant When

- Implementing single-domain features (stay in the domain repo)
- Working fully offline with no need for state coordination
- Non-custodian ecosystem work (standalone projects, throw-away scripts)

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## Current State

- Status: active
- Implementation: ~60% — canon + standalone State Hub operational; RAG/drafting pipelines (Phase 2) not yet started
- Stability: stable (versioned Alembic migrations; no breaking API changes since v0.3)
- Usage: running daily; 15+ active workstreams across 6 domains; MCP server active in Claude Code

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## How It Fits

- Upstream dependencies: none (sits at the top of the dependency order)
- Downstream consumers: all six domains (railiance → markitect → coulomb.social → personhood/foerster → custodian); **activity-core** consumes state hub lifecycle events on NATS subject `org.statehub.>` to drive maintenance ActivityDefinitions
- Often used with: kaizen-agentic (agent definitions), ops-bridge (remote tunnel connectivity), activity-core (task factory + event bridge)

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## Terminology

- Preferred terms: canon, workstream, topic, progress event, domain
- Also known as: "the hub", "state hub"
- Potentially confusing terms: "topic" = domain-level grouping (not a chat topic); "decision" = tracked choice point with escalation rules

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## Related / Overlapping

- `kaizen-agentic` — specialized agent personas callable via MCP from any domain session
- `ops-bridge` — SSH tunnel manager keeping remote agents connected to this hub
- `activity-core` — event-driven task factory tracked as a custodian-domain workstream

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## Getting Oriented

- Start with: `CLAUDE.md` (session protocol) + `README.md` (architecture overview)
- Key files / directories: `canon/` (governance), `workplans/` (active Custodian work), `state-hub/` (pointer), `/home/worsch/state-hub/mcp_server/TOOLS.md` (tool reference)
- Entry points: `cd /home/worsch/state-hub && make api` (API); Codex/Claude Code with state-hub MCP registered

---

## Provided Capabilities

```capability
type: api
title: MCP tool registration
description: Register and expose new MCP tools to all Claude Code sessions via the state-hub server.
keywords: [mcp, tool, api, registration, server]
```

```capability
type: data
title: Cross-domain state tracking
description: Track workstreams, tasks, decisions, and progress events across all seven project domains.
keywords: [state, tracking, workstream, task, decision, progress]
```

```capability
type: api
title: SBOM and licence reporting
description: Ingest lockfiles from any repo and provide aggregated SBOM and copyleft licence risk reports.
keywords: [sbom, licence, license, dependency, lockfile, copyleft]
```

---

## Notes

Dependency order for domain sequencing: Railiance → Markitect → Coulomb.social → Personhood/Foerster → Custodian. The consistency checker (`cd /home/worsch/state-hub && make fix-consistency REPO=the-custodian`) must be run after any workplan changes to keep the dashboard accurate.