Record Lifecycle

Alloy records should move through states. The state matters because extracted intent is often a hypothesis, not a fact.

Suggested states

Hypothesized

Created by codebase archaeology, conversation parsing, or trace analysis. The system believes this intent may exist, but a human has not confirmed it.

Proposed

A human or assistant has drafted the record and it is ready for review.

Accepted

A qualified human has confirmed the record should guide work.

Active

The record is accepted and currently used in formation briefs, prompt packs, or gate/evidence generation.

Deprecated

The record reflects an older intent that is no longer generally applicable, but its history remains useful.

Contradicted

Evidence from code, traces, or human review shows that the record is no longer true, was too broad, or conflicts with current product/design/engineering reality.

Superseded

The record has been replaced by a newer record with clearer scope, better evidence, or a changed strategy.

Lifecycle principles

• Codebase extraction should default to Hypothesized, not Accepted.
• Human-entered records may start as Proposed.
• Only Accepted or Active records should guide Foundry execution by default.
• Hypothesized records may be used as prompts for human clarification, not as hard constraints.
• Trace feedback can recommend state transitions, but should not silently perform major transitions without policy.

Related

• Codebase Archaeology — extraction from existing code defaults records to Hypothesized.
• Formation Brief — only Accepted or Active records are compiled into work guidance by default.

Up

• Engineering Intent Records — section overview.

Source: Product Brief §10 (Record Lifecycle).