# Nova Platform — Infrastructure Delivery

> **Derived from** the Nova reference (`acdl`) — a simplified,
> infrastructure-only platform. The DevSecOps, security-scoring,
> identity/ABAC, audit-ledger, and central CI-pipeline-contract machinery
> of the reference are intentionally **removed**. What remains is the
> infrastructure-delivery core: a consumer declares intent via a YAML
> contract; the platform resolves it to a stack, compiles it through the
> Terraform adapter, and applies it. Structural conventions (directory
> names, file roles, module interface shape, registry format) are
> preserved with 9 locked deviations (D-012, D-013, D-015, D-017,
> D-018, D-019, D-022, D-023, D-025, D-027 — see CLARIFY.md) from the
> reference.

## Vision / Core Value

Consumers declare infrastructure intent; the platform delivers it. The
platform absorbs one friction: the cognitive load of getting the
infrastructure right. A consumer writes a small YAML contract that names
one or more modules by name + version, selects an environment, and
supplies module-specific inputs. The platform resolves the contract to a
stack instance, compiles it through the Terraform adapter, and applies
it. There is no security scoring, no audit chain, no identity layer, and
no reusable CI workflow — those are explicitly out of scope.

Source of truth for **how**: `docs/architecture.md` +
`.ciagent/ARCHITECTURE.md`. Where the two conflict, ARCHITECTURE.md wins.

## North Star

A merged change progresses through lower environments without a platform
engineer authoring a workflow, a configuration file, or a Terraform
module. A consumer declares infrastructure and the platform applies it.
Every deployment is reproducible from the shell, not just in CI.

## Core Tenets

1. **Operations are Declared, Not Executed.** Consumers define what
   they need; the platform reconciles, provisions, and applies.
2. **The Delivery Lifecycle is a Sovereign Boundary.** The platform
   governs infrastructure only; it does not reach into upstream product
   / SDLC. Integration is only through the validated contract boundary.
3. **Dev is Autonomous; Higher Environments are Manual.** Dev applies
   autonomously. QA/prod/dr are applied by an operator (no attestation
   machinery — out of scope).
4. **Infrastructure is Consumed, Not Maintained.** No node/OS/bare-metal
   lifecycle. The platform manages environments (accounts, VPCs, state
   backends); consumers provide none.
5. **One Consumer Surface.** A consumer writes a YAML contract and a
   thin shell invocation. That is the entire surface.

## Domain Boundaries

- **In scope:** environment progression; cloud resource lifecycle;
  contract resolution; Terraform adapter; module catalog (L1 primitives +
  L2 patterns); local shell reproducibility; offline tests.
- **Out of scope:** application business logic; IDE workflows; product
  backlog; security scoring; policy enforcement; audit ledger;
  confidence signals; identity/ABAC; HITL attestation; reusable CI
  workflows; metrics/telemetry of the platform itself.
- **Interface:** upstream systems integrate through the contract
  boundary (`schemas/contract.schema.json`). The platform validates,
  resolves, and reconciles the target state.

## Scope: Nova Platform is Downstream of PDLC

The Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC) — product backlog, code
authorship, IDE workflows, application business logic — is **upstream**
of Nova Platform. Nova Platform never reaches into the PDLC. Its domain
is **infrastructure + delivery only**: environment progression, cloud
resource lifecycle.

Integration between the PDLC and Nova Platform is **only** through the
validated contract boundary (`schemas/contract.schema.json`).

## Decisions (locked in init)

- **D-001:** Milestone type = `major` (first release, no prior tags).
  The final phase of v1.0 ships `v1.0.0` and that IS the initial release.
- **D-002:** Module count for v1.0 = all 13 L1 primitives + 2 L2 patterns
  in one milestone (matches the reference v1.0 shape).
- **D-003:** `config.git.branching_strategy` = `phase` (canonical
  CIAgent branch hierarchy; fresh project).
- **D-004:** `config.git.auto_commit` / `auto_push` = `true` / `true`.
- **D-005:** `config.verification.test_first` = `false`.
- **D-006:** Personas = lead-developer + data-engineer (terraform) +
  backend-engineer (core python); frontend-engineer deactivated (no UI).
- **D-007:** `config.policy` removed entirely (no policy engine).
  `config.ideation.categories` reduced to quality/architecture/coverage/
  improvement (security dropped).
- **D-008:** `config.secrets.scopes` = forge/gitea/github/gitlab +
  openai/anthropic/ollama_cloud (model backends). `NOVA_FORGE_TOKEN` is
  the gitea scope var.
- **D-009:** `config.ship.confirm_before_ship` = `true` (supervised
  autonomy escalates on ship).
- **D-010:** `config.telemetry.persist` = `true` (CIAgent telemetry !=
  platform metrics; the metrics layer is dropped but CIAgent's own
  run audit trail is preserved).