contractiles

Contractiles Template Set

Table of Contents

• 1. Template Roles (6 verbs + k9)
• 2. Fill-In Rules

This directory is the repo-top-level copy of the canonical contractile templates. The canonical master lives at .machine_readable/contractiles/ — see its README.adoc for the full verb and audit-semantics reference, and Canonical Contractiles And K9 Guide for the estate-level audit semantics.

Copy this contractiles/ directory into a new repo to establish a consistent operational, validation, trust, recovery, aspiration, and service-automation framework.

1. Template Roles (6 verbs + k9)

Verb	Canonical file	What it declares
must	must/Mustfile.a2ml	Release-blocking invariants. Gating.
trust	trust/Trustfile.a2ml	Trust boundary + integrity. Gating.
adjust	adjust/Adjustfile.a2ml	Drift tolerances + corrective actions.
dust	dust/Dustfile.a2ml	Rollback / recovery / deprecation.
bust	bust/Bustfile.a2ml	Breakage / expiry / hard-stop. Gating.
intend	intend/Intentfile.a2ml	North-star: committed next-actions () AND horizon aspirations (). Non-gating.

Note	The lust verb was deprecated 2026-04-18 (name had unwanted associations). Its semantics live inside intend/Intentfile.a2ml. The file name reverted to its noun form (Intentfile, not Intendfile) on the same day.

The k9/ directory sits alongside the verbs and provides the three-tier automation surface (Kennel / Yard / Hunt) used to validate or enforce the verb declarations. See CANONICAL-TEMPLATES.adoc §3.

2. Fill-In Rules

1. Every placeholder string in a template must be replaced with project-specific content before the repo is considered compliant.

2. Mustfile must encode invariants that are machine-checkable by the repo’s actual toolchain, not aspirational "we intend to…" clauses.

3. Trustfile must name real keys, policies, and authority boundaries.

4. Dustfile must describe real rollback / deprecation behaviour, including what evidence persists after a rollback.

5. Intentfile holds both axes in one file: for concrete tracked next-actions (with probes) and for horizon-level aspirations (near/mid/far). If something has a probe, it is an intent. If it is horizon-level desire, it is a wish.

6. Use k9 only where the automation enforces or validates a declared contractile (pair via paired_xfile) rather than acting as unrelated demo code.