notarius/docs/development.md

# Development

This is the first-read landing page for people and LLM coding agents working on
Notarius. It provides a concise repository orientation and routes each kind of
change to its canonical documentation.

Notarius is a Go CLI for configured structured extraction workflows. Start with
the [README](../README.md) for product context, [Architecture](policy/architecture.md)
for system boundaries, and [Internal Overview](internal/overview.md) for the
implemented component map.

## What To Read

| When working on | Read | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Finding the package or component that owns current behavior | [Internal Overview](internal/overview.md) | It is the implemented component inventory and routes to focused internals. |
| Application shape, package boundaries, contracts, dependency direction, runtime guarantees, or safety properties | [Architecture](policy/architecture.md) and relevant [ADRs](adr/) | Architecture defines the intended system and its invariants; ADRs preserve significant decision rationale. |
| Any documentation addition or revision | [Documentation Policy](policy/documentation.md) | It defines canonical homes, audiences, current-behavior rules, and maintenance requirements. |
| Adding, changing, reviewing, or deleting tests | [Testing Policy](policy/testing.md) | It defines risk-based sufficiency, durable test boundaries, test-double guidance, and criteria for retaining tests. |
| CLI composition or command behavior | [CLI Internals](internal/cli.md) and [CLI Reference](cli.md) | The internal guide owns composition and command flow; the reference owns public syntax. |
| Building a subprocess caller or changing its result protocol | [Subprocess Consumer Guide](consumers/subprocess.md), [Complete D&D Consumer Guide](consumers/dnd-pipeline.md), [Run Result Receipt](integrations/run-result.md), and [CLI Internals](internal/cli.md) | These separate generic caller workflow, the complete D&D workflow, the durable receipt contract, and CLI implementation behavior. |
| Configuration loading, resolution, or user-visible configuration behavior | [Configuration Internals](internal/configuration.md) and [Configuration](config.md) | The internal guide owns loading and resolution mechanics; the reference owns the configuration contract. |
| Pipeline resolution or execution | [Pipeline Internals](internal/pipeline.md) | It documents profiles, references, validation, retries, checkpoints, and runner behavior. |
| Production modules or validators | [Module Internals](internal/modules.md), [D&D Module Internals](internal/dnd.md), and [D&D integration contracts](integrations/) | The generic guide owns extension mechanics, the D&D guide owns shared family conventions, and the contracts own durable output shapes. |
| LLM clients, prompts, schemas, profiles, or scheduling | [LLM Runtime](internal/llm.md) | It documents the transport boundary and PromptKit integration. |
| Output, cache, resume, or debug artifacts | [Run State Internals](internal/state.md), [Operations](operations.md), and [Configuration](config.md) | These separate implementation details, operator behavior, and configuration contracts. |
| External input formats, artifact schemas, or durable output files | [Integration Contracts](integrations/) | Integration documents define external and durable data contracts. |
| Release preparation, tagging, publication, or verification | [Source Releases](release.md) and [Documentation Policy](policy/documentation.md) | The release procedure owns maintainer guards and immutable-tag recovery; the policy assigns release-note ownership. |
| Proposed or unimplemented behavior | [Roadmap](roadmap/) | Future work belongs only in roadmap documentation until implemented. |

For an existing subsystem, also inspect its focused tests and the package-local
types and contracts before changing behavior.

## Validation

Use focused package tests while iterating. Run the repository-wide checks when
a change affects shared contracts, application behavior, or maintained
documentation examples:

```sh
go test ./...
go vet ./...
go build ./cmd/notarius
```