interactive-story/planning/DECISIONS/008-phase0-before-build-plan.md

ADR 008 — Complete Phase 0 Before Detailed Build Planning

Status: Accepted

Decision

The project will complete repository research, validation, architecture selection, and critical prototypes before writing the detailed production implementation milestone plan.

Context

Multiple candidate open-source projects already implement overlapping parts of the desired system. The correct build sequence depends heavily on which codebase is selected.

Alternatives Considered

• write full implementation plan immediately,
• begin coding against the first plausible project,
• perform a bounded Phase 0 and then finalize the build plan.

Reason

The third approach reduces speculative planning and prevents large amounts of rework.

Consequences

• BUILD-MILESTONES.md remains intentionally high level during Phase 0,
• production coding should not begin unless explicitly authorized,
• Phase 0 ends with the final build plan.