tenet 04

Folders are architecture

A project's structure should be readable without running it.

The structure of a project is a decision, and a decision should be visible. I number the stages of a project and keep one short contract file in each stage. A person or an agent can open a folder and see the job, the inputs and the outputs without running anything.

The method is the Interpretable Context Methodology, by Jake Van Clief and David McDermott, and I follow it in my own projects. ICM Doc is my markdown-only tool for checking and building that structure. This site is organised the same way, one folder per section, so the pages match the work behind them.