audita/docs/internal/pipeline.md

Audita Internal Pipeline

The input contract owns input formats; configuration owns settings; the output contract owns serialized results.

1. CLI filesystem adapters read transcript and glossary files. Schema parsing produces source objects; transcript segments enter canonical normalization.
2. Normalization sorts and merges segments using configured time and token limits, reassigning IDs where needed.
3. The runner partitions the normalized transcript exactly once before its module loop. Initial section identity, segment membership, and token estimates stay fixed while text evolves.
4. Module instances execute in configured order. Sections may propose concurrently, but proposal indices follow section order and response order.
5. Deterministic validators precede LLM-backed validators. Every submitted candidate receives one decision per validator. Recoverable failed batches mark their candidates unavailable; successful survivors continue through all required validators.
6. Only fully approved proposals reach application. Corrections apply in proposal-index order within their owning section. Existing replacement policies and apply-time safety checks resolve stale conflicts.
7. CLI encodes the final transcript and publishes active files through the output session. framework/processreport builds one snapshot for YAML, Markdown, and CLI totals. Debug evidence is captured separately when enabled.

runner.Run returns the final working transcript, initial section inventory, explicit not_started/interrupted/completed work units, compact model operation outcomes, and per-module results. Candidate payloads are retained in the returned output only when debug capture is requested. A work unit can complete with model errors and applied corrections. Recoverable model failures never trigger shared cancellation. Fatal setup, internal, application, or parent-cancellation errors cancel peers, join workers, and preserve earlier committed module text for partial reports; no completed transcript is published.

Required transcript/report write failures are fatal. Optional debug writes report safely to stderr without changing decisions or exit status. See operations for file placement and failure handling, and architecture policy for invariants.

Key tests: internal/framework/runner/*_test.go, internal/framework/validators/*_test.go, and cmd/audita/main_integration_test.go.