# Development

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

Narratio is a stage-driven Go orchestrator for turning D&D session audio into
polished transcripts and generated artifacts. Start with the
[README](../README.md) for product context,
[Architecture](policy/architecture.md) for normative system boundaries, and the
[Internal Overview](internal/overview.md) for implemented component ownership.

## 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 internal documents. |
| Application shape, boundaries, dependency direction, runtime invariants, safety properties, or dependencies | [Architecture](policy/architecture.md) | It defines the intended system shape, ownership, and non-goals. |
| Any documentation addition or revision | [Documentation Policy](policy/documentation.md) | It defines canonical owners, audiences, current-behavior rules, and maintenance requirements. |
| Adding, changing, reviewing, rewriting, or deleting tests | [Testing Policy](policy/testing.md) | It defines risk-based sufficiency, durable test boundaries, test-double guidance, and test lifecycle decisions. |
| CLI composition or command behavior | [Internal Overview](internal/overview.md) and [CLI Reference](cli.md) | The overview routes to command ownership; the reference owns public syntax and invocation behavior. |
| Configuration loading, resolution, or user-visible configuration | [Internal Overview](internal/overview.md) and [Configuration](config.md) | The overview routes to implementation ownership; the reference owns fields, defaults, discovery, and validation. |
| Session workflow, status, restore, cleanup, or object storage | [Restore Internals](internal/command-restore.md), [Workspace Internals](internal/workspace.md), [Storage Internals](internal/storage.md), [Operations](operations.md), and [Troubleshooting](troubleshooting.md) | These separate implementation mechanics, operator procedures, and symptom-driven recovery. |
| Pipeline sequencing or the behavior of a stage | [Internal Overview](internal/overview.md) and its focused stage documents | The overview owns the implemented stage inventory and routes to each stage contract. |
| Adapters or external tool contracts | [Adapter Internals](internal/adapters.md) and [Integration Contracts](integrations/README.md) | The internal guide owns adapter composition and mechanics; integration documents own external formats and protocols. |
| Manifests, artifacts, workspace paths, or publish behavior | [Manifest Internals](internal/manifest.md), [Artifact Internals](internal/artifacts.md), [Workspace Internals](internal/workspace.md), [Publish Internals](internal/stage-publish.md), and [Operations](operations.md) | These separate implementation state and resolution from operator-visible layout and lifecycle. |
| Maintained configuration or input examples | [Configuration](config.md) and [Examples](../examples/README.md) | The reference owns field meanings; the examples directory owns complete copyable files. |
| 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 package-level
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/narratio
```