# 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. The
[README](../README.md) provides product context; [Architecture](policy/architecture.md)
describes system boundaries, and [Internal Overview](internal/overview.md) maps
implemented components. Read the documents applicable to your task.

Read [Agent Policy](policy/agents.md) before recommending, planning, or
implementing changes. It owns implementation discipline and local commit rules.

## Policy Reading Guide

| Policy | Read before… |
| --- | --- |
| [Policy set provenance](policy/meta.md) | Adopting policies, checking upstream revisions, or updating the adopted policy set. |
| [Agents](policy/agents.md) | Recommending, planning, or implementing repository changes. |
| [Architecture](policy/architecture.md) | Planning or changing application code or its structure. |
| [Testing](policy/testing.md) | Selecting validation for code changes, or adding, changing, removing, or evaluating tests. |
| [Documentation](policy/documentation.md) | Writing, revising, or reorganizing documentation. |
| [OSS](policy/oss.md) | Adding or updating dependencies or incorporated third-party material, or changing licensing or attribution. |
| [Release](policy/release.md) | Preparing or publishing a release, changing release procedures, or making versioning and compatibility decisions. |

- Read applicable policies before making decisions they govern; multiple policies
  may apply.
- Select policies using the task triggers above. Follow cross-references to
  relevant sections when needed to resolve a concrete question.
- Reuse policies already available in context; reread when changed or no longer
  available.
- Expand reading when the task's scope expands.
- When revising a policy itself, read that policy and any provisions elsewhere
  affected by the revision.

## 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. |
| 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. |
| Repository-specific release commands or diagnostics | [Source Releases](release.md) | The runbook supplies publication commands and recovery procedures. |
| 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
```