Premise

Executable requirements and architecture constraints, linked to the decisions they support.

Code can still follow an architecture decision after a new requirement makes that decision unsuitable. Premise checks the supporting claims and brings affected decisions back for review, without erasing why they were made.

For example, adding a sorting requirement to a query that only returns upstream results:

QUERY-001 failed via cucumber.
- Cucumber did not establish QUERY-001 (features/query.feature)
Reconsider decision QUERY-010: Query upstream systems directly

Reason: Supporting premise QUERY-001 failed.
Reason: Decision has not been reviewed against its current drivers.

Excerpt from premise check. The full report includes the requirement, original decision and next steps.

• Check repository claims. Evaluate Gherkin behaviour with Cucumber and dependency rules with dependency-cruiser. Missing or inconclusive evidence is not a pass.
• Review decisions when their drivers change. Reaffirm a choice after reconsidering it, or record a replacement with Supersedes. Decisions remain human judgement, not mechanically proven truths.
• Keep checks in the agent workflow. OMP, Codex and Claude Code integrations supply relevant context and check evidence and decision history before completion.

Install

Requires Node.js 20 or newer.

npm install --save-dev @stuplum/premise

Other package managers.

Follow Getting started to adopt Premise with a coding agent or add your first executable requirement manually. Once configured:

npm exec -- premise check
npm exec -- premise context src/payment.ts

Documentation

Getting started · Agent integrations · CLI and configuration

Why Premise exists · All documentation · Contributing

The documentation index separates user guides and reference material from design proposals, internal decision records and historical experiments.

Status

Experimental 0.2 software. Current executable providers are Cucumber and dependency-cruiser; architecture decisions use the .decision format and a human review lifecycle.

Agent hooks are workflow enforcement, not a security boundary. Host limits and interrupted sessions can bypass the normal completion path. See agent setup and limitations before relying on them.

Licence

The source repository is public for evaluation but is currently unlicensed.