Foundational Premises
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Why the architecture models structured definition layers rather than prompt events.
Purpose
This note states the load-bearing premises the architecture rests on, in one citable place. The architecture docs apply these premises throughout; this note states them once. They are starting premises the work builds on, not open questions it re-proves.
The premises
1. Prompting is not architecture
A prompt is an instruction event — a single request, composed and evaluated once. An information architecture defines what kinds of information exist, where they live, how they inherit, how they override, how they combine, and how they are governed. A prompt consumes that structure; it does not persist it.
The durable layer is the structured definition of intent, inputs, constraints, references, outputs, and governance — not the prompt text composed from it. Any prompt, and any generation interface, is a view on top of the definition layer. Optimizing the interface that triggers generation is not the same as defining the structure the interface reads.
2. Visual anchoring is a structural override, not decoration
External image-generation models carry strong defaults. Under text-only steering, prose tends to converge on those defaults no matter how detailed it is: words can describe composition, light behavior, surface treatment, and atmospheric register, but cannot encode them at the bandwidth required to move a model off its defaults.
An approved reference image is the structural override — it carries the micro-decisions prose cannot. This is why references are modeled as first-class carriers with their own normative force, not as illustrative attachments. Visual anchoring is load-bearing for fidelity; it is not ornamental.
3. Product truth, reference, constraint, example, and output are different objects with different jobs
The architecture keeps these distinct because each is governed differently and sits at a different place in the inheritance hierarchy:
- a product image (product truth — facts about the thing) is not a reference (directional guidance for how output should look);
- a constraint (what must, or must not, happen) is not an example (one instance that merely illustrates);
- an approved reference is not an output (a produced asset);
- and a generated output is not automatically a governed asset (premise 4 below).
Collapsing these — treating distinct inputs as an undifferentiated reference blob, or treating a reference as an output — is the failure mode the layered model exists to prevent. Each object has its own carrier, its own normative force, and its own boundary.
Premises already carried elsewhere in the repo
Two further premises are equally load-bearing but already stated where the architecture defines them; this note points to them rather than restating them:
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A generated image is not automatically a governed asset. Raw generation becomes governed asset identity only through the curation/governance seam — capture, provenance, curator, and
curation_pattern. See architecture.md (the curation seam and governed-asset layer) and thegenerated_assetsgovernance carriers. -
Creative discretion is a structural concern, not a residual. Where authorship-bearing discretion enters, what bounds it, who owns the decision, and where governance-bearing curation resolves are modeled as first-class. See layered-reference-and-discretion-architecture-v1.md (the nine discretion sites) and architecture.md (the curation semantic split).
Status
These premises are the starting points the architecture builds on; they are not re-proved by routine work. Repo prose and the structured IA model apply them. This note exists so they can be cited once, plainly, without restating the reasoning each time.