01Variable risk
Intent
Accept purpose, outcome, constraints, owner, and non-purpose.
- Owner
- Business owner
- Contract
- Intent decision
- Proof
- Named decision and accepted outcome
The complete governed system
Trace the factory from intent to evidence.
Nine synchronized views connect responsibility, authority, runtime, risk, failure, recovery, and proof without turning the model into the system.
- 01Intent
- 02Plan
- 03Select
- 04Execute
- 05Verify
- 06Decide
- 07Deliver
- 08Observe
- 09Learn
One value stream
Follow authority down and evidence back up.
Every transition names its owner, authoritative contract, stopping rule, and proof. A log line cannot move the lifecycle by itself.
Lens
02High risk
Plan
Turn intent and repository facts into a testable execution baseline.
- Owner
- Engineering owner
- Contract
- Versioned plan
- Proof
- Plan assurance and acceptance criteria
03High risk
Select
Resolve qualified capability, model, tool, context, and evaluator versions.
- Owner
- Control plane
- Contract
- Resolution manifest
- Proof
- Certification, policy, and dependency lock
04Critical risk
Execute
Run bounded attempts through leases, sandboxes, tools, and hard budgets.
- Owner
- Runtime owner
- Contract
- Attempt manifest
- Proof
- Actions, side-effect receipts, and completion report
05Critical risk
Verify
Challenge the exact candidate in an independent quality context.
- Owner
- Quality owner
- Contract
- Quality contract
- Proof
- Evaluator results and counterevidence
06Critical risk
Decide
Approve, reject, revise, restrict, or escalate the exact subject.
- Owner
- Named authority
- Contract
- Decision request
- Proof
- Decision, reason, conditions, and expiry
07Critical risk
Deliver
Publish and roll out the approved artifact with rollback ready.
- Owner
- Release owner
- Contract
- Release contract
- Proof
- Artifact, rollout, rollback, production checks
08High risk
Observe
Connect service behavior and customer outcomes to the exact release.
- Owner
- Operations owner
- Contract
- Outcome contract
- Proof
- SLO, incident, quality, cost, and value signals
09High risk
Learn
Convert recurring evidence into evaluated, human-approved improvements.
- Owner
- Change owner
- Contract
- Learning proposal
- Proof
- Baseline/candidate comparison and promotion decision
Deterministic educational walkthrough
Follow one change through the factory.
These are fixed teaching scenarios—not live agents or production evidence. Select a scenario and stage to inspect the record, owner, evidence, and stop conditions.
07 / 11 · failed
Independent verification
The exact candidate is challenged outside the producing session.
Completion is not acceptance.
- Completed
- Execution produced a candidate and complete run record.
- Failed
- The behavioral quality contract scored 8/10 against a required 9/10.
- Decision owner
- Human / policy authority—not the producing agent or harness.
- Delivery
- Blocked because the evidence package is ineligible for acceptance.
- Recovery
- Preserve the failed evidence, revise the candidate or specification, create a new attempt, and verify again.
Independent checks
- Unit testsPassed
- Type checkPassed
- SecurityPassed
- Behavioral evaluation8/10 · required threshold 9/10
- Scope validationPassed
The producer cannot certify its own material work. These checks run in a separate quality context.
Educational example
Candidate evidence
- Candidate
- cand-8f91a2c
- Produced by
- SearchAgent config v3.2
- Execution
- FR-0249
- Verified by
- IV-071
- Provenance
- Complete
- Currentness
- Current
- Acceptance eligibility
- Ineligible
- Record created
- Quality certificate candidate
- Accountable owner
- Independent verification service
- Entry condition
- The candidate identity, run record, and versioned quality contract are complete.
- Required evidence
- Test results, security findings, behavioral evaluation, scope validation, and counterevidence.
- What stops it
- Any required check fails, evidence is ineligible, or the candidate cannot be reproduced.
Who determines whether the completed candidate satisfies the required acceptance evidence?
Concept boundaries
Understand the system by contrast.
Choose a pair, then increase the depth. Each comparison states ownership, limits, and the authoritative chapters without creating a second source of truth.
AI Software Factory→Agent Factory ↔ AI Software Factory
Core distinction
The Agent Factory supplies governed capabilities. The AI Software Factory composes them into governed delivery outcomes.
How to use the map
Start broad. End at the contract.
- 01Choose a view
Use lifecycle for sequence, planes for ownership, components for runtime, or monitoring for failure response.
- 02Apply a lens
Focus on authority, runtime, assurance, or operations without losing the complete system context.
- 03Inspect the card
Every item names responsibility, owner, contract, risk, and required proof in text.
- 04Walk the run
Use the deterministic scenario to see which record, owner, evidence, and stop condition governs every transition.
- 05Compare the boundary
Use the contrast guide to separate adjacent concepts before opening their authoritative chapters.
- 06Open the source
The linked Markdown chapter is canonical and carries failure, recovery, versioning, exercises, and evidence boundaries.
Architecture is not proof
Review the design. Exercise the controls. Keep the claim scoped.
The map is review ready. It does not assert that every component, control, SLO, or recovery path is operationally proven.
Inspect coverage and maturity