Direct value bar
Product filter for new and existing capabilities: ship only what adds direct value the rest of the system cannot already provide.
A feature earns a place in core when it closes a gap that hosts and ordinary tooling leave open — and when that gap matters to a documented persona workflow.
Ship when:
- Unique contract the repo must enforce (compile, check, slug rules)
- Outcome is testable as mechanism or measured conditional benefit (claim tiers)
- Workflow fails without it
Do not ship (or revisit) when:
- A generic search/read the agent already has (
rg, IDE search) - Marketing story that the claim tiers don’t allow
- Workflow succeeds with shards +
checkalone
Features without a clear direct-value case go back to the drawing board — keep the problem statement, drop or demote the surface until a distinct value is demonstrated.
Applies to
Section titled “Applies to”- New CLI verbs, MCP tools, and skill hard rules
- Public WIIFM copy (README, decks) — claim only what the capability uniquely does
- Roadmap items that duplicate host search or generic file open
Part of Design constraints.