← Patterns / reflection
Contracts: what must never break
Not suggestions. Standing rules for agents, or exact interfaces data must follow.
- Authors
- Michael Staton
- Augmented with
- Claude Code on Claude Opus 5.5
- Tags
- Contracts · Interfaces
What it is
Docs in
context-v/contracts/
, in two flavors:
-
Constitution contracts: rules an agent must always follow, regardless of task or model.
-
Interface contracts: exact schemas, payload shapes, and ownership boundaries for data moving through a system.
Why
A blueprint explains how a system is designed. A reminder corrects drift. A contract defines the boundary of acceptable behavior. Mixing them dilutes the ones that must hold.
How
-
Keep them few. A contract that's often broken isn't one.
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Where a harness supports it, back a constitution rule with a hook. Prose is followed most of the time; a hook, every time.