Records & authority
Record types, the four states, writing and approving.
Records are the heart of Corpole: objectives, requirements and constraints, each of a specific type and each with a state. They are the answer to the question your agent asks before every change — “what is true for this project right now?” This section explains the ten record types, the four states and how records move between them.
Writing a good record is a skill. An agent follows a requirement literally, so vague words like "fast" or "easy" produce vague code. The articles here show how to write one testable statement with a reason and acceptance criteria, how to review what an agent proposes, and how to accept or reject a change proposal when an agent thinks a record should read differently.
State changes are how you steer the agent. Making a record Authority makes it binding; retiring it takes it out of every agent's context at once. Records are retired rather than deleted, so the history of what held when, and why, is never lost.
You will also find the screen guides for creating, reading and editing records, the Explorer that shows every type side by side, and the change history that records who changed what and why.
Articles in Records & authority
- GuideObjectivesA measurable outcome the project exists to achieve. Objectives explain why everything else matters.
- GuideBusiness RequirementsWhat the organisation needs from the solution, stated without describing how it is built.
- GuideStakeholder RequirementsA need of a specific group of people, usually written as a user story.
- GuideFunctional RequirementsA behaviour the system must have: what it does in response to a user or event.
- GuideNon-functional RequirementsA quality the system must meet: performance, security, accessibility, reliability.
- GuideTechnical RequirementsA binding technology or architecture decision.
- GuideProject RequirementsSomething the project must deliver besides the product itself: deadlines, documents, test suites.
- GuideProduct ConstraintsA limit on what the product may be or do.
- GuideBusiness ConstraintsA commercial, legal or organisational limit.
- GuideProject ConstraintsA limit on how the project is run: team, budget, tooling, time.
- GuideExplorerA wide, multi-column view of the active project: every record type gets its own column so you can read objectives, requirements and constraints side by side.
- GuideNew recordCreates one objective, requirement or constraint in the active project.
- GuideRecord detailEverything about one record: statement, rationale, acceptance criteria, state, priority, owner and source.
- GuideEdit recordChanges a record's content or state. The change is visible to AI agents immediately.
- GuideChangesThe project's change history: every change to records, acceptance criteria, relations, work, knowledge, tests and code links, with who made it, what changed and why. It cannot be edited.
- How-toWrite a requirement an agent can followOne testable statement, the reason in plain words, and criteria that a test can check.
- How-toReview an AI proposalAgent proposals are Drafts with an AI proposal badge. Nothing binds until you approve.
- How-toAccept or reject a change proposalAgents cannot edit records. A change arrives as a difference you accept or reject on the record page.
- How-toRetire or replace a recordRetiring takes a record out of every agent's context at once. Replace it when something new takes its place.