0001 — Spec-First Development

Status: Accepted

Context

Infinicon aims to be a production-grade, open-source memory runtime for AI agents.

If implementation leads design, the project will likely hard-code early assumptions from the first storage backend, language runtime, model provider, or agent framework. That would conflict with the goal of being storage-agnostic, model-agnostic, framework-agnostic, and extensible.

The public contract must be stable enough that users can build agents, plugins, storage adapters, and alternative implementations against it.

Decision

Infinicon will follow spec-first development.

Before production implementation begins, the project must define:

• Vision.
• Glossary.
• Architecture overview and boundaries.
• Data model specification.
• Memory API specification.
• Plugin interface specification.
• Storage port specification.
• Context assembly specification.
• ADRs for major architectural decisions.

Implementation may begin only after the relevant v0 draft spec has been reviewed and accepted.

Consequences

This slows down the first code milestone, but it reduces architectural churn and prevents accidental coupling.

Specifications become first-class project artifacts. Pull requests that change behavior must update the appropriate spec or ADR.

The reference implementation is not allowed to silently define behavior that the spec does not describe.

Alternatives Considered

Code-first prototype

This would produce visible progress faster, but it would make early local choices look like architecture.

Spec after implementation

This often creates documentation that describes accidents rather than intent. It is not acceptable for the project’s goals.

Follow-Up Work

• Define a spec review process (doc).
• Add conformance tests once machine-readable API schemas exist.
• Document versioning and compatibility policy before v1.