{"slug":"canonical/adr/ADR-2026-09-04-07-work-primary-coordination-unit","title":"ADR-2026-09-04-07 — Work is the primary coordination unit","section":"canonical","sectionLabel":"Canon","status":"canon","type":"adr","path":"canonical/adr/ADR-2026-09-04-07-work-primary-coordination-unit.md","bytes":1954,"description":null,"updated":null,"source":"integratewise/Integratewise-docs-wiki","content":"\n**Status:** ACCEPTED — 2026-09-04 (Founder Canon §6; final-architecture record §14)\n\n## Context\n\nHuman–AI collaboration that relies on conversational handoffs forces every participant to\nre-derive the situation on every turn — the machine version of the Human-API problem. Agents that\ncoordinate only through free-form chat lose identity, authority, evidence and continuity.\n\n## Decision\n\n- **Work** is the durable coordination object binding: work_id, objective, business-context\n  references, owner/responsible human, current executor, state and lifecycle, subtasks and\n  dependencies, evidence, commitments, proposals, policy/authority envelope, available\n  capabilities, expected outcome, actual outcome, handoff history, and trace/continuity\n  identifiers.\n- **No participating worker begins meaningful work without a Spine-derived authorized context and\n  Work identity** — human, Twin, Spine Agent, ADK runtime, workflow or provider.\n- Spine Agents cooperate by reading and updating shared Work state and returning evidence — not\n  by free-form agent-to-agent conversation. Handoffs are recorded so the next worker continues\n  from the same authorized context.\n- Work Allocation determines who/what performs each part of Work (human, Twin, agent, system,\n  human+AI) based on capability, authority, responsibility, risk, context and policy.\n\n## Alternatives considered\n\n- Chat-thread coordination — rejected: no durable identity, no authority envelope, no evidence\n  trail; continuity dies with the session.\n- Task-only coordination (tasks as the top object) — rejected: tasks are components; Work binds\n  the goal, authority, evidence and outcome that tasks alone cannot.\n\n## Consequences\n\nWork identity must survive projections, provider routes and model changes (register G-20). The\ncanonical Work record is a schema/coordination build, not a rename of activities.\n"}