Unclassified

ADR-004: Loader Runtime is the Only Canonical Writer

Status: Accepted
Date: 2026-07-21
Deciders: Nirmal (Founder)

Context

The Adaptive Spine is the canonical operational store. If multiple services write to it directly, data consistency and audit trails become impossible to maintain.

Decision

The Loader Runtime (connector → connector-sync → pipeline) is the only path for writing canonical operational entities to the Adaptive Spine. No other service, agent, or package may write directly to Spine tables.

Write path:

External System → Webhook/Polling → Connector → Pipeline → Spine (append-only)

Consequences

  • Positive: Single write path enables consistent audit trails, conflict resolution, and data lineage.
  • Negative: All data ingestion must go through the Loader. Cannot write directly for quick fixes.
  • Mitigation: Loader supports batch operations and priority queues for urgent writes.

Evidence

  • services/connector/ — OAuth, API key, webhook adapters
  • services/connector-sync/ — Sync scheduling
  • services/pipeline/src/canonical/canonical-writer.ts — sole Spine writer