Canonadr

ADR-2026-09-04-03 — Final Architecture writeup adopted; Coworker restored as a distinct concept

Status: APPROVED — 2026-09-04 (founder-delivered record); recorded 2026-09-04

Ruling

The founder's "SpineWorkspace — Final End-to-End Goal & Architecture Writeup" (2026-09-04
02:45, the newest of the three 2026-09-04 records) is adopted verbatim as
FOUNDER-FINAL-ARCHITECTURE-2026-09-04.md. Where
its wording refines the earlier 2026-09-04 records
(ADR-2026-09-04-01,
ADR-2026-09-04-02), this record's wording is the latest
founder formulation.

What this record locks

  • Final product definition (latest wording):

    SpineWorkspace is the shared operating environment where humans and AI work toward the same
    business goals through different workbenches, using the same governed Business Context Spine
    while maintaining separate human and AI continuity.

  • Boundary litany (§1): the Spine Fabric is not another application; the Human Workbench is
    not another truth store; the AI Workbench is not another business system; Twin is not the
    organizational source of truth; MCP is not the Spine; Agents are not the Spine; connectors do
    not define the canonical business model by themselves.

  • The mapping contract (§4): every connector carries an explicit mapping contract — entity,
    field, relationship, identity, semantic transformation, type conversion, status/value and
    provenance mappings — so that one canonical business model serves many connector
    representations    . Consistent with the 6.1 field-mapping plane (register G-18).

  • Source truth vs Spine truth (§6): source systems remain authoritative for their own
    operational transactions; the Spine is the governed cross-system business context — it connects
    their meaning rather than replacing them.

  • Role-based projection chain (§9): Spine → authority → role → policy → projection
    registry     → role-specific projection → user workbench.

  • The architectural boundary, in one sentence (§24): connectors bring external reality in;
    mapping translates it into the canonical model; triage governs schema evolution; Spine preserves
    context and continuity; projection determines what each participant sees; Work coordinates human
    and AI activity; Capability Fabric determines what can be done; Governance determines whether it
    may be done; execution changes external reality; reconciliation establishes what actually
    happened.

  • Final system statement and doctrine (§25), repeating "The Workbench is one. The Spine is
    one. The Projection is many." and "Humans govern. AI helps. Spine preserves continuity."

Coworker restored as a distinct concept — supersedes prior guidance

§13 keeps three AI-side concepts distinct:

  • Twin — the user's primary AI work partner.
  • Coworker — "the contextual companion that helps assemble active context and
    communication."
  • Spine Agents — specialized agents performing bounded work through approved capabilities.

This is a later founder decision than the Founder Canon (2026-08-31) resolution recorded in
register G-03 (which retired Coworker as a layer absorbed into Twin). It restores Coworker as a
distinct concept with the same scope the workspace instructions have always described: a
companion between active Human Workbench interaction and the Twin — not a second orchestration
authority. Accordingly:

  • Register G-03 carries an update annotation pointing here; its original text stands as the
    dated measurement of the 2026-08-31 canon era.
  • Flag F-1 in ADR-2026-09-04-01 is
    superseded: coworker need not be read as a common noun only.
  • Product and UI surfaces may use Coworker for the contextual companion role.

Vocabulary note

§11's diagram labels the AI-side workbench "TWIN WORKBENCH". That is a label slip inside the
record, not a re-freeze: the canonical term remains AI Workbench per
ADR-2026-08-31-01, and the deck QA
tooling scans for the retired phrase. The record's own §11/§12 prose uses AI Workbench correctly.

Consequences

  • This record is the shortest complete statement of the intended end state; use §24 and §25 as
    the canonical summary chain for implementation and communication work.
  • Schema/connector work continues to measure against the 6.1 suite and register G-17–G-22; this
    record adds no new code findings.