Project Artifact Reference

Cadre 4.0 configuration and state are distributed across explicit approved artifacts. There is no current cadre/config.json.

Unapproved artifact proposals live temporarily beneath <project-root>/.cadre/stage/<candidate-id>/. They are visible filesystem drafts, never canonical .cadre/ state or Git history. Approval binds their path/SHA-256 manifest; the matching stage is retained through the artifact commit checkpoint and then removed.

Project Artifacts

Path	Ownership and content
`.cadre/project.json`	Runtime/template versions, project identity/context, setup checkpoint/operation/commit, last refresh, and project history.
`.cadre/product.md`	Product problem, users, behavior, scope, constraints, and success context.
`.cadre/guidelines.md`	Engineering principles, trust boundaries, non-goals, decision rules, and review expectations.
`.cadre/tech-stack.md`	Languages, frameworks, platforms, package/build tools, and verification commands.
`.cadre/workflow.md`	Lifecycle, approval, testing, review, commit, and delivery rules read by every stateful skill.
`.cadre/tracks.md`	Generated project-level index derived from track-local state.
`.cadre/patterns/index.md`	Durable, evidenced patterns and provenance.
`.cadre/styleguides/*.md`	Approved general and technology-specific conventions.

project.json includes schemaVersion, runtimeVersion, and templateSetVersion. Completed setup retains status, checkpoint, an operation reference and artifact progress. New initialization recovery lives under .cadre/stage/operations/; its receipt binds the approved digest and exact artifact path/hash entries.

Track State

Each active track lives under .cadre/tracks/<track-id>/; each archived track lives under .cadre/archive/<track-id>/.

Track state.json includes:

Field	Meaning
`schemaVersion`	State schema version.
`trackId`, `title`, `type`	Stable identity; type is `feature` or `bug`.
`status`	Lifecycle state.
`checkpoint`	Durable workflow checkpoint.
`revision`	Track baseline revision.
`dependencies`	Other track IDs required before implementation.
`commits.spec`, `commits.plan`	Approved artifact commit provenance.
`artifactProgress`	Completed writes in the pending operation.
`operation`	Current journaled mutation or `null`.
`lastExecution`	Last execution identity and review-bound evidence.
`reviewCycles`	Finding/clean-review history and accepted risks.
`history`	Lifecycle and operation history.

Paths and active phase/task are derived; they are not duplicated in state.

Track Documents

Path	Meaning
`spec.md`	Goal, scope, functional/non-functional requirements, acceptance criteria, dependencies, additional information, and impact.
`plan.md`	Revisioned phase/task DAG, manual barriers, completion markers, and commit SHAs.
`learning.md`	Marked Pattern Seed plus phase/task learning and provenance.
`bugs/`	Approved review finding artifacts.
`revisions/`	Approved semantic revision records.
`executions/`	Immutable/resumable execution journals.

Execution Journal

executions/execution-<id>.json contains:

execution and track identity;
status and checkpoint;
requestedMode and effectiveMode (parallel or sequential);
approvalPolicyVersion (2 for new authority; legacy Autonomous requires explicit refresh migration);
approvalMode (governed, phase, track, or autonomous), defaulting to track for new executions; legacy journals without it retain governed behavior;
maxWorkers, an approved delegated-worker bound from 1 through 32 (the generated workflow defaults to 3, and host capacity may reduce it);
plan revision, plan commit, and graph digest;
base/head commits and start/completion timestamps;
one entry per phase/task node.

Node entries record status, dependencies, the active worker and retained worker history, worktree/branch identity, worker and merge commits, verification, approval, and blockers. Phase-worker release and reassignment preserve that history across clean execution-mode handoffs. Legal statuses are pending, running, awaiting_approval, committed, integrating, conflicted, integrated, awaiting_manual_verification, completed, and blocked.

Operation Journals

.cadre/stage/operations/<operationId>.json records pending approved promotion, original inputs and recovery evidence. It is ignored by Git.
.cadre/receipts/<operationId>.json records immutable approval/provenance and belongs in the operation's one commit.
Track state.json.operation binds active implementation and retained workflow state; execution journals own task progress.

Resolve op:<operationId> through receipt reconciliation before Git range commands. Preserve legacy .cadre/operations/ refresh/archive journals as historical evidence. Pending operations using removed legacy mutation paths require recovery with Cadre 3.9.0 before returning to 4.0.

Ignored Runtime Paths

.cadre/.gitignore excludes:

stage/ — candidate artifacts and approved temporary recovery journals;
.worktrees/ — temporary Cadre-managed execution worktrees;
wisps/ — disposable untracked exploration output;
.build-cache/cadre/ — the runtime-owned build cache.

These paths are excluded from commits. Pending recovery journals and worktrees can contain essential unfinished work; being ignored does not make them safe to delete.

Autonomous review state

Track state.json stores autonomousReview for policy-v2 Autonomous: originating execution and authorization time, approved specification commit, initial cumulative review baseline, checkpoint, and stable findings with distinct remediation execution IDs. Checkpoints are implementing, reviewing, remediating, awaiting_approval, blocked, and completed. Clean evidence includes the reviewed execution and HEAD; a blocker explains why continuation needs human input or an external prerequisite.

Review stages reviews/loop-<cycle>.json alongside remediation artifacts. The exact inspected snapshot becomes canonical loop state through the journaled promotion. Its manifest digest is held by the review operation, separately from human approval. Legacy Autonomous migration records approvalModeMigration with the old execution ID, chosen Track/Autonomous mode, approval time, and approved refreshPath. Completed execution journals remain historical; active journals and operations are upgraded together to policy v2 under the same refresh envelope.

An explicitly approved blocked/stalled review retry adds optional autonomousReview.retryAuthorization, containing the approving refresh operation reference and each finding’s retained attemptBaseline. The refresh history entry keeps the full prior loop, instruction record path and reason. Existing attempts are never erased; the two-attempt limit counts new attempts beyond that approved prefix. Automatic remediation, ordinary refresh and revert cannot replace it.