STABILIZATION_SCOPE.md¶
Fontshow — Stabilization Phase Contract¶
Current version: v0.28.7.post14 Applies to: Phase 1 — Stabilization sprint
Purpose¶
This document defines the scope, rules, and acceptance criteria for the stabilization phase.
The stabilization phase exists to:
- reduce friction,
- formalize existing behavior,
- and prepare the codebase for controlled evolution.
This document is normative for all stabilization work.
Definition of Stabilization¶
In Fontshow, stabilization means:
- making existing behavior explicit and reliable,
- removing ambiguity from contracts already relied upon,
- improving robustness without expanding feature scope.
Stabilization is about correctness and clarity, not innovation.
In-Scope Work¶
The following types of work are explicitly allowed:
- Documenting implicit behavioral contracts.
- Fixing inconsistencies between code, tests, and documentation.
- Improving error handling where behavior already exists.
- Refactoring to make existing behavior reliable and testable.
- Removing or reclassifying obsolete or misleading functionality.
Out-of-Scope Work¶
The following are explicitly not allowed during stabilization:
- Introducing new user-facing features.
- Expanding CLI command sets.
- Changing output formats without backward-compatibility handling.
- Large-scale architectural redesign.
- Performance optimizations unrelated to correctness.
Any work that violates these constraints MUST be deferred.
Acceptance Criteria¶
Stabilization work is considered complete when:
- All stabilization issues in the milestone are closed or explicitly deferred.
- Documented behavior matches observed behavior.
- Tests reflect documented contracts.
- No “temporary” fixes remain undocumented.
Partial stabilization is not acceptable.