Scope Template

This file is the authoritative artifact shape and authoring contract for the persisted scope owned by Scoper.

The scope defines what must be achieved, why it matters, what is excluded, and what counts as done. It must remain implementation-agnostic except where a technology or implementation constraint is already established by the user request or by pre-existing project context independent of the active technical design. A planned architectural constraint recorded in .standards/CONTEXT.md does not become a scope constraint merely because Auditor recorded it.

Both PLAN and REPLAN produce this same artifact shape. REPLAN should preserve valid existing content and revise only what the new information invalidates.

Omit empty sections. Add detail only when it materially reduces ambiguity.

In DOCUMENTATION, use this same shape for documentation outcomes. Identify audiences and documentation targets in Goal and Work, permitted editing in Constraints, and excluded behavior changes in Non-goals. Preserve the request’s explicit Documenter choices without inventing defaults. Acceptance conditions describe verifiable documentation accuracy, coverage, or usability of existing behavior; they do not require new implementation or formal Tester reports. An assessed no-change result may satisfy the requested documentation outcome, but does not omit final review or synchronization. Apply the documentation contract’s blocking decision when an outcome needs an omitted role.

When Scoper creates a new STANDARDS-owned scope artifact, create it with node .standards/bin/artifact.mjs init SCOPE, which writes this block with the active cycle ID:

<!-- STANDARDS
Artifact: SCOPE
Cycle: <Active Work.Id>
-->

Do not add this block solely because Scoper updates a pre-existing unmarked project-owned canonical scope document; that document remains project-owned.

Project or Change Name

Goal

Describe the intended outcome and why this work is needed. State the result the project or change must achieve without prescribing implementation.

Constraints

Required boundary, fixed condition, compatibility requirement, policy, platform limitation, performance bound, or other established constraint.
Add only constraints that materially affect the scope.

Non-goals

Explicitly excluded outcome, capability, migration, integration, behavior, or adjacent work.
Use this section to make important boundaries unambiguous.

Work

1. Outcome-oriented work item

Intent: Explain why this work item exists and what user, system, or project outcome it serves.

Done when:

AC-001: Observable scope-level acceptance condition.
AC-002: Another externally verifiable behavior or required property, when needed.

Depends on: Other numbered work items, an established external dependency, or None.

2. Outcome-oriented work item

Intent: Why this work item exists.

Done when:

AC-003: Observable scope-level acceptance condition.

Depends on: Dependency or None.

Retired Acceptance Identifiers

AC-004: Retired because the condition was removed or materially replaced. When replaced, reference the new acceptance identifier when useful.

Assumptions

Non-blocking assumption that is useful to preserve but is not yet established as fact.
Do not record unresolved blocking decisions here; blocking questions belong in Active Work.BlockedOn.

Previous Cycles

Only in a scope document reused across cycles, and always the last section: the earlier cycles’ acceptance conditions and retired identifiers, moved here unchanged, including their headings. Everything below this heading is history, not current obligations.

Authoring Rules

Define what and why, not how.
Keep work items coarse and outcome-oriented; do not turn the scope into a coding task list.
Express required outcomes through the Goal and Work items instead of duplicating them in a separate requirements section.
Write observable completion conditions. Describe behavior, compatibility, conformance, performance bounds, resource limits, build/compile guarantees, or other externally verifiable outcomes when relevant.
Represent every verifiable in-scope obligation that must be proven at completion with at least one acceptance condition. Do not leave such an obligation only in Goal or Constraints.
Do not combine separable obligations under one acceptance identifier when their satisfaction or verification evidence is established in different workflow phases. Give those obligations separate acceptance conditions so downstream roles can establish evidence without masking unfinished work.
Assign every scope-level acceptance condition a unique AC-NNN identifier within the active cycle. Treat the identifier as a stable reference, not as an ordering guarantee.
Define each condition as a list item, bulleted or numbered, that starts with its identifier followed by a colon or dash, as in Done when above: - `AC-001`: <condition>. Do not define conditions in a table, heading, or prose; check does not recognize those forms and reports the identifier as undefined. Retired identifiers use the same form under ## Retired Acceptance Identifiers. When reusing a project scope document, rewrite its current conditions in this form.
During REPLAN, preserve an acceptance identifier when the condition keeps the same meaning. Use a new, previously unused identifier for a new or materially replaced condition. Record removed or replaced identifiers under Retired Acceptance Identifiers. Do not renumber surviving identifiers or reuse retired identifiers within the active cycle.
Get each new identifier with node .standards/bin/id.mjs next AC <scope>. When a cycle reuses a scope document that holds another cycle’s conditions, move them and their retired identifiers under a final Previous Cycles section and continue numbering from the highest identifier ever used in the document.
Do not choose new libraries, frameworks, APIs, storage systems, protocols, algorithms, deployment targets, or implementation patterns. Those decisions belong to Architect unless independently established by the user request or pre-existing project constraints. Planned decisions from the active technical design remain Architect-owned even when Auditor records them in .standards/CONTEXT.md.
Distinguish constraints, non-goals, and assumptions clearly.
Record only non-blocking assumptions. Resolve blocking scope questions before Scoper completes.
Record meaningful dependencies and ordering between work items.
Preserve user intent and established boundaries during REPLAN. Do not silently expand, remove, or materially change requested outcomes.
Keep the artifact concise. Add sections or detail only when they materially improve scope clarity.