Index Enterprise Readiness

Index is the enterprise codebase atlas: it compresses large workspaces into evidence-backed maps, source refs, dependency edges, freshness checks, and context packs for agent workflows.

This guide aligns the flagship with Project Telos context envelopes and action receipts. The goal is unattended agent work that can be left running and later inspected: what context the agent saw, what exact material it relied on, what it changed, what verified, and what remained unverifiable.

Enterprise Role

• Map repositories, manifests, imports, docs, internals, and architecture rules before an agent edits.
• Emit compact context packs with exact file-line evidence and expansion commands.
• Measure token economy, architecture drift, freshness, cycles, and claim grounding without a model.

Host Commands

• index status --json and index doctor --json for host readiness.
• index map --root ROOT --json before assignment or routing.
• index context --root ROOT --focus NAME --json --audit for source-ref packets.
• index context-envelope --root ROOT --budget N --focus NAME --hops N --json for budgeted, receipt-backed context that keeps retained and omitted material explicit.
• index verify --root ROOT --depends "A -> B" --json for claim grounding.
• index freshness --cert CERT --root ROOT --json before trusting an old packet.

Context Envelope Contribution

• Context envelopes start from the graph pack and include a graph-pack receipt, source refs, retained repo records, omitted repo records, budget accounting, and recheck fields.
• The envelope includes a compact selection block so an unattended run can distinguish total candidate repos, focused repos, retained repos, and omitted failure codes without expanding raw source.
• The envelope includes index.context-envelope-freshness/v1: a workspace root hash, retained repo hashes, and a recheck hint that composes with index check --freshness / index freshness.
• Each source ref is a project-telos.source-ref/v1 handle: repo, repo path, workspace-relative path, SHA-256, signal kind, optional line number, and a gather.docs expansion command.
• Summaries must point to evidence like pyproject.toml:12 or a symbol/file range, not memory of the repo.
• A large codebase should be routed through focused packs and on-demand expansion instead of raw full-tree dumps.
• Raw source remains outside the envelope; hosts receive source refs and hashes, then request expansion only for the exact files or repos needed for the next action.
• Self-improving daemons should treat envelope omissions as control signals. A budget_exceeded failure code means request a wider pack or narrower focus; it is not evidence that the omitted repo is irrelevant.

Action Receipt Contribution

• Input/material digests come from workspace fingerprints, map outputs, freshness certificates, and source-ref content hashes.
• Side-effect class is usually read; generated routers or artifacts are write and need output refs.
• A stale freshness certificate maps to an UNVERIFIABLE receipt until the map is refreshed.

Readability Gate

Enterprise agent output should be easier for the next agent and a human reviewer to continue:

• Keep patches small enough to review and tied to one bounded work item.
• Prefer named helpers and domain terms over dense inline logic.
• Preserve public interfaces unless the receipt explains why they moved.
• Leave tests, command output, changed files, and next action in the handoff.
• Mark missing source refs, stale packets, failed tests, and verifier abstentions as UNVERIFIABLE instead of guessing.

Platform Boundary

The flagship remains usable alone through CLI JSON and as part of a larger surface through MCP. OpenAI, Anthropic, IDE, CLI, TUI, and application hosts should consume the same tool outputs and receipt fields rather than reimplementing flagship behavior.

See Project Telos project-telos.context-envelope/v1 and project-telos.action-receipt/v1 for the shared cross-tool contract.