GOD Docs — Guaranteed Organizational Documents

Developer-facing, template-enforced, dependency-tracked, deterministically verifiable architecture documentation.

Core Concept

GOD Docs treat documentation as a build artifact. Staleness is computed, not guessed. Three-level hierarchy (System → Domain → Component), template-enforced structure, declared inter-doc dependencies, and enforcement via git hooks + CI + the degenerate CLI.

Full specification: references/spec.md

Pre-Requisite: Domain Decomposition

Before any GOD Docs, the repo MUST be split into non-overlapping domains. Every source file maps to exactly ONE domain. This is what makes dirty-checking deterministic.

Hierarchy

docs/GOD.md                          # Level 0: System
docs/domains/{domain}/GOD.md         # Level 1: Domain
{component}/GOD.md                   # Level 2: Component

Quick Start

Initialize in a Repo

1. Create template directory and templates:
   bashCopy

   mkdir -p docs/templates docs/domains docs/sync
   

2. Copy templates from assets/COMPONENT-GOD-TEMPLATE.md and assets/DOMAIN-GOD-TEMPLATE.md
3. Create system-level docs/GOD.md — see references/spec.md §3 for required sections
4. Install git hook from assets/pre-commit → .githooks/pre-commit
5. Run git config core.hooksPath .githooks

Create a Component GOD Doc

1. Copy template: cp docs/templates/COMPONENT-GOD-TEMPLATE.md {component}/GOD.md
2. Fill ALL {{PLACEHOLDER}} tokens — zero unfilled placeholders allowed
3. Add <!-- GOD-DEPS: ... --> declaring upstream GOD Docs this component depends on
4. Register in parent domain GOD Doc (component map + link)
5. Register in system GOD Doc (component registry table)
6. Verify: grep -c "{{" {component}/GOD.md must return 0

Create a Domain GOD Doc

1. Copy template: cp docs/templates/DOMAIN-GOD-TEMPLATE.md docs/domains/{domain}/GOD.md
2. Fill all placeholders
3. List all components in this domain with links to their Level 2 GOD Docs
4. Document domain-internal and cross-domain event contracts

Inter-GOD Dependencies

Each GOD Doc declares dependencies via HTML comment:

<!-- GOD-DEPS:
  - event-bus/GOD.md
  - schema-registry/GOD.md
-->

Meaning: this component consumes events/schemas/APIs from those components. When a dependency's GOD Doc changes, this doc is transitively flagged stale.

Dirty-Check Algorithm

1. Collect changed files (git diff)
2. Map files → owning component
3. If source changed but GOD.md didn't → DIRTY
4. Walk GOD-DEPS graph: dependents of DIRTY docs → TRANSITIVELY DIRTY
5. Output: all DIRTY ∪ TRANSITIVELY DIRTY

Three enforcement layers:

• Git hook (pre-commit): interactive prompt, local
• CI action: blocks merge on stale docs — see references/spec.md §6.3
• degenerate CLI: deep audit with transitive resolution

Degenerate (Drift Detector)

Rust CLI: degenerate — "Fight the entropy of documentation."

Maintains sync state in docs/sync/last-sync.json. Tracks per-component last-verified commit. Resolves transitive dependencies. Reports drift severity (commit count).

degenerate sync --dry-run    # Check without updating
degenerate sync              # Mark all as fresh
degenerate drift             # Quick drift report
degenerate drift --commits   # With commit details
degenerate report --format json  # Machine-readable

Built with: git2, walkdir, serde, pulldown-cmark, colored, indicatif.

For full degenerate architecture and commands: references/spec.md §Degenerate

Template Required Sections

Component GOD Doc (Level 2)

• Product Overview (non-technical)
• Architecture Position (Mermaid pipeline diagram)
• Events Emitted (table: name, routing key, payload schema, trigger)
• Events Consumed (table: name, routing key, handler, purpose)
• Non-Event Interfaces (CLI commands, API endpoints)
• Technical Deep-Dive (language, framework, implementation)
• Development & Deployment

Domain GOD Doc (Level 1)

• Domain Overview & Responsibilities
• Component Map (Mermaid diagram)
• Component Summaries (with links to Level 2 docs)
• Domain Event Contracts (internal + external)
• Shared Infrastructure

System GOD Doc (Level 0)

• System Topology (Mermaid diagram)
• Domain Reference Table
• Component Registry (name, domain, status, GOD Doc link)
• Cross-Domain Dependency Graph
• System-Wide Event Contract Flows
• Infrastructure Requirements

Update Rules

Key Principle

If you can't cleanly decompose your repo into non-overlapping domains, GOD Docs aren't ready for you yet. Fix that first.