Architecture

The kernel canon, in reading order:

1. The Seam — what the kernel is: the one resource, the one law, six verbs. Read first.
2. Ports & Adapters — the architecture contract: ports P0–P26, reference profiles, amendments.
3. Low-Level Design — port-by-port depth, shared types, the five planes, walkthroughs.
4. Data Plane — the read side: Query IR, truth tiers, consistency, offline reads.
5. Query Surface — QuerySpec v3: the ratified wire grammar of the read seam (ADR-0028).
6. Surface Platform — the UI stack: Surface IR, the one interpreter, shells.
7. Surface System — how this repo realizes the surface platform: the D1–D19 decision record, IR v0.1 query grammar, phases.
8. App System — the launchable layer between packages and Surfaces: the A1–A14 decision record (URL grammar, rosters, entitlement, registry, lifecycle, built-in system apps).

Prefer the standard SDLC view? High-Level Design (HLD) frames this whole room in HLD shape (system context → components → data flows → technology → data model) and points back into the docs above.

Companions: Architecture Overview (namespace & verbs at a glance), UI Framework & Lexicon (reused shell/slot design), Concepts (the glossary), HLD (Historical) — superseded by the live HLD; kept only as the original stack study / Scale reference profile.

Visual: Kernel component mind-map — clients → transport seam → verbs → core → the 14 ports → adapters, plus cross-cutting crates and the roadmap.