EP-NNNN: <a class="headerlink" href="#ep-nnnn" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h1>
<p>Status: proposal
Type: standards-track</p>
<!--
AUTHORING TEMPLATE — copy this file to `EP-NNNN-<slug>.md`, fill it in, and
delete every HTML comment (including this one) before opening the PR.
This template is the skeleton for a new Enhancement Proposal. The process it
encodes is normative in [EP-0009](EP-0009-the-ep-process.md) (an `active`
process EP); this file is only the convenience scaffold. Where this template
and EP-0009 ever differ, EP-0009 governs.
The template is NOT itself an EP: it has no number, carries no decision, and is
deliberately named `EP-template.md` so the status-sync guard
(`scripts/check_ep_status_sync.py`) — which only matches `EP-NNNN-<slug>.md` —
skips it. Do not assign it a number or add it to the README index.
==== Status: a controlled lifecycle, NOT free text ====
`Status:` is machine-readable and its value MUST be exactly one of:
proposal · accepted · final · active
rejected · withdrawn · deferred · superseded-by EP-NNNN
A new EP opens at `proposal`. The lifecycle (EP-0009 §Statuses) is:
proposal ──► accepted ──► final (standards-track)
│ └─────► active (process)
├──► rejected (ruled no — kept as the record of why not)
├──► withdrawn (author retracted — kept)
└──► deferred (parked with a stated revisit trigger)
any non-terminal EP may become: superseded-by EP-NNNN (kept)
EPs are never deleted and numbers are never reused; the terminal states are
kept because recording why something was NOT done is half the corpus's value.
==== Type: standards-track OR process ====
`Type:` MUST be exactly `standards-track` or `process` (EP-0006 and later
require the header; the gate enforces it).
* standards-track — changes the framework's public contracts or runtime
behaviour. Terminal success status `final`. On graduation it moves into
`spec/` + implementation beads; `spec/` is then the authoritative contract
and **where the final EP and the spec differ, the spec governs**. The EP
is the design record behind the spec, never a second normative home.
* process — rules about how the project itself works (conventions,
lifecycle, review posture). Terminal success status `active`. On
acceptance it NAMES its normative home — either an existing spec doc
(e.g. EP-0007 names `Conventions.md` §Namespacing) or the active EP
itself (the PEP-8 precedent — EP-0009's home is EP-0009). Name exactly one.
==== Not every EP graduates into spec/ ====
Graduation is per-type, and graduation is not the only outcome. A process EP
may graduate into the active EP itself rather than `spec/`; any EP may end at
`rejected` / `withdrawn` / `deferred` / `superseded` and is kept as the record.
`final`/`active` asserts the DECISIONS are settled — it does not, on its own,
assert the implementation is build-complete (a `final` EP may carry an
implementation-errata ledger; the EP-0005 pattern).
==== Is an EP even warranted? ====
An EP is for feature-level / public-contract decisions with unresolved
alternatives, or process/convention rules worth a durable rationale record.
Settled mechanical material — a rename with no alternatives, a doc fix, a bug —
goes straight to beads + `spec/` edits. The test: *if the design conversation
fits in a bead description, it is a bead.* When in doubt, the operator decides;
EPs are cheap to reject and rejection is itself a valuable record.
==== Sections ====
Keep the sections below that apply and delete the rest; the set is the
EP-0009 §Document conventions list. State the positive principle first —
subtractive framing is migration mechanics, not the rule.
-->
<blockquote>
<p>One-paragraph orientation: what this EP decides and what its normative home is.
A <code>process</code> EP states its named normative home here explicitly.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 id="abstract">Abstract<a class="headerlink" href="#abstract" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2>
<!-- Two or three sentences: the decision, in plain language. -->
<h2 id="motivation">Motivation<a class="headerlink" href="#motivation" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2>
<!-- The problem. Why a bead is not enough — the unresolved alternatives or the
durable rationale that warrants an EP. -->
<h2 id="goals--non-goals">Goals / Non-Goals<a class="headerlink" href="#goals--non-goals" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2>
<!-- What is in scope for this decision surface, and what is explicitly out.
One EP, one decision surface — bundling independent decisions invites
all-or-nothing rulings. -->
<h2 id="relationships">Relationships<a class="headerlink" href="#relationships" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2>
<!-- Dependencies and cross-references live HERE (not scattered in prose):
the EPs and specs this builds on, supersedes, or is constrained by. The
README index row carries only status + a one-line summary. -->
<h2 id="specification">Specification<a class="headerlink" href="#specification" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2>
<!-- The normative content. For a standards-track EP this is the design that
will graduate into `spec/`; for a process EP it is the rule (and, if the home
is this EP, this section IS the rule and the rest of the document is
rationale). Normative-voiced text is permitted at `proposal` — it makes
graduation a move, not a rewrite — but it binds nothing until accepted. -->
<h2 id="rationale">Rationale<a class="headerlink" href="#rationale" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2>
<!-- Why this shape over the alternatives considered. -->
<h2 id="backwards-compatibility">Backwards Compatibility<a class="headerlink" href="#backwards-compatibility" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2>
<!-- Pre-alpha: there is usually no compatibility surface to preserve. State
the migration mechanics, if any, here — not as the headline rule. -->
<h2 id="bead-plan--reference-implementation">Bead Plan / Reference Implementation<a class="headerlink" href="#bead-plan--reference-implementation" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2>
<!-- The waves that carry this EP into its normative home + implementation.
Each graduation wave includes a guide-impact assessment: name which
`docs/guide` chapters change and which payoffs become newly teachable, or
record "no human-facing guide change yet" and why. Ledger rows cite live
bead ids and are struck as they close. -->
<h2 id="open-issues">Open Issues<a class="headerlink" href="#open-issues" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2>
<!-- Questions awaiting an operator ruling. An EP MUST NOT go `final`/`active`
with open issues silently unresolved — record the disposition of each in a
`Resolved Decisions` section as rulings land (the EP-0001/0002 pattern). -->
<h2 id="recommendation">Recommendation<a class="headerlink" href="#recommendation" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2>
<!-- The author's recommended disposition for the operator to rule on. -->
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