ZFC (Zero Framework Cognition) Principles

Core Architecture Principle: This application is pure orchestration that delegates ALL reasoning to external AI. We build a “thin, safe, deterministic shell” around AI reasoning with strong guardrails and observability.

✅ ZFC-Compliant (Allowed)

Pure Orchestration

IO and Plumbing • Read/write files, list directories, parse JSON, serialize/deserialize • Persist to stores, watch events, index documents

Structural Safety Checks • Schema validation, required fields verification • Path traversal prevention, timeout enforcement, cancellation handling

Policy Enforcement • Budget caps, rate limits, confidence thresholds • “Don’t run without approval” gates

Mechanical Transforms • Parameter substitution (e.g., ${param} replacement) • Compilation • Formatting and rendering AI-provided data

State Management • Lifecycle tracking, progress monitoring • Mission journaling, escalation policy execution

Typed Error Handling • Use SDK-provided error classes (instanceof checks) • Avoid message parsing

❌ ZFC-Violations (Forbidden)

Local Intelligence/Reasoning

Ranking/Scoring/Selection • Any algorithm that chooses among alternatives based on heuristics or weights

Plan/Composition/Scheduling • Decisions about dependencies, ordering, parallelization, retry policies

Semantic Analysis • Inferring complexity, scope, file dependencies • Determining “what should be done next”

Heuristic Classification • Keyword-based routing • Fallback decision trees • Domain-specific rules

Quality Judgment • Opinionated validation beyond structural safety • Recommendations like “test-first recommended”

🔄 ZFC-Compliant Pattern

The Correct Flow

1. Gather Raw Context (IO only) • User intent, project files, constraints, mission state

2. Call AI for Decisions • Classification, selection, composition • Ordering, validation, next steps

3. Validate Structure • Schema conformance • Safety checks • Policy enforcement

4. Execute Mechanically • Run AI’s decisions without modification