State Design

A product is a set of states, not one screenshot. Most experience failures happen outside the perfect fixture: while loading, after a timeout, with one item or a thousand, offline, halfway through, after a partial failure.

Start here

1. Read references/_shared/experience-core.md.
2. Read references/_shared/experience-operating-contract.md; state changes require an explicit matrix, authority, recovery path, and evidence status.
3. Open references/_shared/state-types.md. It is the checklist you walk in step 1 below.

Core rules in brief. These apply even before you open references/_shared/experience-core.md. Read that file (the full rules and evidence levels) before a full review, repair, or build.