ADR-0069 — The structure contract is the default for new missions

Date: 2026-09-09 Status: accepted 2026-09-09 (the maintainer's explicit call, made on the question the M1 machinery left open as D3) Deciders: the maintainer Method: decided on the consolidated pass's calibration evidence

Context

M1 through M4 built the structure contract — typed fields, closed domains, row coherence, cross-file echoes on all 11 mission templates — and left it inert behind the scaffold-lock's structureContract: true, with the default for NEW missions explicitly reserved to the maintainer (D3). The consolidated mutation pass then paid for the calibration three ways: the raw template yields zero noise, the shipped example yields zero violations, and the generic reverse-fill is refused. The cost of arming a fresh mission is therefore measured, and it is nothing until the operator writes something malformed — at which point the named detail (repaired in RWD-2026-0105) tells them exactly what to fix.

Decision

1. runward init writes structureContract: true into the scaffold-lock of a NEW mission.
2. No existing mission moves: update PRESERVES whatever the lock says — it never writes the flag on its own. (Making that true fixed RWD-2026-0106: the lock writer rebuilt the object wholesale and a refresh silently disarmed every opted-in mission.)
3. Disarming stays one honest edit away: delete the line from the committed lock, in a diff a reviewer can read.

Consequences

Positive: the promise the templates make is real for every newcomer, not just for whoever finds the flag. Negative, accepted: a new mission whose operator writes a malformed field sees the gate say so — which is the product working, and the detail names the fix.

Reevaluation trigger (mandatory, dated)

A pilot operator reports the armed default as the reason they abandoned a fresh mission, or the structure contract's false-positive register (violations on content later judged legitimate) gains three entries. Trigger set on: 2026-09-09 · Watched via: pilot feedback (ADR-0052) and the defect register.