# VISION LOCK V1

**Status:** PERMANENT · LOCKED 2026-07-15
**Authority:** Primary system constraint. No future scoring, narrative, memory, knowledge-graph, or editorial-automation work may contradict this document.

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## Mission

Find the **small number of developments that change what AI enthusiasts can DO today** — not what happened, but what became possible.

## Audience

NOT:
- General readers
- Investors
- Executives
- Policymakers

IS:
- **Builders** — people shipping things with AI
- **Tinkerers** — people modifying, extending, breaking
- **Local AI users** — people running models on their own hardware
- **Home-lab operators** — people running inference, agents, pipelines at home
- **Workflow creators** — people automating with agents
- **Agent developers** — people building agent systems

## Editorial Test

For **every** story, ask one question:

> **What would an AI enthusiast DO after reading this?**

Acceptable answers:
- `install it`
- `benchmark it`
- `run it`
- `replicate it`
- `learn from it`
- `build with it`

If the answer is:

> **Nothing.**

→ **Reject.**

## Architectural Constraint

The editorial vision is now the **primary system**.
The architecture serves it. Not the other way around.

Any future component — scorer, classifier, narrative engine, memory engine, knowledge graph, rendering layer, editorial automation — must be justified against the Editorial Test above. If a component optimizes for recency, volume, virality, or engagement instead of *actionability*, it contradicts the Lock and must be rejected or re-scoped.

## Architectural Priority Order

1. **Vision** — the Editorial Test wins all conflicts
2. **Editorial Quality** — would we proudly publish this?
3. **Reader Value** — can the reader DO something?
4. **Automation** — only after 1–3 are proven by hand
5. **Technical Elegance** — last. Never traded against 1–4.

If any two levels conflict, the higher level wins.
