Architecture and responsibilities

The Developer Manual is for engineers integrating AnswerUp into an application they operate. It complements Concepts, which explains the model, and the API Reference, which records exact package declarations.

The system boundary

The host application receives a request, supplies trusted identity and business context, searches its authoritative systems, and renders the result. AnswerUp does not perform provider or verifier I/O and does not own the host’s business database.

Component	Role	Owns	Does not do
Host application	Coordinates transport, domain interpretation, context, policy, adapters, persistence, and presentation	Business meaning, credentials, tenant scope, durable records	Treat model output or provider acknowledgment as truth
Proposing system	Produces a bounded proposal	Intent supplied by the user or workflow	Authority, authorization, or effect truth
Framework/channel adapter	Maps an ingress or tool call into host input	Transport parsing and channel identity	Widen trusted context or authorize an action
`@answerup/actions`	Protected-action composition and bounded result projection	The package’s public action contract	Hosted execution or durable storage
`@answerup/runtime`	Process-local orchestration, execution, verification, reconciliation, and projection	Runtime handles and lifecycle sequencing	Restart-safe recovery or exactly-once execution
`@answerup/core`	Grounding, authorization provenance, identities, lifecycle, effect resolution, and claim permission	Core semantic artifacts	Provider calls, business searches, or persistence
Provider adapter	Attempts the requested external mutation	Provider credentials, request mapping, acknowledgment	Independent proof of success
Independent verifier	Reads the authoritative system and reports bounded evidence	Verifier credentials and read policy	Guessing, self-verification, or mutation
Authoritative system	Owns business state	Records and final state	AnswerUp lifecycle semantics
Durable action record	Host-owned record of the lifecycle	Retention, access control, and recovery data	Becoming business authority
Trace/conformance tooling	Connects bounded observations or evaluates fixtures	Tooling output and evidence	Becoming effect truth or production certification

End-to-end sequence

The host accepts and validates the proposal.
The host supplies requester, tenant, subject, policy, and source context.
The host supplies authoritative candidates; Core resolves or requests clarification.
The host binds confirmation and authorization to the grounded operation.
Runtime/Core prepares an execution with operation, effect, execution, and attempt identities.
The host-owned provider adapter dispatches once.
A separate verifier reads the authoritative system.
PRESENT supports COMMITTED; ABSENT_FINAL supports DISPROVED; INDETERMINATE yields UNKNOWN.
The host projects only a permitted, bounded user-facing claim.

ACKNOWLEDGED means the provider observed or accepted the dispatch request. It is not COMMITTED. An UNKNOWN result is not permission to redispatch.

Responsibility matrix

Responsibility	Owner
Semantic lifecycle and effect classification	AnswerUp Core
Runtime orchestration	AnswerUp Runtime
Proposal interpretation and domain rules	Host application
Candidate search and authoritative data	Integration owner
Authorization policy	Host policy authority
Provider credentials and mutation	Host/provider adapter
Independent read-back	Host/verifier
Durable records, retention, and recovery	Host/operator
User-facing wording	Host, within claim permission
Commercial entitlement	Separate platform authority