ASF50 — The Autonomous, Governance-First Software Factory

ASF50 is a production-live platform that turns a single master goal into a governed, audit-trailed software release. It is autonomous in execution but strict about human authority: every destructive or external commitment requires a real owner gate, every authorization is scoped and replay-protected, and every action leaves a receipt.

What ASF50 does

• Accepts a master goal describing a bounded outcome.
• Materializes the goal through a canonical lifecycle (READY_FOR_PLAN → PLANNED → READY_FOR_BUILD → READY_FOR_AUDIT → READY_FOR_RELEASE → FROZEN_PASS).
• Drives an executable phase chain (IMP-00 through IMP-11) under a Program Controller, with deterministic checkpoints and no parallel AI dispatches by default.
• Persists durable state in a runtime SQLite store behind a RuntimeStore API — direct mutation is forbidden.
• Gates destructive operations behind scoped owner gates (MERGE_APPROVAL, TAG_APPROVAL, RELEASE_APPROVAL, PAID_MODEL_DISPATCH_APPROVAL, PHASE_00_RESUME_APPROVAL, PRODUCTION_PROMOTION).
• Promotes production releases with OpenSSH signed tickets that bind goal_id, subject_sha, production_target, and gate_id into a verifiable payload.

Start here

• Getting Started — first-time operator orientation.
• Concepts — vocabulary and mental model.
• Architecture — system-context and component diagrams.
• Operator Handbook — day-to-day operations.
• Goal Lifecycle — canonical state machine.
• Human Gates — what requires owner authority.
• Signed-Ticket Guide — production promotion design.
• CLI Reference — every operator-facing command.
• Troubleshooting — symptom-oriented help.
• First Real Goal Walkthrough — ASF50 documenting itself.

Operator mindset

ASF50 is autopilot by default, owner only at real gates. You write one master goal; ASF50 plans, builds, tests, audits, commits, opens a PR, and stops for your review. You sign off at the PR; the governed merge and deployment resume automatically.

Current status

This documentation site describes the ASF50 platform as it exists at the commit that built it. The site is regenerated from the canonical repository; architectural or governance changes update the docs in the same change set.

Where to next?

If you are…	Start with
New operator	Getting Started
Architect	Architecture
Developer	CLI Reference
Auditor	Goal Lifecycle + Human Gates
Maintainer	Operator Handbook + Playbooks