28 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
28 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
# RFC-0003: Engineering Context
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**Status:** Proposed
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**Phase:** The Bedrock Phase
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## Abstract
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This RFC formally proposes that "preserving engineering context" be the defining purpose of the Open Engineer standard.
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## Motivation
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The project needs a precise, single-sentence definition to anchor all subsequent work. "Open Engineer is an open standard for preserving engineering context" emerged naturally during development and was strongly affirmed by the project's participants.
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## Observation
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When engineers lose context — the reasoning behind decisions, the alternatives considered, the constraints faced — they are forced to re-derive understanding from first principles. This is wasteful and error-prone. The most valuable thing an engineering standard can preserve is not the final artifact, but the context that produced it.
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## Engineering Principle
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Open Engineer is an open standard for preserving engineering context. Everything else extends from that.
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## Reasoning
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Context is the thread made concrete. Without context, engineering knowledge degrades with each generational handoff. With context preserved, each generation begins closer to bedrock than the last. This single focus — context preservation — provides a clear criterion for every decision the standard makes: does this help preserve engineering context, or does it not?
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## Relationship to Existing Concepts
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Engineering context is the unit of preservation. It is carried by the thread (OE-0001). It is built from observations (OE-0004) and surveys (OE-0005). It is verified (OE-0007) and stewarded (OE-0009). |