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RFC-0003: Engineering Context
Status: Proposed Phase: The Bedrock Phase
Abstract
This RFC proposes that "preserving engineering context" be the defining purpose of the standard, and establishes the minimum required structure for a context record.
Motivation
When engineers lose the reasoning behind decisions, they re-derive understanding from first principles. This is wasteful and error-prone. The most valuable thing a standard can preserve is not the final artifact, but the context that produced it.
Observation
Engineers across all disciplines report that inherited systems without context records require significantly more effort to maintain, modify, or extend than systems with preserved reasoning.
Engineering Principle
Open Engineer is an open standard for preserving engineering context. The context record — a structured document with defined required fields — is the unit of preservation.
Reasoning
Context preservation is the thread made concrete. The minimum required fields (defined in OE-0003) give the standard an implementable artifact: a practitioner can produce a context record, and a subsequent practitioner can evaluate whether it meets the completeness criterion.
Relationship to Existing Concepts
Engineering context is defined in OE-0003. Context records are the output of the decision process (OE-0008).