# Implementation Map (docs/operations/implementation-map.md)

Truth document. Use for: **the cold-start execution contract of a project being built from its documented design** — one per repo, at `docs/operations/implementation-map.md`. It is authored by the **executing session at build start**, never generated at design time: build order is derived from the repo's actual feature docs and their stated dependencies, and a design-time prediction of it goes stale the day reality disagrees. It lives in operations because it says *how to proceed*, not *what is true of the design*.

## Writing the map

- **Derive waves from the feature docs** — their stated dependencies plus shared foundations (schema before routes, auth before anything it guards). A wave groups features that can build together; the order reflects foundations, not product importance.
- **A wave's done criterion is observable** — its plans' verification gates passed, the suite green, a named surface driveable. Never "feels complete".
- **Authority order names this repo's own docs, most specific wins.** A contradiction between documents is repaired in the owning truth doc *before* code — never reinterpreted while planning.
- **Plans are records, not an execution queue.** The map points at the active wave's dated plan; historical plans are read only when a truth doc cites them as provenance.
- **Update in place as waves complete** — the map states the current build position in present tense; the journey lives in the plans and changelog entries.

```
# {Project} implementation map

## Cold-start contract

{One paragraph: what a fresh session asked to "build this" is expected to do with this
repository — plan, gate, implement, verify, in what granularity — and the statement that it
needs nothing outside the repo.}

## Authority order

When documents disagree:

1. {The constitutional docs — guardrails, non-goals, PRD-class documents}
2. The most specific feature doc under `docs/features/`
3. {The structural truth docs — domain model, storage schema, API contracts}
4. The dated plan for the active wave
5. Owned source files as implementation evidence

## Waves

| Wave | Features | Depends on | Done when |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | {docs/features/x.md, docs/features/y.md} | — | {observable criterion} |
| 2 | {…} | 1 | {…} |

## Current position

{One line per wave: complete · in progress ([plan](../history/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md)) · pending.}
```