hecks

Adoption wedge: one target and one external user first

Question

The roadmap spans an OIDC provider, ISO traceability, an onboarding domain, UL projections, SQL stored-proc compilation, and more. Rails integration is design-only. Decide the one wedge (for example rules-heavy transactional backends inside Rails) or explicitly reject the premise, what “one external user running it” means as the exit test, and which roadmap items are cut or deferred until then.

Prep (not a decision)

Gathered by a read-only agent for the grilling session; the options and recommendation are input, not the decision. The roadmap docs are dated 2026-08-07 and 2026-08-18 and part stale, so sizes are the docs’ own labels.

Facts

• Unbuilt, from README “Project status”: Rails integration (design only, large), Drivers (interval|cron|clock), the standalone outbox relay and adapter-host protocol, mutation testing and coverage-guided fuzzing. From “Experimental or partial”: query aggregation without sum/avg/min/max, the group_by row drop, the PostgresEra dotted-compute gap, a partial Rust read_model codegen, and no outbox on Heki, LocalStorage or D1.
• From docs/HECKS_IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md (34 sections, many marked Done, so stale): a SQL DDL projection with stored procedures (“research-grade, gates nothing”), a real OIDC client flow and an OIDC provider, email OTP, a UL projection and adoption recipe, an onboarding domain, role mapping and discovery, AI mapping suggestions, drift detection, ontology upgrades, ISO traceability, conformance drift, era-addressable queries and historical reports. Most of sections 15 to 24 and 28 to 29 rest on canonical bluebooks and onboarding, which nothing in the repo shows a user needing.
• Rails (docs/rails-integration.md, “design only”): the verb methods it says must land first exist (lib/hecks/facade/handle.rb:213-229), the per-thread Runtime::Caller exists, and a plain Rack app serves HTML and JSON (lib/hecks/forms/app.rb:23). Missing: any WebHandle or WebDoor, generated routes, controller or form helpers, a railtie or gem packaging, the read-side index, authorization, and any run inside a Rails app. The README has no Rails quickstart.
• What is proven: a rules-heavy transactional backend spoken to over HTTP or JSON by a non-Ruby client, with Ruby and Rust enforcing the same rules. The repo shows a production deployment on a Rust host with Postgres eras (rust/host/src/api.rs:1-8), and all four example domains are checked for Ruby-versus-Rust byte parity. Not proven: hecks embedded in someone else’s Ruby or Rails app, and an agent-operated domain in the field (the MCP door is the least battle-tested surface, README.md:596).
• Dependencies: the network-facing door needs ADR 0062 and MCP door auth; Drivers and the outbox relay are independent; the Rails wedge needs its whole open list plus Governance for authorization.

Candidate wedges

1. Rules-heavy transactional backend inside Rails. Largest build (WebDoor, routes, form helper, per-request caller, authorization, index, packaging). Exit test: an outside Rails team ships one bounded context in their own app for 30 days.
2. Standalone rules service behind an API. Needs a documented path from bin/project_deploy to a running service and an operator auth recipe for an outsider. Exit test: an external team defines a bluebook, deploys the host to their own account and calls it from a non-Ruby client with only the docs. Makes cuttable: the Rails design, the OIDC and OTP work, and the UL, onboarding, ISO and drift arc.
3. Agent-operable domains via MCP. Least mature surface, security ADR still Proposed, and the user is an unsupervised agent.
4. Hold and pick nothing. Cuts nothing and leaves no exit test.

Recommendation from prep. Wedge 2, with Rails held as a fast-follow once one outsider has run a service. Cut or defer the authority and ontology arc until then, and keep the group_by, sum and dotted-compute fixes because they cost a real user correctness.

For the maintainer

1. Is there a named outside person or team who would run this? The exit test needs an actual user.
2. Does “one external user” exclude the existing production deployment’s owner?
3. Their own hosting, or hosted by you? Both change the recipe and the support cost.
4. Which do you value more, the AI-agent thesis or the Rails audience? That decides wedge 2 versus 3.
5. Willing to cut the UL, onboarding and ISO arc outright rather than defer it?

Answer

Decided 2026-09-27: a standalone rules service. Exit test: an outside team defines a bluebook, deploys the host to their own account and calls it from a non-Ruby client with only the docs. Rails is a fast-follow once one outsider has run a service; the UL, onboarding, ISO and OIDC-provider work is deferred until the exit test passes; the group_by, sum and dotted-compute fixes are kept. Recorded in ADR 0071.

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