# ADR-001 — Position prompt-language as a trust/scope/execution substrate

## Status

Proposed

## Context

The repo currently presents prompt-language as a supervised runtime with gates, state, control flow, memory, and orchestration. The current evidence shows the strongest proven value is gate-based structural enforcement.

## Decision

Position prompt-language as:

- a trust, scope, and execution substrate for bounded agentic engineering

and not primarily as:

- a generic control-flow DSL
- a promise of zero oversight
- a replacement for deterministic verification

## Consequences

### Positive

- aligns positioning with current evidence
- sets up the roadmap around trust features, not syntax inflation

### Negative

- may sound narrower than a grand “future of software” claim
- requires more discipline in product messaging
