---
status: accepted
category: foundational
governs:
  - clients/react/
  - clients/ratatui/
  - api-spec/
cross-repo-refs:
  - "tmai-core:doc/decisions/2026-05-18-design-authority-locus-and-public-charter.md"
  - "tmai-core:doc/decisions/2026-05-13-tmai-is-a-producer-exoskeleton.md"
  - "tmai-core:doc/decisions/2026-05-15-protect-scarce-human-judgment.md"
last-verified: 2026-05-18
contract-surface: false
related:
  - "2026-05-14-webui-simulated-onboarded-posture"
  - "2026-05-14-react-producer-console-rebuild"
---

# Public tmai charter — what this repo is for, and what its UI optimizes

**Date:** 2026-05-18
**Status:** Accepted — the public, pitch-altitude purpose anchor for this
repo. `category: foundational` because it is this repo's reason to exist;
retracting it would orphan every UI/contract decision here. Governed by a
design-authority decision held in the private `tmai-core` repo (referenced
by path under `cross-repo-refs:`; its content is private by deliberate
design — see "Authority stance" below). Ratified by this DR's merge.

(No `tier:` field — authority is derived from the act, not a stored tag;
`category: foundational` is the residue. The two 2026-05-14 records here
predate that and still carry `tier:`; migrating them is out of scope.)

## What tmai is

**tmai is a Producer's exoskeleton and a human console.** It exists to
make the operator invest their scarce review-attention into the
highest-value judgments — not to maximize agent throughput. The operator
talks to one Producer agent; tmai is the layer that lets that Producer
manage work and that surfaces, to the human, exactly what deserves
attention.

## What this (public) repo is for

This repo holds the **presentation and contract half** of that goal:
`clients/react/` (the Producer console WebUI), `clients/ratatui/` (the
TUI), `api-spec/` (the wire contract), and the release pipeline. The
attention-investment goal is realized along a pipeline: the engine
produces and curates the information; **this repo decides what subset of
it the operator sees, when, and in what framing, cadence, and salience.**

That presentation judgment is not incidental. Showing everything the
engine can produce is the *opposite* of protecting attention. *What /
when / how surfaced* is a large part of whether scarce attention is
actually protected — so this repo is a first-class part of the goal, not
a thin renderer.

## The UI side's responsibility

Build presentation that is **faithfully derived from an understanding of
tmai's principles** — comprehension first, then realization. UI work here
should be traceable to *why* (the purpose above and the principles it
serves), not invented locally.

## Authority stance (why this repo is intentionally record-light)

The **design authority** for tmai's mechanisms — the *how* — is held in
the private `tmai-core` repo, by deliberate design. This is the same,
already-public reason `tmai-core` itself is private: it protects the
author's motivation (concealed implementation insight), not commercial
IP. A consequence, by design and not by neglect:

- This repo **does not** carry "design-driver" records (records of the
  form *"we need the engine to do X"*). Those would leak the private
  *how* through the public *what-was-asked*, so they stay private.
- This repo's records are therefore exactly: **this charter** (purpose),
  plus thin **UX-posture** decisions about what the operator
  *experiences* (e.g. the existing simulated-onboarded posture and
  console-rebuild records). Both are public-appropriate — they are the
  *what*, never the engine's *how*.

So the asymmetry (most decision records live in `tmai-core`) is **by
design**. What this charter guarantees is that the public repo's *goal is
visible here* — it does not "exist only in an invisible part."

## What this is / is not

- **Is**: the comprehension anchor UI/contract work derives from; the
  public statement of this repo's purpose.
- **Is not**: a place to record "the engine should do X" (private by
  design); not an implementation spec. The mechanism by which private
  design intent reaches UI work is a separate, co-designed record (it
  does not live here).
