Repository documentation is the engineering source of truth. docs/user/ is the user-facing knowledge base.
For the full standard, see Documentation Governance Standard.
Status: Complete
ChannelForge's user-facing documentation lives in docs/user/, versioned and reviewed in the repository alongside the code, not published as a separate GitHub Wiki — GitHub Wiki is not available on the current GitHub plan. The same journey-based information architecture originally designed for a Wiki was adopted directly into docs/user/, so a future migration to a GitHub Wiki (if the plan ever changes) is a straightforward content move, not a redesign.
docs/user/ covers the full approved journey-based architecture, reviewed for completeness and coherence in Issue #12. The rest of the repository's engineering documentation remains the canonical reference for engineering-level detail that docs/user/ intentionally summarizes and links to rather than duplicates.
Core engineering documentation:
- README
- Documentation governance
- Constitution
- Onboarding
- AI collaboration
- Contributing
- Project guide
- Principles
- Style guide
- Roadmap
- Lessons learned
- Security reference
- Release checklist
- Developer guide
- Architecture docs
- Architecture Decision Records
- User documentation
Repository publication status: PASS.
Product release status: NOT_RELEASE_READY.
Product stage: Early Alpha.
The repository-publication gate is complete. GitHub Support ticket #4764498
is solved, known sensitive commits are not reachable from hosted branch or tag
tips, all 61 affected PR diff/code surfaces were removed while PR metadata and
discussion history were preserved, the repository is public, GitHub private
vulnerability reporting is enabled, and Main-Protection remains enforced.
PR #163 merged and post-merge public main CI passed on
9879b302709e8d9c72a7c4dd552add5ce031a5f1.
That closure does not authorize a product release. The next gate is the First Usable Alpha release-readiness plan, tracked by issue #164. The first downloadable release remains blocked until its install/start, beginner workflow, persistence, refresh, packaging, clean-machine smoke, and exact-head evidence requirements are complete. Issue #19 remains historically documented: the provider token was rotated on 2026-06-28, and the Product Owner approved leaving Git history as-is under Option A. The decision and rationale remain documented in LESSONS_LEARNED.md and docs/reference/SECURITY.md.
When user-facing behavior changes, completion evidence must review both repository engineering docs and docs/user/.
Use these outcomes in pull requests, issue completion summaries, and release reviews:
- Repository docs updated or reviewed with no update needed.
docs/user/updated, reviewed with no update needed, or tracked as follow-up.
Do not duplicate full repository engineering docs into docs/user/. Repository docs explain engineering truth; docs/user/ explains user-facing usage and links to repository docs for deeper detail.