Engineering Principles
The ideas that outlast the implementation. When in doubt, these decide.
Tools change. Principles are how ichi stays coherent across those changes. Each one is a tiebreaker for real decisions.
Everything is connected
The same structure recurs across domains. Solve a problem well in one place and you have likely solved it in three. Design for the connection, not the instance.
Less, but better
Fewer parts, higher quality. Every added tool, feature, or service is a standing liability. The default answer to “should we add this?” is no.
Documentation compounds
Writing down the reasoning pays returns long after the code is gone. A decision explained once saves the same argument ten times. This handbook exists because of this principle.
Human judgment is the final authority
Automation proposes; a person disposes. Nothing ships, spends, or publishes without a human gate. Speed is delegated; direction is not.
Engineering economics
Every choice has a carrying cost — attention, maintenance, failure modes. Optimise for total cost of ownership over time, not the cleverness of the moment. Boring is cheaper.
Platform first
Build capabilities that many things can use, not features that serve one case. A reasoning engine, a knowledge layer, a publishing pipeline — each is a platform other work stands on.
Single source of truth
One canonical place for each kind of knowledge. Duplication is where drift begins, and drift is where trust dies. When two records disagree, the system has already failed.