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+# SOTA Per Intent
+
+**The rule.** Every intent declares the **current state of the art** for the
+capability it promises: the alternatives that already exist and each one's rough
+maturity. From that declaration the intent recommends exactly one of three
+paths, and each path has its own gate:
+
+1. **Build on the SOTA alternative** — adopt the existing tool/library. Because
+   this adds a dependency, it is a **hard stop**: the user must approve before
+   adoption. (This is the standing new-dependency gate, now reached *through*
+   the SOTA declaration rather than at `go get` time.)
+2. **Build a basic native version, seam for SOTA later** — a minimal internal
+   solution that achieves the intent now, **designed so the SOTA alternative can
+   be plugged in later** behind a seam. This path **proceeds without a stop** —
+   its licence to skip approval is precisely that it keeps adoption open. The
+   seam must be real, not asserted.
+3. **Bespoke, no swap possible** — the SOTA alternative cannot be used now **and**
+   cannot be plugged in later either (no viable seam). This is a **hard stop**:
+   the user reviews to decide *how much complexity* the permanent internal
+   solution should carry. A merely *deferred* seam is still path 2; path 3 is
+   only for a genuine commitment to a permanent bespoke solution.
+
+The load-bearing idea: **the SOTA alternative always stays on the table.** A
+native build earns its way past the approval gate by keeping the option to adopt
+open (path 2); the only way to close that option (path 3) is a decision the user
+makes deliberately, having chosen the complexity level.
+
+**Why.** [prefer-sota](prefer-sota.md) makes SOTA the default bar and supplies
+the fit-challenge that stops "it's SOTA" from laundering a preference violation.
+This principle is what that verdict *produces at the intent boundary*: a written,
+per-intent record of where the field is, and a decision that is honest about
+which of the three postures the intent takes. It closes two failure modes at
+once. Silent over-adoption — pulling in a heavy dependency without the user
+weighing it — is blocked by gate 1. Silent lock-in — building a bespoke thing
+that quietly forecloses ever adopting the better external tool — is blocked by
+gate 3; the default, path 2, is abcd's house pattern (a native floor with an
+easy opt-in to a superior backend, per [adr-22](../decisions) /
+[adr-26](../decisions)), and it is allowed to proceed *because* the seam keeps
+the field's best answer reachable. The declaration also ages well: maturity is
+rough and dated, so a path-2 intent can be revisited when the SOTA alternative
+matures enough to be worth adopting.
+
+**Bounds.**
+
+- The SOTA declaration is per intent and rough — existing alternatives + a
+  coarse maturity read (e.g. experimental / usable / mature / de-facto
+  standard), not a survey. It is the input to the path choice, not a deliverable
+  of its own.
+- Path 2 is the default and the only stop-free path, and only while the seam is
+  genuine. If, during build, the seam turns out not to be viable, the intent has
+  become path 3 — stop and take the complexity decision to the user; never
+  quietly harden a bespoke solution that can no longer adopt SOTA.
+- Gate 1 and the standing "new dependency ⇒ ask first" rule are the same gate;
+  this principle routes the dependency decision through the SOTA declaration so
+  the user approves *with the alternatives and maturities in front of them*.
+- A path-2 seam is a design constraint, not a promise to build the adapter now:
+  the adapter lands only when a phase consumes it ([wired or it isn't done]),
+  but the interface must not foreclose it.
+
+**Scope.** A propagated default, like [prefer-sota](prefer-sota.md): it holds for
+every abcd-managed repo as one of the opinionated conventions abcd installs, and
+its home in a managed repo is the marked working-conventions section abcd writes
+into `AGENTS.md`. abcd's own record carries the normative statement here.
+
+**Composes with.** [prefer-sota](prefer-sota.md) (the adversary→verdict protocol
+that *produces* the SOTA read this principle declares); [script-first-mvp](script-first-mvp.md)
+and [one-canonical-primitive](one-canonical-primitive.md) (what a good path-2
+native floor looks like); [loud-staging](loud-staging.md) (a path-2 build says
+loudly what is basic-now-vs-SOTA-later); [verifier-selects-gates-decide](verifier-selects-gates-decide.md)
+(gates 1 and 3 are the human's decision, not the recommender's).
+
+**Promotion.** MVP: this principle plus a `## SOTA` section in the intent
+template (the alternatives + maturity + the path-1/2/3 recommendation), carried
+in `intents/README.md` and `brief/04-surfaces/05-intent.md`. Discipline: an
+`intent_sota` record-lint gate that a promoted intent must carry a non-empty
+`## SOTA` declaration naming a path, with gate 1 / gate 3 intents blocked from
+`plan`/`ship` until an approval or complexity-decision receipt is recorded —
+promoted to a discipline-kind intent when the mechanical gate is built.