TFD-021: R&D Stage 2 Decisions — Plugin Distribution & toolkit-catalog Foundry Bundle

TFD-021: R&D Stage 2 Decisions — Plugin Distribution & toolkit-catalog Foundry Bundle

Status: Accepted Date: 2026-05-14 Decision maker: CTO (Clara) · Facilitated by Oscar (CEO) · Approved by the board (Brendan)

Context

R&D Analyst (Riley) completed two coupled evaluations:

  • REQ-EXEC-024 — Plugin .zip / --plugin-url distribution for digital talents (Score: 3.4, 2026-05-11)
  • REQ-EXEC-031 — toolkit-catalog foundry bundle: installable skill-set + CONTEXT.md convention (Score: 3.8, 2026-05-14, extends 024)

Both require a Stage 2 decision per the R&D pipeline (TFD-012). 031 explicitly extends 024 — deciding them separately would fragment one delivery story. Source: RD-0006 video analysis (Pocock skills repo — distribution as a product feature). Strategic frame: delivery-model-foundry-not-hosted (customers run talents independently, no hosted lock-in).

Decision

Both: Go — coupled, spike-first. One delivery program, not two tracks. 024 provides the mechanism (.zip / --plugin-url); 031 provides the payload (curated toolkit-catalog bundle) and the discipline (CONTEXT.md token convention). Foundry productization spine — aligned with the long-term mission to commercialize the factory.

Actions

  1. Owner: Diego (Deployment Specialist) leads the unified packaging + release pipeline. Pablo (Production Line Architect) owns the bundle convention upstream so production-line Stage 5 emits it natively.
  2. Spike-first gate: GitHub Releases for v1 (free, versioned, SHA256 integrity). Spike with one low-stakes talent — NOT agent-ea (frozen v1, too political). Measure install friction before any broad retrofit.
  3. Bundle convention: Pablo defines what ships in a talent bundle — agent + skills + hooks + optional .mcp.json + CONTEXT.md + client README. CONTEXT.md is a small standalone sub-deliverable (cheap, measurable token gain).
  4. Only after spike passes: update /deploy-package and /deploy-checklist; demote OneDrive copy-paste to documented enterprise fallback.
  5. Out of scope: the grill-workshop idea (separate RD-0006 intake item, parked); plugin manifest security/signing architecture (Pablo/Elena domain, separate work).

Risk

Medium — factory takes on hosting/versioning responsibility and the plugin manifest format is still evolving (possible refactor in ~6 months). Contained by the spike gate before any broad retrofit. Does not block STM handover #1 (OneDrive remains the fallback).

References

  • REQ-EXEC-024, REQ-EXEC-031, RD-0006
  • TFD-012 (R&D pipeline), TFD-015 (prior Stage 2 batch precedent)
  • feedback_delivery-model-foundry-not-hosted