Reference implementation walkthrough

Northstar demonstrates the architecture required by Developing-in-Agentic-AI-Systems-Learning-Paths.md. Its extra mechanisms are registered in TECHNICAL-EXTENSIONS.md.

Current status: inspection only, not an accepted adoption release. The audit at b65c2de5c8224342c72c37eeed7ef9f965ad8a2c found operational defects despite passing application tests. See GUIDE-CONFORMANCE.md and AUDIT-2026-09-23.md. On 2026-09-28 the owner closed system-maintenance issues #14, #16, #20, #22 and #24, and their associated PRs, to retain demo-only open work. These closures are cancellations, not accepted fixes. Only demo issues #4 and #17 and draft demo PR #19 remain open.

Run and inspect

Use the exact commands, prerequisites, expected responses and cleanup in the WI-1842 runbook. It separates:

Proof	What it establishes	What it does not establish
Fixture demo:system	Local parser/policy/evaluation rehearsal	Live issue authority, valid approval or correct behavior of every evaluator path
Unit tests	In-process behavior of tested code paths	Distributed execution or hosted settings
PostgreSQL acceptance	Two service instances over actual database durability	Two independent server processes; existing suite uses Fastify injection
Additional audit harness	Real HTTP across independent processes and replay after restart	A committed regression suite or cloud-agent success
Historical issue #16 CLI canaries	Two separate worktrees matched task/contract/approved-plan/base/session/owner identity before issue #16 was closed	Write authorization, all hook events, recovery, VS Code behavior, or cloud acceptance
Historical cloud rehearsal, PR #13 (closed)	Planner correctly stopped without WI-1842 task authority; no plan or files were produced	Implementation-to-acceptance completion
Historical issue #16 cloud attempt, PR #29 (closed)	GitHub.com run created a draft PR on main with zero changed files	The approved 17e7a5c… base, independent cloud isolation, or a successful agent outcome

The runbook’s local ready_for_review output must not be presented as ready_for_acceptance. Closed PR #27’s historical local validation (500 unit tests, 10 PostgreSQL acceptance tests, scope, and merge checks) did not make it accepted: its full validate:all run failed on 84 Zizmor findings and its hosted evidence and repository-controls checks failed. The owner closed the system-maintenance workstream without resolving those blockers.

Trace the control loop

Read the live issue, machine plan, risk policy, approval records, scoped implementation, deterministic checks, execution report and independent acceptance in that order. The implementation map locates these artifacts. Stop when live authority, evidence or hosting controls are missing; never replace them with fixture data.

Select features for another repository

Start with QUICKSTART.md: contracts/context, independent checks/review, read-only roles, MCP governance and Continuous AI are separate guide practices. The integrated Northstar protocol is a coupled bundle and is currently blocked for adoption.

The full installation reference preserves the detailed bootstrap procedure for a future accepted release. Selecting one practice does not make the whole repository conformant.

Prepare a technical session

Use WI-1842 for the observed local application invariant and the honestly blocked cloud handoff. Maintenance issues #14, #16, #20, #22 and #24 and their PRs were closed by the owner as scope cancellations; those closures do not resolve the conformance blockers. The order-read endpoint has a draft candidate rebased onto 17e7a5c, plus local PostgreSQL evidence and an approved exact-head review; full Zizmor, hosted repository-controls and cross-surface proof remain outstanding. See the endpoint runbook. Pin recordings and artifacts to exact commits; label designs, rehearsals and completed hosted runs separately.