Intelligence-Research-OS
wiki/decisions/2026-05-22-progressive-template-support.md
ADR: Progressive Template Support
Date: 2026-05-22
Status: Accepted
Context
The Intelligence Research OS product layer defines twelve use cases, but the Competitive Intelligence path is the only vertical with the deepest executable workflow today. Hiding the other use cases would make the product surface look narrower than the actual strategy, while presenting them as equally complete would misrepresent readiness.
Decision
Keep all twelve mission templates visible, but encode support level explicitly: Competitive Intelligence is fully actionable; non-CI templates remain selectable mission specs with partial support and specialized vertical output packs marked pending.
Rationale
- Preserves the full product ambition in the workbench without overclaiming completeness.
- Allows shared mission/source/evidence/synthesis infrastructure to be exercised across use cases.
- Keeps the UI honest by showing status and next action for incomplete verticals.
- Avoids creating a separate roadmap artifact disconnected from the actual product surface.
Alternatives Considered
| Option | Why rejected |
|---|---|
| Hide all non-CI templates | Too narrow; obscures the intended multi-use-case Intelligence OS direction. |
| Mark all templates as production-ready | Misleading; specialized output rendering and source-backed vertical logic are not complete for eleven templates. |
| Split templates into a separate roadmap page only | Makes the product direction less visible in the actual workbench. |
Consequences
- Mission templates need explicit support metadata.
- UI cards must communicate partial support and next action.
- Tests should continue checking that all templates render while preserving CI as the only fully actionable vertical.
- Future vertical work can graduate templates from partial to full without changing the overall IA.