writeonce/docs/08-project-structure.md

08 — Project structure: the writeonce monorepo

Canonical map of the repository: what every root directory is, who writes to it, and where it is headed as the OOP + systems tracks land. Companion to CLAUDE.md (working rules) and the two track specs (superpowers/specs/2026-08-01-oop-compiler-vm-design.md, superpowers/specs/2026-08-01-systems-track-design.md). Plan documents govern the target entries; this doc is the one place the whole shape is visible.

The one-page map

writeonce-all/
├── compiler/            ⏳ OCaml `woc` — lexer→parser→types→owner→emit (plans 2, 8)
├── runtime/             ✅ C runtime — wo-rt.c event-loop reference + ⏳ src/ wovm VM (plans 1, 4–7, 9)
├── crates/              ✅ Rust runtime `rt` + 14 phase-scaffold crates — active until C-stack parity
├── tests/               ⏳ corpus/ — conformance fixtures: run / compile-fail / trap / gc / sys / actor / db
├── client/              ⏳ wo-live.js — the ~20 KB live-patch browser runtime (plan 7)
├── scripts/             ⏳ oop-e2e.sh, oop-parity.sh — corpus + parity harnesses (plan 3)
├── prototypes/          ✅ wo-db C++ query-engine reference; ⚠ wo-rt-c = stale duplicate of runtime/
├── .dev/reference/           ✅ v1 crates workspace, colibri, llama-cpp; linux/ + go/ symlinks (per-dev)
├── docs/                ✅ ALL documentation: numbered design docs, plan/, runtime/, examples/, superpowers/
├── content/ data/ wo-data/ static/ templates/ infra/   ✅ v1 blog operating assets (migration-plan governed)
├── justfile             recipes: rt-c-demo/bench today; woc-/wovm-/oop-accept as plans land
├── Cargo.toml           the Rust workspace root (crates/*; .dev/reference/crates excluded)
└── .dev/                gitignored per-developer links + commit.md draft (see .dev/README.md)

✅ exists today · ⏳ created by a named plan · ⚠ cleanup note (below).

Root directories in detail

compiler/ — the OCaml woc compiler (target)

Created by plan 2 (docs/plan/compiler/2026-08-01-woc-compiler-front.md), grown by plans 3 and 8.

compiler/
├── dune-project
├── README.md            orientation: pipeline map, build/test commands
├── plan/                compiler-track docs: architecture.md + plans 2, 3, 8
│                        (recorded exception to the docs-under-docs/ rule)
├── src/                 one module per stage: diag, token, lexer, ast, parser,
│                        types, owner, emit, disasm, dump
├── bin/main.ml          the woc executable (check/emit/build modes)
└── test/                golden runner + golden/ fixtures per stage

Doctrine: OCaml stdlib only — no Menhir, no ppx, no opam libraries; handwritten lexer and recursive-descent parser. Architecture map with the marked reference-study paths: docs/plan/compiler/architecture.md.

runtime/ — the C runtime (canonical, partially landed)

The root-level home of the C track. Today it holds the shipped thread-per-core io_uring reference (wo-rt.c, phases A–F done — see plan/exploration/c-runtime/00-plan.md) plus its bench/ and Makefile. The VM and every runtime module land beside it under src/:

runtime/
├── Makefile             wo-rt today; wovm + test targets as plan 1 lands
├── README.md            orientation only (docs rule: real docs live under docs/)
├── wo-rt.c              UNTOUCHED phase A–F event-loop reference
├── bench/               HTTP bench + goref/ Go comparison server
├── src/                 ⏳ wob.h, obj, borrow, cont, gc, loader, vm, builtin, main   (plan 1)
│                        ⏳ sched, mailbox, shard                                     (plan 4)
│                        ⏳ table, wal, db                                            (plan 5)
│                        ⏳ http, json, router, handlers                              (plan 6)
│                        ⏳ ws, sub, htmlx, assets                                    (plan 7)
│                        ⏳ sys_env, sys_fs, sys_proc, sys_net, sys_time              (plan 9)
└── test/                ⏳ t.h harness, wob_build assembler, test_*.c, cli_smoke.sh

Doctrine: C11, libc only, direct syscalls; computed-goto dispatch with -DWO_ISO_C fallback; ASan (+TSan from plan 4) gates.

crates/ — the Rust runtime (active, retiring on parity)

Unchanged from CLAUDE.md's description: rt is the monolithic Stage-2 runtime producing the wo binary; the 14 unprefixed siblings (ql, value, engine, txn, db, wal, sub, http, gen, policy, logic, service, ui, app) are phase scaffolds. Retirement path: stays authoritative until the C stack passes the parity harness (plan 3 task 7, plan 6 blog smoke); then moves under .dev/reference/ the way v1 did. Until that day, nothing here is refactored to accommodate the C track.

tests/, scripts/, client/ — the proof layer (target)

• tests/corpus/ — the conformance spine (plan 3): run/, compile-fail/, trap/, then gc/ (plan 3), db/ (plan 5), actor/ (plan 4), sys/ (plan 9), sample-logwatcher/ (plan 10), lang/ (plan 8). Exact-outcome matching: byte-equal stdout, exact WO-E###, exact trap code.
• scripts/ — oop-e2e.sh (corpus runner), oop-parity.sh (Rust-overlap manifest runner).
• client/ — wo-live.js, the hand-written no-framework live-patch runtime (plan 7).

prototypes/ — reference implementations (frozen)

• wo-db/ — the ~2k-line C++ query-layer prototype (SQL + Cypher + document paths). Stays: it is the semantic reference plan 5 cites. make test must keep passing.
• wo-rt-c/ — ⚠ stale duplicate. The content moved to root runtime/ (both are currently git-tracked). Slated for deletion once the user confirms nothing references it; justfile/doc references already point at runtime/. Nothing new lands here — repo rule: prototypes receive nothing new.

.dev/reference/ — read-only study material

• crates/ — the 13 v1 wo-* crates, a nested Cargo workspace (build with cd .dev/reference/crates && cargo build). Preserved per the wo-seg migration plan (runtime/database/07-wo-seg-migration.md).
• colibri/, llama-cpp/ — vendored study trees (zero-dep C inference engine; MoE runtime) — see .dev/reference/colibri/.
• linux/, go/ — per-developer symlinks to kernel and Go sources (gitignored; recreate per CLAUDE.md).
• rest/ — .rest HTTP files driving manual smoke against a running runtime; plan 6's blog smoke scripts the same sequences.

docs/ — all documentation

docs/
├── 00-*,01,08-*.md      status / principles / problem / structure docs
├── runtime/             the 7-phase database design series + runtime concept refs
├── examples/            log-watcher/, employee/, employee-list/ samples
├── plan/                numbered engineering plans 00–16, linux/ cards, assembly/,
│   ├── exploration/     c-runtime/ (A–F, done), linux/, postgresql/, assembly/
│   └── oop-vm/          ⏳ the OOP-track contracts: 00-wob-format, 01-error-catalog,
│                        02-corpus, 03-shard-actor, 04-db-binding, 05-http-service,
│                        06-ui-live, 07-systems-stdlib
├── superpowers/
│   ├── specs/           the two approved track specs (2026-08-01)
│   └── plans/           implementation plans 1–10 (2026-08-01, prose-only)
└── cm.md               legacy notes

Repo rule restated: documentation belongs here; code directories keep one orientation README each.

v1 blog operating assets — content/, data/, wo-data/, static/, templates/, infra/

The original writeonce blog's articles (content/), its data directories, .htmlx templates (templates/ — cited by the UI track as concrete v1 usage), static files, and deploy config. Governed by the wo-seg migration plan; untouched by the OOP/systems tracks except as reference. target/ is cargo build output (ignored).

.dev/ — developer-local state

Gitignored symlinks into per-machine AI-tooling state plus commit.md, the running commit-message draft (the user commits; agents only append drafts). See .dev/README.md.

Lifecycle: how the shape evolves

Stage	What changes at the root
Today	runtime/ holds wo-rt.c; crates/rt serves Stage 2; plans are paper.
After plans 1–3 (milestone 1)	compiler/ + runtime/src/ + tests/corpus/ + scripts/ exist; woc build emits single binaries; prototypes/wo-rt-c deleted.
After plans 4–7	runtime/src/ carries shard/db/http/ui modules; client/ exists; the C stack serves the blog sample end to end.
After plans 8–10	systems stdlib in runtime/src/sys_*; docs/examples/log-watcher/ proves program mode.
Parity	crates/ moves to .dev/reference/crates-v2/ (naming decided then); the wo toolchain name transfers to the C stack; Cargo.toml shrinks accordingly.

Build sequence

The order the project completes, with the two parallel windows made explicit:

1. runtime/ VM core — plan 1 (.wob format + wovm: memory model, loader, interpreter). No dependencies; the format doc it pins is everyone's contract.
2. compiler/ front — plan 2 (woc: lexer→parser→types→owner). Independent of plan 1 — may run in parallel with it; needs apt install ocaml dune.
3. Emit + end-to-end — plan 3 (bytecode emitter, conformance corpus, woc build single binary, acceptance gate). Needs 1 + 2. Milestone 1 done here.
4. Two tracks fork and can proceed in parallel:
   • Server track (sequential within): plan 4 shard-actor runtime → plan 5 DB engine binding → plan 6 HTTP service layer → plan 7 UI/.htmlx/LIVE.
   • Systems track (sequential within): plan 8 Haxe-parity language → plan 9 program mode + stdlib → plan 10 log-watcher sample. Only seam with the server track: the JSON codec shared between plans 6 and 9 (either lands it, noted in both).
5. Parity + retirement — parity harnesses green (plans 3/6), then crates/ (Rust) retires to .dev/reference/ and the wo name transfers to the C toolchain.

Rule of thumb: runtime → compiler → emit → {shard → db → http → ui} ∥ {language → stdlib → sample} → parity.

Naming conventions (recap)

• New runtime crates: unprefixed (ql, db, …). V1 crates: wo- prefixed, in .dev/reference/crates/.
• Binaries: wo (Rust toolchain today), woc (OCaml compiler), wovm (C VM); at parity the wo name moves to the C toolchain.
• C prototype directory names keep their historical wo- prefixes (wo-db).
• Plan/spec files: YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md under docs/superpowers/{specs,plans}/; numbered engineering plans under docs/plan/.