Waypoint™ System Architecture and Integration Specification

1. Purpose

This specification defines the logical architecture for Waypoint™ and the boundaries required to support Design, Plan, Execute, Deliver, governance, reporting, and extensible integrations.

It intentionally avoids premature commitment to a specific deployment topology where the product requirements do not require one.

2. Architecture goals

Waypoint™ should be:

modular by lifecycle domain;
durable across long-running work;
event-capable;
API-first;
integration-friendly;
provider-neutral at the core;
observable;
recoverable;
secure by default;
suitable for multiple concurrent projects and workers;
able to evolve from a practical modular application into independently scalable services if needed.

3. Recommended architecture style

Begin with a modular service-oriented application/control plane with strong domain boundaries rather than immediately creating many distributed microservices.

Logical modules:

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|                       WAYPOINT UI                            |
| Design | Plan | Execute | Deliver | Reports | Decisions     |
+-------------------------------+------------------------------+
                                |
                           API / BFF
                                |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|                    WAYPOINT CONTROL PLANE                    |
| Project/Lifecycle | Governance | Orchestration | Reporting   |
| Worker Registry   | Artifacts  | Events        | Integrations|
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
     |             |             |             |
     v             v             v             v
  Design         Plan          Execute       Deliver
  Domain         Domain        Domain        Domain
     |             |             |             |
     +-------------+------+------+-------------+
                          |
                    Canonical Store
                    Event / Run State
                    Artifact Store
                          |
        +-----------------+-------------------+
        |                 |                   |
       Jira             GitHub          Provider Adapters
                                      Cloud / CI / Agents /
                                      Deployment / Messaging

Logical boundaries should be preserved even if initially deployed together.

4. User experience layer

The UI should provide lifecycle-oriented experiences:

project dashboard;
Design workspace/conversation;
document/artifact review;
Plan visualization;
hierarchy/dependency view;
stream/sprint view;
execution control room;
worker/agent view;
human decision queue;
delivery/release view;
reporting/analytics;
audit/evidence explorer;
administration/integrations.

Jira should not be required for a user to understand project state.

5. API layer

Waypoint™ should expose stable APIs for:

project lifecycle;
design artifacts;
requirements/decisions;
plans/work hierarchy;
execution;
workers/capabilities;
gates/approvals;
delivery;
reporting;
integrations;
administration.

The API should use Waypoint™ domain concepts.

External-provider IDs should be represented as references, not primary API semantics.

6. Reporting API

Reporting is a first-class architecture surface.

The reporting/query API should provide:

project and portfolio summaries;
lifecycle state;
hierarchy progress;
requirements coverage;
estimates/actuals;
streams/sprints;
capacity/allocation;
worker/agent activity;
quality;
failures/exceptions;
delivery;
gates/approvals;
cost;
audit/evidence.

6.1 API characteristics

Reporting endpoints should support, as appropriate:

filtering;
sorting;
pagination;
time ranges;
project/portfolio scope;
historical trends;
aggregations;
drill-through identifiers;
authorization;
stable versioning.

The reporting API may use optimized projections rather than transactional joins.

6.2 Reporting module

A first-party Waypoint™ Reporting Module should consume the same governed reporting interfaces available to authorized external clients.

This prevents reporting from becoming tightly coupled to the UI or Jira.

7. Design domain

Responsibilities:

conversational design sessions;
structured project knowledge;
requirements;
decisions;
design artifacts;
readiness;
design approval/handoff.

AI/model orchestration belongs behind a replaceable provider interface.

8. Planning domain

Responsibilities:

decomposition;
hierarchy;
dependencies;
estimates;
streams;
timeboxes;
capability requirements;
allocation forecast;
Jira materialization/reconciliation;
plan approval/versioning.

9. Execution domain

Responsibilities:

readiness evaluation;
scheduler;
worker matching;
reservations;
dispatch;
run state;
workspaces;
testing/validation;
evidence;
failure recovery;
execution actuals.

10. Delivery domain

Responsibilities:

delivery units;
release/promotion;
delivery gates;
provider invocation;
post-delivery validation;
rollback/recovery;
acceptance;
handoff.

11. Governance domain

Responsibilities:

policy;
gates;
approvals;
exceptions;
risk;
authorization;
stop/pause controls;
audit requirements;
cost controls.

Governance should be callable from every lifecycle domain.

12. Worker Registry

The Worker Registry should manage:

workers;
agent profiles;
instances;
capabilities;
skills;
tools;
execution environments;
capacity;
health;
cost metadata;
permissions/policy associations.

13. Persistence

Waypoint™ requires several persistence concerns.

13.1 Canonical relational store

Recommended for:

project/domain entities;
versions;
relationships;
approvals;
run metadata;
integration references.

A relational database is a strong default because of transactional integrity and traceability needs.

13.2 Artifact store

For:

Markdown documents;
diagrams;
generated packages;
logs/reports where appropriate;
evidence artifacts.

Artifacts should have metadata/checksum/version references in the canonical store.

13.3 Event/run store

Durable orchestration state is required for long-running workflows and recovery.

This may be implemented through database-backed workflow state initially and later evolve to a dedicated workflow/event platform if scale warrants.

13.4 Reporting projections

Read-optimized projections should support dashboards and APIs without stressing transactional workflows.

14. Event architecture

Waypoint™ should publish internal domain events for material changes.

Consumers may include:

orchestration;
reporting projections;
notifications;
integrations;
audit;
automation.

Initial implementation may use a transactional outbox and durable internal processing rather than requiring a large external event platform.

Critical rule:

State change and event publication must not diverge silently.

15. Long-running orchestration

Projects and execution runs may span minutes, days, or months.

The orchestration layer must support:

durable state;
timers;
retries;
wait-for-human;
wait-for-external-event;
cancellation;
resume;
compensation/reconciliation;
correlation.

Long-running lifecycle state must not depend on an in-memory process or LLM conversation.

16. Integration architecture

Integrations should use adapters with normalized contracts.

Categories:

work management;
source control;
AI/agent runtime;
cloud/infrastructure;
CI/CD;
deployment;
identity;
messaging/notifications;
artifact/document storage;
observability;
reporting/BI.

An adapter should expose provider capabilities without leaking provider-specific semantics throughout the core.

17. Jira adapter

The Jira adapter may support:

project/config discovery;
issue hierarchy create/update;
descriptions;
labels;
estimates;
sprints;
links/dependencies;
status transitions;
comments;
reconciliation;
webhook/event ingestion.

Waypoint™ retains canonical work identity and plan semantics.

18. GitHub adapter

The GitHub adapter may support:

repository discovery;
branch/worktree-related lifecycle references;
commits;
pull requests;
reviews;
checks;
merges;
releases;
webhook/event ingestion.

GitHub behavior should be driven by project policy.

19. Agent runtime adapters

Agent integrations should normalize:

create/start worker;
provide context;
tool/environment references;
heartbeat/status;
output/artifact collection;
cancellation;
completion/failure;
usage/cost telemetry.

The core should not depend on a single agent runtime.

20. Cloud and delivery adapters

Adapters should support provider-specific:

plan/preview;
apply/deploy;
status;
validate;
rollback/recovery;
evidence.

Provider-specific implementation remains behind the adapter boundary.

21. Webhooks and inbound events

Waypoint™ should support inbound events from external systems.

Requirements:

signature/authentication verification;
idempotent ingestion;
event persistence;
correlation to canonical entities;
replay/reprocessing;
dead-letter/error handling;
audit.

Polling may supplement providers without suitable events.

22. Authentication and authorization

Waypoint™ should separate:

user identity;
worker identity;
service/integration identity.

Authorization should be policy-based and scoped by:

project;
action;
lifecycle stage;
environment;
resource;
role.

Provider credentials should be stored in a secrets manager or provider connection mechanism.

23. API and integration versioning

Public/adapter contracts should be versioned.

Breaking provider changes should be isolated within adapters where possible.

Project artifacts should record relevant integration/runtime versions when material to reproducibility.

24. Observability architecture

Waypoint™ should emit:

structured logs;
metrics;
traces/correlation;
domain events;
audit events;
health status.

Correlation IDs should connect:

user action
→ lifecycle operation
→ work item
→ execution run
→ external calls
→ evidence
→ delivery

25. Background processing

Background workers may perform:

synchronization;
reconciliation;
event projection;
scheduling;
heartbeat/stall checks;
reporting projection refresh;
notifications;
cleanup;
evidence processing.

Jobs must be idempotent/restartable where practical.

26. Deployment topology

Initial deployment should favor operational simplicity while preserving module boundaries.

A plausible initial topology:

web application/API;
background worker/orchestrator;
relational database;
artifact storage;
secrets/identity provider;
optional queue/event infrastructure.

Separate scaling can be introduced for agent dispatch, reporting, or event processing when actual load requires it.

27. Extensibility

Waypoint™ should support extension through:

integration adapters;
worker providers;
capability definitions;
skills;
project templates;
policy rules;
reporting clients/modules;
delivery providers.

Extensions must not require modifying core lifecycle semantics.

28. Architecture decision records

Material architecture choices should be recorded as ADRs, including:

persistence technology;
workflow/orchestration engine;
event mechanism;
authentication;
artifact storage;
API style;
deployment platform;
agent-runtime strategy.

The design package should avoid prematurely locking these where requirements do not yet justify a choice.

29. Initial architecture completion criteria

The initial architecture must support:

all four lifecycle domains;
Control Plane governance;
canonical persistence;
versioned artifacts;
durable execution;
Jira integration;
Git/source-control integration for software projects;
at least one agent runtime;
at least one delivery provider;
reporting/query APIs;
event-driven projection/notification capability;
audit/evidence;
secure identities/credentials;
recoverable external operations.