AI-native development · Glossary term
What is Scope Contract?
A concrete agreement that defines a task's goal, allowed and forbidden surfaces, expected artifacts, verification requirements, and stopping conditions.
Why does Scope Contract matter?
It prevents an agent from turning a narrow fix into an unreviewable refactor or from claiming completion without evidence.
Scope Contract in practice
State that only the parser module and its tests may change, public APIs must remain compatible, and the named test suite must pass.
What is the common confusion about Scope Contract?
A task description says what you want. A scope contract also defines boundaries and proof.
Learn Scope Contract in the course
Start with
- Scope Contracts and Task Boundaries
The model does not know where the work ends. A scope contract is a per-task file that says where the work begins, where it ends, and how to roll back if it spills.
Taught in Phase 14: Agent Engineering.
Related terms
- Coding AgentAn agent specialized for software work that can inspect a repository, edit files, run development tools, and use their outputs to advance…
- PatchA reviewable representation of changes to one or more files, usually expressed as additions and deletions against a known base revision.
- Verification GateA control point that blocks progress until defined evidence satisfies a correctness or quality criterion.
- HandoffA structured transfer of a task between people or agents that preserves the objective, current state, evidence, decisions, constraints,…
- DelegationAssigning a bounded subtask to another person or agent together with the needed context, authority, output contract, and return conditions.
- Repository InstructionsVersion-controlled guidance that tells coding agents how a repository is organized, which commands and conventions apply, what boundaries…
- Repository MapA compact, maintained description of a repository's important directories, ownership boundaries, entry points, build commands, tests,…
- Reviewer AgentAn agent assigned to inspect another agent's artifact or decision against explicit criteria and return findings or a verdict.
- WorktreeIn Git, a working directory attached to a repository and branch or commit, with shared object storage but its own checked-out files and…
More terms in AI-native development
This entry comes from glossary/terms.md on GitHub. Browse all 250 glossary terms.