open-reuse/ProductRequirementsDocument.md

open-reuse PRD

Product Requirements Document

1. Document Status

Product: open-reuse
Document Type: Product Requirements Document
Status: Draft v0.1
Primary Audience: Product, engineering, maintainers, platform teams, open-source integration owners
Related Artifacts: INTENT.md, future Integration Definition Schema, future Functional Requirements Specification
Framing Reference: This PRD follows the InfoTechPrimer understanding of a PRD as a product-definition artifact that captures purpose, scope, constraints, and success criteria without prescribing implementation details. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

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2. Product Summary

open-reuse is a framework and service for transforming valuable open-source integrations into structured, registered, and automatically maintained integration assets.

It starts after an integration has already been built, tested, and deemed useful. open-reuse then helps analyze, classify, refactor, reframe, register, monitor, validate, update, and escalate that integration as upstream open-source code evolves.

The product exists to prevent valuable open-source reuse from degrading into hidden coupling, unmanaged forks, brittle patches, silent drift, or long-term technical debt.

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3. One-Sentence Product Definition

open-reuse turns proven open-source integrations into structured, registered, and automatically maintained assets with explicit boundaries, validation, update policies, and maintainer escalation.

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4. Problem Statement

Open-source software is frequently reused across systems in pragmatic and valuable ways. Teams adapt components, depend on APIs, embed modules, copy useful code, patch upstream projects, or maintain lightweight forks.

These integrations often begin as successful engineering work. However, once they become important, they create a continuing dependency on upstream evolution.

Common failure modes include:

• The integration is not explicitly documented.
• The reused upstream surface is unclear.
• The boundary between local system and upstream project is leaky.
• Updates are handled manually and inconsistently.
• Breaking upstream changes are discovered too late.
• Security or license changes are missed.
• Local patches become difficult to understand.
• Forks silently diverge from upstream.
• Responsibility for the integration becomes unclear.
• Maintainers are notified only after something has already broken.

The result is that reuse, initially a strength, becomes a source of fragility.

open-reuse addresses this by making open-source reuse explicit, classified, testable, monitorable, and maintainable under change.

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5. Product Intent

open-reuse exists to provide a structured lifecycle for valuable open-source integrations after they have proven their usefulness.

The product shall support the transition from:

Working but informal integration

to:

Registered, classified, validated, and automatically maintained integration asset

The core product intent is to make sustainable reuse of open-source software possible at scale without relying on undocumented human memory or ad-hoc maintenance discipline.

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6. Target Users

6.1 Primary Users

Integration Maintainers

People or teams responsible for keeping a specific integration functional over time.

They need:

• Clear visibility into upstream changes
• Escalation when automation cannot safely proceed
• Evidence about why an update passed or failed
• Traceability of integration decisions

Platform Engineering Teams

Teams responsible for reusable internal platforms, developer experience, shared services, or enterprise architecture.

They need:

• A registry of integration assets
• Standardized integration definitions
• Update automation
• Policy-based control
• Auditable governance

Product Engineering Teams

Teams that build products by integrating open-source tools or components.

They need:

• A way to operationalize valuable integrations
• Protection against upstream breakage
• Reduced long-term maintenance burden
• Reliable dependency evolution

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6.2 Secondary Users

Security Teams

They need visibility into reused upstream code, security advisories, dependency exposure, and risky update conditions.

Legal / Compliance Teams

They need visibility into license changes, attribution requirements, and reuse patterns that may trigger compliance obligations.

Open-Source Program Offices

They need a structured view of how open-source software is reused internally and where upstream collaboration may be beneficial.

AI / Automation Agents

They may act as analysis, transformation, validation, or maintenance assistants operating on registered integration definitions.

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7. Product Goals

Goal 1: Make integrations explicit

open-reuse shall provide a structured way to describe open-source integrations, including upstream sources, reuse mode, local boundaries, validation requirements, update policies, and maintainers.

Goal 2: Classify reuse risk

open-reuse shall classify integrations by reuse pattern and associated maintenance risk.

Examples:

• Dependency reuse
• Plugin reuse
• Adapter reuse
• Component extraction
• Patch overlay
• Fork continuation

Goal 3: Support systematic refactoring into maintainable boundaries

open-reuse shall help teams reframe valuable integrations around explicit boundaries so upstream change can be isolated and tested.

Goal 4: Register integrations as managed assets

open-reuse shall provide a registry where structured integration definitions can be stored, inspected, searched, and governed.

Goal 5: Monitor upstream change

open-reuse shall track upstream releases, commits, tags, dependency updates, security advisories, license changes, and other relevant signals.

Goal 6: Validate integration continuity

open-reuse shall support automated validation of whether a registered integration still works after upstream change.

Goal 7: Automate safe maintenance

open-reuse shall support automated update attempts, validation runs, reporting, and update proposals where risk is acceptable.

Goal 8: Escalate uncertainty to humans

open-reuse shall notify registered maintainers when automation cannot safely complete an update or when policy requires review.

Goal 9: Preserve traceability

open-reuse shall maintain an audit trail of integration definitions, upstream versions, update attempts, validation results, maintainer actions, and escalation decisions.

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8. Non-Goals

open-reuse shall not initially aim to:

• Replace package managers
• Replace CI/CD systems
• Replace source control platforms
• Replace dependency update tools
• Replace security scanners
• Replace software composition analysis tools
• Become a general workflow automation platform
• Build initial integrations from scratch
• Guarantee automatic resolution of all upstream breaking changes
• Eliminate the need for maintainers
• Force all integrations into one implementation pattern

open-reuse complements existing developer tools by managing the lifecycle and continuity of valuable integrations.

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9. Product Scope

9.1 In Scope

The initial product scope includes:

• Definition of an open-reuse Integration Definition format
• Registration of integration definitions
• Classification of reuse modes
• Assignment of maintainers
• Tracking of upstream source references
• Tracking of local integration boundaries
• Definition of update policies
• Definition of validation requirements
• Upstream monitoring
• Change impact classification
• Automated validation triggers
• Escalation to maintainers
• Status reporting
• Audit trail of integration lifecycle events

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9.2 Out of Scope for Initial Version

The following are out of scope for the first product version:

• Fully autonomous code migration for all languages
• Full semantic understanding of arbitrary application architectures
• Complete legal compliance automation
• Complete vulnerability remediation automation
• Hosting of upstream code mirrors as a primary function
• Replacement of Renovate, Dependabot, OpenRewrite, CI systems, or SCA tools
• Multi-tenant enterprise billing
• Marketplace functionality
• Public SaaS operation as the default deployment model
• Automatic acceptance of risky updates without human approval

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10. Core Lifecycle

open-reuse shall support the following lifecycle:

Build Integration
→ Prove Value
→ Analyze Integration
→ Classify Reuse Mode
→ Refactor Boundaries
→ Create Integration Definition
→ Register Integration
→ Monitor Upstream Changes
→ Analyze Change Impact
→ Attempt Safe Update
→ Validate Integration
→ Report Result
→ Escalate if Required

Important lifecycle principle:

open-reuse starts after the integration has proven value.

It does not primarily optimize initial experimentation. It operationalizes successful reuse before it becomes unmanaged technical debt.

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11. Core Concepts

11.1 Integration

A working reuse relationship between a local system and one or more upstream open-source systems, repositories, packages, APIs, services, modules, files, schemas, or artifacts.

11.2 Proven Integration

An integration that has been built, tested, and deemed valuable enough to preserve and maintain.

11.3 Integration Definition

A structured, machine-readable description of a proven integration.

It includes:

• Integration identity
• Upstream source references
• Reuse mode
• Reused surfaces
• Local boundaries
• Validation requirements
• Update policies
• Maintainer assignments
• Escalation conditions
• Audit metadata

11.4 Reuse Mode

The classified pattern by which upstream open-source functionality is reused.

Initial reuse modes:

Reuse Mode	Description	Relative Risk
Dependency reuse	Upstream is consumed as a package, library, image, or service	Low
Plugin reuse	Upstream is extended through official extension points	Low to medium
Adapter reuse	Upstream behavior is wrapped behind a local interface	Medium
Component extraction	Selected internal parts of upstream are reused	High
Patch overlay	Local patches are maintained on top of upstream	High
Fork continuation	A local fork evolves separately but remains upstream-aware	Very high

11.5 Reuse Boundary

The explicit local seam between the host system and the reused upstream functionality.

Examples:

• Interface
• Port
• Adapter
• Wrapper service
• API facade
• Plugin boundary
• CLI boundary
• Schema boundary
• Event contract
• File-level copy boundary

11.6 Validation Harness

The set of automated checks used to determine whether the integration still works.

Examples:

• Unit tests
• Contract tests
• Integration tests
• Golden-path tests
• Snapshot tests
• Build checks
• API compatibility checks
• Schema compatibility checks
• Security scans
• License checks

11.7 Update Policy

Rules determining how upstream changes are handled.

Example outcomes:

• Ignore
• Monitor only
• Open issue
• Open update proposal
• Open pull request
• Auto-merge after validation
• Require maintainer review
• Block update
• Trigger escalation

11.8 Maintainer

A registered responsible person, team, group, or automation identity accountable for reviewing escalations and maintaining the integration.

11.9 Escalation Case

A situation where automation cannot safely proceed or policy requires human inspection.

Examples:

• Failed validation
• Breaking API change
• Changed license
• Security advisory
• Upstream deletion or archival
• Patch conflict
• Fork divergence
• Unknown change impact
• Missing maintainer
• Repeated automation failure

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12. Functional Product Capabilities

This section describes product-level capabilities without prescribing implementation details.

12.1 Integration Definition Management

open-reuse shall allow users to create, store, inspect, update, and version integration definitions.

The product shall support:

• Unique integration identity
• Human-readable description
• Upstream source references
• Local repository references
• Reuse mode classification
• Maintainer assignment
• Validation requirements
• Update policies
• Escalation rules
• Lifecycle status

12.2 Integration Registration

open-reuse shall allow a structured integration definition to be registered with the open-reuse service.

Registration shall result in:

• The integration becoming visible in the registry
• The integration being assigned a lifecycle state
• Monitoring being activated according to policy
• Maintainers becoming associated with escalation events
• Validation requirements becoming available to automation

12.3 Reuse Mode Classification

open-reuse shall support explicit classification of the integration’s reuse mode.

The classification should help determine:

• Risk level
• Recommended validation depth
• Update automation eligibility
• Escalation thresholds
• Governance requirements

12.4 Boundary Description

open-reuse shall allow users to describe the boundary between local system and reused upstream asset.

The boundary description should include:

• Boundary type
• Local interface or seam
• Reused upstream surface
• Expected compatibility assumptions
• Known fragility points

12.5 Upstream Monitoring

open-reuse shall monitor relevant upstream sources.

Supported upstream signals should include:

• Releases
• Tags
• Commits
• Dependency metadata
• Changelogs
• Security advisories
• License changes
• Repository archival status
• Breaking-change indicators where available

12.6 Change Impact Analysis

open-reuse shall classify detected upstream changes according to their likely impact on registered integrations.

Impact levels may include:

• No relevant impact
• Informational
• Safe update candidate
• Requires validation
• Requires review
• Blocking change
• Unknown impact

12.7 Update Handling

open-reuse shall support controlled update handling based on update policies.

Possible actions include:

• Record change only
• Trigger validation
• Create update proposal
• Create pull request
• Apply transformation recipe
• Request maintainer review
• Block update
• Escalate issue

12.8 Validation Execution

open-reuse shall integrate with validation mechanisms capable of proving whether the integration remains acceptable.

Validation results shall include:

• Pass/fail status
• Check category
• Execution timestamp
• Upstream version tested
• Local version tested
• Error details where available
• Required maintainer action if applicable

12.9 Escalation Management

open-reuse shall notify registered maintainers when human inspection is required.

Escalations shall include:

• Integration identity
• Upstream change summary
• Impact classification
• Failed checks, if any
• Recommended next action
• Severity
• Due or priority information where configured

12.10 Audit Trail

open-reuse shall preserve a traceable history of relevant events.

The audit trail shall include:

• Integration registration
• Definition changes
• Upstream changes detected
• Impact analysis results
• Validation results
• Update attempts
• Escalations
• Maintainer decisions
• Policy changes

12.11 Dashboard and Reporting

open-reuse shall provide visibility into the current state of registered integrations.

The product should expose:

• Healthy integrations
• Integrations requiring review
• Failed update attempts
• Stale integrations
• High-risk reuse modes
• Unassigned maintainer cases
• Security-sensitive escalations
• Integration drift indicators

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13. User Stories

13.1 Register a Proven Integration

As an integration maintainer, I want to register a proven integration with open-reuse, so that it can be monitored and maintained systematically.

Acceptance expectations:

• I can provide upstream source information.
• I can classify the reuse mode.
• I can identify local boundaries.
• I can assign maintainers.
• I can define validation requirements.
• The integration appears in the registry.

13.2 Classify Integration Risk

As a platform engineer, I want open-reuse to classify integrations by reuse mode, so that high-risk reuse patterns can receive stronger validation and governance.

Acceptance expectations:

• Each integration has a reuse mode.
• Risk level is visible.
• Missing classification is treated as incomplete.
• High-risk classifications can trigger stricter policy.

13.3 Monitor Upstream Changes

As an integration maintainer, I want open-reuse to detect relevant upstream changes, so that I do not need to manually watch every upstream project.

Acceptance expectations:

• Upstream versions are tracked.
• New releases or changes are detected.
• Relevant changes are associated with affected integrations.
• Irrelevant changes can be ignored or classified as informational.

13.4 Validate an Update

As a maintainer, I want open-reuse to run validation after upstream change, so that I can trust whether the integration still works.

Acceptance expectations:

• Validation is linked to the integration definition.
• Validation results are recorded.
• Failed validation creates an actionable result.
• Successful validation may allow automated continuation according to policy.

13.5 Escalate a Breaking Change

As a maintainer, I want to be notified when automation cannot safely handle a change, so that I can inspect and resolve the issue before production systems are harmed.

Acceptance expectations:

• Escalation includes reason and severity.
• Escalation includes affected integration.
• Escalation includes upstream change context.
• Escalation identifies expected maintainer action.

13.6 Inspect Integration Portfolio

As a platform owner, I want to see all registered integrations and their health, so that I can manage open-source reuse as a portfolio of assets.

Acceptance expectations:

• Integrations are searchable.
• Health status is visible.
• Risk classification is visible.
• Stale or failing integrations are highlighted.

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14. Product Requirements

14.1 Integration Definition Requirements

The product shall provide a structured Integration Definition format.

The format shall support at least:

• Integration name
• Description
• Owner or maintainer
• Upstream source
• Local consuming system
• Reuse mode
• Reused surface
• Local boundary
• Current upstream version or reference
• Update policy
• Validation policy
• Escalation policy
• Lifecycle status

14.2 Registry Requirements

The product shall provide an integration registry.

The registry shall support:

• Registering integrations
• Updating integration metadata
• Listing integrations
• Searching integrations
• Filtering by status, owner, reuse mode, and risk level
• Viewing integration details
• Recording lifecycle state

14.3 Monitoring Requirements

The product shall detect upstream changes relevant to registered integrations.

The product shall support configurable monitoring policies per integration.

14.4 Policy Requirements

The product shall allow users to define update and escalation policies.

Policies shall distinguish between:

• Safe automatic handling
• Review-required handling
• Blocked handling
• Escalation-required handling

14.5 Validation Requirements

The product shall connect registered integrations to validation checks.

Validation must be treated as a gate before updates are considered safe.

14.6 Maintainer Requirements

The product shall support assignment of maintainers to integrations.

The product shall notify maintainers when escalation conditions occur.

14.7 Traceability Requirements

The product shall maintain a historical record of integration lifecycle events.

Traceability shall be sufficient to answer:

• What changed upstream?
• Which integration was affected?
• What was attempted automatically?
• What validation ran?
• What failed?
• Who reviewed it?
• What decision was made?

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15. Non-Functional Requirements

15.1 Reliability

open-reuse shall be reliable enough to serve as a trusted maintenance coordination layer for important integrations.

It shall avoid silent failures in monitoring, validation, and escalation.

15.2 Transparency

The product shall make automation decisions inspectable.

Users should be able to understand why an update was accepted, blocked, or escalated.

15.3 Extensibility

The product shall support additional reuse modes, validation types, source providers, policy types, and notification channels over time.

15.4 Security

The product shall handle repository access, automation credentials, maintainer notification paths, and integration metadata securely.

It shall avoid unnecessary access to source code or secrets.

15.5 Auditability

The product shall preserve enough historical information to support operational review, compliance review, and post-incident analysis.

15.6 Portability

The product should not depend on a single source control provider, CI provider, or package ecosystem as a conceptual requirement.

15.7 Human Override

The product shall allow maintainers to override automation outcomes where policy permits.

15.8 Failure Containment

The product shall fail safely.

When it cannot classify, validate, or update confidently, it shall escalate rather than proceed silently.

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16. Lifecycle States

Registered integrations should support lifecycle states such as:

State	Meaning
Draft	Integration definition is being prepared
Registered	Integration is known to open-reuse
Active	Integration is monitored and maintained
Needs Review	Human inspection is required
Degraded	Integration has unresolved validation or update issues
Paused	Automation is intentionally suspended
Deprecated	Integration should be replaced or removed
Retired	Integration is no longer active

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17. Initial MVP Scope

The MVP should prove that open-reuse can register and maintain a small number of valuable integrations in a structured, inspectable way.

17.1 MVP Capabilities

The MVP should include:

1. Integration Definition Schema v0.1
2. Git-based storage of integration definitions
3. CLI or minimal service for registration
4. Basic registry listing
5. Manual or scheduled upstream version check
6. Reuse mode classification
7. Maintainer assignment
8. Validation command definition
9. Basic validation execution or integration with CI
10. Status reporting
11. Escalation output, at minimum as issue creation or notification
12. Audit log of key lifecycle events

17.2 MVP Reuse Modes

The MVP should initially support:

• Dependency reuse
• Adapter reuse
• Component extraction
• Patch overlay

Plugin reuse and fork continuation may be modeled but do not need full automation in the first MVP.

17.3 MVP Success Scenario

A team has a working integration with an upstream open-source project.

They create an open-reuse Integration Definition, register it, configure an upstream version source, define validation commands, and assign maintainers.

When upstream changes, open-reuse detects the change, records it, triggers validation, and reports whether the integration remains healthy.

If validation fails, open-reuse creates an escalation for the registered maintainer.

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18. Future Scope

Future versions may include:

• Web dashboard
• Deeper source-code impact analysis
• AI-assisted integration analysis
• AI-assisted reuse mode classification
• AI-assisted refactoring recommendations
• Transformation recipes
• Codemod integration
• Semantic API compatibility analysis
• License-change detection
• Security advisory integration
• Pull request generation
• Auto-merge for low-risk updates
• Organizational policy packs
• Integration health scoring
• Multi-repository portfolio analytics
• Integration drift metrics
• Maintainer workload tracking
• Open-source contribution recommendations
• Upstream collaboration workflows

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19. Success Metrics

open-reuse success should be measured by operational outcomes.

Potential metrics:

Metric	Meaning
Registered integrations	Number of integrations managed by open-reuse
Classified integrations	Percentage with explicit reuse mode
Boundary-defined integrations	Percentage with explicit local boundary
Automated update checks	Number of upstream checks executed
Validation coverage	Percentage with configured validation harness
Escalation precision	Percentage of escalations that required real human action
Mean time to detect upstream change	Time from upstream change to open-reuse detection
Mean time to validate update	Time from detection to validation result
Failed silent updates	Should trend toward zero
Integration drift	Difference between tracked and current upstream state
Maintainer response time	Time from escalation to review
Manual maintenance reduction	Reduction in ad-hoc update work

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20. Risks and Mitigations

20.1 Risk: Scope Becomes Too Broad

open-reuse could become a generic integration platform, dependency manager, CI system, or security tool.

Mitigation:

• Keep focus on post-success integration continuity.
• Integrate with existing tools rather than replacing them.
• Treat Integration Definition as the core product asset.

20.2 Risk: Automation Is Overtrusted

Users may assume open-reuse can safely resolve all upstream changes.

Mitigation:

• Default to escalation for uncertainty.
• Make confidence levels visible.
• Require validation before update acceptance.
• Avoid unsafe auto-merge defaults.

20.3 Risk: Definitions Become Documentation Only

Integration definitions could become stale if not connected to automation.

Mitigation:

• Treat definitions as executable configuration.
• Validate definitions regularly.
• Report stale or incomplete definitions.

20.4 Risk: High Setup Cost

Teams may resist writing structured integration definitions.

Mitigation:

• Provide templates.
• Support incremental adoption.
• Add analysis helpers.
• Allow draft definitions.
• Start with minimal required fields.

20.5 Risk: Hard-to-Classify Integrations

Real integrations may combine multiple reuse modes.

Mitigation:

• Allow composite reuse modes.
• Support primary and secondary classification.
• Permit unknown or transitional states with review.

20.6 Risk: Maintainer Fatigue

Too many escalations may reduce trust in the system.

Mitigation:

• Tune escalation thresholds.
• Group related alerts.
• Distinguish informational events from required actions.
• Improve impact analysis over time.

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21. Assumptions

The PRD assumes:

• Integrations are stored or described in version-controlled environments.
• Teams can provide at least minimal validation commands.
• Maintainers can be assigned to integration assets.
• Upstream sources expose detectable change signals.
• The first version may rely on existing CI, source control, and notification systems.
• Fully automated remediation is not required for product value.

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22. Dependencies

open-reuse may depend on or integrate with:

• Git repositories
• Source control providers
• CI/CD systems
• Package registries
• Container registries
• Dependency update tools
• Security advisory sources
• License scanning tools
• Issue trackers
• Notification systems
• Code transformation tools
• AI coding or analysis agents

These dependencies are external capabilities, not necessarily built into open-reuse itself.

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23. Open Questions

1. Should the first implementation be CLI-first, service-first, or GitHub/GitLab-app-first?
2. Should the Integration Definition Schema be YAML, JSON, CUE, Jsonnet, or another structured format?
3. Should open-reuse maintain its own registry database, or should git remain the source of truth?
4. What is the minimal validation model for MVP?
5. How should maintainers be represented: users, teams, roles, or external identities?
6. Should open-reuse distinguish technical maintainers, business owners, security owners, and legal reviewers?
7. Should integration definitions live in the consuming repository, a central registry repository, or both?
8. How strongly should open-reuse integrate with dependency update tools?
9. How should composite reuse modes be represented?
10. What is the first real-world integration to use as reference case?

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24. Acceptance Criteria for PRD v0.1

This PRD is acceptable if it enables the next artifacts to be created:

• Integration Definition Schema v0.1
• Functional Requirements Specification
• MVP architecture outline
• Use Case Catalog
• Initial CLI/service design
• Example integration definition
• Repository structure proposal

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25. Product Positioning

open-reuse occupies the space between:

• Package management
• CI/CD
• Dependency update automation
• Software composition analysis
• Source control
• Integration architecture
• Maintainer governance

Its unique position is the structured lifecycle of valuable reuse under upstream change.

The shortest positioning phrase is:

open-reuse starts after “it works” and before “it becomes technical debt.”