user-engine/docs/identity-domain-naming-decision.md

Identity Domain Naming Decision

Status: candidate Decision date: 2026-06-05

Context

user-engine is moving from a narrow user/profile service toward a NetKingdom identity-domain integration layer. That raises the question of whether the repository should be renamed to identity-engine, identity-domain-engine, or organization-engine.

Decision

Keep the repository named user-engine for USER-WP-0007 implementation.

Treat identity-engine or identity-domain-engine as future candidate names only after the canon interface card, mapping export, identity-context read model, NetKingdom adapter contracts, and conformance tests are established and reviewed.

Do not use organization-engine for this scope.

Rationale

• user-engine is already the implemented package, module, docs, and workplan identity.
• The current implementation still owns user-domain facts: users, accounts, identity links, profiles, memberships, catalogs, projections, audit, and events.
• identity-engine could imply ownership of the full identity provider, credential lifecycle, federation, MFA, token issuance, and IAM substrate unless the boundary is already well proven.
• organization-engine would imply ownership of organization, HR, authority, responsibility, reporting, legal entity, customer, vendor, and community modeling. Those are adjacent canon concepts, not this repo's current source of truth.

Rename Criteria

Revisit the name when all of the following are true:

• consumers primarily use the identity-context API rather than only user/profile APIs;
• NetKingdom IAM, authorization, audit, and evidence adapters are stable;
• identity-canon mappings are validated by executable scenarios;
• docs consistently describe the repo as an identity-domain facade and not as an identity provider;
• downstream consumers would be misled by the old user-engine name.

Consequences

• Existing imports, package names, workplans, and docs remain stable.
• The intent and interface card carry the strategic direction explicitly.
• Naming pressure becomes a tracked decision rather than hidden scope drift.