ADR-0008: Project manifest precedence and provenance

• Status: Accepted
• Date: 2026-07-15

Context

Projects need portable definitions, machine-local values, generated inference, live discoveries, and one-operation overrides without silently losing the origin of effective configuration.

Decision

Resolve each field using, highest first: runtime override, .switchyard/project.local.yml, .switchyard/project.yml, accepted generated inference, and live deterministic discovery. Retain field-level provenance and confidence. Unknown fields fail validation. Local overlays never rewrite the portable manifest.

Consequences

Users can explain and diff effective values. Merge logic must operate on typed models rather than generic maps. Schema versions and migrations are explicit, and proposals remain reviewable until accepted.