Public product constitution · v1.0
Intent-Preserving Product Constitution
Software should preserve the user's signal, infer the next safe step, and offer that help where the person is already working.
Preserve the user's intent. Complete what the system can safely infer. Make assistance visible, reversible, and optional. Never make a person restate what the interface already knows.
Non-negotiable interaction rules
The interface owes the user continuity.
These are observable constraints, not aspirational adjectives. A product either passes them or it does not.
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01
Preserve the signal
A hint, selection, partial thought, or prior state must not disappear merely because the user begins acting.
- Observable test
- When typing starts inside a suggested field, the useful suggestion becomes an inline completion instead of vanishing.
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02
Meet intent halfway
When the next step is strongly inferable, complete it in place instead of adding another interaction or asking the user to repeat context.
- Observable test
- A user can accept the likely completion with Enter without leaving the control or retyping known text.
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03
Make assistance visible
Machine-added content must be distinguishable from what the person supplied.
- Observable test
- Suggested text is visibly selected or otherwise marked before it becomes the user's committed input.
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04
Make assistance reversible
A person must be able to overwrite, dismiss, undo, or ignore assistance without losing their own work.
- Observable test
- Continued typing replaces only the suggestion; Escape or Backspace dismisses it; arbitrary user selections remain untouched.
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06
Design for intent, not coordinates
Primary interactions should expose stable semantic actions and predictable keyboard behavior rather than depend on screen position.
- Observable test
- The same outcome can be reached by a named action and by an accessible keyboard path.
How this stays constitutional
Ship the invariant, then prove the interaction.
A design does not satisfy this constitution because its source looks thoughtful. The rendered behavior must preserve context, expose assistance, respect dismissal, and keep the person in control.