# STAGE ONE — THE OWNER'S MANUAL PATCH

Method: Kenneth E. Sweet Jr. · SHPBL.com
Shipped with The Strategic Master Library — Volume Edition.
Run this first. Then run Stage Two (the Truth Audit Patch) on the result
before you trust it, quote it, or show it to anyone.

How to use: paste this entire file into an AI working session that has
access to the project — repository, docs, notes, screenshots, chat
history. Supply anything it cannot see. Fill in the identity block at
the end with YOUR details before the final render.

---

## MISSION

You are creating the definitive, canonical Owner's Manual and Strategic
Intelligence File for this project: reverse-engineer, organize, explain,
preserve, and strategically document every meaningful aspect of it.

This document becomes the permanent single source of truth, so that:

- the creator can return years later and instantly understand everything
- a collaborator can onboard quickly
- the project can be inherited, sold, licensed, expanded, or resumed
- no architecture, reasoning, vision, or roadmap context is lost
- the creator never again loses track of where the project stands

This is NOT a README. It is, in one document: an owner's guide, an
architecture dossier, a strategic asset profile, a roadmap archive, an
operational handbook, a valuation analysis, and a continuity and
inheritance layer. It should read like an internal architecture dossier
crossed with an acquisition briefing crossed with a founder's notebook.

Write for five readers at once: the creator after two years away, a new
collaborator, a buyer or licensee, an heir, and whoever must operate
this the day the creator is unavailable. If a sentence works for none
of them, cut it.

---

## THE LAW OF CLAIMS

The manual must be factual, grounded, and honest. Do not invent
anything: no features, capabilities, integrations, users, revenue,
benchmarks, deployment status, technical maturity, legal status, or
market validation that the source material does not support.

Every non-trivial claim carries one of these labels, inline:

- Confirmed — verifiable in the codebase, database, or shipped product
- Observed in code/docs — present in committed material; load-bearing intent
- Inferred — synthesized from multiple sources; reasonable, not stated
- Planned — explicit roadmap item, not yet shipped
- Speculative — projection or vision; not a promise
- Unknown — no evidence either way
- Needs creator confirmation — only the creator can settle it
- Requires further audit — checkable, but not yet checked

Standing rules:

1. **Demote claims. Do not promote them.** Without fresh evidence, a
   claim may only move down this ladder, never up.
2. **Numbers come from the source of truth.** A count is Confirmed when
   it comes from the database, the filesystem, or the test runner — not
   from a header comment or marketing copy.
3. **State the zero with its denominator.** "5 orders, 0 paid" — never a
   euphemism. Unflattering numbers, printed plainly, are what make the
   flattering ones believable.
4. **Preserve uncertainty.** When you do not know, say so and label it.
   The goal is not to make the project sound bigger than it is. The
   goal is the most accurate, durable, useful source of truth possible.

---

## HOW TO RUN IT

This is a multi-phase effort. Do not compress it into a shallow summary.
If a phase cannot finish in one pass, complete quality work, then mark:
what was completed, what remains, what needs more source material, what
needs creator confirmation, and what belongs to the next phase.

- **Phase 1 — Intake.** Review everything provided. Produce: source
  inventory, project summary, confirmed facts, unknowns, initial table
  of contents, missing-information list.
- **Phase 2 — Core draft.** The full manual in Markdown, all eighteen
  sections populated as accurately as current evidence allows.
- **Phase 3 — Architecture deepening.** Diagrams (ASCII is fine),
  system flows, API and subsystem maps, dependency maps, execution
  flows. A diagram earns its place only if it improves understanding.
- **Phase 4 — Strategy.** Monetization analysis, value estimates,
  roadmap, prioritization, ultimate-form analysis, fastest path to
  revenue, highest-upside path.
- **Phase 5 — Publishing layer.** Beautiful printable HTML and a
  PDF-ready version: mobile-optimized, print-friendly, themed to the
  project's own brand (clean light theme unless the project clearly
  calls for otherwise).
- **Phase 6 — Self-audit and polish.** Then hand the result to Stage
  Two for the forensic pass.

---

## THE EIGHTEEN SECTIONS

Keep these names and this order. Uniformity across projects is itself
an asset: anyone who has read one of your manuals can navigate all of
them.

1. **Executive Summary** — what it is, why it exists, what problem it
   solves, why it matters, current maturity, strategic importance,
   ecosystem role, short-term opportunity, long-term vision. Honest
   read first; the section sets the document's credibility.
2. **Canonical Identity** — official name, alternate names and
   codenames, domains, branding, taglines, namespace relationships,
   creator attribution, creation timeline, key dates, version lineage.
3. **Project Classification** — infrastructure, product, platform,
   research, media, SaaS, governance, experimental, asset, domain
   ecosystem, agent framework, cognitive system — whichever apply.
4. **Core Concept** — the core idea, the unique innovation, what makes
   it difficult to replicate, and the strategic, technical, and
   ecosystem moats. Distinguish real moats from hoped-for ones.
5. **Full Feature Inventory** — every feature, subsystem, module,
   capability, workflow, automation, agent, route, and integration.
   For each: what it does, how it works, why it exists, implementation
   status (labeled), dependencies, expansion potential.
6. **Architecture Analysis** — backend, frontend, APIs, orchestration,
   routing, databases, storage, memory, deterministic vs AI systems,
   runtime structure, execution flow, scaling and fault tolerance.
   Include strengths, weaknesses, technical debt, and bottlenecks.
7. **Strategic Ecosystem Role** — how this connects to the other
   projects, domains, agents, and infrastructure: dependencies,
   synergies, shared primitives, shared branding.
8. **Development History** — origin story, milestones, pivots,
   breakthroughs, failed approaches, lessons, and why key decisions
   were made. Decision reasoning is the part code cannot preserve.
9. **Current State Assessment** — what works, what is incomplete,
   blockers, known bugs, deployment status, operational readiness.
   Assign maturity, stability, monetization-readiness, and scalability
   scores; label each an estimate unless measurably supported.
10. **Monetization Analysis** — licensing, SaaS, API, acquisition,
    enterprise, indie, subscription, and marketplace potential.
    Estimate conservative, realistic, and strategic-upside value.
    Distinguish present value from possible value from speculative
    peak. Name the fastest path to revenue, the highest-upside path,
    and the lowest-effort path.
11. **Competitive Positioning** — competing systems, differentiation,
    defensibility, barriers to replication. Do not invent competitors;
    mark comparisons that need research or creator confirmation.
12. **Future Vision** — ultimate form, long-term roadmap, dream
    version, moonshots. Keep confirmed roadmap and speculation in
    separate, labeled blocks.
13. **Priority Roadmap** — immediate priorities, quick wins,
    stabilization, monetization tasks, long-term R&D. Prioritize by
    leverage, effort-to-return, ecosystem criticality, and — honestly —
    creator energy.
14. **Risk Analysis** — technical, operational, financial, scaling,
    security, dependency, and market risks; creator bottlenecks and
    burnout risk; documentation risk.
15. **Preservation & Continuity** — critical knowledge, creator
    philosophies, continuity requirements, inheritance considerations,
    recovery and resurrection guidance. Never include real secrets,
    keys, passwords, tokens, or seed phrases; use placeholders such as
    [SECURE SECRET REFERENCE: stored outside this document] and
    [DEAD MAN SWITCH DETAILS: stored in secure legal/estate channel].
16. **Strategic Importance Ranking** — ecosystem importance,
    monetization potential, uniqueness, defensibility, long-term and
    emotional importance, replacement difficulty. Estimates, with
    reasoning shown.
17. **Recommended Next Actions** — immediate steps, highest-leverage
    improvements, fastest monetization actions, documentation gaps,
    packaging and branding recommendations.
18. **Canonical Summary** — what this project ultimately represents,
    why it matters, what its future could become, and why it should
    continue existing.

**Appendices (standing convention):**
A — Verified Facts Ledger (every Confirmed number, with its source).
B — Source Inventory (what was reviewed to write this manual).
C — Unknowns & Open Questions.
D — Quality Assessment (filled by Stage Two).

---

## PRESENTATION REQUIREMENTS

Deliver Markdown plus a premium HTML render (PDF-ready). The render
must feel archival-grade and founder-led, never generic: full linked
table of contents, clear hierarchy, professional typography,
mobile-responsive spacing, print-friendly formatting, consistent
branding, callouts and diagrams where they genuinely clarify. Theme to
the project's own design language; default to a clean light theme.

The reader should finish knowing, in order: what it is, why it matters,
how it works, why it is unique, what state it is in, what the roadmap
is, what the money could be, and what its ultimate form looks like.

---

## IDENTITY BLOCK

Fill in before final render. Attribution belongs to the person whose
project this manual preserves — that is you, not the method's author.

    [YOUR NAME]
    [YOUR ROLE — e.g., Solo Founder · Infrastructure Architect]
    [YOUR CONTACT — email · site]
    [YOUR LOCATION]

Optional credit line, if you wish to keep it:
    Manual format: the Owner's Manual Patch · SHPBL.com

---

## THE BAR

Before calling the manual complete, verify every line of this list:

- Every major claim is grounded or labeled; unknowns are marked;
  speculation is separated from fact.
- The document is useful to the creator after months away, to a future
  operator, and to a buyer or evaluator.
- The current state is honestly represented; the roadmap is practical;
  the ultimate vision is preserved.
- The HTML is mobile-friendly; the print layout is clean; diagrams are
  present where they improve clarity.
- No secrets appear anywhere in the document.

If any answer is no, improve the manual before finalizing. Then run
Stage Two.
