identity-anchor

name	identity-anchor
description	Use when defining or evolving WHO / JOB / NEVER for a product, or when interpreting drift in PM mode. Identity is the spine that drift checks audit against. Evolution Log is append-only and tracks every identity change with trigger evidence and rationale. Identity-as-signal, not identity-as-requirement.

Identity Anchor

The Identity Anchor is the single most-load-bearing artifact in the framework. Every agent reads it before every task. It's the spine that drift checks audit against.

The three fields

WHO

A specific person in real context — not a persona segment, not a demographic.

❌ "Mid-market CISOs" ✓ "SOC analyst at a 50–200-person enterprise, handling 100+ alerts/day, reports to CISO who is non-technical"

The test: could you name three real people who match? If not, WHO is too abstract.

JOB

JTBD form: "When [trigger situation], I want to [action], so that [outcome]."

❌ "Help users be more productive" ✓ "When a Sev-2 alert fires across three services, I want correlated traces+logs+metrics in a single timeline, so that I'm not Slack-switching between tools at 3am while the page is still firing"

The test: does it survive the JTBD four-forces analysis (Push / Pull / Anxiety / Habit)?

NEVER

Off-limits categories. Specific, not generic.

❌ "Too complex" ✓ "Generic ticketing system" / "Read-write access to user credentials" / "Per-seat billing"

The test: would compromising on this make you indistinguishable from a competitor? If yes, it's a NEVER. If no, it's just a preference.

The founder-NEVER question (use during graduation):

"Review your Competition section. What is the one thing that, if you compromised on it, would make you identical to the competitors you identified? That is your NEVER."

The Evolution Log (append-only)

Every change to WHO / JOB / NEVER must append a new entry. Never silently rewrite. The log is the audit trail of how identity drifted deliberately in response to evidence.

### v{N} — YYYY-MM-DD
**Change:** {what specifically changed in WHO / JOB / NEVER}
**Trigger:** {Signal IDs from releases.json or evidence IDs from evidence.json}
**Rationale:** {why this change reflects reality}
**Risk:** {what could go wrong; what we'd watch for}
**Approved by:** {Product Lead name + date}

Identity-as-signal vs identity-as-requirement

A working IDENTITY.md is a signal — when reality contradicts it, you change one or the other. It's not a contract you defend forever.

Drift check (every 5 features in PM mode) audits each feature against:

• Does it serve WHO?
• Does it make JOB easier?
• Does it violate NEVER?

If 2+ features fail across last 5 → DRIFT. If a pattern → consider PIVOT (identity needs to evolve).

When identity should evolve

• A signal arrives with thesis_impact: "invalidates" and the evidence is strong (≥2 weight-3 sources)
• The drift detector recommends PIVOT after a pattern of DRIFT
• An interview reveals a different WHO is actually buying / using
• A competitor's move forces a NEVER refinement

When identity should NOT evolve

• A single signal with thesis_impact: "challenges" from one source — that's a signal, not a verdict.
• Pricing pressure from one buyer who isn't your WHO.
• A feature request that contradicts NEVER — that's the NEVER doing its job.
• Quality decline (avg quality_score < 6.0) — that's a stabilization issue, not an identity issue.

Architecture Constraints (optional, in IDENTITY.md)

Hard technology decisions that shape every feature. Up to 5 bullets. Examples:

• "Audit log is append-only — every action ships as an immutable event"
• "Credentials are session-mediated, never stored — provider tokens only"
• "Multi-tenant from day 1 — no shared schema across tenants"

These are NEVERs at the implementation layer. Drift detector audits against them too.

How agents use identity

• Every feature build starts with the agent reading WHO/JOB/NEVER (~50 tokens — cheap).
• The feature-breakdown agent rejects features that don't trace to a signal that serves WHO.
• The drift-detector agent audits every feature against all three fields.
• The devils-advocate agent attacks the NEVER itself: "Is this a real moat or a stated preference?"

Tip: pre-fill on /forge:init

/forge:init reads your project's package.json description and README.md first paragraph and proposes a draft WHO/JOB/NEVER. Mark every pre-fill [DRAFT — confirm or rewrite] so you remember to interrogate it. A pre-filled identity is the worst identity — it's confident-looking but unvalidated.