Constraint

An explicit rule or limit the project must respect — budget ceiling, latency SLO, regulatory requirement, team capacity cap. Violations are LogEntries; constraints themselves do not change when violated.


ID prefix	`CONST`
State machine	none
MCP server	none
Skill	`constraint-management` (Layer 3)

Fields

Required

Field	Type	Description
`name`	string	Kebab-case identifier
`description`	string	One-sentence statement of the constraint
`kind`	enum	`budget` · `slo` · `regulatory` · `capacity` · `dependency` · `policy` · `other`
`severity`	enum	`hard` · `soft` · `advisory`

Optional

Field	Type	Description
`measurement`	string	How to determine if the constraint is met
`target`	string	Threshold or boundary value
`source`	string	Where the constraint comes from (contract, regulation, decision)
`active`	boolean	`false` = no longer in effect (default: `true`)
`related_decisions`	`DEC-*[]`	Decisions that established or relaxed the constraint

Severity levels

Level	Meaning
`hard`	Cannot violate — work stops until resolved
`soft`	Flagged and tracked; can be overridden with justification
`advisory`	Informational — violation noted but no process impact

Example

---
apiVersion: processkit.projectious.work/v1
kind: Constraint
metadata:
  id: CONST-20260411_0916-SteadyMoss-api-latency-slo
  created: '2026-04-11T09:16:00Z'
spec:
  name: api-latency-slo
  description: MCP tool round-trip p99 latency must stay below 200ms.
  kind: slo
  severity: hard
  target: "< 200ms p99"
  measurement: |
    Measured via the observability pipeline from tool-call dispatch to
    server response. Alert fires if exceeded for 5 minutes.
  source: Customer SLA — contract clause 4.2
  related_decisions:
    - DEC-20260409_latency-slo-accepted
---

Notes

Constraint violations are logged via log_event with event_type: constraint.violated — the Constraint entity itself is not modified.
A hard constraint violation should surface as a blocked WorkItem or an urgent Discussion.
Bind a Constraint to a Scope via a constraint-scope Binding to make it scope-specific rather than project-wide.
Set active: false when a constraint is no longer in effect (SLA renegotiated, regulatory exemption granted).