Artifacts

AID produces a well-defined set of named artifacts during its pipeline phases. Each artifact has a fixed path convention, a clear owner (the phase/skill that writes it), and a defined consumer (the next phase or skill that reads it).

See Repository Structure for the layout of the repository itself. See Knowledge Base doc types for the 14 KB document templates.

Work-area artifacts

These artifacts live under .aid/{work-id}/ for each active work item. The full path (entered via /aid-describe) nests delivery- and task-level artifacts under deliveries/delivery-NNN/; the lite path (entered via a shortcut or /aid-triage) flattens them to the work root — see Lite-path artifact shape below.

Artifact	Path	Produced by	Description
REQUIREMENTS.md	.aid/{work}/REQUIREMENTS.md	aid-describe (full path) or the shortcut engine (lite path)	Functional and non-functional requirements. Contains user stories, acceptance criteria, constraints, assumptions, and priority rankings.
SPEC.md (work-root)	.aid/{work}/SPEC.md	The shortcut engine	Lite path only. The work-root technical specification for the single implicit delivery. The full path has no work-root SPEC.md — specification happens per feature instead.
SPEC.md (per-feature)	.aid/{work}/features/{feature}/SPEC.md	aid-specify	Full-path only. One spec per feature, produced by aid-specify. Each feature SPEC is self-contained with its own acceptance criteria and technical decisions.
PLAN.md	.aid/{work}/PLAN.md	aid-plan (full path) or the shortcut engine (lite path)	The delivery plan: ordered deliverables (each a functional MVP), feature-to-delivery mapping, and the sequencing rationale. On the lite path there is a single implicit delivery.
BLUEPRINT.md (delivery definition)	.aid/{work}/deliveries/{delivery}/BLUEPRINT.md (full path) or .aid/{work}/BLUEPRINT.md (lite path)	aid-plan (full path) or the shortcut engine (lite path)	The delivery definition: objective, scope, gate criteria, task list, and dependencies. Full path: one per delivery, nested under deliveries/delivery-NNN/. Lite path: the sole delivery’s definition, at the work root.
STATE.md (delivery-area)	.aid/{work}/deliveries/{delivery}/STATE.md	aid-plan (created) / aid-execute (updated)	Full-path only. Delivery lifecycle state and gate criteria for one delivery. On the lite path, the sole delivery’s lifecycle and gate are promoted into the work-area STATE.md instead.
DETAIL.md (task definition)	.aid/{work}/deliveries/{delivery}/tasks/{task}/DETAIL.md (full path) or .aid/{work}/tasks/{task}/DETAIL.md (lite path)	aid-detail (full path) or the shortcut engine (lite path)	Individual task definition. Each task has one of the eight types (RESEARCH, DESIGN, IMPLEMENT, TEST, DOCUMENT, MIGRATE, REFACTOR, CONFIGURE), acceptance criteria, scope, and dependencies. Tasks are the unit of execution for aid-execute.
STATE.md (task-area)	.aid/{work}/deliveries/{delivery}/tasks/{task}/STATE.md	aid-detail (created) / aid-execute (updated)	Full-path only. Task lifecycle state and review history for one task. The lite path has no per-task STATE.md — task cells live in the work-root STATE.md § ### Tasks lifecycle.
STATE.md (work-area)	.aid/{work}/STATE.md	all skills	State machine state for the current work item. Records which phase the work is in, what has been completed, and Q&A/review history for re-entrant skill invocations. On the lite path, the sole delivery’s gate and Q&A are promoted directly into this file.
IMPEDIMENT-task-NNN.md	.aid/{work}/IMPEDIMENT-task-NNN.md	aid-execute (developer agent)	Formal escalation artifact, produced by the Execute phase. Created when implementation reveals a spec contradiction or impossible acceptance criterion. Contains: type, evidence, blocked task, and proposed resolution. Triggers the appropriate feedback loop.

Lite-path artifact shape

The lite path (entered via a shortcut such as /aid-fix or /aid-create-api, or via /aid-triage) flattens the tree above: a single implicit delivery, no deliveries/ folder, no delivery-001/ folder.

.aid/
  work-NNN-name/
    STATE.md          # work lifecycle, with the sole delivery's gate + Q&A promoted into it
    REQUIREMENTS.md
    SPEC.md
    PLAN.md
    BLUEPRINT.md       # the single delivery's definition, at the work root
    tasks/
      task-NNN/
        DETAIL.md      # task definition — the flattened path has NO per-task STATE.md;
                       #   each task's cells live in the work-root STATE.md § ### Tasks lifecycle

Terminology is unchanged across both paths: delivery definition = BLUEPRINT.md, task definition = DETAIL.md, feature definition = SPEC.md.

Knowledge Base artifacts

These artifacts live under .aid/knowledge/ and represent the living understanding of the project.

Artifact	Path	Produced by	Description
KB documents (14 types)	.aid/knowledge/{doc-type}.md	aid-discover, aid-housekeep	The 14 standard Knowledge Base documents — architecture, coding-standards, domain-glossary, and more. See KB doc types for the full list.
STATE.md (knowledge-area)	.aid/knowledge/STATE.md	aid-discover	Discovery state: Q&A log, approval history, and the last-approved KB snapshot timestamp. Drives re-entrant discovery runs and aid-housekeep delta logic.
knowledge-summary.html	.aid/knowledge/knowledge-summary.html	aid-summarize	Self-contained HTML summary of the entire Knowledge Base with inlined Mermaid diagrams, light/dark theme, and click-to-expand lightbox. Generated on demand.

Generator artifacts (manifests)

These files are committed derived output, outside the content collection root.

Artifact	Path	Produced by	Description
Sync manifest	site/scripts/.synced-manifest.json	sync-docs.mjs	Lists the four doc-migration outputs owned by the sync script. Used by CI drift-check.
Reference manifest	site/scripts/.reference-manifest.json	gen-reference.mjs	Lists the four generated reference pages owned by the reference generator. Used by CI drift-check.

Install artifacts

These files are written by the aid add command into the target project.

Artifact	Path	Produced by	Description
AID manifest	.aid/.aid-manifest.json	aid add	Records every file installed by aid add, the tool version, the top-level aid_version (the installed AID release), and checksum-based ownership records for root agent files. Drives aid update and aid remove.
Settings version (tool-less)	.aid/settings.yml (aid_version: key)	aid projects add	Records the installed AID release version for a bare, tool-less project (no manifest). The standalone .aid/.aid-version marker file is retired.
CLAUDE.md	CLAUDE.md (project root)	aid add claude-code	Claude Code project-context file. AID’s root agent file for the Claude Code host tool. Protected from silent overwrites by the protect-on-diff mechanism.
AGENTS.md	AGENTS.md (project root)	aid add {codex,cursor,copilot-cli,antigravity}	Root agent file for Codex, Cursor, Copilot CLI, and Antigravity host tools.

Pipeline-scoped delivery artifacts

These artifacts are produced during aid-execute delivery branches.

Artifact	Path	Produced by	Description
Delivery branch	aid/{work}-delivery-NNN (git branch)	aid-execute	One git branch per delivery. aid-execute creates it, commits implementation work to it, and the delivery is merged when the review loop exits at grade ≥ minimum.
Delivery PR	GitHub Pull Request	aid-operator	The pull request that merges the delivery branch. aid-operator creates it with release notes and links to the tasks it closes.