Project documents

Inside .n45/docs/ you'll find four files generated by N45 to describe your project. These are the foundation every workflow reads before doing anything: triage, discovery, spec, execution, validation — all of them.

The four documents

STACK.md

The technical inventory.

• Language and runtime version
• Frameworks (web, ORM, testing, build)
• Package manager and lockfile
• Build outputs and where they go

Updated when N45 detects a change to your dependency or config files.

PATTERNS.md

The architectural conventions of your codebase, extracted by reading actual code:

• File naming conventions
• Import patterns
• Layering (e.g. handlers / services / repositories)
• Error handling style
• Testing conventions
• Logging and observability patterns

This is the document that protects you from N45 generating code that "works" but breaks your conventions.

PROJECT.md

The high-level picture:

• Domain summary
• Modules and their responsibilities
• Public entry points (routes, CLI commands, exported APIs)
• External dependencies (databases, services, APIs)

RUNBOOK.md

How to operate the project locally:

• Install dependencies
• Start the dev server
• Run tests
• Database setup and migrations
• Common debugging commands
• Deploy steps (if available)

/n45-status and other workflows use RUNBOOK to offer "Run the app" actions.

When they're regenerated

Trigger	What runs
First /n45 run	All four documents generated from scratch
After a structured roadmap completes	Documents updated to reflect the new architecture
/n45-status with no onboarding present	Full regeneration

You can also delete a document and N45 will regenerate it on the next run.

These documents are managed by N45

Don't edit them manually — N45 refreshes them as your project evolves and your changes will be overwritten. To influence what N45 generates, work through the structured flows (/n45-feat, /n45-fix) — patterns recorded by N45 reflect what your code actually does, not what a markdown file says.