North Star — The Perfect World

Write the North Star: a first-person, no-compromise vision of the feature in a perfect world, plus weighted Quality Dimensions and The Compass (decision filters for subjective choices). It is the qualitative reference every later audit — especially A4 and the F-pass — measures against.

Gate: the specify phase must be accepted. Requires the spec and design docs.

Inputs

• .genesis/project-state.md (mode)
• .genesis/features/<feature>/spec.md (required), design.md (required), brainstorm-log.md
• The constitution
• approvals/master.json (verify specify accepted)

Process

1. Resolve the feature name; handle an existing North Star (revise in place, or archive to northstar-v{N}.md and write fresh) and partial-file resumption.
2. Deep-read the entire master spec — every FR, AC, user story, NFR.
3. Write northstar.md from north-star-template.md, in first person, four sections:
   • The Perfect World — narrative of the feature when every requirement is perfectly met; experience, not mechanism; mode-aware.
   • Quality Dimensions — feature-specific dimensions, each weighted Critical / Important / Nice, each with what it means, a concrete and testable "what perfect looks like," and one test question. Always include Zero-Tolerance Quality (Critical).
   • The Emotional Quality — "for the user" and "for the builder," mode-aware.
   • The Compass — decision filters phrased as questions, mode-aware.
4. No-compromise validator (up to 3 iterations): strip implementation detail, timeline language ("in v1", "for now", "later"), compromise language ("MVP", "good enough", "adequate"), and vague quality terms; fill missing perspectives; rewrite product-brochure voice into a grounded one. Concrete is allowed ("sub-100ms"); naming implementation is not ("Redis cache").
5. Constitution-compliance check; present; commit.

Mode differences

• Greenfield: the perfect technical system.
• Brownfield: perfect integration (no regression, clean boundaries); add the compass question "Does this respect what exists?"
• Lowfield: perfect content pipeline (every stage and artifact earns its place); add "Does this serve the domain or just the process?"

Output

• .genesis/features/<feature>/northstar.md — the perfect-world vision + weighted quality dimensions + compass.

Next step

Brainstorm the first group at the micro boundary (/genesis-brainstorm --boundary micro), then /genesis-micro 0.

Natural language triggers

- "write the north star"
- "perfect world vision"
- "quality dimensions for X"