# Joule Code roadmap

Where the standard goes after v0.1.0. The reference library in [`joule-code-rs/`](joule-code-rs/) is a multi-crate Rust workspace; the flagship consumer is the agent-zed editor.

## v0.1.0 (current)

- Coding-operation cargo, content addressing, deterministic CBOR, signing (§2–§4).
- The receipt: `estimated` energy with `Estimator` provenance, JWP-signed (§6).
- The cascade interface and the conformance suite C1–C4 (§5, §8).
- Single-endpoint operation only; collaboration is interface-level (Research).

## Near-term (v0.2)

- **Measured energy.** Bind the receipt's `measured_uj` / `HwShunt` path to real hardware interfaces (RAPL on Linux, SMC/IOReport on Apple Silicon) via JouleClaw's energy + calibration crates. A vendor counter feeds that path only while it is demonstrably live for the domain it claims ([`spec/receipt.md`](spec/receipt.md) §2); where it is present but not live — as IOReport's CPU rails are to an unprivileged reader on macOS 27 — the receipt stays on the estimator. Promote §6 measured path from Engineering toward Solid where the platform delivers it.
- **Cascade lower tiers.** Land real L0 (content-addressed op cache) and L2 (embedding + hybrid retrieval) stages so frontier calls (L4) are genuinely the last resort, not the first.
- **Per-task routing.** Choose the closing tier and the L4 leg per request from intent + budget, recorded in the receipt.

## Mid-term

- **Federated collaboration (Research → Engineering).** Promote [`spec/collab.md`](spec/collab.md) from interface-level to a conformance-bearing binding: coding operations as Smart Byte envelopes, lockstep replication, WAI transport for session and presence, RemoteOS for shared sessions. Add a `conformance/v1/lockstep_vectors.json`-style pack when the binding stabilizes.
- **Post-quantum signatures.** Exercise the one-byte algorithm identifier (§2) with a PQ successor alongside Ed25519.

## Non-goals

- A protocol-level token. There will not be one.
- Reimplementing vendor agent authentication. Frontier agents (L4) are reached through the vendor's own logged-in client; the credential never enters the protocol.
- Reimplementing codecs, editors, or model runtimes. Joule Code composes existing standards (JouleClaw, Smart Byte, EOC, WAI, RemoteOS); it does not absorb them.