Production Ready Approval Contract

Production Ready Approval is the AFPS gate that confirms a concept, prototype, or specification is approved to become a real production product build. It means the operator has approved moving from prototype/specification work into production implementation; it does not mean the product is already shipped to users.

This is an artifact convention, not a lifecycle database, state file, or replacement for research/.progress.yaml. Do not add a new YAML registry or competing lifecycle schema for this gate.

Artifact Shape

The approval record lives in the same alignment-page lifecycle used by the producing skill:

• review page: asks the production-readiness questions before implementation handoff.
• confirmed page: preserves the user's approval record after final compiled YAML is accepted.
• Optional amended page: revises a confirmed approval if later evidence changes the premise.

Default output path: alignment/spec-interview-{topic}.html. If a separate page is explicitly needed, use alignment/production-ready-{topic}.html and link it from the spec-interview page.

Required Gates

A Production Ready Approval page or section must make these decisions explicit:

• Approved concept or prototype scope: what product, audience, and MVP boundary is approved for production.
• Evidence basis: consolidated prototype, post-prototype research, spec decisions, and known gaps.
• Production blockers: unresolved data, auth, infrastructure, compliance, business-model, or launch constraints.
• Implementation handoff: whether the next route is roadmap/execution, upstream redesign/research, or no-go.
• Approval meaning: approved to begin production build, not asserted as shipped, validated, or launched.

Ownership

consolidate-prototypes (formerly consolidate-variations) does not own this gate. After consolidated MVP approval it routes to post-prototype research and then spec-interview. spec-interview owns the Production Ready Approval because it is the point where prototype assumptions become a production implementation specification.

afps-status may report whether the approval artifact exists and whether it is confirmed, but it must not treat the artifact as a new source-of-truth lifecycle store.