Navigate the patterns catalog
Find the canonical answer to "how does your org do X" in a patterns catalog, read an entry's five fixed sections without confusing the pointer for the policy, and run the discover-before-you-build loop so you start every new piece of work from a named artifact instead of a blank file.
Units5
Duration27 min
Levelbeginner
By the end of this module, you'll be able to:
- Explain what problem the patterns catalog solves and why it references standards instead of restating them.
- Read a pattern entry's five sections - Problem, The canonical way, Governing standard(s), Reusable artifact, Anti-pattern - in both the human doc and the machine-readable catalog.yaml.
- Find the pattern for a given task and follow its two links: the standard that owns the rules and the artifact you start from.
- Run the four-step discover-before-you-build loop, including what to do when no pattern fits.
Prerequisites
- The first module in this path, "Reuse-first engineering", or equivalent familiarity with the discover-before-generate rule (Cogitave records it in ADR-0013).
- Basic familiarity with Git and the command line.
Units
- 01Introduction4 min
- 02The patterns catalog8 min
- 03Discover before you build8 min
- 04Knowledge check4 min
- 05Summary3 min
Related
- Reuse-first engineering Explain why AI-assisted development diverges without a counter-force, state the discover-before-generate hard rule and what enforces it, and justify a from-scratch decision the way ADR-0003 requires - as a reasoned exception, not a default.
- Use the decision guides Learn the shared shape behind an AI-native org's database-selection, infrastructure-selection, and model-selection guides - a default, a decision tree, and an ADR-gated deviation rule - and walk a real workload to a justified, recorded choice.
- Apply a non-negotiable floor An AI-native org runs on a small floor every human and agent obeys. Study Cogitave's floor - its seven non-negotiable rules and what enforces each, from a commit-msg hook to policy-as-code - then apply a floor like it to your own first change.