Architecture

A project should have an explicit, written shape: where code lives, what may depend on what, and how things are named. transcend codifies this as a short architecture section in CLAUDE.md plus a path-scoped rules/architecture.md.

What transcend encodes

• Module boundaries — declare which directories are modules and which cross-module imports are forbidden (e.g. auth must not import billing). Boundaries can be documented (Tier 1) or enforced (Tier 3).
• Dependency direction — higher layers depend on lower, never the reverse.
• Naming & placement — where new files of a given kind belong, so agents don’t invent ad-hoc structure.

Scoping

The architecture rule’s paths: frontmatter scopes it to source globs from the stack profile, so it loads only when relevant files are touched — part of the context frugality principle.

Enforcement

At Tier 3, module-boundary.sh denies cross-feature imports as a PreToolUse hook; at Tier 2 the same script warns instead. See Enforcement Tiers for the full mapping.