Feature Nodes

Feature nodes are non-normative grouping nodes that organize the graph into vertical product slices. They are the simplest node type — they have no statement, verification, or constraints.

Use Layer Nodes for shared horizontal infrastructure.

Schema

{
  "id": "AUTH",
  "type": "feature",
  "title": "User Authentication",
  "description": "Login, session management, and logout flows",
  "links": {
    "contains": ["AUTH-01", "AUTH-02", "AUTH-03", "DEC-AUTH-01", "DOM-USER-01", "POL-PERF-01"]
  }
}

Fields

Field	Required	Description
id	Yes	Short uppercase identifier (e.g., AUTH, TASKBOARD)
type	Yes	Must be "feature"
title	Yes	Human-readable name (3–100 chars)
description	Yes	What this feature area covers
links	No	Outbound edges (typically contains)
metadata	No	Non-normative context

Non-Normative

Feature nodes make no claims about the system. They don't have expectations, statements, or verification criteria. They exist purely to organize.

This means:

• Removing a feature node doesn't change what gets implemented
• Feature nodes don't participate in the minimality test
• They are organizational sugar, not load-bearing specification

The contains Edge

Features use the contains edge to declare their children:

"links": {
  "contains": ["AUTH-01", "AUTH-02", "DEC-AUTH-01", "DOM-USER-01"]
}

A feature can contain nodes of any type: behaviors, decisions, domains, policies, and extensions.

ID Conventions

Feature IDs are short uppercase identifiers:

Feature	ID
User Authentication	AUTH
Task Board	TASKBOARD
Billing & Payments	BILLING
Design System	DESIGNSYSTEM
Notifications	NOTIFICATIONS

Feature IDs should be recognizable and concise — they serve as the namespace prefix for child node IDs.

For shared infrastructure names like PLATFORM or DATA, prefer type: "layer" instead of type: "feature".