intent driven development

Enterprise Features

Overview

Chant supports enterprise environments through:

1. Silent mode - Personal use on shared repos
2. Derived frontmatter - Auto-populate fields from conventions
3. Schema enforcement - Required fields, validation

Silent Mode

For developers on projects that don’t officially use Chant:

chant init --silent

• .chant/ added to .git/info/exclude (local only)
• No files committed to shared repo
• Personal AI workflow, invisible to team
• See init.md for details

Derived Frontmatter

Enterprise teams have conventions: branch naming, path structure, ticket systems. Chant extracts metadata automatically during spec completion.

How It Works

Spec created on branch sprint/2026-Q1-W4/PROJ-123-add-auth:

# Before completion (user writes)
---
status: pending
---

# Add authentication

After completion, derived fields are auto-populated:

# After completion (auto-populated)
---
status: completed
completed_at: 2026-01-22T15:30:00Z
commit: a1b2c3d4

# Derived fields (auto-populated)
sprint: 2026-Q1-W4      [derived]
jira_key: PROJ-123      [derived]
team: platform          [derived]

derived_fields: [sprint, jira_key, team]
---

The [derived] indicator shows which fields were auto-populated. Derived field names are tracked in the derived_fields list for auditing.

Configuration

Configure derivation rules in .chant/config.md:

---
enterprise:
  derived:
    # Extract sprint from branch name
    sprint:
      from: branch
      pattern: "sprint/(\\d{4}-Q\\d-W\\d)"

    # Extract Jira key from branch name
    jira_key:
      from: branch
      pattern: "([A-Z]+-\\d+)"

    # Extract team from spec file path
    team:
      from: path
      pattern: "teams/(\\w+)/"

    # Extract component from path
    component:
      from: path
      pattern: "src/(\\w+)/"
      validate:
        type: enum
        values: [api, auth, web, mobile]
---

Derivation Sources

Chant supports 4 derivation sources:

Pattern Syntax

Patterns are standard regex with capture groups. The first capture group becomes the field value:

pattern: "prefix/([^/]+)/suffix"
#                 ^^^^^^^^^^^
#            First capture group → field value

Examples:

Pattern Matching Rules:

• If pattern doesn’t match source → field is omitted (graceful failure)
• Invalid regex pattern → field is omitted (graceful failure)
• Multi-line sources (env vars, git config) are matched as single lines
• All matches are case-sensitive

Note: The git_user source does not use regex patterns. The pattern must be the literal string "name" (for user.name) or "email" (for user.email). Any other value returns no result.

Validation Rules

Apply validation after successful extraction:

enterprise:
  derived:
    team:
      from: path
      pattern: "teams/(\\w+)/"
      validate:
        type: enum
        values: [platform, frontend, backend, infra]

Current Validation Types:

• enum: Value must be in allowed list (case-sensitive)
  • Failure: Field still included but warning logged to stderr
  • Use to catch naming convention violations

Behavior:

• Valid value → field included, no warning
• Invalid value → field included, warning logged
• Validation never blocks derivation (graceful degradation)

Manual Derivation

Re-run derivation on existing specs:

chant derive 2026-01-22-001-x7m   # Derive fields for one spec
chant derive --all                  # Derive for all specs
chant derive --all --dry-run        # Preview without modifying

Use cases:

• Add derivation rules and backfill existing specs
• Update derived values if branch names changed
• Fix invalid derived values

Common Patterns

Jira Tickets:

jira_key:
  from: branch
  pattern: "([A-Z]+-\\d+)"    # PROJ-123, AUTH-456, etc.

Sprint Cycles:

sprint:
  from: branch
  pattern: "sprint/(\\d{4}-Q\\d-W\\d)"  # 2026-Q1-W1, 2026-Q1-W2, etc.

Team Organization:

team:
  from: path
  pattern: "teams/(\\w+)/"     # Extract from directory structure
  validate:
    type: enum
    values: [platform, frontend, backend, infra]

Multiple Derivation Sources:

team:
  from: env
  pattern: TEAM_NAME           # Fallback to environment variable

Troubleshooting

“Field not derived - pattern didn’t match”

• Verify the pattern is correct regex syntax
• Test pattern on actual values using online regex tools
• Ensure capture group () is present in pattern
• Check if source contains the expected value

“Field has unexpected value”

• Check if a more specific pattern should be used earlier
• Add validation rules to catch invalid formats
• Review the pattern with team to align on conventions

“Validation warning for valid value”

• Verify enum values are spelled exactly (case-sensitive)
• Check if all valid options are in the enum list
• Update enum list if new values are introduced

UI Display

When viewing specs with chant show:

ID:            2026-01-22-001-x7m
Title:         Add authentication
Type:          code
Status:        completed

Team [derived]: platform
Jira_Key [derived]: PROJ-123
Custom_Field: manual_value

The [derived] indicator distinguishes automatically-populated fields from user-entered values.

Required Fields

Enforce required fields for compliance and audit:

---
enterprise:
  required:
    - team
    - component
    - jira_key
---

When a spec is missing any required field, chant lint reports an error:

$ chant lint
Error: Missing required field 'jira_key'
File: 2026-01-22-001-x7m.md

ℹ Enterprise policy requires: team, component, jira_key

Validation:

• Required fields can be either derived or explicitly set in frontmatter
• Checked by chant lint command
• Blocks spec operations if missing
• Works with any frontmatter field name (standard or custom)

Combined with Derivation:

Most commonly, derivation rules populate required fields automatically:

---
enterprise:
  derived:
    team:
      from: path
      pattern: "teams/(\\w+)/"
    jira_key:
      from: branch
      pattern: "([A-Z]+-\\d+)"

  required:        # These fields are enforced
    - team
    - jira_key
---

When a spec completes, derived fields are auto-populated, and chant lint verifies all required fields are present.

Audit Trail

Track when and with what model a spec was completed:

# Auto-populated on completion
---
status: completed
completed_at: 2026-01-22T15:30:00Z
model: claude-haiku-4-5-20251001  # Agent model used
---

These fields are automatically populated by chant finalize or auto-finalize when a spec completes:

• completed_at: ISO 8601 timestamp of completion
• model: Model ID of agent that completed the spec

Combined with git history (commit author, timestamp, and message), this provides a complete audit trail of spec execution. The git commit records who performed the work and when, while the spec frontmatter records which model was used to complete it.

Feature Compatibility

All enterprise features work with both tracked and silent mode:

Silent mode + enterprise features: You can use derived fields, required fields, and audit trails even when .chant/ is gitignored (silent mode). This is useful when working on corporate repos that don’t officially support chant—you get enterprise metadata extraction while keeping your workflow private.

All enterprise features are opt-in via the enterprise: config block in .chant/config.md.