# DECISIONS This document records major architectural and product decisions made during the development of Sapling. The goal is to preserve context and reasoning behind decisions so future contributors can understand why a particular approach was chosen. --- # D-001 — Sapling Is Local-First Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision Sapling will be a local-first application. All user content lives on the local filesystem. No Sapling-managed cloud service will be required. ## Rationale Users should own their data. Files must remain accessible outside of Sapling. The application should continue functioning without network connectivity. ## Consequences Positive: - No vendor lock-in - Offline support - Simpler privacy story - Easier long-term maintenance Negative: - No built-in synchronization - Collaboration relies on Git workflows --- # D-002 — Git Is Infrastructure, Not the Product Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision Git will be a first-class capability but not the primary user-facing concept. The editor and workspace experience take precedence over Git terminology. ## Rationale Most users want versioning benefits without learning Git internals. Sapling should remain approachable to writers, researchers, and knowledge workers. ## Consequences User interfaces should prefer language such as: - Snapshot - Changes - History over: - Commit - Staging - Reflog Advanced Git functionality will remain available. --- # D-003 — Projects Are Git Repositories Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision Every Sapling project corresponds directly to a Git repository. No custom repository format will be introduced. ## Rationale Git repositories are portable and understood by existing tooling. Users should be able to move between Sapling and other Git tools without migration. ## Consequences Projects can be opened in: - Terminal - GitHub Desktop - SourceTree - VS Code - Any Git client without conversion. --- # D-004 — Workspaces Are Not Versioned Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision Workspaces are organizational containers and are not Git repositories. Projects are versioned. Workspaces are not. ## Rationale Users need a place for temporary notes, drafts, and experimentation. Not everything should require commits. ## Consequences Workspace structure exists outside repository history. Projects remain independently portable. --- # D-005 — Attachments Belong to Projects Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision Attachments are stored inside project directories. They are not stored in a database. They are not stored in a global asset store. ## Rationale Repositories should remain self-contained. Cloning a repository should retrieve everything required to render its content. ## Consequences Projects remain portable. Attachments participate naturally in version control. --- # D-006 — Large Assets Use Git LFS Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision Large binary files should be managed through Git LFS. ## Rationale Repositories containing images, PDFs, design assets, and media files can become excessively large. Git LFS is the industry-standard solution. ## Consequences Sapling must detect and assist with LFS configuration. --- # D-007 — Subprojects Use Git Submodules Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision Nested projects are implemented using Git submodules. ## Rationale Submodules provide an existing, portable, Git-native solution. No custom dependency system is required. ## Consequences Sapling must provide a significantly better UX around submodules than traditional Git tools. --- # D-008 — Hybrid Markdown Editing Is a Core Feature Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision Sapling will implement hybrid Markdown editing. The active line displays source. Inactive lines display rendered content. ## Rationale This editing model combines the readability of rendered Markdown with the precision of source editing. It is one of the primary differentiators of Sapling. ## Consequences The editor becomes a critical architectural component. Prototype and validation work should occur early. --- # D-009 — The Editor Is the Highest-Priority System Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision Editor quality takes precedence over Git features. ## Rationale Users tolerate missing Git features. Users do not tolerate poor editing experiences. ## Consequences Development milestones should prioritize: 1. Editing 2. Rendering 3. Workspace management 4. Git integration in that order. --- # D-010 — Git Access Must Be Abstracted Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision All Git functionality must be accessed through a GitProvider abstraction. Application code should never invoke Git directly. ## Rationale macOS and iOS have different implementation requirements. A clean abstraction improves portability and testability. ## Initial Implementations MacGitProvider - Uses system Git EmbeddedGitProvider - Future iOS implementation ## Consequences All repository operations must remain implementation-agnostic. --- # D-011 — Markdown Files Remain Standard Markdown Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision Sapling documents are standard Markdown files. No proprietary format will be introduced. ## Rationale Users should be free to edit documents with any editor. Knowledge should not be trapped inside Sapling. ## Consequences Any Sapling-specific features should degrade gracefully in standard Markdown environments. --- # D-012 — Platform Focus Date: 2025-08 Status: Accepted ## Decision macOS is the primary target platform. iOS support is a secondary objective. ## Rationale The desktop writing experience is the primary use case. Starting with macOS reduces complexity and accelerates development. ## Consequences Architecture should remain cross-platform where practical. Product decisions should optimize for desktop workflows first. --- # D-013 — Editor Technology Selection Date: 2026-05 Status: Accepted Provisionally Review After: Milestone 2 ## Decision Sapling will use native platform text systems for the editor prototype: - NSTextView on macOS - UITextView on iOS These views will be wrapped behind a Sapling editor abstraction. SwiftUI TextEditor will not be used as the primary editor implementation. ## Rationale Sapling's hybrid Markdown editor requires advanced control over cursor movement, selection state, layout, attributed rendering, and editing behavior. SwiftUI TextEditor is useful for simple text entry, but it does not expose enough low-level editing hooks to validate the active-line source and inactive-line rendered model cleanly. NSTextView and UITextView provide direct access to TextKit, attributed text storage, selection ranges, delegates, layout managers, and platform editing behaviors. That makes them better foundations for Milestone 1 validation. ## Consequences Positive: - The prototype can inspect and control selection ranges directly. - Line-level styling and rendering experiments can be performed in-place. - The app can preserve native editing behavior while testing hybrid Markdown concepts. - The implementation can remain SwiftUI at the application layer. Negative: - AppKit and UIKit bridging adds platform-specific code. - The editor abstraction must prevent the rest of the app from depending directly on NSTextView or UITextView. - A future custom editor engine may still be required if line replacement or overlay rendering cannot preserve cursor correctness. - Native adapter updates must isolate user-originated selection changes from programmatic text, selection, and attribute changes to avoid SwiftUI/TextKit feedback loops.