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type: adr id: adr-0070 status: accepted created: 2026-06-12 updated: 2026-06-12

ADR-0070 — checks/ is the home of the checks contract

Context

ADR-0066 renamed the corpus framing to "checks fixtures" and ADR-0054 purged the compiler-register vocabulary from reader-facing content — but the directory stayed conformance/ and its data file conformance.yaml. The result is a vocabulary fork the owner review (2026-06-12) called out: every prose surface says checks; the tree says conformance, a standards-body register that reads as more of the formal-methods cosplay the repositioning removed. It also misleads structurally: a top-level conformance/ beside docs/examples/ reads as a second examples pile rather than as test data for a contract.

Decision

1. conformance/ → checks/; conformance.yaml → checks/checks.yaml. The directory matches its canonical prose home, docs/reference/checks.md. The yaml's version bumps 0.2.1 → 0.3.0 — the path is consumer-visible contract surface and corpus-cli has not shipped, so this is the cheapest the rename will ever be.
2. The counts registry's producer home is now checks/README.md — the two-home rule (ADR-0057 §5) is unchanged; one of the homes moved with its file.
3. Live surfaces update in the same commit; ADR bodies keep the historical name per the immutability rule — the ledger row notes the rename.

Alternatives considered

• Keep conformance/ — "conformance suite" is technically accurate standards language, but the framework spent ADRs 0054/0057/0063/0066 choosing the practical register; a top-level directory is the most visible vocabulary surface in the repo.
• Fold the fixtures under docs/ — they are test data with a named consumer (corpus-cli's oracle; a reviewer applying the checks by hand), not reading material.

Consequences

Accepted. Completes the register sweep of ADR-0054 at the tree level; refines ADR-0066 (same content, honest name). All conformance/ and conformance.yaml references on live surfaces move to checks/ and checks/checks.yaml.

Propagation

directory rename, checks/README + checks.yaml internal prose, docs/reference/{checks, cheatsheet}, root bootloader AGENTS.md, kit cards that name the yaml, propagation matrix.