Agree on the rules before sharing the tool.
All principles · 07 / Shared principles before shared tools
Sharing a tool before sharing the rules that govern it produces a shared tool with no shared meaning: each side uses it on its own terms, and the divergence shows up in the edge cases.
In practice
The rules first
Rules travel with the tool
Settled before sharing
Test
If two parties share a tool but disagree about what it is for or who governs it, the sharing produced a dependency rather than an ecosystem.
Read the full principle
Principle
Agree on the rules before sharing the implementation.
Meaning
Sharing a tool before sharing the rules that govern it produces a shared tool with no shared meaning: each side uses it on its own terms, and the divergence shows up in the edge cases. The principles (what the shared layer is for, who owns it, how it changes) have to be settled first. Then the implementation is shared between parties that agree on what it is, and the dependency resolves into an ecosystem.
In practice
The principles page is the starting point for any shared-layer work.
A shared tool ships only with the governance rules that go with it.
Disagreement about the rules is resolved before the implementation is built.
Product pressure
This principle favors:
principles and governance as prerequisites for shared work
shared tools that carry their rules with them
refusal to share an implementation whose governing rules are still in dispute
Test
If two parties share a tool but disagree about what it is for or who governs it, the sharing produced a dependency rather than an ecosystem.