Reflection: Internal Parameters Are Not User Inputs

Trigger

The user corrected two successive workflow descriptions: first, year/month/cutoff values were incorrectly treated as user submissions; then a monthly-report button was still incorrectly retained as a separate user action.

Expected Behavior

Trace the complete business event chain before designing the interaction boundary: XML upload → Agent structured result → successful database commit → automatic monthly-report dispatch.

Actual Behavior

Internal RunRequest fields and an existing manual endpoint were mistaken for the intended user workflow.

Root Cause

Unclear ownership
Stale docs
Conflation of an internal execution contract with a user-facing product contract

Evidence

Files: .planning/monthly_reports_database_audit/findings.md, arr_web/app.py, arr_web/static/app.js
Session/thread: user correction on 2026-07-29
Docs involved: ADR-001 and .project-docs/40-domain/business-rules.md

Lesson

When a report program accepts year, month, or as-of values internally, do not infer that a person supplies them. Establish who initiates the business event, where values are derived, and which boundary owns the trigger before proposing UI or API behavior.

Action

Update docs
Add the confirmed boundary to the durable business rules and architecture decision.

Promotion

Promoted to ADR-001, the business-rules document, architecture data flow, and stale-item tracking.

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