Ecosystem Architecture (v1.6.0)

PARA Workspace v1.6.0 introduces Ecosystem Projects — meta-projects that coordinate multiple related satellite projects without owning source code. This enables multi-project management within the standard PARA structure.

The Ecosystem Model

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                       Projects/                       │
│                                                       │
│  ┌────────────────────────────┐                       │
│  │     my-ecosystem/          │  ECOSYSTEM            │
│  │  ├─ project.md             │  type: ecosystem      │
│  │  ├─ artifacts/plans/  ─────┼── Shared plans        │
│  │  └─ docs/strategy.md       │  No repo/             │
│  └─────────────┬──────────────┘                       │
│                │                                      │
│                │  @my-ecosystem/ prefix               │
│                │  (cross-project plan resolution)     │
│                │                                      │
│      ┌─────────┼─────────┬──────────┐                 │
│      ▼         ▼         ▼          ▼                 │
│  ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐              │
│  │ app-a │ │ app-b │ │ lib-c │ │ lib-d │ SATELLITES   │
│  │ repo/ │ │ repo/ │ │ repo/ │ │ repo/ │              │
│  └───────┘ └───────┘ └───────┘ └───────┘              │
│                                                       │
│  ┌────────────────────────────┐                       │
│  │     standalone-project/    │  STANDARD             │
│  │  └─ repo/                  │  type: standard       │
│  └────────────────────────────┘                       │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

An Ecosystem project (type: ecosystem) has no repo/ directory — it only contains strategy docs, plans, and backlogs. Source code lives in individual satellite projects.

Schema

New optional fields in project.md frontmatter (v1.6.0+):

All fields are optional — existing projects remain valid without changes.

@Prefix Resolution

Satellites reference shared plans stored in the ecosystem project:

# my-app/project.md
active_plan: "@my-ecosystem/plans/shared-roadmap.md"

Resolution: @{name}/path → Projects/{name}/artifacts/path

• Read-only: satellites cannot modify ecosystem files
• Validated: workflows check that the referenced file exists

Workflow Adaptation

                   /open [project]
                        │
                  ┌─────┴──────┐
                  │   Read     │
                  │ project.md │
                  └─────┬──────┘
                        │
                 type = ecosystem?
                 ┌──────┴──────┐
                YES            NO
                 │              │
          ┌──────┴──────┐  ┌───┴──────────┐
          │  Skip git   │  │ Normal git   │
          │  List sats  │  │ flow         │
          └─────────────┘  └───┬──────────┘
                               │
                        has ecosystem?
                        ┌──────┴──────┐
                       YES            NO
                        │             │
                 ┌──────┴──────┐  ┌───┴───────┐
                 │ Show eco    │  │  Normal   │
                 │ Resolve @   │  │  flow     │
                 └─────────────┘  └───────────┘

Consistency Checks

/para-audit validates ecosystem health:

Governance

Ecosystem conventions are managed by Heuristic H7 (Cross-Project References) in the kernel. These are SHOULD-level guidelines, planned for promotion to invariants at v2.0.0 after stabilization.

Added in v1.6.0. See also: Meta-Project Guide · Kernel Architecture

→ Learn: Meta-Project Guide → Learn: Strategy → Plan Flow → Learn: Kernel Architecture