SysProM — System Provenance Model

/sɪs.prɒm/

A recursive, decision-driven model for recording where every part of a system came from, what decisions shaped it, and how it reached its current form.

Install

# From npm (when published)
npm install -g sysprom

# From GitHub
npm install -g github:ExaDev/SysProM

# Or use without installing
npx sysprom --help

Both sysprom and spm are available as commands — use sysprom for new projects.

CLI

# Convert between formats
sysprom json2md --input .SysProM.json --output ./.SysProM
sysprom md2json --input ./.SysProM --output output.SysProM.json

# Diagram and label options

The `graph` and `json2md` commands support options to control diagram layout and node label style used when generating Mermaid/DOT output.

Examples:

```sh
# Generate a Mermaid graph with friendly labels (default)
sysprom graph --path .SysProM.json --format mermaid

# Compact node labels (IDs only) instead of `ID: Name`
sysprom graph --path .SysProM.json --format mermaid --label-mode compact

# Embed diagrams when converting JSON → Markdown, using compact labels
sysprom json2md --input .SysProM.json --output ./.SysProM --embed-diagrams --label-mode compact

# Control layout direction for graph (LR, TD, RL, BT)
sysprom graph --path .SysProM.json --format mermaid --layout LR

Notes:

• --label-mode friendly|compact controls whether nodes show ID: Name (friendly) or just ID (compact).
• --layout LR|TD|RL|BT controls graph direction. json2md uses sensible per-diagram defaults (relationship/refinement/decision diagrams default to TD, dependency diagrams default to LR) but you can override when calling graph directly.
• --label-mode friendly|compact controls whether nodes show ID: Name (friendly) or just ID (compact).
• --layout LR|TD|RL|BT controls graph direction. json2md uses sensible per-diagram defaults (relationship/refinement/decision diagrams default to TD, dependency diagrams default to LR) but you can override when calling graph directly.
• json2md supports per-diagram layout overrides to control each embedded diagram independently:
  • --relationship-layout LR|TD|RL|BT — override the layout used for the Relationship Graph.
  • --refinement-layout LR|TD|RL|BT — override the layout used for the Refinement Chain.
  • --decision-layout LR|TD|RL|BT — override the layout used for the Decision Map.
  • --dependency-layout LR|TD|RL|BT — override the layout used for the Dependency Graph.

Examples:

# Embed diagrams in multi-doc output but make dependency graph top-to-bottom (TD)
sysprom json2md --input .SysProM.json --output ./.SysProM --embed-diagrams --dependency-layout TD

# Override relationship and refinement layouts independently
sysprom json2md --input .SysProM.json --output ./.SysProM --embed-diagrams --relationship-layout LR --refinement-layout TD

Validate and summarise (auto-detects .SysProM.json in current directory)

sysprom validate sysprom stats

Query nodes and relationships

sysprom query nodes --type decision sysprom query node D1 sysprom query rels --from D1 sysprom query trace I1 sysprom query timeline sysprom query state-at

Add nodes (ID auto-generated from type prefix if --id omitted)

sysprom add invariant --name "New Rule" --description "Must hold" sysprom add decision --name "Choose X"
--option "OPT-A:Use framework X" --option "OPT-B:Use framework Y"
--selected OPT-A --rationale "Lower migration effort"

Remove nodes

sysprom remove INV23

Update nodes, relationships, and metadata

sysprom update node D1 --status deprecated sysprom update add-rel D1 affects EL5 sysprom update remove-rel D1 affects EL5 sysprom update meta --fields version=2

Inference operations (deterministic graph analysis)

sysprom infer completeness # Score node completeness (0-1) sysprom infer lifecycle # Infer lifecycle phases sysprom infer impact I1 # Trace impact from node sysprom infer derived # Compute transitive closure sysprom infer all # Run all analyses

All commands auto-detect the document — they search the current directory for `.SysProM.json`, `.SysProM.md`, or `.SysProM/` (in that priority order), then fall back to `.spm.json`, `.spm.md`, or `.spm/`. Use `--path` to specify an explicit path. Note: `spm` is an alias for `sysprom` for backwards compatibility.

## MCP Server

SysProM includes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server exposing tools over stdio transport. Any MCP-compatible agent — Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code Copilot, Cline, or custom clients — can use it.

### Configuration

Add the following to your MCP client's configuration (e.g. `.cursor/mcp.json`, `.vscode/mcp.json`, `cline_mcp_settings.json`, or equivalent):

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sysprom": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "sysprom", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or via the CLI subcommand (equivalent):

sysprom mcp   # starts the MCP server on stdio

Available Tools

Tool	Description
validate	Validate a SysProM document and return issues
stats	Return document statistics
query-nodes	Query nodes by type, status, or text
query-node	Retrieve a single node by ID
query-relationships	Query relationships by source, target, or type
trace	Trace refinement chains from a node
add-node	Add a new node to the document
remove-node	Remove a node by ID
update-node	Update fields on an existing node
add-relationship	Add a relationship between nodes
remove-relationship	Remove a relationship
infer-completeness	Score node completeness (0-1) based on refinement relationships
infer-lifecycle	Infer lifecycle phase from status and lifecycle fields
infer-impact	Trace impact propagation from a starting node
infer-derived	Compute transitive closure and inverse relationships

All tools accept a path parameter to specify the SysProM document location.

Programmatic API

import {
	// Schema and types
	sysproMDocument,
	node,
	nodeType,
	relationshipType,
	type SysProMDocument,
	type Node,
	type Relationship,

	// Conversion
	jsonToMarkdown,
	jsonToMarkdownSingle,
	jsonToMarkdownMultiDoc,
	markdownToJson,

	// Validation and query
	validate,
	stats,
	queryNodes,
	queryNode,
	queryRelationships,
	traceFromNode,

	// Mutation
	addNode,
	removeNode,
	updateNode,
	addRelationship,
	removeRelationship,
	updateMetadata,

	// Inference
	inferCompletenessOp,
	inferLifecycleOp,
	inferImpactOp,
	inferDerivedOp,

	// File I/O
	loadDocument,
	saveDocument,

	// Utilities
	canonicalise,
	toJSONSchema,
} from "sysprom";

// Validate
const doc = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(".SysProM.json", "utf8"));
const result = validate(doc);
console.log(result.valid, result.issues);

// Query
const decisions = queryNodes(doc, { type: "decision" });
const trace = traceFromNode(doc, "I1");

// Mutate
const updated = addNode(doc, {
	id: "INV23",
	type: "invariant",
	name: "New Rule",
});
const withRel = addRelationship(updated, {
	from: "D1",
	to: "INV23",
	type: "must_preserve",
});

// Type guards
if (sysproMDocument.is(data)) {
	/* data is SysProMDocument */
}
if (node.is(thing)) {
	/* thing is Node */
}

What is SysProM?

SysProM models systems as directed graphs across abstraction layers — intent, concept, capability, structure, and realisation — with explicit decisions, changes, and invariants. It is domain-agnostic, format-agnostic, and recursively composable.

System Provenance Profile

For product repositories, use SysProM to model the specification, design, and implementation of the system being built.

Recommended node usage:

• intent: user outcomes, business goals, and product promises
• concept: domain concepts, behavioural boundaries, and system rules
• capability: user-visible or externally meaningful system behaviours
• element: architectural components, services, stores, queues, and UI surfaces
• realisation: implementation units such as packages, modules, handlers, schemas, and jobs
• protocol: workflows and lifecycle paths such as review, publish, sync, or ingestion flows
• artefact: API contracts, documents, prompts, tests, migrations, and generated outputs
• decision: selected trade-offs and architectural choices
• change: implementation slices or delivery units
• role: human or system actors
• view: curated slices such as specification, architecture, implementation, and operations

Recommended trace chain:

intent -> concept -> capability -> element -> realisation -> artefact

Recommended relationship usage:

• refines: tighten intent into concepts and concepts into capabilities
• part_of: decompose concepts, protocols, capabilities, and architecture structures
• realises: connect design structures to implementation structures
• produces: connect capabilities or stages to the artefacts they generate
• performs: connect roles to capabilities, stages, protocols, and operational concepts
• governed_by / constrained_by: express rules, policies, and invariants on design and implementation
• implements / modifies: connect delivery changes to the nodes they implement or alter
• affects + must_preserve: connect decisions to impacted areas and their protected invariants

Recommended implementation provenance:

• use external_references on realisation nodes to point to code paths, packages, handlers, or schemas
• use external_references on artefact nodes to point to API definitions, test files, migrations, docs, PRs, and generated outputs
• use status, scope, and decision/change links so the graph can answer both “what is the design?” and “what has actually been built?”

How SysProM Compares

System	Format		Structure			Decisions		Time		Analysis		Workflow
	Readable	Parseable	State	Nesting	Diagrams	Rationale	Constraints	History	Temporal	Inference	Impact	Scaffolding	Planning	Tracking
MBSE (SysML)	🔶	✅	✅	✅	✅	🔶	✅	🔶			✅
Knowledge Graphs		✅	✅	✅	🔶		🔶			✅
EA (ArchiMate)	✅	🔶	✅	🔶	✅		🔶				✅
Git	🔶	✅	✅					✅	✅					🔶
Event Sourcing		✅	🔶				🔶	✅	✅
DDD	✅		✅	🔶			🔶
C4	✅		✅	🔶	✅
Traceability Matrices	✅		✅				🔶				🔶			🔶
PRD	✅		🔶	🔶	🔶	✅	🔶	🔶			🔶		✅	🔶
ADR	✅					✅		🔶
RFC Processes	✅					✅		🔶					🔶	🔶
BDD (Gherkin)	✅	✅	🔶	🔶			✅					🔶	🔶	✅
Spec Kit	✅		✅	🔶		🔶		🔶				✅	✅	✅
Ralplan	✅		🔶			✅	🔶						✅	🔶
GSD	✅					🔶	🔶
GSD-2	✅	🔶	✅	✅		🔶	🔶	✅			🔶	✅	✅	✅
Taskmaster	✅	✅	✅	✅		🔶		🔶		🔶	🔶	🔶	✅	✅
OpenSpec	✅	🔶	✅	🔶		✅		✅				✅	✅	✅
Kiro	✅	🔶	✅	🔶		🔶	🔶	🔶			🔶	✅	✅	✅
cc-sdd	✅	🔶	✅	🔶		🔶	🔶	🔶			🔶	✅	✅	✅
Ouroboros	✅	🔶	✅			✅	✅	🔶		✅	🔶	🔶	✅	🔶
Spec Kitty	✅	🔶	✅	🔶		🔶	🔶	🔶			🔶	✅	✅	✅
Shotgun	✅	🔶	🔶			🔶		🔶			🔶	🔶	✅	🔶
Superpowers	✅	🔶	🔶	🔶		🔶	✅	🔶		✅	🔶	✅	✅	✅
SysProM	✅	✅	✅	✅	🔶	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	🔶	✅	✅	✅

✅ = first-class support. 🔶 = partial or implicit.

Key Concepts

Nodes — typed entities (intent, concept, capability, element, realisation, invariant, principle, policy, protocol, stage, role, gate, mode, artefact, decision, change, view)

Relationships — typed directed edges (refines, realises, implements, depends_on, affects, supersedes, must_preserve, and 17 others)

Invariants — rules that must hold across all valid system states

Decisions — choices between alternatives, with context, options, rationale, and must_preserve links to invariants (required when affecting domain nodes)

Changes — modifications to the system, linked to decisions, with scope, operations, and lifecycle tracking

Subsystems — any node can contain a nested SysProM graph, using the same structure recursively

Serialisation

SysProM is format-agnostic. This repository includes:

• JSON — validated against schema.json, supports recursive subsystems
• Markdown — single file (.SysProM.md), multi-document folder, or recursive nested folders with automatic grouping by type

Round-trip conversion between JSON and Markdown is supported with zero information loss.

Development

pnpm build            # Typecheck + compile + schema + docs (cached via Turbo)
pnpm typecheck        # Type-check only
pnpm compile          # Compile to dist/
pnpm test             # Typecheck + run all tests
pnpm test:coverage    # Tests with coverage report
pnpm docs             # Generate API + CLI markdown docs
pnpm docs:html        # Generate HTML site for GitHub Pages
pnpm docs:serve       # Live-reload HTML docs during development
pnpm spm <command>    # Run the CLI from source (e.g. pnpm spm validate ...)

Self-Description

.SysProM.json is SysProM describing itself — the specification, its decisions, invariants, changes, and worked examples are all encoded as a SysProM document. The ./.SysProM/ folder contains the same content as human-readable Markdown.

All significant activity — decisions, changes, new capabilities, and invariants — should be recorded in the self-describing document. Updates can be made either by editing the Markdown files in ./.SysProM/ directly or by using the CLI:

# Add a decision via the CLI
sysprom add decision --id D23 --name "My Decision" --context "Why this was needed"

# Or edit ./.SysProM/DECISIONS.md directly, then sync
sysprom md2json --input ./.SysProM --output .SysProM.json

Keep both representations in sync after any change:

# JSON → Markdown
sysprom json2md --input .SysProM.json --output ./.SysProM

# Markdown → JSON
sysprom md2json --input ./.SysProM --output .SysProM.json

Important: Always keep .SysProM.json and ./.SysProM/ up to date with current activity and in sync with each other. Record all decisions, changes, and new capabilities as they happen. After any change to either representation, run the appropriate conversion command above. Validate with sysprom validate before committing.

Claude Code Plugin

SysProM is available as a Claude Code plugin with skills for managing provenance documents. The plugin is defined in .claude-plugin/marketplace.json with skills in .claude/skills/.

Install from Marketplace

# Add the SysProM marketplace
/plugin marketplace add ExaDev/SysProM

# Install the plugin
/plugin install sysprom@sysprom

Skills are namespaced when installed as a plugin (e.g. /sysprom:add-decision, /sysprom:query-nodes).

Local Development

When working on the SysProM repo itself, skills in .claude/skills/ are auto-discovered without plugin installation. Skills use short names (e.g. /add-decision, /query-nodes).

Skills by Category

Node Creation

• add-decision — Create decision nodes with context, options, rationale, and invariant links
• add-change — Create change nodes with scope, operations, and task tracking
• add-invariant — Create invariant nodes representing system rules and constraints
• add-node — Generic node creation for any SysProM type

Node Modification

• update-node — Modify node fields, status, lifecycle, context, or rationale
• remove-node — Delete nodes with safety flags (hard delete, recursive, repair)
• rename-node — Rename node IDs across all references

Relationships

• add-relationship — Create relationships between nodes with specific types
• remove-relationship — Delete relationships

Query & Analysis

• query-nodes — Search nodes by type, status, text, or ID
• query-relationships — Query relationships by source, target, or type
• trace-node — Trace refinement chains through abstraction layers
• check-document — Validate document structure and report issues
• stats — Show document statistics and composition metrics

Visualisation

• graph — Generate Mermaid or DOT graphs with filtering

Format Conversion

• init-document — Create new SysProM documents with metadata
• json-to-markdown — Convert JSON to Markdown format
• markdown-to-json — Convert Markdown to JSON format
• sync-formats — Bidirectional sync between JSON and Markdown

Spec-Kit Integration

• speckit-import — Import Spec-Kit features as SysProM nodes
• speckit-export — Export SysProM nodes to Spec-Kit format
• speckit-sync — Bidirectional sync with Spec-Kit specifications
• speckit-diff — Show differences between SysProM and Spec-Kit

Task Management

• task-list — List tasks in a change node with progress
• task-add — Add tasks to a change
• task-mark-done — Mark tasks as complete

Plan Management

• plan-init — Initialise plans with phases and gates
• plan-status — Show plan progress and phase gates

Fallback to npx

If spm is not globally installed, skills automatically fall back to npx -y sysprom for command execution. All skills work with either global or per-project installation.