How to Run an ARC Adherence Check

Use this guide to run an ARC Adherence Check after completing bolt execution.

Prerequisites

• ARC must exist in _cat/artifacts/architecture/
• At least one bolt execution artifact in _cat/artifacts/construction/

When to Run

• After completing bolt execution for a feature
• Before work acceptance
• Whenever you want to verify ARC compliance status

Running the Check

cat-arc-adherence-check

Julian and Vera jointly scan:

1. The ARC’s constraint list (MUST, MUST NOT, SHOULD, MAY)
2. All bolt execution artifacts
3. Code review reports
4. The actual codebase (if accessible)

What the Report Shows

For each ARC constraint:

Status	Meaning
✅ Met	Constraint satisfied with evidence
❌ Not Met	Constraint violated — requires remediation
⚠️ Partial	Some evidence but incomplete coverage
🔍 Unable to Verify	Insufficient evidence to determine compliance

Example Output

## ARC Adherence Report

| Constraint | Status | Evidence |
|-----------|--------|----------|
| MUST-001: Rate-limit reset requests to 3/hour | ✅ Met | Bolt 1.1 implementation, unit test `test_rate_limit` |
| MUST-002: Hash tokens with SHA-256 | ✅ Met | Bolt 1.2, `TokenService.hashToken()` |
| MUST-NOT-001: Don't reveal email existence | ❌ Not Met | Error response differs for known vs unknown emails |

Output: _cat/artifacts/validation/arc-adherence-report.md

Handling Failures

When constraints are marked “Not Met”:

1. Review the evidence — Is it a real violation or a false positive?
2. Fix the implementation — If it’s a real violation, update the code
3. Re-run the check — Verify the fix resolves the constraint
4. If the constraint is wrong — Use cat-change-proposal to formally propose changes

Relationship to Compliance Report

The ARC Adherence Check feeds into the broader Compliance Report:

ARC Adherence Check → Control #9 in Compliance Report

Run adherence first, then compliance for the full picture.

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See Also: Build an ARC · Run Compliance Report · What Is an ARC?