Core Principles of Qualityfolio

Qualityfolio is built on a set of foundational principles that ensure consistency, auditability, and scalability across quality, security, and compliance operations. These principles enable teams to treat testing, evidence, and governance as first-class, version-controlled assets.

1. Markdown-First Authoring

All Qualityfolio artifacts — including projects, strategies, plans, suites, cases, and evidence — are authored in Markdown.

This approach provides:

Human-readable and developer-friendly documentation
Machine-executable structure for automation
Easy collaboration through standard code review processes
Long-term maintainability of test assets

Markdown becomes the single source of truth for quality and compliance intent.

2. Runbook Execution Layer

Qualityfolio uses a structured execution engine powered by runbook/cli.ts.

This layer:

Interprets Markdown using MDAST (Markdown Abstract Syntax Tree)
Translates test definitions into executable operational steps
Standardizes execution behavior across manual and automated tests
Ensures repeatable, predictable outcomes

Runbooks act as the bridge between written intent and real system behavior.

3. Evidence-First Observability

Qualityfolio is designed with evidence as a primary output, not an afterthought.

Every test execution produces structured, verifiable evidence that is captured in:

A SQLite telemetry database for structured queries and reporting
File-based evidence folders for logs, screenshots, and system artifacts

This ensures:

Real-time visibility into test outcomes
Tamper-resistance through immutability patterns
Strong audit defensibility

4. Git-Native Workflow

Qualityfolio adopts a Git-native operating model for all quality and compliance assets.

This enables teams to use:

Branching strategies for parallel workstreams
Pull requests for peer review and approvals
Version history for traceability and audits
Native integration with CI/CD pipelines

All changes are transparent, reviewable, and governed by standard software delivery practices.

5. Classification-Driven Interpretation

Qualityfolio uses a classification-driven architecture to interpret document structure.

Each Markdown heading depth is mapped to a functional role using the doc-classify schema. This allows the system to:

Automatically assign semantic meaning to document structure
Map Markdown content into SQL tables
Enable structured analytics and reporting
Maintain consistency across large and complex test hierarchies

This principle turns unstructured text into structured, queryable data.

These core principles allow Qualityfolio to function as a scalable, evidence-driven governance platform rather than a traditional test management tool.