Explanation: Architecture

ZapTrace is an AI-native, verification-first EDA kernel. It is organized around a deterministic core, explicit evidence artifacts, and integrations for agents and conventional EDA tooling.

For the detailed architecture, see ../ARCHITECTURE.md.

Architectural principles

1. Evidence over claims — proof packs, oracle results, DRC/ERC outputs, and release gates document what was checked and what remains unknown.
2. Human review required — generated hardware artifacts are never treated as fabrication approval.
3. Deterministic core — parsing, checking, routing, and export should be reproducible where practical.
4. Interoperability — KiCad, Gerber, Excellon, BOM, pick-and-place, and MCP integrations are first-class boundaries.
5. Safe agent integration — MCP tools should expose bounded operations and avoid silent state changes.

Maturity implications

The architecture supports professional OSS maturity because it can produce auditable evidence. It is not yet foundation-grade because independent governance and regular non-author review are not established.