Add docs/OPERATIONALIZATION_PLAN.md

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Adds the master operationalization plan documenting how the workflow engine will be deployed across SaaS/PaaS, self-hosted, and embedded modes.

Contents

• 5-layer architecture — Core Engine → Developer Tooling → Plugin Ecosystem → Platform Services → Applications
• Layer-by-layer breakdown — current state, actions, and deliverables for each layer (semver releases, wfctl CLI expansion, plugin registry, SaaS control plane, license server)
• Three deployment modes — SaaS, self-hosted, and embedded (Ratchet-style) with ASCII flow diagrams
• Repo strategy — ownership and visibility for workflow, ratchet, workflow-registry, workflow-cloud
• 7 implementation phases — Weeks 1–14, mapping to tracked issues Decouple Admin UI from Go Binary: Serve as Static Asset via static.fileserver #34–Cleanup Legacy UI and Remove Deprecated Scaffolding #39 and future work (plugin registry, license server, infra)
• Stakeholder value matrix — SaaS customers, self-hosted operators, embedded developers, plugin authors, platform operators, org revenue

Original prompt

Create a comprehensive operationalization plan document at docs/OPERATIONALIZATION_PLAN.md that serves as the master plan for how the workflow engine will be operationalized across multiple modes (SaaS, self-hosted, embedded).

The document should contain the full plan below verbatim (in Markdown). Do NOT summarize or abbreviate — include every section, table, code block, and detail exactly as written.

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Operationalization Plan: Layered Approach for Workflow Engine

Overview

This document is the master plan for operationalizing the GoCodeAlone/workflow engine across three modes of operation: SaaS/PaaS, Self-Hosted, and Embedded (like GoCodeAlone/ratchet). The approach is organized into five layers, each building on the one below.

Architecture Layers

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Layer 5: Applications                                                    │
│  Ratchet, SaaS control plane, customer apps — consume everything below   │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Layer 4: Platform Services  (workflow-cloud, private)                    │
│  Multi-tenancy, billing, license validation, SaaS control plane          │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Layer 3: Plugin Ecosystem  (registry repo + marketplace)                │
│  Community plugins, premium plugins, UI plugins, external go-plugin      │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Layer 2: Developer Tooling  (wfctl, SDKs, templates)                    │
│  CLI, project scaffolding, CI helpers, shared UI library                 │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Layer 1: Core Engine  (GoCodeAlone/workflow, public)                    │
│  Modules, plugins, pipelines, config, static.fileserver, go-plugin       │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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Layer 1: Core Engine (GoCodeAlone/workflow — public)

The open-source workflow engine library and server binary. Everything in the workflow repo today, stabilized and released with semver.

Current State

• 30+ module types, config-driven app building, visual editor, external plugin system (go-plugin/gRPC), deployment strategies (rolling, blue-green, canary), Helm chart, Prometheus/Grafana dashboards
• No tagged semver releases — Ratchet depends on v0.0.0 with replace ../workflow
• Admin UI embedded in binary via go:embed
• CI exists (ci.yml, release.yml, helm-lint.yml, osv-scanner.yml, dependency-update.yml)

Actions

#	Action	Detail
1.1	Semver releases with GitHub Actions	Tag v0.1.0 as baseline. Enhance release.yml: run tests + lint, build binaries (linux/darwin amd64/arm64), build admin UI, create GitHub Release with checksums. Every merge to main creates a pre-release; tag push creates stable release.
1.2	Remove replace directive from Ratchet	Once workflow has tagged releases, Ratchet's go.mod changes from replace github.com/GoCodeAlone/workflow => ../workflow to require github.com/GoCodeAlone/workflow v0.x.y.
1.3	Admin UI decoupling	Tracked: issue #34. Admin UI becomes standalone build artifact, not embedded via go:embed.
1.4	Plugin-driven admin navigation	Tracked: issue #35. Remove hardcoded FALLBACK_PAGES, PLUGIN_VIEW_COMPONENTS.
1.5	UI plugin hot-reload	Tracked: issue #38. go-plugin based UI plugin system.
1.6	API stability contract	Document which Go packages are public API (config, plugin, module, schema, capability, store) vs internal. Breaking changes require major version bump.
1.7	License	Engine stays open-source (MIT or Apache 2.0). Enterprise features gated at Layer 4.

Deliverables

• github.com/GoCodeAlone/workflow as a versioned Go module (e.g., v0.1.0)
• workflow-server binary downloadable from GitHub Releases
• workflow-admin-ui tarball as a separate release artifact
• Docker image: ghcr.io/gocodalone/workflow:<version>

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Layer 2: Developer Tooling

Everything a software engineer needs to build, test, and deploy a workflow application.

2a. wfctl CLI (already at cmd/wfctl/)

Current capabilities: validate, run, serve. Needs expansion:

Command	Purpose	Status
wfctl init	Scaffold a new workflow application project	New
wfctl validate	Validate workflow YAML config	Exists
wfctl run	Run a workflow locally	Exists
wfctl build-ui	Build UI assets, validate output, package	New (tracked: #37)
wfctl plugin init	Scaffold a new plugin project	New
wfctl plugin test	Run plugin in-process test mode	New
wfctl publish	Package and push a plugin to the registry	New (Layer 3)
wfctl deploy ...

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