ChAoS MVC

ChAoS MVC Roadmap

This roadmap tracks completed ChAoS MVC milestones, the current released framework, active maintenance, planned developer tooling, and future development.

Current Release: ChAoS MVC 1.2.1
Current Status: Stable
Next Core Release: Not assigned

Status Key

• ✅ DONE — Completed and released
• 🔧 MAINTENANCE — Active maintenance of an established capability
• 🚧 IN DEVELOPMENT — Confirmed work currently being developed
• 📋 PLANNED — Accepted direction not yet completed
• 💡 FUTURE — Possible future direction without an assigned release

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Foundation

ChAoS MVC Architecture

• DONE — MVC application architecture
• DONE — Protected Core framework under /app
• DONE — Installation-owned userland under /user
• DONE — Core routing
• DONE — Controller and Model architecture
• DONE — Database abstraction
• DONE — Application configuration
• DONE — Authentication and session handling
• DONE — Administrative framework
• DONE — User Module architecture
• DONE — Administrative Module management
• DONE — Installation-owned Theme architecture
• DONE — Filesystem-backed Pages architecture
• DONE — Centralized Core error handling
• DONE — Core, Module, Theme, Page, and installation ownership boundaries

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Released

v1.1.9 — Core/User Separation and Security

Status: ✅ DONE

ChAoS MVC 1.1.9 established the primary ownership boundary between the protected ChAoS MVC Core and installation-owned content.

Core and User Separation

• DONE — Establish /user as the installation-owned namespace
• DONE — Move installation-owned Modules to /user/modules
• DONE — Move installation-owned Themes to /user/themes
• DONE — Preserve /app as the Core-owned application space
• DONE — Establish Module ownership boundaries
• DONE — Update Module discovery for userland Modules
• DONE — Update Module routing for userland Modules
• DONE — Update administrative Module handling
• DONE — Protect Core and userland ownership boundaries
• DONE — Reserve the Home route for the installation-owned Home Module
• DONE — Remove obsolete Core controllers superseded by user Modules

Authentication and Security

• DONE — CSRF verification for authentication mutations
• DONE — POST-only logout
• DONE — POST-only protected account deletion
• DONE — Hashed, expiring, single-use password-reset tokens
• DONE — Login and password-recovery throttling
• DONE — Session identifier regeneration after authentication
• DONE — Secure session-cookie defaults
• DONE — Administrative authorization boundaries
• DONE — Output escaping across Core public and Admin views
• DONE — Safe Markdown URL handling
• DONE — Media upload MIME, size, and path protection
• DONE — SQL identifier and parameter validation
• DONE — Completed-installation protection for /install

Themes

• DONE — Installation-owned PHP Themes
• DONE — theme.json
• DONE — Theme header support
• DONE — Theme navigation support
• DONE — Theme footer support
• DONE — Theme CSS assets
• DONE — Theme JavaScript assets
• DONE — Theme image assets
• DONE — Theme icon assets
• DONE — Confined Theme asset resolver
• DONE — Theme asset delivery without copying Theme assets into /public
• DONE — Active Theme selection through Site administration
• DONE — Core Classic fallback Theme

Module Security

• DONE — Module controller ownership validation
• DONE — Module route declaration validation
• DONE — Routable action validation
• DONE — Administrative Module access boundaries
• DONE — Confined Module controller, Model, and View loading
• DONE — Package identity validation
• DONE — Update metadata validation
• DONE — Release integrity validation
• DONE — Developer signing trust support
• DONE — Inert Admin Module discovery
• DONE — Per-Module maintenance locks

Module Updating

• DONE — Remote Module update discovery
• DONE — Installed and available version comparison
• DONE — Signed release verification
• DONE — SHA-256 package verification
• DONE — Authorized package-host enforcement
• DONE — Bounded remote downloads
• DONE — Confined ZIP archive validation
• DONE — Controlled whole-Module source replacement
• DONE — Preserve installation-owned trust metadata
• DONE — Automatic restoration after failed activation
• DONE — Version-specific database migration support
• DONE — Database migrations contained within signed packages
• DONE — Preserve existing Module data during migration
• DONE — Temporary update workspace cleanup

Error Handling

• DONE — Centralized MVC error handling
• DONE — Production-safe error pages
• DONE — Server-side error reference identifiers
• DONE — Error and log correlation
• DONE — Site-styled error presentation
• DONE — Dependency-free emergency error rendering

Qualification

• DONE — Existing installation migration
• DONE — User Module qualification
• DONE — Theme qualification
• DONE — Administrative workflow qualification
• DONE — Routing qualification
• DONE — Signed Module update qualification
• DONE — Database migration qualification
• DONE — Existing data preservation qualification
• DONE — Post-update Module operation qualification

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v1.2.0 — Updating and Lifecycle Management

Status: ✅ DONE

ChAoS MVC 1.2.0 completed the Core update lifecycle, expanded Module and Theme lifecycle management, and established verified release distribution.

Core Updater

• DONE — Update ChAoS MVC from Site administration
• DONE — Authoritative remote Core release discovery
• DONE — Installed and available version comparison
• DONE — Core update compatibility validation
• DONE — Update preflight
• DONE — Core package download
• DONE — Package SHA-256 verification
• DONE — Files-manifest verification
• DONE — Core package staging
• DONE — Backup of the existing distributed Core
• DONE — Controlled whole-Core replacement
• DONE — Stage-based update progress
• DONE — Administrative progress polling
• DONE — Automatic restoration after failed update
• DONE — One retained previous-Core rollback
• DONE — Core-only /app release scope
• DONE — Preserve /app/core/config.php
• DONE — Preserve installation-owned /app/data
• DONE — Preserve installation-owned public views
• DONE — Preserve /user/modules
• DONE — Preserve /user/themes
• DONE — Preserve /user/pages
• DONE — Preserve /public
• DONE — Remove obsolete distributed Core files
• DONE — Clean temporary update files
• DONE — Live-domain Core update qualification

Release Distribution

• DONE — Control-domain Core release builder
• DONE — Verified Core ZIP generation
• DONE — Core files-manifest generation
• DONE — Core package SHA-256 publication
• DONE — Authoritative current.json publication
• DONE — Explicit minimum supported version
• DONE — Required Core file validation
• DONE — Rejection of public and userland package content
• DONE — Release package scope enforcement

Module Lifecycle

• DONE — One retained previous Module filesystem release
• DONE — Manual Module filesystem rollback
• DONE — Explicit warning that filesystem rollback does not reverse SQL
• DONE — Module Nuke
• DONE — Removal of Module-owned database tables
• DONE — Transactional Module quarantine before destructive cleanup
• DONE — Restoration of live Module files after failed Nuke
• DONE — Removal of retained Module snapshots during Nuke
• DONE — Explicit lifecycle success and failure reporting
• DONE — Administrative listing limited to Modules with public admin() methods
• DONE — Service Module routing with declared index parameters

Theme Updating

• DONE — Remote Theme update discovery
• DONE — Verify remote Theme identity against local theme.json
• DONE — Compare installed and available Theme versions
• DONE — Download Theme update packages
• DONE — Verify Theme package SHA-256
• DONE — Verify Theme publisher signatures
• DONE — Stage Theme updates
• DONE — Validate Theme package structure
• DONE — Validate required Theme parts
• DONE — Validate Theme PHP syntax
• DONE — Activate validated Theme updates
• DONE — Automatically restore failed Theme updates
• DONE — Retain one previous Theme release
• DONE — Manual Theme filesystem rollback
• DONE — Clean temporary workspaces after success and failure
• DONE — Preserve active Theme selection during updates
• DONE — Theme updater qualification

Publisher Verification

• DONE — Shared Module and Theme release-signature contract
• DONE — RSA-SHA256 publisher verification
• DONE — Base64-encoded RSA public-key support
• DONE — OpenPGP publisher verification
• DONE — Isolated OpenPGP verification keyrings
• DONE — Rejection of checksum-only publisher authentication
• DONE — Cross-package-type signature separation
• DONE — Preserve installation-pinned signing and network trust

Site Administration

• DONE — Site maintenance-mode control
• DONE — Installation identity registration
• DONE — Registration status and retry control
• DONE — Registration limited to domain, ChAoS version, and PHP version
• DONE — Optional Sentinel perimeter integration
• DONE — Continue normally when Sentinel is not installed

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v1.2.1 — Pages, Discovery, and Security

Status: ✅ DONE
Released: September 19, 2026

ChAoS MVC 1.2.1 added filesystem-backed Pages, expanded Markdown rendering, modernized public-resource discovery, introduced RSS and schema-validated Site Resource Declarations, and corrected public generation boundaries.

Filesystem-Backed Pages

• DONE — Installation-owned Pages under /user/pages/{slug}
• DONE — page.json metadata
• DONE — Markdown Page content
• DONE — HTML Page content
• DONE — Plain-text Page content
• DONE — Passive JSON Page content
• DONE — Clean root-level Page URLs
• DONE — Core and Module routing priority over Pages
• DONE — Draft and published states
• DONE — Page creation through Admin
• DONE — Page editing through Admin
• DONE — Page slug changes
• DONE — Page content-format selection
• DONE — Theme-aware Page rendering
• DONE — Recoverable Page deletion through /user/pages/.trash
• DONE — Published Page discovery by Core generators

Markdown Rendering

• DONE — Heading anchors
• DONE — Bold and italic text
• DONE — Strikethrough
• DONE — Inline code
• DONE — Variable-length fenced code blocks
• DONE — Explicit links
• DONE — Automatic URL linking
• DONE — Blockquotes
• DONE — GitHub-style alerts
• DONE — Horizontal rules
• DONE — Nested ordered and unordered lists
• DONE — Task lists
• DONE — Tables
• DONE — Definition lists
• DONE — Footnotes
• DONE — Escaped Markdown characters
• DONE — Controlled small text
• DONE — Allowlisted named colors
• DONE — Raw source HTML escaping
• DONE — Unsafe URL-scheme rejection

SEO and Public Discovery

• DONE — Filesystem-authoritative Core route discovery
• DONE — Inert user Module discovery
• DONE — Published Page discovery
• DONE — Sitemap generation
• DONE — ROR generation
• DONE — LLMS map generation
• DONE — RSS generation from published Posts
• DONE — RSS presentation stylesheet
• DONE — Site Resource Declaration generation
• DONE — Remote STN-Labz Site Schema validation
• DONE — Admin discovery-resource refresh
• DONE — Separate artifact generation from public presentation

Site Resource Security

• DONE — Prevent repeated unauthenticated Site Schema retrieval
• DONE — Prevent repeated public resource discovery and filesystem replacement
• DONE — Bootstrap a missing public/site.json once
• DONE — Publish site.json with crawler-readable permissions
• DONE — Serve the previously validated artifact on later requests
• DONE — Reject symbolic-link substitution
• DONE — Keep normal regeneration within the authenticated Admin refresh path

Stock Modules

• DONE — Correct Home Module file manifest
• DONE — Confirm Home as a public Module without an Admin interface
• DONE — Align Home signing metadata with the current trust contract
• DONE — Align Example Module signing metadata with the current trust contract
• DONE — Remove obsolete undeclared Example migration material
• DONE — Preserve Example as the canonical lifecycle and CRUD reference

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Current Maintenance

ChAoS MVC 1.2.1 is the current stable release.

No additional Core feature release is assigned by this roadmap. Current work is limited to evidence-based maintenance, qualification, documentation, and correction of confirmed defects.

Core Maintenance

• 🔧 MAINTENANCE — Continue live-domain regression testing
• 🔧 MAINTENANCE — Continue security review of Core trust boundaries
• 🔧 MAINTENANCE — Continue release-builder and updater qualification
• 🔧 MAINTENANCE — Continue Module and Theme lifecycle qualification
• 🔧 MAINTENANCE — Continue documentation alignment with released behavior

Supported Upgrade Window

• DONE — ChAoS MVC 1.2.1 supports automatic updating from 1.2.0
• DONE — Reject automatic updates from installations older than the published minimum version
• DONE — Preserve manual download and update paths for older installations
• PLANNED — Evaluate support for a consistent two-release automatic upgrade window

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Planned Development

Developer Tooling

Module Builder

• DONE — Module project creation
• DONE — Standard ChAoS MVC Module structure
• DONE — Module packaging
• DONE — Module release generation
• DONE — Project management
• DONE — Userland Module Builder
• DONE — RSA-SHA256 release signing
• DONE — OpenPGP release signing
• DONE — Complete live Module project editing
• PLANNED — Complete project file operations
• DONE — Integrate Module Builder with developer certification
• DONE — Certification-aware release signing
• PLANNED — Developer artifact management

Theme Builder

• DONE — Userland Theme Builder
• DONE — Standard user Theme package generation
• DONE — RSA-SHA256 release signing
• DONE — OpenPGP release signing
• PLANNED — Complete Theme project editing
• PLANNED — Complete Theme file operations
• DONE — Integrate Theme Builder with developer certification
• PLANNED — Certification-aware Theme release workflow
• PLANNED — Developer Theme artifact management

Theme Lifecycle

• PLANNED — Theme Nuke support from /admin/themes
• PLANNED — Define Theme-owned data cleanup if Theme-owned data is introduced
• PLANNED — Complete destructive Theme lifecycle qualification

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Developer Certification

ChAoS MVC development tooling and certification are intended to work together.

Developers do not need certification to learn ChAoS MVC or use its development tools. Certification establishes the authority to identify completed work as certified ChAoS MVC development.

• DONE — Chaos Theme Developer certification level established
• DONE — Certified Module Developer certification level established
• DONE — Chaos Certified Developer certification level established
• DONE — Certification badges established
• DONE — Public certification information
• DONE — Module Builder certification integration
• DONE — Theme Builder certification integration
• DONE — Certification-aware artifact signing
• PLANNED — Developer artifact retrieval
• PLANNED — Certification workflow qualification

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Developer Documentation

• DONE — Developer documentation area
• DONE — Canonical Example Module
• DONE — Module Creation Guide
• DONE — Module development documentation
• DONE — Theme development documentation
• DONE — Theme update contract
• DONE — Release-signature contract
• DONE — Pages documentation
• DONE — Markdown rendering documentation
• DONE — SEO and discovery documentation
• DONE — Development rules and Gateway of Compliance
• PLANNED — Continue supported public API documentation
• PLANNED — Expand certification documentation
• PLANNED — Expand updater development documentation
• PLANNED — Publish additional lifecycle qualification procedures

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Future

The following areas remain future directions and are not assigned to a specific release.

• 💡 FUTURE — Continue expanding supported public ChAoS MVC APIs
• 💡 FUTURE — Continue developer tooling integration
• 💡 FUTURE — Continue certification automation
• 💡 FUTURE — Continue Module lifecycle improvements
• 💡 FUTURE — Continue Theme lifecycle improvements
• 💡 FUTURE — Continue Pages lifecycle improvements
• 💡 FUTURE — Continue public resource and schema integration
• 💡 FUTURE — Continue security hardening as the framework evolves

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Development Principle

ChAoS MVC development follows one architectural principle:

Protect the Core. Grow outward.

The Core provides the framework.

Modules, Themes, and Pages provide the growth.