Prerequisite and dependency mapping

Problem

Future MCP capabilities (multi-agent workflows, streaming tool responses, semantic layer queries, cross-source joins) have hidden prerequisites in the Dataface core — compile pipeline changes, new adapter interfaces, authentication models, caching strategies — that are expensive to build at the last minute. These dependencies are not mapped, so when a future capability is greenlit the team discovers blocking prerequisites only after starting implementation, causing delays and rework. A dependency map would let the team opportunistically build enabling infrastructure during current development cycles, reducing future startup cost.

Context

• Future work on AI agent tool interfaces, execution workflows, and eval-driven behavior tuning will fail or stall if its hidden dependencies stay implicit, so this task should make the enabling conditions visible before anyone commits implementation effort.
• The goal is to understand which technical, product, operational, or partner-side prerequisites gate the most important next bets.
• Expected touchpoints include dataface/ai/, MCP/tool contracts, cloud chat surfaces, eval runners, and prompt artifacts, adjacent workstream plans, external dependencies, and any architectural decisions that would constrain later options.

Possible Solutions

• A - Let each future initiative discover its own blockers as it starts: workable short term, but it creates repeated surprise and thrash.
• B - Recommended: produce a dependency map for the most important future directions: identify technical enablers, ownership gaps, sequencing constraints, and external dependencies up front.
• C - Treat everything as blocked until all possible prerequisites are solved: safe on paper, but too broad to be useful.

Plan

1. List the future directions most likely to matter for AI agent tool interfaces, execution workflows, and eval-driven behavior tuning and enumerate the dependencies each one appears to require.
2. Group those dependencies into themes such as architecture, data/contracts, operations, design, or external approvals and identify likely owners.
3. Highlight the prerequisites that unlock multiple future paths and the ones that are too speculative to prioritize yet.
4. Turn the highest-value prerequisites into sequenced follow-up tasks or explicit decision points rather than leaving them buried in notes.

Implementation Progress

Review Feedback

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