Unixification

What happens when you scale complexity before you standardize interfaces?

Unixification is the operating discipline of designing small, testable units with stable contracts.

Principle

Rule	Engineering Meaning
One job	Each unit has one clear responsibility
Small surface	Inputs and outputs are explicit and minimal
Stable contract	Interfaces change slowly and deliberately
Composable parts	Units can be assembled into larger systems
Test in isolation	Failures are attributable and diagnosable

Operating Use

Apply this sequence when variance and coupling increase:

Define Unit -> Freeze Contract -> Test Isolated -> Compose Incrementally -> Measure Variance

Decision Gate

Condition	Action
High coupling	Break system into explicit units before integration
High failure ambiguity	Add contract tests and trace logging
Repeated integration rework	Stabilize interfaces before adding features

Benchmarks

Benchmark	Signal
Contract breakage rate	Should decline each release
Mean time to root cause	Should decline over time
Integration rework	Should decline over time
Stable interface reuse	Should increase over time

If these do not improve, unixification is being claimed but not practiced.

Meta View

For the broader philosophical frame on unixification of the phygital world, see:

• Unixification of the Phygital World

Context

• Standards — Standardization as industrial leverage
• Process Optimisation — Document, measure, improve, standardize
• Performance — Benchmarks required to judge quality
• A2A Protocol — Inter-agent contract layer
• Composability — Reuse through stable interfaces
• Interoperability — Coordination across boundaries