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The Sovereignty Oath: Zero Residue

"Zenzic is a static analyzer in your pipeline, not a chain. The ability to remove it is not a failure mode — it is a design requirement."

The Oath​

Zenzic makes one unconditional promise: it will never hold your codebase hostage.

To ensure the integrity of the Privacy Gate, Zenzic's audit core is strictly read-only. We believe that a linter should never be a source of unintended mutations. Any future remediation features will be implemented as explicit, interactive utilities (e.g. zenzic fix), keeping the analysis phase 100% mutation-free.

This document is the formal commitment of that promise.

1. Zero Residue Guarantee​

When you remove Zenzic, what remains?

ComponentResidue After Removal
Your source filesUnchanged — Zenzic never writes or modifies content
Your application codeUnchanged — Zenzic is never imported at runtime
Your Python typesUnchanged — Zenzic uses typing.Protocol, not inheritance
Your config formatStandard [tool.zenzic] PEP convention — remove the section, done
Your CI pipelineOne workflow step — delete it
Your pre-commit hooksOne hook entry — remove it

Total removal time: 30 seconds.

No migration scripts. No data format to convert. No architecture to unwind.

2. Why typing.Protocol Matters​

Zenzic's adapter system uses typing.Protocol — the Python standard library's structural subtyping mechanism.

This is a deliberate architectural choice:

# Zenzic adapter contract — structural subtyping only
class AdapterProtocol(Protocol):
    def get_docs_root(self) -> Path: ...
    def get_nav_paths(self) -> frozenset[str]: ...
    def get_metadata_files(self) -> frozenset[str]: ...

What this means for you:

  • You do not need to subclass a Zenzic base class.

  • Your code does not carry a Zenzic inheritance chain.

  • If you remove Zenzic, your Python classes remain unchanged — no base class to strip

    out, no method overrides to remove, no MRO to audit.

The adapter is a structural contract. If your object has the right methods, Zenzic accepts it. If Zenzic is removed, your object still works — it simply has no auditor.

3. PEP-Compliant Configuration​

Zenzic configuration lives in the [tool.zenzic] section of pyproject.toml — the standard PEP 518 location for tool config:

pyproject.toml
[tool.zenzic]
docs_dir = "docs"
engine = "mkdocs"

Or in a standalone .zenzic.toml at the repository root.

Removal procedure:

pyproject.toml (after)
# [tool.zenzic] section deleted — no other changes needed

Or:

rm .zenzic.toml

The [tool.zenzic] section is an isolated namespace. Removing it does not affect any other tool configuration. No cascading effects. No shared state.

4. The Decommissioning Process​

Removing Zenzic from a project is designed to be trivial and leave no residual lock-in. For step-by-step instructions on decommissioning, see the Install & First Run guide — Decommissioning Zenzic.

5. Why We Document the Exit​

Trust is built on the ability to leave, not the requirement to stay.

A tool that makes departure difficult is not confident in its value — it is protecting its own presence. The Zenzic trust model is Zero-Trust: including toward Zenzic itself.

The analyzer exists to protect your documentation. Not to protect itself.