H.5.3 Compatibility Contracts
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A dependency contract states what change a consumer may survive without coordinated source movement; runtime skew belongs to H.11.4 Runtime Compatibility.
- Choose live-at-head, compatible evolution, published versions, or temporary multiple versions from consumer boundaries.
- Name API, schema, configuration, data, and generated-interface compatibility where those surfaces overlap.
- State who tests downstream consumers, what constitutes a break, and how long old and new surfaces coexist.
- Keep compatibility windows bounded by entry prevention, migration evidence, and cleanup conditions.
- Do not infer runtime compatibility merely from one coherent repository revision.
