ADR-0100: LQMS Is the Living Quality Management System¶
- Status: accepted
- Date: 2026-07-29
- Deciders: Nicolas Burri ("'living' it is") — the slot was deliberately reserved for this decision ("Next ADR will be 100. Let's make it something funny or important").
- Relates to: ADR-0098 (the derived org chart/authority evidence), ADR-0099 (the manual whose
screenshots regenerate from the build), the registered LLM-help discussion (the system that
explains itself from its own released documents) — the three decisions whose common thesis this
name states;
ch.lqms(the 2026-07-26 package decision that made the rename a docs-only act).
Context¶
The working name "Lovable Quality Management System" was a placeholder with a known liability:
the collision with "Lovable AI" was anticipated from early on, and the package namespace was
moved to ch.lqms precisely so the acronym could survive a rename. The constraint set: keep
LQMS, avoid trademark/expectation collisions, and sound sane in front of an auditor.
Decision¶
LQMS expands to "Living Quality Management System."
The name states the product's actual thesis rather than decorating it. The week this decision ripened produced three independent features that all converged on one principle — evidence that DERIVES from the living system instead of being hand-copied beside it: the authority view that cannot drift because it IS the enforcement (ADR-0098), the manual whose images regenerate from the build (ADR-0099), the future help assistant grounded in the instance's own released documents. A QMS that is alive versus shelf-ware.
The bilingual anchor, for a Swiss-built product: the highest praise a German-speaking auditor gives is "ein gelebtes QMS" — a QMS that is actually lived rather than performed for audit day. "Living QMS" is the closest English carrier of exactly that quality-culture idiom.
Rejected, with reasons: Lean (methodology-overloaded — hearing it, people expect value-stream maps; Nicolas: "the term is overloaded"); Lucid (crowded brand space, describes the reading experience rather than the system); Ledger (acquired blockchain expectations); Loom/Lattice (taken in tech). Lethal achieved instant disqualification with distinction — for a medical-device QMS, possibly the single most disqualifying adjective available.
Named weaknesses, accepted: "living" is an ordinary adjective — weaker as a trademark than an invented name, and it brands the category thesis more than a product persona. If marketing ever wants a proper noun, it goes IN FRONT of LQMS; the expansion stays.
Consequences¶
- Docs-only rename: seven files carry "Lovable" (CLAUDE.md, project_overview.md, README.md,
docs/README.md, glossary, release-plan, implementation-plan) — swept with this ADR. No code,
no UI string, no package, no repo name changes:
ch.lqmsand the LQMS mark were built to survive exactly this. - The glossary entry for LQMS carries the gelebt rationale so the name's meaning is durable.
- "Don't deepen the Lovable branding" (standing constraint since 2026-07-26) is discharged.