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sw.chooser.lab-vs-portfolio

Status: draft (decision-aligned; supersedes archive chooser table)
Sources: Hector D1 clarification 2026-07-22; archive Lab/Portfolio AGENTS (partially superseded)
See: docs/software-decisions.md D1

Default path

text Prototype → Lab (default landing) → Portfolio (only if revenue / commercial product) ↑ role tag: showcase | tool | platform | library | end-product | …

Skip Lab: Prototype → Portfolio when the work is already clearly revenue/commercial.

Decision table (new)

Prefer Lab	Prefer Portfolio
Default after prototype	Generating revenue or clearly a commercial product
Tools, MCP, experiments, showcases, libraries	Paid product / company product line
May or may not appear on /lab catalog (see D1b)	No requirement for Lab catalog
Org provisional: hector-sanchez-eu (D1a)	Org provisional: Konstant-Ventures (D1a)

Role tag (not an estate)

Set on every Lab/Portfolio plan:
showcase | tool | platform | library | end-product | agent-runtime | other

Examples: personal Gmail curator → Lab + tool; public calculator → Lab + showcase; billed SaaS → Portfolio + end-product.

Guardrails

• Always start in Prototype unless user explicitly continues an existing promoted repo.
• If Lab vs Portfolio is unclear, ask (especially revenue intent).
• Do not use legacy archive wording “Portfolio = needs maintenance / Lab = showcase only” as authority.
• Legacy Portfolio/tools/ is historical placement; new tools default to Lab.

Prohibited

• Promoting to Portfolio solely because “it needs maintenance”
• Inventing a fourth promote target named tooling