diff --git a/schemas/contract.schema.json b/schemas/contract.schema.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..70d23c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/schemas/contract.schema.json
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
+  "$id": "https://acdl.cloudinit.dev/schemas/contract.schema.json",
+  "title": "ACDL Contract",
+  "description": "Consumer-declared intent. The central pipeline resolves a contract to a Target Stack IR (schemas/ir.schema.json), the Terraform adapter compiles the IR to a plan. Strict fail-fast at schema stage with reason codes from a published vocabulary.",
+  "$comment": "Per-env mandatory inputs per W3.E (PROJECT.md). dev requires stack+environment; qa adds validation.e2eSuite + validation.loadTest; prod adds runbook+dashboard+oncall; dr adds drDrillRef. inputs always optional. profile: agentic fields optional everywhere (naturalLanguageIntent required when profile is agentic). W2.A (tag for dev/qa, SHA for prod) is a workflow-reference concern, not a schema field; the platform CLI resolves tag->SHA for prod-bound workflows.",
+  "type": "object",
+  "required": ["stack", "environment"],
+  "properties": {
+    "stack": {
+      "type": "string",
+      "pattern": "^l2-[a-z][a-z0-9-]*$",
+      "description": "L2 thin-composition reference (resolved by the pipeline to a Target Stack IR)."
+    },
+    "environment": {
+      "type": "string",
+      "enum": ["dev", "qa", "prod", "dr"],
+      "description": "Target environment. Staging does not exist (Path A locked, ARCHITECTURE.md §5)."
+    },
+    "inputs": {
+      "type": "object",
+      "description": "L2-level parameter map. Free-form in v1, typed per-L1 in v1.2 (W3.E).",
+      "additionalProperties": {"type": ["string", "number", "boolean"]}
+    },
+    "validation": {
+      "type": "object",
+      "description": "Validation evidence required in qa (W3.E).",
+      "properties": {
+        "e2eSuite": {"type": "string", "description": "Reference to the contract-declared e2e suite (last 24h, pass rate >= 99%)."},
+        "loadTest": {"type": "string", "description": "Reference to the load test report (last 7d, p99 < declared NFR)."}
+      }
+    },
+    "runbook": {"type": "string", "description": "Runbook reference, mandatory in prod (W3.E)."},
+    "dashboard": {"type": "string", "description": "Dashboard reference, mandatory in prod (W3.E)."},
+    "oncall": {"type": "string", "description": "On-call rotation reference, mandatory in prod (W3.E)."},
+    "drDrillRef": {"type": "string", "description": "DR drill report reference (last 180d), mandatory in dr (W3.E)."},
+    "profile": {
+      "type": "string",
+      "enum": ["developer", "agentic"],
+      "default": "developer",
+      "description": "Consumer surface. 'agentic' unlocks L3B fields (ARCHITECTURE.md §5)."
+    },
+    "naturalLanguageIntent": {
+      "type": "string",
+      "description": "L3B: the original natural-language prompt. Required when profile is agentic (W3.E)."
+    },
+    "confidenceAtSubmission": {
+      "type": "number",
+      "minimum": 0,
+      "maximum": 1,
+      "description": "L3B: the agent's self-reported confidence at submission time."
+    },
+    "agentTrace": {
+      "type": "string",
+      "description": "L3B: reference to the agent's execution trace."
+    },
+    "supersedes": {
+      "type": "string",
+      "format": "uuid",
+      "description": "Prior contractId this re-submission replaces (after rejection — ARCHITECTURE.md §10.6)."
+    }
+  },
+  "allOf": [
+    {
+      "if": {"properties": {"environment": {"const": "qa"}}},
+      "then": {"required": ["validation"],
+               "properties": {"validation": {"required": ["e2eSuite", "loadTest"]}}}
+    },
+    {
+      "if": {"properties": {"environment": {"const": "prod"}}},
+      "then": {"required": ["runbook", "dashboard", "oncall"]}
+    },
+    {
+      "if": {"properties": {"environment": {"const": "dr"}}},
+      "then": {"required": ["drDrillRef"]}
+    },
+    {
+      "if": {"required": ["profile"], "properties": {"profile": {"const": "agentic"}}},
+      "then": {"required": ["naturalLanguageIntent"]}
+    }
+  ]
+}
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diff --git a/schemas/ir.schema.json b/schemas/ir.schema.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a0c508e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/schemas/ir.schema.json
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
+  "$id": "https://acdl.cloudinit.dev/schemas/ir.schema.json",
+  "title": "ACDL Target Stack IR",
+  "description": "Substrate-neutral description of a target stack: resources with typed inputs/outputs/NFRs, relationships (single parent per child), composition tree (max depth 5), and policy hooks. The L1 registry, L2 thin-composition tree, contract YML, and PolicyCheckResult schema are all defined against this IR. Substrate adapters (the Terraform adapter in v1) are the only substrate-specific code.",
+  "$comment": "v1 ships one adapter (Terraform). The IR is nearly isomorphic to Terraform in v1 (ARCHITECTURE.md §12.1); the adapter compiles resource.module -> module block, resource.inputs -> variable + arg, resource.outputs -> output, relationship.kind=uses_output -> interpolation, relationship.kind=parent -> composition ordering hint. As more adapters appear (v2+), the IR gains expressiveness; the L1 content + contract YML + thin-composition tree do not change. The schema body is substrate-agnostic: no Terraform block keywords (variable/output/resource as blocks) and no aws_ provider prefixes in the schema keywords; type values are IR types (aws:s3:bucket), not Terraform resource types (aws_s3_bucket).",
+  "type": "object",
+  "required": ["version", "stack", "resources"],
+  "properties": {
+    "version": {
+      "type": "string",
+      "description": "IR schema version (semver).",
+      "pattern": "^\\d+\\.\\d+\\.\\d+$"
+    },
+    "stack": {
+      "type": "object",
+      "description": "The L1/L2 stack identity this IR represents.",
+      "required": ["name", "kind", "depth"],
+      "properties": {
+        "name": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "pattern": "^l[12]-[a-z][a-z0-9-]*$",
+          "description": "Stack name matching the L1/L2 folder name."
+        },
+        "kind": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "enum": ["l1", "l2"],
+          "description": "l1 = primitive; l2 = thin-composition."
+        },
+        "depth": {
+          "type": "integer",
+          "minimum": 1,
+          "maximum": 5,
+          "description": "Composition depth (ARCHITECTURE.md §3: max depth 5). L2->L1 is depth 1."
+        }
+      }
+    },
+    "resources": {
+      "type": "array",
+      "minItems": 1,
+      "items": {"$ref": "#/$defs/resource"}
+    },
+    "relationships": {
+      "type": "array",
+      "description": "Optional in v1; present when the adapter needs explicit ordering/output wiring hints beyond parent composition.",
+      "items": {"$ref": "#/$defs/relationship"}
+    }
+  },
+  "$defs": {
+    "resource": {
+      "type": "object",
+      "required": ["id", "type", "module", "inputs"],
+      "properties": {
+        "id": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "pattern": "^[a-z][a-z0-9-]*$",
+          "description": "Local IR resource id (unique within the stack)."
+        },
+        "type": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "description": "IR-typed resource identifier (substrate-agnostic), e.g. 'aws:s3:bucket'. NOT a Terraform resource type ('aws_s3_bucket'); the adapter translates IR type -> substrate type."
+        },
+        "module": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "pattern": "^l1-[a-z][a-z0-9-]*@\\d+\\.\\d+\\.\\d+$",
+          "description": "L1 registry reference: name@semver (W3.D). MAJOR bumps require a new registry entry (immutable publication); old entry enters a 12-month deprecation window."
+        },
+        "parent": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "description": "Parent resource id. Absent for the root. Single parent per child (ARCHITECTURE.md §12.1)."
+        },
+        "inputs": {
+          "type": "object",
+          "description": "Input values keyed by the L1 module's declared inputs. Free-form in v1 (validated at contract->IR resolution against the L1 registry); typed per-L1 in v1.2.",
+          "additionalProperties": {"type": ["string", "number", "boolean"]}
+        },
+        "outputs": {
+          "type": "object",
+          "description": "Typed output contract. The adapter translates this to a substrate output block (e.g. Terraform output).",
+          "additionalProperties": {"$ref": "#/$defs/outputSpec"}
+        },
+        "nfrs": {
+          "type": "object",
+          "description": "Declared non-functional requirements (latency, throughput, error rate). Opaque to the adapter; consumed by the confidence signal's NFR input.",
+          "additionalProperties": true
+        }
+      }
+    },
+    "outputSpec": {
+      "type": "object",
+      "required": ["type"],
+      "properties": {
+        "type": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "description": "IR-typed output type: a primitive ('string', 'arn') or a reference ('ref:<resourceId>.<outputName>')."
+        },
+        "description": {"type": "string"}
+      }
+    },
+    "relationship": {
+      "type": "object",
+      "required": ["from", "to", "kind"],
+      "properties": {
+        "from": {"type": "string", "description": "Source resource id."},
+        "to": {"type": "string", "description": "Target resource id."},
+        "kind": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "enum": ["parent", "depends_on", "uses_output"],
+          "description": "v1 uses 'parent' (composition ordering) + 'uses_output' (interpolation). 'depends_on' is reserved for v2 explicit-dependency cases."
+        },
+        "shared_keyword": {
+          "type": "string",
+          "description": "Reserved for v2 multi-relationship dependencies. Unused in v1."
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
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