ACI-010: The Regression Cascade

Thesis

A cluster of regression-fix commits in a short time window is a leading indicator of architectural fragility. When every feature change breaks something else, the codebase has accumulated coupling debt that the agent cannot see. In agentic development, regression cascades are harder to detect because the agent fixes each regression independently without recognizing the systemic pattern.

Story

MeetZaya was an education platform built with Elixir/Phoenix over 12 months. From April to August 2025, development was steady: features shipped, steel threads completed, the project moved forward. Then in September 2025, the regression cascade began.