5W1H Specification

• Who: Maintainers, consumers of monitoring_system
• What: Align monitoring_interface.h with common_system to eliminate interface duplication
• Where: include/kcenon/monitoring/interfaces/monitoring_interface.h
• When: Immediate (high priority - architectural consistency)
• Why: Interface duplication violates Single Source of Truth; risks version drift and inconsistent behavior
• How: Either re-export from common_system or consolidate definitions

Problem Statement

Current State

Two monitoring_interface.h files exist in the ecosystem:

Issues

1. Naming Collision: Same filename, different content
2. Include Path Confusion: #include <.../monitoring_interface.h> ambiguous
3. Interface Divergence Risk: Changes in one may not propagate to the other
4. Dependency Graph Complexity: Unclear which is authoritative

Observed in Code Review

unified_system/
├── common_system/.../monitoring_interface.h      # IMonitor
├── monitoring_system/.../monitoring_interface.h  # extended interfaces
└── thread_system/... (uses one or both?)

Proposed Solution

Option A: Rename monitoring_system Interface (Recommended)

Rename to avoid collision:

monitoring_system/interfaces/monitoring_interface.h
  → monitoring_system/interfaces/metric_interfaces.h
  OR
  → monitoring_system/interfaces/monitoring_extensions.h

Option B: Re-export Pattern

monitoring_system/interfaces/monitoring_interface.h:

#pragma once
#include <kcenon/common/interfaces/monitoring_interface.h>

namespace kcenon::monitoring::interfaces {
    // Re-export common interface
    using ::kcenon::common::interfaces::IMonitor;
    
    // Extended interfaces specific to monitoring_system
    class IMetricCollector { ... };
}

Option C: Merge into common_system

If monitoring_system interfaces are universally needed:

1. Move extended interfaces to common_system
2. monitoring_system becomes pure implementation

Migration Steps

1. Audit all usages of monitoring_interface.h across systems
2. Choose consolidation strategy
3. Update include paths in dependent systems
4. Deprecate old paths with forwarding headers
5. Remove deprecated headers in next major version

Acceptance Criteria

• Single authoritative monitoring_interface.h OR clearly differentiated names
• No ambiguous include paths
• All dependent systems updated
• Documentation updated with correct include paths

Impact

• Priority: High (architectural consistency)
• Effort: Medium (requires cross-repo coordination)
• Breaking Change: Potentially (include path changes)

Related Systems

• common_system (canonical interface location)
• thread_system (consumer)
• logger_system (consumer)
• pacs_system (consumer)