Alpha features

This is the planned public shape of the downloadable alpha. Availability in the PowerPC application is the default. Optional means bundled but not installed or required by default, and excluded means source may exist while the alpha does not promise or package it.

This profile is the target contents of an alpha, not the maturity label of the current build. The current product lifecycle is checked separately from contract/product_version.h and remains pre-alpha until its qualification criteria are deliberately advanced.

Product area	Alpha state	Runtime binding	Notes
PowerPC Carbon guest	Included	intrinsic	Primary classic guest and the supported alpha path.
NOW Extension	Optional	capability-negotiated	Bundled with the alpha; install it only for the resident-backed features listed below.
Pre-Carbon support (NOW-68K)	Excluded	Planned classic.pre-carbon flag; not implemented	The current NOW-68K build is stale and excluded from the alpha.

The table is rendered from docs/feature-catalog.yaml, which also drives the availability notices on feature-specific pages. It is documentation authority today, not a claim that runtime feature flags already exist. When runtime flags land, their keys and release defaults must bind to this catalog or replace it as the single source; a second hand-maintained availability list is not acceptable.