# 0013: Perforce Sidecar for Binary Assets

Status: Accepted

Date: 2026-05-25

## Context

V5 will produce very large Unreal maps, meshes, animation clips, MetaHuman data,
VO, and cinematic assets. Git remains the right source-control surface for code,
text data, tools, and manifests, but it is not the right collaboration surface
for all binary content.

## Decision

V5 uses a Helix Core / Perforce sidecar depot for production-scale binary
assets. Git remains canonical for source, docs, schemas, manifests, tests, and
small bootstrap assets required to open the project.

## Consequences

- Binary asset manifests in Git must identify their Perforce depot source.
- Bootstrap assets can live in Git when they are small and reviewable by size.
- Build and cook automation must sync both Git and Perforce inputs.