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Runtime policy — decision gates (who answers what)

Every decision a fleet hits is classified before anyone answers. Governance is below the model: policy is enforced, not requested.

The two runtime gate kinds (do not conflate)

  • Worker gate: a worker's blocking ask → decision_gate message. Times out (~10 min), re-asks under a NEW id. Answer the CURRENT id with reply --id <msg_id> --body "<answer>". On CLI fleets this often writes no decision_gates table row — reply by message id.
  • DAG gate: coordinator gate-create --task <id> --question "<text>" (both flags required) → auto-blocks the task; gate-resolve injects the resolution into the task's next dispatch preamble.

Live ask ≠ historical unanswered ≠ DAG blocked

  • Live worker ask: the worker CLI blocks until reply/timeout; the task usually stays dispatched (not blocked). An ask with no thread reply while the unit is still dispatched is always current inbox work — reply by message id immediately. Do not wait for task status blocked. Do not use the unread bit alone (check marks read on receive).
  • Historical unanswered ask: unit already terminal, no waiting worker — retained evidence that no answer was stored, not a reason to stall the fleet.
  • gate-create: task is blocked until resolve — true DAG hold.

Recorded gate lifecycle (pending / resolved / unanswered) is not the same as "the coordinator must act now." Full DAG context: orca-dag-semantics.md.

Classification (before reading the recommended option)

Class Test Resolver
Mechanical one defensible answer (tooling with a repo precedent, naming, retry-on-transient) coordinator auto-resolves; append the DECISIONS log (ledger-contract.md)
Taste reasonable disagreement, reversible (API shape, copy, structure within spec) pick recommendation (or Lane B); log DECISIONS; human may veto
One-way hard/impossible to reverse or out-of-authority: merge to default, deploy, rollback, deletion, spend, scope change, secret rotation, real credentials HUMAN ONLY. Never auto-resolved. Never defaulted on timeout.

Three lanes (what a unit is allowed to do)

Lane When Action
A — implement Safe to ship on testnet/fixtures; reversible code Full PR-per-unit pipeline
B — draft-and-gate Genuine product/brand/policy fork (two defensible directions) Draft both options fully; stop at a one-way human gate; do not pick silently
0 — refuse-and-surface Credential provisioning, live money/prod, engine boundary the fleet must not cross Do not implement; record OPS/Lane-0 item (CODE_CLOSED only if code landed and verify is OPS — ledger-contract.md)

Pre-build plan gate (irreversible units)

When build-change.md's irreversibility stop-list applies, classification happens before code: the PLAN artifact is the decision surface. Approving "proceed as planned" on reversible testnet/fixtures → Lane A (mechanical/taste as usual). Approving a hard-to-reverse path → one-way human. Rejecting → Lane 0 or rewrite the plan. Coding before the gate resolves is a protocol breach — park the unit and re-dispatch.

User-challenge (the never-auto class within one-way)

When the fleet's analysis concludes the USER's stated direction should change, that is never auto-decided. The user's direction is the default; the fleet must make the case for change, name its blind spots, and the cost if wrong. This is gstack's User-Challenge, adopted verbatim.

Escalation is honest (session-kind aware)

ask is agent-to-agent (worker→coordinator); a terminal handle is not a human. To reach a human:

  • interactive session → put the decision to them in-session; record the answer.
  • unattended → PARK: ledger HUMAN-queue line + gate-create hold; the run continues elsewhere or winds down. NEVER label an agent-to-agent message as human approval.

One-way doors override any never-ask preference. The --admin merge and BASE→default promotion are one-way: they require a recorded human grant, always.