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✅ RPAS‑CM‑PRE‑001 v2.3.0 (CSR‑42)

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ADPAGovernanceRPAS

Source: governance/RPAS-PRE.md — branch adpa-project-charter, repository mdresch/adpa.

✅ RPAS‑CM‑PRE‑001 v2.3.0 (CSR‑42)

Agent Preflight Ritual — Mandatory startup sequence for governed agent execution.

Purpose

Agents operating under RPAS‑CM governance exhibit behavioral variance when they lack a deterministic startup sequence. Some load governance and ask before acting; others immediately begin modifying code. This variance is the root cause of unauthorized scope expansion and governance bypass.

This artifact eliminates that variance by defining the exact, ordered, non‑negotiable sequence every agent must execute before performing any work.

Core Principle

No agent may act before completing the Preflight Ritual. An agent that has not completed all preflight steps is in an ungoverned state and must not produce diffs, execute commands, or modify any file.

The Three‑Phase Doctrine (Ritual Phases)

As of v2.3.0, all governance rituals are executed within the context of three logical phases. These phases determine the enforcement level of Gate 5 (Semantic Integrity).

  1. Phase 1 — AI Proposes (Advisory): The agent drafts a proposal and attestation. Gate 5 provides semantic guidance.
  2. Phase 2 — Human Decides (Advisory): The operator reviews the proposal. Gate 5 flags risks but does not block.
  3. Phase 3 — AI Orchestrates (Blocking): The Orchestrator applies the change. Gate 5 is MANDATORY BLOCKING.

Preflight Sequence

Step 1 — Load Governance Kernel

The agent must load and internalize the following artifacts, in order:

Priority Artifact ID Source
1 Agent Envelope RPAS‑CM‑ENV‑001 GEMINI.md (or equivalent agent config)
2 Governance Guardrails RPAS‑CM‑GRA‑001 RPAS.md
3 AEV Workflow RPAS‑CM‑AEV‑001 CONTRIBUTING.md + .agents/skills/adpa-aev-workflow/
4 Task Classification Layer RPAS‑CM‑TCL‑001 RPAS-TCL.md
5 Ambiguity Escalation Protocol RPAS‑CM‑ESC‑001 RPAS-ESC.md
6 Agent Handover Context — agent-handover.json

Completion Criterion: The agent can enumerate G1–G5, the four AEV gates, and the task classification table from memory.

If any artifact is missing or unreadable, the agent must report the gap and halt. It must not proceed with partial governance.

Step 2 — Confirm Operating Tier

The agent must explicitly confirm which RPAS tier it is operating in:

Tier Authority Permissible Actions
Intelligence Advisory‑only Propose, analyze, draft, research. No mutations.
Experience Read + Decision Render, display, approve, execute (via Orchestrator only).
Orchestration Execution Authority Apply amendments, stamp CSR, enforce rituals.

Most coding agents operate at the Intelligence Tier.

Declaration format:

Operating Tier: Intelligence (Advisory‑Only)
Authority Level: Propose and analyze. No direct mutation.

If an agent cannot determine its tier, it must default to Intelligence (Advisory‑Only) — the most restrictive tier.

Step 3 — Receive and Classify the Task

The agent must:

  1. Receive a task from the human operator.
  2. Classify it using RPAS‑CM‑TCL‑001.
  3. State the classification explicitly.

Format:

Task Classification: TCL-HYG (Hygiene)
Description: Update .gitignore to exclude .NET Aspire build artifacts.
Minimum Gates: Gate 1 (Mechanical), Gate 2 (Build)

If the task cannot be classified → invoke RPAS‑CM‑ESC‑001.

Step 4 — Declare AEV Scope

The agent must produce an explicit AEV Scope Declaration:

AEV Scope Declaration:
  File(s):   .gitignore
  Type:      Modify
  Rationale: Aspire build outputs (bin/, obj/) must be excluded from source control.

Rules:

  • All files must be listed by exact path.
  • The rationale must be one factual sentence.
  • No implicit or assumed files.

The agent must present its proposed change as advisory output before any execution. This constitutes Phase 1 (AI Proposes).

  • A unified diff, or
  • A structured description, or
  • An advisory JSON payload (rpas-attestation.json).

Gate 5 (DRACO): During this step, Gate 5 runs in Advisory Mode. It helps the agent refine the intent and detect early semantic drift.

The agent must not apply the change during this step.

Step 6 — Await Human Decision (Phase 2)

The agent must halt and wait for explicit human authorization. This constitutes Phase 2 (Human Decides).

Gate 5 (DRACO): Gate 5 provides a "Semantic Risk Assessment" to the human operator. It highlights potential unasked-for logic (Mythos-class) but cannot block the human from deciding.

Acceptable authorizations:

  • "Proceed" / "Approved" / "Go ahead"
  • "Adjust X and proceed"
  • "Reject — do not apply"

Unacceptable self‑authorizations:

  • ❌ "This is trivial, proceeding automatically."
  • ❌ "This is safe, applying now."
  • ❌ "No response received, assuming approval."

Silence is not consent. Timeout is not approval.

Step 7 — Final Implementation (Phase 3)

Once human authorization is received, the agent enters Phase 3 (AI Orchestrates) for execution.

[!NOTE] Semantic Latency: Gate 5 performing the semantic audit may require 60–90 seconds in Phase 3. This is an intentional safety delay and does not indicate system failure.

Gate 5 (DRACO): Gate 5 is now in MANDATORY BLOCKING MODE. If the implementation logic deviates from the approved attestation, or if unasked-for initiative is detected, the AEV pipeline HALTS and the mutation is rejected.

Preflight Completion Gate

The Preflight Ritual is complete only when all six steps have been executed in order:

✅ Step 1: Governance loaded
✅ Step 2: Tier confirmed
✅ Step 3: Task classified
✅ Step 4: Scope declared
✅ Step 5: Advisory output produced (Phase 1)
✅ Step 6: Human authorization received (Phase 2)
✅ Step 7: Final Implementation (Phase 3 - G5 BLOCKING)

Only after this gate passes may the agent be considered RPAS v2.3.0 Certified.

Exceptions

Investigatory Queries

If the human asks a pure question ("Where is X?", "What does Y do?", "Explain Z"), the agent may respond directly without completing the full Preflight Ritual. However:

  • The agent must not produce diffs or file modifications as part of an answer.
  • If the answer reveals a needed change, the agent must restart the Preflight Ritual before proposing that change.

Emergency Rollback

If the human instructs an immediate git reset --hard HEAD, the agent may execute the rollback command without Preflight. This is the only exception to the ritual sequence.

Governance Lineage

Field Value
Artifact ID RPAS‑CM‑PRE‑001
Version v2.3.0
Maturity RPAS‑Aligned Governance
Parent RPAS‑CM‑GRA‑001 v2.3.0 (CSR‑42)
Related RPAS‑CM‑TCL‑001, RPAS‑CM‑ESC‑001, RPAS‑CM‑AEV‑001
Author Agent (advisory) — awaiting human decision
CSR Epoch Pending attestation