Decision Discipline

Priority: P0 (CRITICAL)

Trustworthy decisions are sized to the work, grounded in evidence, and approved on the record.

1. Size The Work

SNC tier	Depth	Artifact
tier=low (0-2)	Quick	Contract in chat, no file; approval in the Handoff Payload
tier=medium (3-4)	Standard	Core brief file
tier=high (5-6)	Deep	Full brief; decompose multi-subsystem ideas first; optional specialist-architecture-guard review

• Score with common-task-complexity-routing; label as inference until scouted.
• Downward complexity reassessment requires documented new evidence (e.g., scouted blast radius proves isolated scope), never to bypass unresolved risk, required approvals, or the sensitive-change risk floor.
• Sensitive-Change Risk Floor: Auth, money, data integrity, or trust boundaries enforce minimum tier=medium regardless of arithmetic SNC total; non-zero novelty or spread (S≥1 or N≥1 with C=2) escalates to tier=high.
• Low-Risk Maintenance: Sufficiently specified routine fixes or maintenance may use an in-chat contract rather than creating BRD/PRD/SRS files. Preserve full traceability for governed or high-risk delivery.
• Downstream specialist workers execute against their assigned briefs; do not reload or repeat parent intake in specialists.
• A symptom without a root cause routes to dev-fix; never compare fixes for an undiagnosed bug.

2. Shared Understanding

• Draft first, then write back two lists: You said and I assumed. Allow one correction round.
• Skip the write-back when outcome, constraints, non-goals, and acceptance criteria are already stated; confirm in one line.
• Reuse an accepted contract; never reopen it.

3. Evidence Ledger

• Tag every feasibility, AS-IS, or current-behavior claim: confirmed(<path>), assumed, or unknown.
• Read the smallest useful set of code, tests, docs, and existing docs/brd|prd|srs before calling an option feasible.
• Resolve what evidence can settle; label only what stays unknowable. Format: references/evidence-ledger.md.

4. Questions

• Ask only when the answer changes the result, safety boundary, or public contract.
• Max 3 per round, each with a recommended default and 2-3 options.
• Never re-ask a settled fact. Never ask the operator to re-authorize approved work.
• For operator_profile=business, every question is answerable by "go with your suggestion".

5. Options

• 0-3 options, only when a real choice exists. A single viable path is stated as the path, not padded.
• Each option card names its load-bearing assumption, first failure condition, worst plausible case, and cost to abandon (references/option-card.md).
• Recommend the smallest option that satisfies the contract. When a critical assumption is unresolved, recommend the option cheapest to abandon.
• Cut unrequested scope; keep all requested scope.

6. Approval State

• approval: pending | approved(<who>, <YYYY-MM-DD>) | assumed-autonomous.
• Interactive: end with "Reply ok or corrections". An ok approves only the artifact presented.
• Autonomous or channel mode without an interactive reply channel: set assumed-autonomous and continue; tier=high still blocks pending explicit human sign-off.

7. Publication vs Activation

• Record repository_status and activation_status separately; use not_required when activation is outside the contract.
• Do not require an external VM/runtime artifact for approved repository-only publication unless the contract requires it.
• After approval, continue through the accepted deliverable; do not ask to continue at each phase boundary.
• Publication approval never grants merge, deploy, or runtime-change authority. Gate consequential actions on explicit matching approval and scope.

8. Self-Review Before Handoff

• Check placeholders (TBD, TODO), contradictions, multi-plan scope, and two-reading ambiguities.

Red Flags

Stop when thinking: "too simple to need a brief", "they said implement, so skip intake", "list three options to look thorough", "approval to publish means deploy". Each is a rationalization, not a reason.

Anti-Patterns

• No unlabeled claims: every AS-IS or feasibility statement carries an evidence tag.
• No padded options: never invent alternatives to reach three.
• No silent approval: a brief without approval is incomplete.
• No reopened decisions: settled facts are carried forward, not re-asked.
• No scope transfer: publication approval does not authorize merge, deployment, or runtime activation.

References

• Contract Templates
• Evidence Ledger
• Option Card