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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
The agent must:
RPAS‑CM‑TCL‑001.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.
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:
The agent must present its proposed change as advisory output before any execution. This constitutes Phase 1 (AI Proposes).
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.
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:
Unacceptable self‑authorizations:
Silence is not consent. Timeout is not approval.
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.
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.
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:
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.
| 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 |