Change: outcome-oriented execution and bounded supporting work

[artyomboyko]

Problem or opportunity

Agent Handoff 1.4 limits disproportionate security and evidence work, but its general workflow still permits any supporting-tool failure or repair to become a separate stable stage, handoff, approval gate, and completion target.

This can optimize the process around test harnesses, smoke wrappers, CI scaffolding, evidence collection, release mechanics, or incidental refactoring instead of delivering the Issue's primary outcome. A localized supporting failure may therefore trigger repeated report-review-approval cycles even when the original authorization, scope, resource boundary, and acceptance criteria have not changed.

Reason for the change

The missing rule is broader than security. The standard does not currently define:

• what observable result counts as the primary outcome;
• what the smallest sufficient acceptance proof is;
• which localized fixes and verification reruns remain inside the original authorization;
• when supporting work is allowed to create a stage or handoff;
• how to detect consecutive updates that do not advance the primary outcome.

Without these definitions, "stable stage" can be interpreted as any repaired auxiliary layer. Standard 1.5 should close that process gap without weakening permission systems, safety controls, or project-specific approval gates.

Proposed change

Add an outcome-oriented execution rule that requires a primary outcome, smallest acceptance proof, and execution envelope for meaningful work.

Keep supporting work minimum sufficient. Treat localized, reversible, in-scope supporting defects and bounded post-fix verification as part of the current work item. Require a new owner decision only when the outcome, scope, architecture, accepted baseline, resource/risk boundary, external effects, or enforced permission boundary changes.

Define legitimate stage and handoff boundaries around material outcome progress, completed acceptance proof, verified out-of-envelope blockers, or genuine interruption/transfer. Add a progress-stall rule after two consecutive supporting-only updates.

Synchronize the standard, agent guide, work claim, task report, handoff and GitHub workflow protocols, PR checklist, structural checker, public adoption prompts, release metadata, release notes, project state, decisions, and handoff.

Acceptance criteria

• Standard 1.5 clearly defines primary outcome, smallest acceptance proof, execution envelope, supporting work, outcome progress, retry, and post-fix verification.
• The reason for the change is explicit in the decision record, changelog, release notes, and Pull Request.
• Localized reversible supporting-work fixes and bounded verification reruns remain within the original authorization unless a stated approval boundary is crossed.
• Supporting-tool failure or repair alone cannot create a stable stage, handoff, approval gate, or completion target.
• Stage and handoff boundaries require material outcome progress, completed acceptance proof, an out-of-envelope blocker, or genuine interruption/transfer.
• Two consecutive supporting-only updates trigger a progress-stalled replan toward the shortest remaining path.
• Work Claim and Task Report templates expose the required fields without requiring automated semantic scoring.
• Existing security, containerization, GUI-testing, external-effect, and platform permission boundaries remain unchanged.
• Public docs and version metadata are synchronized for a 1.5 release candidate.
• Structural checks pass and confirm the new PR checklist item and required protocol fields.
• A compact release handoff is added.
• Changes are delivered through one branch and Draft Pull Request; no merge, tag, or GitHub Release is performed without owner review.

[artyomboyko]

Agent Handoff Work Claim

Agent: Codex
Agent ID: steady-path-8f2c
Run ID: 20260726-issue-16-8f2c
Coordinator: Artyom Boyko
Supervision: human-supervised
Started: 2026-07-26 09:46 UTC
Issue: #16
Branch: outcome-oriented-execution
Draft PR: TBD
Scope: Prepare Standard 1.5 with outcome-oriented execution, bounded supporting work, synchronized protocols, public documentation, validation, and release handoff.
Primary outcome: A reviewable Standard 1.5 release candidate that prevents supporting work from becoming an independent delivery or approval loop.
Smallest acceptance proof: The normative rule and protocol templates agree on outcome, execution-envelope, stage/handoff, verification-rerun, and progress-stall semantics; the structural checker and repository checks pass.
Execution envelope: Documentation, templates, checker assertions, release metadata, current project state, one current handoff, local validation, one branch, commit, push, and Draft PR. No merge, tag, GitHub Release, or semantic automated progress scoring.
Status: in-progress
Next update: after the release candidate diff and local checks are complete.

[artyomboyko]

Agent Handoff Final Result

Agent ID: steady-path-8f2c
Run ID: 20260726-issue-16-8f2c
Status: completed
Primary outcome: Prepare a reviewable Standard 1.5 release candidate that prevents supporting work from becoming an independent delivery or approval loop while preserving explicit safety and permission boundaries.
Outcome progress: completed
Acceptance proof: The standard, Work Claim, Task Report, Handoff, GitHub workflow, Pull Request checklist, structural checker, public docs, and release metadata agree on the outcome, execution-envelope, verification-rerun, stage/handoff, approval-boundary, and progress-stall semantics. Final GitHub Actions passed.
Supporting work: Minimum release synchronization, structural checker assertions, local link/version checks, current handoff, and PR metadata.
Verified blocker: none

Summary:

• Prepared Agent Handoff Standard 1.5 as a complete release candidate.
• Clearly documented the root cause: Standard 1.4 constrained security/evidence scope but still allowed supporting-layer stability to create independent stage, handoff, approval, and verification loops without advancing the primary outcome.
• Added outcome-oriented execution and bounded supporting-work rules for all work types.

Changed:

• Added required Primary outcome, Smallest acceptance proof, and Execution envelope fields.
• Distinguished unchanged retries from bounded post-fix verification.
• Kept localized reversible supporting fixes inside the original authorization.
• Defined explicit owner-approval boundaries.
• Replaced stable-layer reporting with outcome-based stage and handoff boundaries.
• Added progress-stalled recovery after two consecutive supporting-only updates.
• Synchronized protocols, PR template, checker, public docs, release notes, changelog, citation metadata, project state, decisions, promotion checklists, and current handoff.

Not changed:

• Proportional-security rules and the existing security baseline.
• Containerization decision gates.
• GUI-testing rules.
• Tool, platform, repository, or organization permissions.
• No application runtime, Docker, Compose, or GUI code.
• No merge, tag, or GitHub Release.

Tests:

• python scripts/check_agent_handoff.py — passed.
• python -m py_compile scripts/check_agent_handoff.py — passed; generated cache removed before commit.
• git diff --check — passed.
• Relative Markdown link validation — passed.
• Active version scan — no stale metadata or current-workflow instructions.
• Published final tree SHA 8cbf1a56b5dc0462e4b89da66dbf9c9774f84414 matches the locally validated final tree.
• GitHub Actions 30197405289 — success.

Docs:

• Release notes: docs/releases/v1.5.md.
• Current handoff: ai/handoffs/2026-07-26_issue-16_pr-17_run-20260726-issue-16-8f2c.md.

Commits:

• c3df74b21fc50acbf0a4e5964d6c4c4a5fac6a95 — Standard 1.5 implementation and release materials.
• b5dddb8e0f3a149a7d1fcc3c95ca3301f52a530b — final PR links and release handoff.

Risks:

• Blocking: none.
• Investigation: none.
• Follow-up hardening: none required.
• Accepted: none.
• Owner review of the authorization and approval-boundary semantics remains required before merge.

Next direct outcome step:

• Review Draft PR Standard 1.5: Outcome-oriented execution and bounded supporting work #17.
• If the semantics are accepted, mark it ready and merge.
• Create tag v1.5 and the GitHub Release only from the verified merge commit.

[artyomboyko]

Agent Handoff Publication Update

Status: partial

Outcome progress: Standard 1.5 is merged and active on main.

Acceptance proof:

• Pull Request Standard 1.5: Outcome-oriented execution and bounded supporting work #17 was squash-merged as bd487efa075f1adc970a807ad821b61ce3e28189.
• The merge tree is 6a6be490676f36131e1dc9ca92dbec44a4243983, exactly matching the reviewed and locally validated tree.
• Final Pull Request CI passed: run 30198041516.
• Post-merge main CI passed: run 30198087952.
• Issue Change: outcome-oriented execution and bounded supporting work #16 closed as completed.

Supporting work:

• The final owner review clarified that an execution envelope records existing authorization and cannot be used by an agent to create or widen authority.

Verified blocker:

• The connected GitHub capability in this session does not expose tag or GitHub Release creation, and the local environment has no authenticated gh or Git credential. No tag or Release was fabricated through a branch or another substitute.

Next direct outcome step:

• Create tag v1.5 at exactly bd487efa075f1adc970a807ad821b61ce3e28189.
• Create the GitHub Release from that tag using docs/releases/v1.5.md as the release notes.
• Do not retag another commit.