supervised-loop

name	supervised-loop
description	Run one bounded supervised autonomous cycle on the Demerzel governance repo. Picks the smallest unchecked governance slice inside allow_edit, implements it, runs the oracle (`pwsh scripts/verify.ps1`), emits cycle evidence, and stops. Refuses to run unless dev-process-overseer reports loop-eligible and the preflight passes. Use when asked to "run one supervised loop", "advance governance autonomously", or "do one cycle and stop".
metadata	{"type":"skill","scope":"demerzel","version":"0.1.0","emits":"state/governance/supervised-loop-cycle.json"}

Supervised Autonomous Loop (Demerzel)

Operationalises the supervised-loop pattern from agent-blackbox on the Demerzel governance repo. The cycle is intentionally short: one slice, one verify, one evidence file, then stop.

Demerzel-specific scope

Demerzel is the governance authority for the GA / ix / tars / Seldon ecosystem. Its contracts (policies/, constitutions/, personas/, schemas/contracts/) are load-bearing for every sibling repo via the Galactic Protocol. The supervised loop only operates within documentation, scripts, state, and .claude/ on the initial rollout. The four canonical protected surfaces (policies/, constitutions/, personas/, .github/workflows/) are protected_paths because a regression there fans out across every consumer immediately.

The Asimov Zeroth Law is a hard one-way door and is enforced by the preflight refusal list below.

When to use

• The user asked for one bounded autonomous improvement on Demerzel.
• You are running a scheduled /loop and need to make one safe slice of progress before yielding.
• You are dogfooding the supervised pattern that sibling repos copy from agent-blackbox (scripts/supervised-loop-preflight.ps1).

Hard refusals (never bypass)

• state/governance/dev-process-overseer.json missing, stale (>24h), or workflowMode != "loop-eligible" -> abort with reason.
• .STOP file at repo root -> abort.
• HALT-ALL marker present at $HOME/.demerzel/HALT-ALL and active (scope covers Demerzel) -> abort. See scripts/demerzel_halt.py.
• The diff touches policies/**, constitutions/**, personas/**, or .github/workflows/** -> abort and route to the operator.
• The diff exceeds the rewrite budget (default 200 lines / 10 files per cycle, 600 lines absolute cap) -> abort with reason budget-exceeded. See docs/review-independence.md.

Operating model

Demerzel's loop runs as a producer-reviewer pair (see docs/review-independence.md):

1. Producer: this skill plans and writes the diff.
2. Reviewer: a fresh sub-agent (different context window) reads the diff + oracle output + policy, and votes pass/warn/fail. The reviewer cannot self-certify — it is never the same agent that produced the diff.
3. Cross-vendor verdict: for one-way-door slices the verdict step adds a sibling vendor (Gemini, Codex peer, or Mistral) so at least two independent vendors agree before merge-drive.

The supervised loop will refuse to merge-drive when any of the four review-independence dimensions is unreachable for the slice in question.

Cycle steps

1. Preflight: pwsh scripts/supervised-loop-preflight.ps1. Refuses on dirty worktree, missing overseer, halt markers, or protected-path dirt.
2. Pick a slice: the smallest unchecked entry in BACKLOG.md (when present) or docs/roadmap-poincare.png's next checkbox.
3. Implement: scoped to allow_edit. Stay inside the rewrite budget.
4. Oracle: pwsh scripts/verify.ps1 MUST exit zero. The oracle gates on the validate_governance.py script + schema validation.
5. Cycle evidence: write state/governance/supervised-loop-cycle.json with the slice id, diff stats, oracle exit, and reviewer verdict.
6. Yield: commit one Conventional commit, push the branch, and stop. Do not chain into another cycle in the same session.

Loop policy

Loop scope lives in the harness baseline at state/quality/demerzel-harness/baseline.json under _harness and scope_boundary:

• allow_edit: documents, scripts, state, .claude/.
• protected_paths: policies/**, constitutions/**, personas/**, .env*.
• Kill-switches: state/.loop-halted (global), state/quality/demerzel-harness/.STOP (per-domain).

Related

• scripts/supervised-loop-preflight.ps1 — deterministic preflight.
• scripts/verify.ps1 — repo oracle.
• scripts/dev-process-overseer.ps1 — workflowMode emitter.
• docs/review-independence.md — the four independence dimensions.
• docs/harness-observability.md — producer-reviewer evidence chain.
• .claude/skills/demerzel-loop/SKILL.md — the legacy Demerzel review loop.