| name | gupp-propulsion |
| description | Interrupt controller converting polled to proactive agent execution. Per-runtime strategies, configurable thresholds, Deacon heartbeat supervision. Fights LLM passivity bias. |
| format | "2025-10-02T00:00:00.000Z" |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| status | ACTIVE |
| updated | "2026-04-25T00:00:00.000Z" |
| triggers | ["agent has work assigned to its hook and is not yet executing","stall detection identifies an agent with hooked work that has gone idle","new agent is spawned and needs GUPP enforcement injected into its context","runtime-specific GUPP strategy selection is needed","heartbeat supervision needs to be configured for active agents"] |
| references_subdir | true |
| word_budget | 800 |
GUPP Propulsion
The Gas Town Universal Propulsion Principle: If there is work on your hook, YOU MUST RUN IT.
GUPP is the interrupt controller of the Gastown chipset. In a real processor, the interrupt controller converts external events (keyboard press, network packet, timer tick) into CPU interrupts that force immediate handling. GUPP does the same for AI coding agents: it converts the polled model (agent checks periodically, waits for user input) into an interrupt-driven model (work appears on hook, agent executes immediately).
Why GUPP Exists
RLHF-trained LLM assistants have a strong bias toward waiting for the user — asking clarifying questions, seeking confirmation, pausing for feedback. This is appropriate in interactive chat but catastrophic for autonomous multi-agent orchestration, where every moment of idle waiting stalls the pipeline. Gastown discovered this empirically: agents spawned with a work item would introduce themselves, summarize the task, and wait, asking "Shall I proceed?" when the answer was already on their hook. GUPP overrides this trained passivity with an explicit, non-negotiable execution mandate: if you have hooked work, you do not wait, do not ask for confirmation, do not pause for feedback. You begin immediately. This is physics, not politeness.
Activation Triggers
This skill activates when:
- An agent has work assigned to its hook and is not yet executing
- Stall detection identifies an agent with hooked work that has gone idle
- A new agent is spawned and needs GUPP enforcement injected into its context
- Runtime-specific GUPP strategy selection is needed
- Heartbeat supervision needs to be configured for active agents
- An agent has been nudged but remains stalled
Enforcement at a Glance
GUPP enforcement adapts to each runtime via the Runtime HAL. The HAL exposes getGUPPStrategy() which returns one of:
hook_injection — Claude Code (SessionStart hook, highest fidelity)startup_fallback — Codex (tmux gt prime, medium fidelity)polling — Gemini / Cursor / unknown (prompt preamble + state polling)
A Deacon heartbeat loop runs inside the witness-observer at the configured nudge_interval, detecting agents that received hooks but stalled. After restart_threshold, the watchdog requests a session restart. Per-runtime strategy tables, configurable thresholds, the full heartbeat protocol, and the Claude Code HAL note are in references/runtime-strategies.md.
