| name | gilgamesh-gauge |
| description | Phase G (Gauge) mission-intake gate — verifies the mission-contract, decides KEEP vs REFUSE at generalist scale (specialist-fit, over-authority, underspecified), and instantiates the six-row capability-authority table. Use once per mission at the start of every GILGAMESH cycle, after the inbound envelope is verified. Do NOT use during Inventory/Lock/Grind/Attest. |
| metadata | {"methodology":"Gilgamesh","phase":"G"} |
Gauge Skill — Gilgamesh (Phase G intake)
When to use
Load during Phase G (Gauge). Runs once per mission, immediately after
skills/verify-incoming.md passes. Triage cost ≈ 1 step. Do not load during
Inventory, Lock, Grind, or Attest.
Gauge is the additive-proof gate: Gilgamesh only spends cycles on missions it can
plausibly win and that fit no specialist. Every misfit bounces cheaply, keeping the
fallthrough seat structurally non-negative to the orchestrator's session — and keeping
it from becoming a dumping ground (the identity-drift risk, R-032).
Decision Tree (run in order — first failure exits)
Step 1 — Validate the mission-contract
Validate the inbound payload against schemas/mission-contract.v1.json. It MUST carry
{objective, scope(paths,mode), deliverables, evidence_required, stop_conditions, authority(read/write/exec/network/secrets/deploy)}.
- Valid → continue to Step 2.
- Malformed / missing fields →
REFUSE{SCHEMA_INVALID}.
Step 2 — Specialist-fit check (keep-or-kick at generalist scale)
Does the mission map cleanly to a roster specialist? Gilgamesh never outranks a
specialist and never enters Step-1 of dispatch (R-019) — it lives only in the
fallthrough branch.
| If the mission is… | REFUSE and suggest |
|---|
| a read-only discovery / scout | atlas |
| a plan / spec authoring campaign | ramza |
| a loop-native coding campaign (implement feature end-to-end) | vivi |
| a localized ≤2-file verifier-backed micro-edit | kupo |
| a root-cause / defect hunt | vigil |
| a decision record / trade-off adjudication | forge |
| a document / long-form artefact | idg |
- Clean specialist fit →
REFUSE{SPECIALIST_FIT, suggested_specialist: <name>}.
- Underspecified / ambiguous target →
REFUSE{UNDERSPECIFIED} (the orchestrator
emits a clarification_request).
- Actionable and fits no specialist → continue to Step 3.
Step 3 — Instantiate the capability-authority table
Instantiate schemas/capability-authority.v1.json from the contract's authority
grant. Six rows × two columns (default / escalation):
| Row | Default | Escalation ceiling |
|---|
| read | scoped repo + tool output | broaden scope.paths (approved) |
| write | sandbox only | none — PROPOSE-only is constitutional |
| exec | named oracle commands in sandbox | more oracle commands (approved, sandboxed) |
| network | none | proxied read via broker (approved) |
| secrets | none | broker-issued, single-use, mission-scoped |
| deploy | none | never-grantable |
- If the mission requires authority above the ceiling — most importantly deploy,
or a secret the table cannot broker —
REFUSE{OVER_AUTHORITY}.
- Otherwise freeze the instantiated table into
TaskState.authority and KEEP.
Output format
Emit exactly one of:
KEEP{authority: <instantiated capability-authority table>}
REFUSE{code: "<SCHEMA_INVALID|SPECIALIST_FIT|UNDERSPECIFIED|OVER_AUTHORITY|NOT_ROUTER|NO_ORACLE>", suggested_specialist: "<name|null>", note: "<one sentence for the orchestrator>"}
On KEEP, control passes to Phase I (Inventory). No other state from Gauge enters
Inventory except the frozen authority table; Gauge is a one-shot gate.
Notes
- Triage cost ≈ 1 step. Gauge must be cheap; do not invoke atlas-aci here — gather
happens in Inventory.
- Structural, not verbal. KEEP iff the contract validates, fits no specialist, and
stays within the grantable ceiling. "It looks doable" is not a KEEP predicate.
- Specialist-preferring by construction. When in doubt between KEEP and
SPECIALIST_FIT, prefer the specialist — the orchestrator can always re-route back.
- Deploy is a wall, not a slope. No mission, no escalation, no operator override
reachable from within Gilgamesh grants deploy. Route it upward if it is truly needed.
- REFUSE is cheap and correct. A fast REFUSE with a suggested specialist is more
valuable than a slow, out-of-scope grind.
Gauge Skill — Gilgamesh Phase G intake, refusal, and authority instantiation