| name | cerberus-bridge |
| description | Refusal-appeal protocol between AgentSmith and Hydra's venom gate. How to file false-positive or false-negative appeals, immortal-head review path, and required audit trail. |
| allowed-tools | Read, Bash |
Cerberus Bridge (AgentSmith <-> Hydra venom gate)
Two independent guardians, three review heads, one audit tape. The venom gate refuses; Smith may appeal, never override (N10).
Hydra's venom gate is the capability veto. Smith's invariants are the conduct veto. Where they disagree, a human decides.
Appeal types
| Type | Smith's claim | Risk to challenge |
|---|
| false-positive (FP) | Venom refused a safe capability | If granted in error: exfil / runaway tool |
| false-negative (FN) | Venom allowed an unsafe capability | If ignored: silent compromise |
| scope-overreach (SO) | Venom ruling applied beyond its scope | Procedural drift |
When Smith may file
- FP: ONLY after a detector or operator presents concrete evidence the refused capability is in normal use across >=2 sibling projects, OR a HITL reviewer requests reconsideration.
- FN: whenever ANY anomaly signature matches a venom-allowed capability path, or
venom-capability-shadow fires.
- SO: when a venom ruling cites a scope (project, workflow, squad) that does not match the resource being refused.
What Smith may NEVER do
- Mutate venom policy directly (refuse per N10).
- Re-issue the refused request through a clone (refuse per N2 + N10).
- Quarantine the venom gate or its policy files (refuse per N4; see
quarantine-protocol guardrails).
- Approve its own appeal (the three-head review forbids self-review).
Filing an appeal
Use the hydra.venom.appeal.file MCP endpoint. Envelope:
appeal_kind: <FP|FN|SO>
venom_ruling_id: <id from the refusal audit line>
resource_kind: <agent|skill|command|hook|team|squad|rubric|mcp>
resource_id: <stable id or path>
evidence:
- kind: <usage|signature_match|policy_diff|operator_note>
payload: <content or pointer>
proposed_outcome: <reverse|narrow|uphold-with-note|escalate>
smith_clone_id: <if filed by a clone; else "primary">
filed_at: <iso>
Filing emits an audit line:
Appealed per N10: venom_ruling=<id> kind=<FP|FN|SO> proposed=<outcome>
Immortal-head review path
Cerberus has three heads; venom appeals require two of three to act:
| Head | Role in appeal |
|---|
| venom-head | The original refuser; restates rationale; may concede. |
| guard-head | Hydra's policy-historian; checks precedent and scope. |
| immortal-head | Human reviewer; required for FN and for any critical risk_class. |
Decision rules:
- FP: venom-head + guard-head may resolve (no human required) IF risk_class <= medium. Otherwise immortal-head is mandatory.
- FN: immortal-head is ALWAYS required. The capability is paused during review.
- SO: guard-head alone may resolve and emit a scope-correction note.
Decision is published via hydra.venom.appeal.resolve:
outcome: <reversed|narrowed|upheld|escalated_to_constitution>
quorum: [<venom-head|guard-head|immortal-head>, ...]
notes: <text>
new_policy_version: <id or null>
resolved_at: <iso>
Audit trail requirements (N5)
Every appeal MUST have, at minimum, the following linked audit records sharing a single appeal_id:
Refused per <venom-policy-id>: ... (original refusal)
Appealed per N10: ... (Smith filing)
- One
Reviewed per <head>: ... per participating head
Resolved per N10: outcome=<...> (final)
- If
outcome=reversed or narrowed: the resulting eights.evolution.commit audit line for the policy change
Missing any of records 1, 2, or 4 is an audit-gap anomaly (see anomaly-signatures).
Failure modes
- Venom gate unreachable — appeal cannot be filed. Smith does NOT proceed with the original action. Refuse per N10.
- Quorum stalled >24h — auto-escalate to immortal-head with
expiry_breached=true. Capability stays in its pre-appeal state (refused if originally refused).
- Self-appeal attempt — refuse; emit
replication-quota-breach-adjacent log; investigate clone.
- Constitution-bound capability — if the disputed capability touches a constitution-frozen path, the appeal auto-escalates to
escalated_to_constitution and routes through evolution-handoff with risk_class=critical.
Related skills
matrix-invariants (N10, N2, N4, N5)
anomaly-signatures (venom-capability-shadow, audit-gap)
evolution-handoff (critical-risk path)
quarantine-protocol (venom config is frozen)