automation-shape-routing

name	automation-shape-routing
description	Front door for agent automation: choose

Automation Shape Routing

Choose the smallest execution shape that preserves the required evidence and control. This skill routes; it does not build or start a substrate.

Ordered routing works because each rung is strictly cheaper to operate than the next: if the smallest shape truly preserves the evidence and control the task needs, every larger shape can only add coordination cost, never correctness.

Named failure mode — substrate romance: routing to persistent workers because the topology is interesting, not because any deciding axis demands it.

Anti-pattern: starting the chosen substrate as part of routing "to save a step". Corrective: return the one-line verdict and let the owner start under its own authority.

Critical Constraints

• Route only; do not start a substrate. Why: choosing an execution shape is a judgment step, while launching NTM, Agent Mail, or Gas City changes runtime state and requires separate operator authority.
• Prefer the smallest shape that preserves evidence. Why: persistence and coordination add recovery and ownership costs that one-shot work cannot repay.
• Partition write scopes before choosing concurrency. Why: a larger worker topology cannot make overlapping production writes safe.

Route in order

1. One deliverable? Do it inline. Use a small in-session fresh-context fanout only when independent perspectives are the product. Do not create a reusable artifact for a one-off task.
2. Reusable sequential procedure? Use skill-builder.
3. Must-never-regress constraint? Route through operationalize to a gate.
4. Fixed typed DAG, headless, no attach/steer? Use workflow-builder only where that runtime is explicitly selected and available.
5. Persistent, attachable roles over caller-supplied packets? Use agent-native. NTM is the pane adapter; Agent Mail coordinates only explicitly selected live actors.
6. Durable city of quests with GC-native supervision/store? Route to using-gc only when the operator explicitly selects Gas City. GC is not an automatic fallback or an ao runtime enum.

Deciding axes

Axis	Lightweight choice	Escalated choice
lifetime	current turn	persistent/attachable worker
topology	one writer or bounded fanout	durable role graph
control	no mid-run steering	observe/nudge/replace
output	one artifact	reusable skill/workflow/gate
store	caller-owned packet set	operator-selected GC quest store
contention	one writer	partition, then Agent Mail reservation

Parallelism buys independence, not guaranteed speed. Refuse persistent orchestration for one-shot work, colliding write scopes, or a sequential chain that has no exploitable concurrency.

Handoff

Return exactly one of:

• inline or bounded-fanout
• skill-builder
• workflow-builder
• agent-native with a named reason persistent panes help
• using-gc with explicit operator choice
• operationalize:gate

Name the deciding axis and invoke the owner. Do not copy the delegated workflow into this router.

Output Specification

• Artifact directory: stdout only; this routing decision creates no file.

• Filename convention: none. Emit exactly one routing-verdict line.

• Serialization/schema format: shape=<allowed-shape>; axis=<deciding-axis>; owner=<owning-skill> using one of the shapes listed under Handoff.

• Owner mapping: inline and bounded-fanout use current-agent; skill-builder, workflow-builder, agent-native, and using-gc use the same value for owner; operationalize:gate uses operationalize.

• Validator command: validate a captured $verdict as exactly one line with the declared shape/owner mapping:

  printf '%s\n' "$verdict" | awk '
    NR > 1 { extra = 1 }
    {
      valid = ($0 ~ /^shape=(inline|bounded-fanout); axis=[^;]+; owner=current-agent$/ ||
               $0 ~ /^shape=skill-builder; axis=[^;]+; owner=skill-builder$/ ||
               $0 ~ /^shape=workflow-builder; axis=[^;]+; owner=workflow-builder$/ ||
               $0 ~ /^shape=agent-native; axis=[^;]+; owner=agent-native$/ ||
               $0 ~ /^shape=using-gc; axis=[^;]+; owner=using-gc$/ ||
               $0 ~ /^shape=operationalize:gate; axis=[^;]+; owner=operationalize$/)
    }
    END { exit !(NR == 1 && !extra && valid) }
  '
  

• Downstream handoff: invoke the named owner only after returning the verdict; inline remains in the current agent and bounded-fanout remains in-session.

Quality Rubric

• The verdict names exactly one allowed shape and one deciding axis.
• Persistent or city-shaped routes cite the operator's explicit selection.
• Concurrent routes state that production write scopes do not overlap.
• The router delegates to the owner without copying or starting its workflow.