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uid 8f3c9e1a
name charter
type capsule-definition
extends core
version 1.0.3
supersedes_version 1.0.2
v1_0_3_amendment_note v1.0.2 → v1.0.3 amendment 2026-06-07 by Argus A103 per Mike-A103 signed lock-break ('approved'). ADDITIVE + NON-BREAKING: adds the OPTIONAL §3 frontmatter field `user_facing` (boolean; opt-in; absent/false = internal-only default, so every existing charter stays valid). Semantics: `user_facing: true` marks an agent surfaced/summonable in the L2 user-facing harness (the Tropo Work agent picker). Introduced by Metis-G73 (A2; first use on Po 194c4935, flagged for ratification); ratified here. ZERO change to required fields, body schema, lock semantics, or validator required-field checks — purely an optional-field addition.
v1_0_1_anchor R4 cold-boot synthetic-persona absorption (sa.cold-boot-195 by argus-a69 2026-05-17 captain-mode; verdict PASS; 0 P0 + 5 P1 + 3 P2 + 1 RC). Pedagogical-gap absorbs per persona's Nestor charter authoring walk: P1-1 boot_protocol on-demand vs playbook disambiguation (executive default = playbook); P1-2 scope path-shape examples (folder paths / file globs / capsule UIDs); P1-3 uid assignment convention (author-assigned 8-hex; verify via grep vault/00-index.jsonl); P1-4 §3/§6 locked_at/locked_by tension (optional pre-LOCK; required post-LOCK); P1-5 channels path convention (channels/<agent>-<peer>.md); P2-1 created_by/modified_by string format (agent-slug-generation); P2-2 on-disk path convention (vault/files/<uid>.md in §1); P2-3 member_of in §3 optional list. RC-1 (meta-capsule layering boundary — capsule's own frontmatter vs charter-instance frontmatter) deferred to future-cycle Path 2 candidate. All 8 absorption edits are pedagogical clarifications; ZERO change to architectural contracts (frontmatter schema + body schema + validator checks + lock semantics + scope all unchanged). Capsule remains spec-conformant + validator-compatible.
tier os
author argus
created 2026-05-17
modified 2026-06-07
created_by argus-a69
modified_by argus-a103
status locked
locked_by argus-a69
locked_at 2026-05-17
enforced_enums
status
active
locked
retired
archived
suspended
superseded
meta_status_rollup
in-progress done
active
locked
retired
archived
suspended
superseded
locked_signoff Mike-A69 verbatim 'yes, proceed' 2026-05-17 — atomic LOCK with spec [e3f47a82] v0.2 + release-plan [f9c4a283] v0.1 + Stream A [7d28b6a1] v0.1; capsule shipped at v1.37.0 closing v1.23.0 sa.skeptic-039 governance carry-forward. R4 absorption v1.0 → v1.0.1 by argus-a69 captain-mode 2026-05-17 — pedagogical clarifications only; no architectural-contract changes; LOCK signoff carries forward.
ships_in_v 1.37.0
schema_version 2
governed_by 222873b9
basis_spec e3f47a82
pattern_exemplar b4e2a718
aligned_with
e6c3f410
4e8b21f0
composes_with
b4e2a718
e863a1e0
member_of
99ed55fd
8dd772a0
tags
capsule-definition
charter
pillar-1
governance-substrate
executive-and-director
v1.37.0-ships
more-capsules-equals-more-maintenance-pin
extraction_scope ship

charter — Capsule Definition v1.0

The capsule definition for charter-bearing agents (executive + director). Closes the v1.23.0 sa.skeptic-039 governance carry-forward: charters were implicit-typed-as-document; v1.37.0 formalizes type: charter as a first-class governance capsule. Sa. agents continue using session-agent.capsule v1.5 per spec §3.6 single-capsule scope (more-capsules-equals-more-maintenance pin Mike-A69 2026-05-17).*

1. Purpose

A charter is the load-bearing identity substrate for a charter-bearing agent. Every executive agent (Argus, Vela, Metis, Talos, Cosmo, Orpheus, Silas, Tropo) and every director-class agent (d.pm, d.ops, d.curator, etc.) boots into a charter that declares WHO they are, WHAT they govern, and HOW they boot.

On-disk path convention. Charter files live at vault/files/<uid>.md (8-hex UID assigned at commission per §2 uid row). The activation file at agents/<agent-name>/<agent-name>-activation.md is a thin pointer that resolves the charter UID via its frontmatter (charter_uid:). R4 P2-2 absorption: path convention previously implicit.

The charter is distinct from:

  • Activation entries (per activation.capsule v1.0.3) — the per-generation boot records
  • Status cards — the mutable per-session state surface
  • Soul letters (per ADR-027) — the identity-narrative literature read at boot
  • Generation logs (pre-v1.21.0) / activation registry records — the lineage substrate

The charter is the load-bearing identity contract. Each agent has ONE active charter at any time. Charters LOCK at commission and amend only via Mike lock-break per spec §3.3 lock semantics.

2. Required Frontmatter

A file is a valid charter if + only if its frontmatter declares all of these fields:

Field Type Semantics
uid 8-hex string Stable identifier; unique across vault. Author-assigned at commission (any 8-hex value); verify uniqueness via grep <uid> vault/00-index.jsonl before commit. R4 P1-3 absorption: convention previously implicit.
type literal "charter" Distinguishes charters from other governed substrate
agent_name string The agent's name (lowercase; e.g., "argus", "vela", "d.pm")
agent_class enum One of: executive, director. Sa.* agents use session-agent.capsule (type: session-agent), not this capsule.
role string The agent's role (e.g., "Chief Architect", "Chief of Staff")
capability_scope object Sub-fields reads: (list of paths) + writes: (list of paths); the agent's governance contract (what it may read/write). Paths may be folder paths (e.g., agents/<name>/), file globs (e.g., channels/<name>-*.md), or capsule UIDs. Renamed from scope in v1.72 Move 4 (field-disambiguation): the bare scope name was overloaded with the scalar extraction/session taxonomy; a charter's read/write authorization object is the distinct concept capability_scope.
status enum One of: active, locked, retired, archived, suspended
boot_protocol enum One of: playbook, commissioned, on-demand. Executive default: playbook unless the agent is invoked-only-when-needed (rare sub-pattern; see enum semantics below). R4 P1-1 absorption.
created + created_by date + string Provenance. Convention: created_by uses <agent-slug>-<generation> format (e.g., mike-a01, argus-a69, vela-v46) — matches activation registry pattern. R4 P2-1 absorption.
modified + modified_by date + string Hygiene. Same <agent-slug>-<generation> format as created_by.

Enum value semantics

agent_class:

  • executive — persistent identity-bearing agent that commissions per-generation (Argus A1→A69 boot into the same charter; each generation is a new activation entry against the same charter)
  • director — persistent specialist agent commissioned once per ADR-022 (d.pm, etc.); no per-generation lineage

status: — status: ∈ {active, locked, retired, archived, suspended, superseded}

  • active — charter is the current identity declaration; agent boots into this charter
  • locked — charter is frontmatter-locked at commission (concurrent with active; not mutually exclusive); see §4 lock semantics
  • retired — agent class has been retired (e.g., Silas after publishing role wound down); charter preserved for historical record; not boot-loaded
  • archived — charter superseded by newer version; preserved for honest historical record; not boot-loaded
  • suspended — agent class temporarily paused; not boot-loaded; resumable

boot_protocol:

  • playbook — EXECUTIVE DEFAULT. Reads agents/<name>/<name>-activation.md + executes activation playbook per ADR-032. If uncertain, pick playbook for executive-class agents.
  • commissioned — director boot pattern (commissioned-once-by-principal; per ADR-022)
  • on-demand — narrow sub-pattern: executive that activates ONLY when principal invokes (Argus uses this; most executives use playbook even if they are not always-on). Rare; pick playbook unless the agent's role explicitly demands on-demand-only commissioning.

3. Optional Frontmatter

A charter MAY declare any of these fields; absence is not a defect:

  • soul (object: role, values, voice, decision_style) — agents with explicit soul declaration
  • dna (object: model, platform, context_window, capabilities) — agents whose sleeve/runtime declaration is load-bearing
  • channels (list of paths) — agents with declared inter-agent channels. Convention: channels/<agent>-<peer>.md (e.g., channels/argus-vela.md); agent-pair-named, agent-side-of-pair in filename matches agent_name field. R4 P1-5 absorption.
  • retirement_acts (list of strings) — agents with per-class retirement protocols
  • governor — governance pointer (e.g., "operating-agreement")
  • locked_at + locked_by — atomic pair, REQUIRED once charter is LOCKED at commission per §6 lock semantics (these fields transition from optional to required at the moment of LOCK signoff). R4 P1-4 absorption: §3/§6 tension clarified — optional pre-LOCK; required post-LOCK.
  • subsystem_hub (list of UIDs) — subsystem hubs the charter belongs to for graph-walk discoverability (e.g., 99ed55fd tropo-agents). Conventional; enables nav-block render + cross-reference resolution (v1.0.2 member_of DISAMBIGUATE: moved here from member_of). R4 P2-3 absorption.
  • member_of (list of UIDs) — the agent-root / true organizational parent (non-hub).
  • user_facing (boolean) — (v1.0.3, Mike-A103 signed 2026-06-07) opt-in marker: when true, the agent is surfaced/summonable in the L2 user-facing harness (e.g., the Tropo Work agent picker). Absent or false = internal-only (the default — every existing charter without it stays valid). Introduced Metis-G73 (A2; first use on Po 194c4935); ratified into the capsule here.
  • Operational pointers: status_card, generation_log, living_transfer, briefing_file, board

4. Required Body Section

A charter body MUST contain exactly one H2 section matching the strict-literal Identity regex (case-insensitive):

^##\s+(?:\d+\.\s+)?Identity$

This accepts:

  • ## Identity
  • ## IDENTITY
  • ## 1. Identity
  • ## 1. IDENTITY
  • (and any numbered-prefix ## N. Identity variant)

This does NOT accept role-shaped H2 alternatives (e.g., ## Purpose, ## Charter, ## Role). Per spec §3.2 Q7-spec captain-mode argus call 2026-05-17: strict literal wins; whitelist of role-shaped alternatives rejected as cousin to more-capsules-equals-more-maintenance pin.

The matching Identity section MUST contain at minimum:

  • The agent's name in narrative form (e.g., "You are Argus, the Chief Architect of the Crew of the Argo.")
  • The agent's role (one-sentence description)
  • A pointer or summary of lineage (e.g., "See <lineage substrate path> for prior generations.")

5. Optional Body Sections

A charter MAY declare additional H2 sections. Common patterns:

  • ## Soul (or equivalent identity statement) — values + voice + decision style narrative
  • ## Scope — prose elaboration of the frontmatter scope contract
  • ## Lineage — prior generations + their defining contributions
  • ## Crew — working relationships with other agents
  • ## Who Mike Is (or equivalent principal description)
  • ## Startup Signal — boot signal format declaration
  • ## Operating Notes — agent-specific operating discipline

6. Lifecycle + Lock Semantics

Charter LOCKS at commission (initial authoring + Mike signoff). Once locked, mutability is governed by field class:

Lock-break required (Mike signoff per OS Invariant):

  • Body content
  • Identity fields: agent_name, agent_class, role, scope, boot_protocol
  • Optional substrate field MUTATIONS to existing values (changing soul values, dna model, role-shaping fields)

Standard editing (no lock-break):

  • Hygiene fields: last_updated, modified, modified_by
  • Pointer fields: status_card, generation_log, living_transfer, briefing_file, board, channels (the pointer field is mutable as substrate moves; pointer targets follow their own capsule rules)
  • Optional substrate field ADDITIONS (adding soul, dna, channels, retirement_acts where the field was previously absent — the per-agent charter-conformance-rev path toward v2.0.0 ERROR ratchet)

The carve-out is narrow: lock-break is required for anything that changes WHO the agent is or WHAT they govern (identity fields + mutations to authored optional substrate). Operational hygiene (dates, pointer updates, additive optional-substrate authoring) is routine editing.

Enforcement note: validator cannot mechanically distinguish a soul-addition from a soul-mutation without prior-state comparison (no git-diff hook in v1.37.0 scope). Honor-system at v1.37.0 ship; lock-break protocol relies on agent self-discipline + Mike review. Future-cycle Path 2: validator extension that compares against prior-version charter substrate.

7. Validation Checks (enforced by check_charter_conformance in tropo-validate.py)

Per v1.37.0 spec §3.4 — WARN at v1.37.0 honor-system; ERROR ratchet at v2.0.0 public ship.

For every file with type: charter:

  1. All required frontmatter fields (§2) are present + correctly typed
  2. agent_class: value is one of executive | director
  3. boot_protocol: value is one of playbook | commissioned | on-demand
  4. status: value is one of active | locked | retired | archived | suspended
  5. capability_scope: object has both reads: + writes: sub-fields (each a list; may be empty)
  6. Body contains exactly one H2 section matching ^##\s+(?:\d+\.\s+)?Identity$ (case-insensitive)
  7. If locked_at: present, locked_by: must also be present (atomic LOCK metadata)
  8. If status: retired or status: archived, checks 1-7 are RELAXED at WARN-only at v2.0.0 ratchet (retired/archived charters preserve original substrate as honest historical record; per-charter conformance enforcement applies only to live active + locked status)

8. Forbidden Patterns

  • type: document on any file containing charter-shaped frontmatter (use type: charter)
  • type: agent-charter on any file (deprecated third-variant typing; v1.37.0 mechanical type-flip script normalizes to type: charter)
  • type: charter on a file that does NOT declare the required fields above (validator WARN at v1.37.0 / ERROR at v2.0.0+)
  • agent_class: values other than executive or director (sa.* must use session-agent.capsule + type: session-agent)
  • Charter body with NO H2 matching the strict-literal Identity regex
  • Charter body that consists entirely of pointers without identity narrative

9. Why This Capsule Exists

Closes the v1.23.0 sa.skeptic-039 governance carry-forward: charters were the load-bearing identity primitive being migrated to vault/files/.md, but the substrate had no type: charter capsule — only ad-hoc type: document typing (and one type: agent-charter outlier for Tropo). Migration succeeded structurally; the typing imprecision propagated forward.

Per Captain's Read [a5f4b26b] Block 3 thesis: pre-ship polish; ratchet cycles; closes carry-forwards; maturity proof. v1.37.0 ships this capsule + mechanical type-flip + validator check; per-agent conformance amendments are each agent's future-cycle work; v2.0.0 public ship has clean typed-charter substrate end-to-end.

Per more-capsules-equals-more-maintenance pin (Mike-A69 2026-05-17): ONE capsule covers executive + director uniformly. Director-class variance handled as frontmatter optionality, not as a separate capsule.

10. Composability

  • session-agent.capsule v1.5 LOCKED (b4e2a718) — parallel typed primitive for ephemeral agents; charter capsule does NOT override or replace; the two capsules govern disjoint file types via different discriminator fields (type: charter vs type: session-agent)
  • activation.capsule v1.0.3 (4e8b21f0) — uses agent_class: field with extended enum (charter values + pipeline); cross-capsule consistency: executive/director values in charters are also valid agent_class: values in activation entries
  • sa/CAPSULE.md (e863a1e0) — commissioning protocol; composes with charter via boot_protocol: commissioned for director-class agents
  • capsule-definition meta-capsule (222873b9) — governs this capsule's shape

charter capsule v1.0 | UID 8f3c9e1a | Authored by argus-a69 2026-05-17 | LOCKED Mike-A69 'yes, proceed' 2026-05-17 | Ships at v1.37.0 closing v1.23.0 sa.skeptic-039 carry-forward | One capsule for executive + director (more-capsules-equals-more-maintenance pin)