XI. Fail-Safe Checks

Clear boundaries

Nine Laws guide agent behavior. Guardrails help enforce them automatically.

The Problem

Without Guardrails

Agents skip validation to "move faster"
Guidelines get ignored when inconvenient
Risky behaviors slip through
Production issues from missed checks

With Guardrails

High compliance with the Nine Laws
Violations caught early, not late
Consistent quality across sessions
Defense in depth with multiple layers

The Nine Laws

1. Learn & Improve

Extract patterns, identify improvements

2. Document

Context commits, progress files, bundles

3. Git Discipline

Commit often, clean workspace

4. TDD + Tracers

Tests first, tracers for complex tasks

5. Guide

Suggest options, user chooses

6. Classify Level

Assess vibe level (0-5) before work

7. Measure

Track metrics, break spirals early

8. Session Protocol

One feature, review before end

9. Protect Definitions

Features unchanged, mark passes only

The Solution

Hope-Based Compliance

Agent: "Validation is slow, I'll skip it"

Agent: Deploys to production

Production: Breaks

Result: Guidelines followed when convenient

Automated Guardrails

Agent: Attempts commit without tests

Pre-commit hook: Catches the issue

Agent: Runs tests, then commits

Result: Guidelines reinforced by tooling

Defense in Depth

::: info Three Layers of Protection Layer 1: Pre-Execution

Agent wants to commit -> Hook validates first
Agent wants to deploy -> Pre-check runs
Context growing -> Warning at 35%

Layer 2: Runtime

Context approaching limit -> Suggest compression
Multiple fix commits -> Flag potential spiral
Session getting long -> Prompt for checkpoint

Layer 3: Post-Execution

Session complete -> Check for learnings
Week complete -> Review for improvements
Patterns emerging -> Suggest extraction :::

Implementation Patterns

Pre-Commit Hooks

#!/bin/bash
# .git/hooks/pre-commit

echo "Running guardrails..."

# Law 4: Validate before commit
if ! npm test --quiet 2>/dev/null; then
    echo "Tests didn't pass - consider fixing before commit"
    # Soft warning, not hard block
fi

# Law 2: Encourage documentation
if ! git diff --cached --name-only | grep -q "\.md$"; then
    echo "Tip: Consider documenting significant changes"
fi

echo "Checks complete"

Context Monitoring

class ContextGuardrail:
    def __init__(self, soft_limit=0.35, hard_limit=0.40):
        self.soft_limit = soft_limit
        self.hard_limit = hard_limit

    def check_context(self, utilization):
        if utilization > self.hard_limit:
            return "Consider resetting context or using bundles"
        elif utilization > self.soft_limit:
            return "Context getting full - good time to checkpoint"
        return None

Validation

Pre-commit hooks provide helpful feedback
Context warnings appear before issues
Session checkpoints happen regularly
Learnings captured most sessions
Spiral detection catches fix chains early

Factor	Relationship
I. Automated Tracking	Git hooks support Laws 2 & 3
IV. Continuous Validation	Supports Law 4
VI. Resume Work	Context management
IX. Mine Patterns	Supports Law 1