pivot-or-kill

Pivot or Kill (Meta-Control Layer)

Overview

Repeated failure is signal, not noise. When 3 consecutive core experiments fail expectations, stop iterating and escalate. The agent does not get to decide whether to continue — the user does.

Core principle: Honesty over optimism. Escalate over iterate.

Violating the letter of this rule is violating the spirit of this rule.

The Iron Law

AFTER 3 CONSECUTIVE FAILURES, STOP EXPERIMENTING. ESCALATE TO USER.

No fourth attempt. No "quick fix." Escalate.

Trigger and Escalation Flow

digraph pivot_or_kill {
    rankdir=TB;
    detect [label="3 consecutive failures\ndetected" shape=doublecircle];
    summarize [label="Summarize status\n(what was tried, what failed,\ntrend direction)" shape=box];
    analyze [label="Analyze root cause" shape=box];
    present [label="Present 3 options\n(Pivot / Downgrade / Kill)" shape=box];
    decide [label="User chooses" shape=diamond];
    pivot [label="Pivot\nChange method direction" shape=box style=filled fillcolor="#d4edda"];
    downgrade [label="Downgrade\nLower venue target" shape=box style=filled fillcolor="#fff3cd"];
    kill [label="Kill\nTerminate and archive" shape=box style=filled fillcolor="#f8d7da"];

    detect -> summarize;
    summarize -> analyze;
    analyze -> present;
    present -> decide;
    decide -> pivot [label="pivot"];
    decide -> downgrade [label="downgrade"];
    decide -> kill [label="kill"];
}

Step 1 — Summarize Status Honestly

State plainly:

• What was tried (each of the 3 attempts)
• What failed (specific metrics, specific gaps)
• Trend direction (improving, flat, or worsening)

Do NOT soften language. "Results declined across all three attempts" is correct. "Results showed some variability" is evasion.

Step 2 — Analyze Failure Root Cause

Classify the failure into one of these categories:

Category	Description	Signal
Method flaw	Core assumption is wrong	All variants fail similarly
Data issue	Insufficient, noisy, or wrong distribution	Results vary wildly or ceiling is low
Implementation bug	Code-level error	Should be caught by debugging, not this skill
Evaluation too strict	Unrealistic expectations	Baselines also fail to meet the bar