ceremony-budget

Ceremony Budget

Purpose

Spend ceremony only when it buys back attention or safety. Route a task to a workflow that replaces the default larger route; do not append a second process contract.

When to use

Use when the safe route is not already obvious. If the task or wrapper already supplies an execution-sized route, use it without re-deriving the route.

Inputs

• User request and any task-wrapper instructions
• Scope boundary and expected blast radius
• Verification target and failure risk
• Ambiguity, irreversibility, and resume risk

Workflow

1. Check whether the task is bounded, reversible, and already explicit.
2. Identify the concrete implementation, reproduction, or inspection action and its proof target.
3. Choose the lowest level that protects the actual failure mode.
4. Select one replacement route and name only the missing guard, if any.
5. Start the next action immediately once the boundary and proof target are clear.

Replacement rule

Ceremony budget selects a route that replaces the default larger workflow. Do not regenerate the full route after a wrapper has already made it explicit. It must not:

• append a second workflow contract to an already explicit route
• restate task-wrapper instructions
• invoke several skills merely because they are available
• require a budget ledger merely to prove ceremony was budgeted
• create process work whose only purpose is documenting the process choice

When an existing route is sufficient, prefer:

Route already explicit; no additional ceremony block needed.

If one guard is missing, provide only that delta:

Route already explicit.
Missing guard: stop after verification and required proof pass.
Next action: implement the named seam.

Startup discipline

For Level 0 and Level 1, do not create a durable planning artifact by default or run commands solely to document route selection. Identify the concrete action, then begin it once the boundary and proof target are clear.