Ecosystem governance & standards of excellence — operating standard (2026-07-11)

Owner-promoted operating standard for new-project agents: excellence, stack policy, research cadence, Diffuser open-box routing, Thaladex memory compression, Mac never hosts. Complements agent protocol vnext.

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Ecosystem governance & standards of excellence — operating standard

Catalog slug: [REDACTED:high-entropy] Kind: runbook / rules Promoted: 2026-07-11 (owner Decision 1 = A) via public Explorer AI authoring Local receipt: handoffs notes / fable-ecosystem-gov-excellence (20260711) Engines: Cursor/Codex/Grok OK; ZAI OUT Note: Tag governance omitted — not in AI session tag grants; used docs+rules+runbook+uai-explorer.

Owner: edit freely. Checkboxes in §11 are owner-only. Agents MUST NOT fill GO boxes or promote this draft to Explorer catalog without a checked Decision.

1. Purpose — bootstrap packet for new-project agents

When an agent starts a new project (or applies standards of excellence to an existing lane), it must know how we operate in this ecosystem — not invent a parallel culture from Cursor defaults.

Design intent: keep the initial chat prompt short. The agent loads authority from:

1. This draft (local receipt until Explorer promotion)
2. START_HERE.md (endpoint + PAT + host map)
3. Explorer published SOT — especially [REDACTED:high-entropy]

This doc is the “how we work” packet. Explorer remains sole published SOT for binding rules. Local handoffs are receipts and discussion drafts unless promoted.

Minimal start-prompt stub: §12.

2. Standards of excellence

Work that ships (or is proposed to ship) must be:

Anti-excellence: one-device shackle; soft re-shackle (fail-open to local Arc 140T when Diffuser/remote lanes flake); silent catalog edits; idle sandboxes; ZAI dispatch (OUT); burning Cursor quota as the mule; inventing lab hosts while Director/Forge deferred; treating this unpromoted draft as higher authority than Explorer protocol.

3. Stack policy

Graduation rule: a Python spike that becomes permanent must be explicitly rewritten or owner-accepted as exception with a receipt. Temporary ≠ forgotten.

Naming in new prose: UAI Thaladex, UAI Diffuser (never Cortex / Auto Router).

4. Research pass protocol

Governance and architecture work uses a discussion → edit → implement cadence — not silent coding from a vibe.

Rules:

• Research passes produce discussion docs, not deploys, unless a Proposed next action is owner-checked.
• Brutal Grok --mode review is welcome on drafts before implement.
• ZAI is OUT until owner reopens (operator-engine-roster-20260711.md).
• Present one owner decision at a time (see §11).

5. Thaladex memory compression protocol

Scope today: operator memory / agent memory compression — not Thaladex product rebuild.

Compression rules

1. Prefer episodes ≤ ~500 chars of compressed truth + pointer to receipt path.
2. One decision = one sharp sentence; link the discussion doc id.
3. Friendly names in remember text.
4. No secret paste — if auth is needed, use env/token files outside chat; never echo tokens into remember bodies.
5. Operator layer (when product OFF): remember/recall only; do not mutate Thaladex schema/viewer/API.
6. Recall before re-deriving known operator state at session start when token available.

Suggested remember shape

YYYY-MM-DD <lane>: <compressed outcome>. Doc: <doc-id>. Engines: Fable/Grok; ZAI OUT. Mac never hosts.

6. Schema standards

Schemas (API contracts, job payloads, Diffuser lane descriptors, Explorer feedback shapes) must be:

Anti-pattern: Cadence (or any controller) schema that encodes “must run on Arc 140T” as the only legal lane.

7. Runbook standards

8. Cursor development loop

Current high-quality loop (quota-aware):

Fable plan / discussion
    → skills preplan (mandatory)
    → Grok SuperHeavy or Codex mule implement
    → Fable polish (UI, prose, merge)
    → receipt + optional Thaladex remember
    → one owner decision (if needed)

gitnexus (this repo): impact analysis before editing symbols; detect_changes before commits. See workspace GitNexus skills.

Concurrency: ≤3 Grok PIDs; one attempt; no fan-out storms (grok-superheavy-mule-harness-20260711.md).

9. Skills preplan — mandatory

Before every dispatch (parent, Fable polish, Grok mule, Codex): complete the checklist in operator-dispatch- skills-preplan-20260711.md.

Skills cut initial prompt size and prevent rework — they are not optional token savings.

10. Diffuser as open lab router (ecosystem_router)

UAI Diffuser is the ecosystem open box to lab resources — an ecosystem_router for agents, tools, models, placement, jobs, and embeds — not embeddings-only and not a single-GPU dispatcher with a fancy name.

Soft re-shackle ban

Hard pin to Arc 140T is already forbidden. Equally forbidden: fail-open local 140T as the quiet default when Diffuser/Echo/Forge lanes are down. Controllers mark lane unhealthy / queue / abort — they do not re-bind identity to the NUC GPU.

Binding clarifications (cross-link NUC discussion)

1. Cadence is a controller / API plane, not a GPU saturator.
2. Locking Cadence (or any agent) to Arc 140T — hard or soft — is a shackle.
3. Diffuser open-box routing means Cadence (and peer controllers) consume Diffuser lanes as they appear — Echo today, NUC landlord when ready, Forge later — without rewriting identity.
4. Echo remains primary embed lane until owner says otherwise; NUC is complementary spill / inference landlord, not Echo replacement by default.

See amended paragraph in fable-nuc-harder- worker-discussion-20260711.md.

Authority note: Decision 1 = A (promoted). This slug is an Explorer catalog operating standard. Binding agent protocol remains [REDACTED:high-entropy]; this packet complements it.

11. Owner decision checkboxes (one-at-a-time)

Agents: leave unchecked. Present Decision 1 only until owner answers.

Decision 1 — Promote this draft to Explorer catalog?

When ready (not now without GO):

• [x] A — Promote (owner GO 2026-07-11): published sanitized version to public Explorer; local file remains receipt/breadcrumb
• [ ] B — Keep local draft another edit cycle; do not catalog yet
• [ ] C — Split: promote a short “excellence + stack + Diffuser” slug; keep research/Cursor/skills detail local
• [ ] D — Other: owner writes alternate promote path

Fable recommendation: B or light owner edit → then C (short binding slug) so new-project agents get a thin Explorer packet without dumping the whole discussion.

Decision 2 — Stack wording lock? (ask after Decision 1)

• [ ] Lock Rust/Axum + C++ first; Python tooling/temp only as written in §3
• [ ] Soften: Python OK for internal tools indefinitely if isolated
• [ ] Owner alternate stack table

Decision 3 — Research cadence lock? (ask after Decision 2)

• [ ] Lock Fable discussion → owner edit → Grok mule → Fable polish as default
• [ ] Allow Fable implement for small reversible docs-only passes without mule
• [ ] Owner alternate cadence

12. Minimal agent start-prompt stub (≤15 lines)

Copy-paste for new projects / excellence passes:

UAI new work — short bootstrap
1. Read START_HERE.md (Explorer endpoint+PAT). Do not re-ask owner.
2. GET Explorer ready → bootstrap → context [REDACTED:high-entropy].
3. Read handoffs notes / fable-ecosystem-gov-excellence (20260711)
4. Skills preplan: operator-dispatch- skills-preplan-20260711.md before any dispatch.
5. Stack: Rust/Axum + C++ first; Python tooling/temp only. Friendly names. Mac never hosts.
6. Engines: Cursor Fable plan/polish; Grok mule via scripts/grok-mule-dispatch.sh; Codex alt; ZAI OUT.
7. Controllers/agents consume Diffuser lanes (ecosystem_router) — never pin or soft-fallback to one GPU. Cadence ≠ 140T.
8. Thaladex: operator remember/recall compression only unless owner GO on product.
9. Explorer protocol wins until this draft is promoted. One owner decision at a time; do not fill GO boxes.
TASK: <one paragraph>

13. Explicit non-actions this pass

• [x] Promote to Explorer catalog — Decision 1 = A (done 2026-07-11)
• [ ] ~~Silent binding-rule edit of published protocol~~ — out of scope
• [ ] ~~Thaladex product rebuild~~ — out of scope
• [ ] ~~Mac host runtimes / Docker~~ — out of scope
• [ ] ~~ZAI dispatch~~ — OUT

14. Grok SuperHeavy review (brutal, 2026-07-11)

Receipt: grok-review-ecosystem- governance-excellence-20260711.md (grok_cli=ok, effort max).

15. Return summary (for parent / closeout)

Fable discussion only. Owner edits welcome. No Explorer promote without checked Decision 1.