Plans turn intentions into revisable dependency graphs (migration 0027):
objective, assumptions, ordered or dependent steps, capabilities,
expected observations, preconditions, risk, estimates, budget,
completion criteria, abort conditions and the alternatives considered.
- Validation owns structure: acyclic dependencies, registered and
unlocked capabilities only, schema-valid parameters, targets that agree
with parameters, read-only checks, a closed set of step kinds and
internal actions. Model proposals are parsed into the same structure;
fields that could carry authority or claim progress are reported as
ignored, and an invalid draft is stored as a draft that never runs.
- The planner prefers deterministic strategies: a direct action verified
by observation, a read-only diagnosis that requests temporary scoped log
access with risk and fallback stated, and an escalation that diagnoses
and informs the operator instead of repeating a failed action. Failed
strategies are not reused; a model is consulted only when none applies.
- The executor holds no state in memory: it claims a step with a
conditional update, acts only through Invoke and RequestCapability, and
records the outcome. Waiting for approval or access forms a subordinate
intention and blocks the parent with the reason. Expectations become
verification predictions resolved from a read-only observation, so an
HTTP-level success is never taken as the outcome; a miss is a prediction
error that weakens the supporting belief and triggers reconsideration.
Replanning creates a new revision, withdraws open requests of the old
one and keeps it as history, within a replan limit. Checks never raise
approval prompts. Budgets stop runaway plans. Preconditions skip actions
when the world already changed. Dream plans and disabled sandbox minds
never act. An interrupted non-idempotent action with no record is
blocked for verification instead of repeated; recorded outcomes are
adopted. Completed plans are stored as procedural memories; a completed
escalation does not count as fulfilling the intention.
- Executions and approvals record their origin; minds may withdraw their
own pending approval requests; Preview reports a decision without side
effects; service.status is allowed by default as a bounded read.
A model of volition that keeps wanting, intending and committing as
separate states (PLAN §8.2 items 1–6, 14):
- Wants (migration 0026) carry origin, strength with a six-hour
half-life, urgency, valence, drives, values, goal, commitment and an
optional proposed means. Derivation is deterministic and selective:
failed predictions, contradictions, operator goals, stalled goals,
questions and requests, and due commitments; drives and configured
values modulate strength with recorded terms; candidates below 0.35 are
not stored; identical subjects reinforce; faded and excess wants expire.
- Conflicts are first-class and resolved by explicit scores with no fixed
hierarchy: urgency scales strength, goals add priority, commitments add
normative weight; an approach opposed by a value-derived avoid want wins
outright only when clearly stronger, otherwise with a constraint or is
deferred. Neither side is discarded.
- Commitments (do/refrain with capability, target, access and risk
matchers, optional "unless approval", due, expiry, revocability) are
checked for due, overdue, impossible, conflicting and superseded states.
They constrain means and never grant authority.
- Formation weighs strength, urgency, goal, commitment, expected utility,
risk scaled by caution, cost, privacy and autonomy; it returns formed or
not formed with a reason (forbidden by commitment, denied, unavailable,
no possible plan, below threshold, capacity, duplicate, deferred), and a
commitment requiring approval turns an action into a request for
approval.
- Reconsideration maps triggers (denied or expired approval, capability or
commitment change, failed step or expectation, weakened belief, budget,
goal completion, world change, operator correction) to keep, block,
suspend, resume, replan, require approval, abandon or fulfil, with
bounded replanning.
- The store records every transition as an event and every choice in the
append-only volition_decisions ledger; fulfilling an intention satisfies
its wants and fulfils its commitment.
- Event vocabulary gains volition and plan categories.
Andy Dixon