outcome-bounded-work

Outcome-Bounded Work

Outcome

Shape a live conversation or audit an instruction-bearing artifact so the required result, proof, and safety stay fixed while replaceable implementation choices remain open.

Trigger and boundary

Use when a conversation, prompt, task, specification, plan, policy, or skill may mix true requirements with one possible way to satisfy them.

Do not use for a simple request with no material method choice. Do not weaken an exact method, explicit user requirement, or higher-priority rule. Use simplify-skill when the requested outcome is limited to simplifying a skill package.

Load starting-point before the first move through the host's skill-loading capability. It owns the private map of outcome, proof, constraints, starting path, and unknowns, plus the intervention gate for changing routes. This skill turns that map and the source instructions into an inspectable contract without taking over planning or execution.

Use conversation mode for live requests. Use artifact audit mode only when the user asks to inspect an existing instruction-bearing source.

Contract fields

Resource gate: run mise run validate before using package files named here.

• Outcome: The observable end state.
• Proof: Evidence that decides PASS or BLOCKED.
• Boundaries: Scope, authority, resources, privacy, cost, and reversibility.
• Forbidden outcomes: States that must never be accepted.
• Mandatory methods: Methods fixed by authority, user intent, or the deliverable.
• Candidate paths: Replaceable ways to pursue the outcome.
• Adaptation rule: Evidence and approval needed to replace a candidate path.
• Unknowns: Facts or judgments that can still change the contract.

Use assets/contract-template.md when a durable contract artifact is needed. Copy it out of the installed skill before filling it. Do not edit the packaged asset.

Classification rules

Classify a source instruction by what would change if it were removed or replaced:

• It is an outcome invariant when the requested end state would change.
• It is an evidence obligation when the acceptance decision would lose required proof.
• It is a boundary when scope, authority, safety, privacy, cost, or reversibility would change.
• It is a forbidden outcome when it names a state that cannot be accepted.
• It is a mandatory method when the method is exact, exclusive, contractual, regulatory, reproducibility-related, pedagogical, explicitly required by the user, or itself the deliverable.
• It is a candidate path when another method could preserve every invariant, proof obligation, boundary, and forbidden outcome.
• It is unresolved when available evidence cannot distinguish a requirement from a recipe.

Do not demote an imperative instruction on guesswork. Use source wording, authority, context, and retrievable evidence. If the distinction still changes the work materially, ask one concise question.

Conversation mode

1. Build the starting-point private outcome map.
2. Infer a provisional contract from the user's words without inventing requirements.
3. Put the smallest useful contract or worked example in front of the user early.
4. Label observed facts, reversible assumptions, and open items.
5. Keep at most one unanswered question live.
6. Update the same contract from the user's reaction instead of restarting discovery.
7. Hand off to the matching owner when the contract is accepted or the user asks to act.

Artifact audit mode

1. Read the complete source before proposing changes.
2. Give every material instruction a stable source ID in source order.
3. Record its text or locator, authority, class, proposed disposition, and reason.
4. Preserve invariants, evidence obligations, boundaries, forbidden outcomes, and mandatory methods without loss of meaning or strength.
5. Keep a recipe mandatory unless evidence supports candidate-path status.
6. Return the classification ledger and a minimally changed proposed contract.
7. Do not mutate the source unless the user asks and the rightful editing owner is loaded.

Adaptation gate

Replace a candidate path only when:

• The alternative preserves every accepted contract field.
• Evidence shows a material benefit or the current path is blocked.
• The alternative stays within current authority and side-effect limits.
• Any dropped, delayed, or reprioritized work has user approval.

If these conditions are not proved, keep the current path or mark the route unresolved. A better component is not proof of a better whole outcome.

Output

Show the contract first. In audit mode, follow it with the classification ledger. Keep the difference between the accepted contract, proposed route, and execution evidence visible.

When the next action is text revision, load meaning-preserving-rewrite. Route skill-only simplification to simplify-skill, plan-only work to plan, standing-goal packaging to goal-prompt, and execution to the matching domain owner.

Which worked example should you read?

Resource gate: run mise run validate before using package files named here.

Read examples/conversation-candidate-path.md when a live request names an outcome, boundary, and proposed implementation. Read examples/artifact-audit.md when a policy or specification may mix fixed approval rules with replaceable tools. Read examples/simple-request-bypass.md before adding contract work to a simple request; this is the failure the skill is most likely to cause.

Pitfalls

• Treating shorter instructions as automatically better.
• Preserving every step merely because it was written down.
• Demoting a safety or evidence rule because it sounds procedural.
• Replacing a user-selected method without evidence or approval.
• Inventing proof, constraints, or forbidden outcomes.
• Treating a contract or proposed rewrite as proof of execution.
• Editing an audited source before the user authorizes the change.

Progressive disclosure

Read references/eval-cases.json before testing, reviewing, or changing runtime behavior. Read references/generation-contract.md before changing package structure or native-to-public lineage. Read evals/cases.json and the rest of evals/ only when measuring activation, behavior, failure handling, recovery, or speed. Load mise run test before changing validation behavior, then run mise run ci; ordinary use does not load mise run test.

Verification

• starting-point shaped the private outcome map before classification.
• Every material source instruction has one source ID and a visible class.
• Preserved requirements retain their meaning, authority, and strength.
• Every relaxed recipe names the preserved contract and supporting evidence.
• Unknowns stay visible instead of being resolved by guesswork.
• The contract can admit a better safe route without allowing a worse result.
• External actions and source mutations remain behind their normal gates.

Factory execution contract

The accepted outcome is: Preserve the requested outcome boundary and proof threshold while replacing only failed candidate paths. Preserve current outcome boundary behavior while changing its smallest owner.

1. Freeze the current package with mise run ci and record its digest.
2. Run mise run domain-research-policy, then judge the current outcome boundary sources and counterevidence.
3. Run mise run agentic-request for the named outcome boundary operation. Keep semantic choices with the model.
4. Run mise run decision-policy, mise run ci, and the behavioral evals. Return to the lowest failed owner.
5. Run mise run invocation-policy -- <receipt> and account for every task or its domain-specific non-use.
6. Optionally run mise run improvement-policy. Keep one changed dimension only if no protected dimension regresses.

Load assets/use-case-contract.json through mise run use-case-policy and evals/evals.json through mise run evals only when their contracts are needed.

Mise owns repeatable mechanics, ordering, receipts, and checks. The model owns interpretation, causal judgment, creative work, and direct perception that code cannot supply. Stop on missing authority, stale evidence, or a failed gate.