Velocity surfaces the failures you could not foresee. Convert each recurring one into a mechanism, pushed as far toward hard enforcement as it will go.

ConceptBig idea 5 · the practice

Convert recurring failures into controls

Governance runs soft to hard: a compact spectrum of mechanism classes. A horizontal spectrum runs from soft governance on the left to hard governance on the right. Soft, probabilistic mechanisms that aim an agent sit on the left: conventions, briefs, templates, prose conventions, and a reviewing agent. Judgment-laden doc-derived tests sit in the middle. Deterministic mechanisms that hold the line sit on the right: lints, types, schemas, and quality, drift, or deploy gates, together with a marker file the tool reads. Soft aims the agent; hard holds the line; a mature environment uses both. Governance runs soft to hard Soft aims the agent; hard holds the line. A mature environment uses both. probabilistic · aims an agent deterministic · holds the line SOFT HARD convention · brief template · prose reviewing agent doc-derived test lint · type · schema quality / drift / deploy gate · marker file the tool reads The second time a soft rule fails, convert it: a documented rule becomes a lint the agent cannot talk past. Stronger guardrails let the fleet run faster, safely.

Engineering intuition

Mechanisms sit on a spectrum from soft to hard: a convention or a brief aims the agent but cannot block it; a lint or a gate holds the line whether the agent cooperates or not. The second time a soft rule fails, move it right — the documented rule becomes a lint the agent cannot talk past.

Related concepts

Mechanisms

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