Classifying Actions

classifying-actions

This skill is the decision-table authority for every mutating action a board-superpowers SKILL performs. It answers "does this action proceed automatically or wait for architect approval?" using:

1. A 14-row Producer matrix + 14-row Consumer catalog (see references/matrix.md + references/action-id-catalog.md).
2. A 5-step short-circuit triage rule that escalates Auto-class actions to Reserved-class when they touch architect-reserved powers, source of truth, in-flight work, or cross-card structure (see references/triage-rule.md).
3. A two-layer override system — user-level ~/.board-superpowers/overrides.yml and project-level <repo>/.board-superpowers/config.local.yml — where project layer wins on conflict (see references/override-parsing.md).

Decision tree at a glance

flowchart TD
    Start["Caller: action_id + repo_root"] --> M["Look up default class\nin references/matrix.md"]
    M --> D["Default class: A, R, or N"]
    D --> T{"5-step triage:\nany short-circuit\nmatches?"}
    T -- "yes, default was A" --> Esc["Escalate to R"]
    T -- "yes, default was R" --> KeepR["Already R; no change"]
    T -- no --> Keep["Use matrix default"]
    Esc --> O["bsp_resolve_autonomy_class:\nmerge user + project\nautonomyoverrides\n(project layer wins)"]
    KeepR --> O
    Keep --> O
    O --> Final(["Return final A, R, or N"])

How to apply this skill

Caller passes an action_id (an integer from the catalog) and the repo root. Caller receives back one of:

• A — Auto. Caller acts immediately, then writes one audit row.
• R — Reserved. Caller drafts a proposal, surfaces to the architect, waits for ack, then acts and writes the resolve audit row.
• N — No-go. Caller refuses; surfaces the block reason. (No matrix row currently maps to N; the value exists for autonomy_overrides: users who want to disable specific actions outright.)

The decision algorithm:

1. Look up the action's default class in references/matrix.md.
2. Apply the 5-step triage rule from references/triage-rule.md — if any step matches and the matrix says A, escalate to R.
3. Invoke bsp_resolve_autonomy_class <action_id> <repo_root> (in scripts/lib/common.sh) to merge in any layered overrides.
4. Return the final class.

The helper handles yaml parsing of the override files via venv-managed PyYAML; if venv is unavailable, the helper falls back to the matrix default (this is conservative — overrides cannot promote R to A without a working venv).

Quick reference

What this skill does NOT cover

• Writing the audit row — that's board-superpowers:auditing-actions. This skill decides; the other records.
• Surfacing the proposal to the architect — that's the molecular caller's UX responsibility (the four Producer routines / consuming-card / bootstrapping-repo).
• Tracking proposal acks across architect prompts — that's the caller's session-state responsibility.

This skill defines what class an action is. The caller decides when and how to act on it.