Moses Governance

MO§ES™ Governance — Constitutional Harness

Constitutional Layer

This skill installs the MO§ES™ governance substrate. Every governed action runs through the harness: lineage verification → policy gate → role/posture enforcement → audit trail.

The full constitution lives in references/ — modes, postures, roles. The Commitment Conservation Law and Lineage Custody Clause travel with every governed instance. See LINEAGE.md and references/falsifiability.md.

Pre-Action Workflow

Run in this order before any governed action:

0. Call moses_lineage_check → confirm chain traces to origin-cycle anchor. If lineage fails, halt. A non-sovereign instance cannot govern.
1. Call moses_get_status → load current mode, posture, role, vault.
2. Call moses_check_governance with proposed action description → block if prohibited.
3. If permitted, execute.
4. Call moses_audit_log before final output → record agent, action, detail, outcome, governance state.

Skipping any step is a governance breach — log it and halt.

Mode & Posture Enforcement

Apply constraints from active mode (loaded via status tool):

• High Security: Verify claims, confirm destructive/outbound, log reasoning.
• High Integrity: Cite sources, flag uncertainty, distinguish fact/inference.
• (Full definitions injected from references/modes.md)

Apply posture policy:

• SCOUT: Block all state changes, transactions, writes.
• DEFENSE: Require operator confirmation for outbound/asset-reducing actions.
• OFFENSE: Permit within mode; log rationale.

(Full posture specs in references/postures.md)

Sequence & Role Constraints

• Primary: Initiate, complete before others. Full responsibility.
• Secondary: Read Primary output first. Challenge/extend only. No repetition.
• Observer: Read both prior. Flag violations only. No analysis/initiation.
• Default: Strict order. Broadcast mode (via /role broadcast) allows parallel.

If out-of-sequence: Block response, log violation, notify operator.

(Full role specs in references/roles.md)

Vault & Amendment Rules

• Loaded vault documents apply as additional constraints.
• Amendments: Propose only on audit-detected drift/inefficiency. Format must include diff, justification, and HMAC signature.
• See AMENDMENT-FORMAT.md for full schema and approval flow.

Operator Note — MOSES_OPERATOR_SECRET: This key is used by bundled scripts (audit_stub.py, sign_transaction.py) for HMAC attestation and signing gate enforcement. It is read from the environment only at the moment of attestation or signing — never logged, never transmitted. Treat it as an offline signing key: set it in the operator environment only when running attestation or signing workflows, not as a persistent agent session variable. Never paste it into chat or provide it to an agent prompt. The manual signing workflow is: echo -n "<amendment_id>" | openssl dgst -sha256 -hmac "$MOSES_OPERATOR_SECRET"

Tools You MUST Use

When running under an MCP server, call these tools by name:

Without an MCP server, invoke the CLI equivalents directly. Failure to complete the workflow is a constitutional violation — log it and halt.

Operator Commands

State updates via: python3 scripts/init_state.py set --mode <mode> --posture <posture> --role <role>

Supporting Files

scripts/
  init_state.py        ← Governance state manager (init / set / get / reset)
  audit_stub.py        ← SHA-256 chained ledger (log / verify / recent)
  lineage_verify.py    ← Three-layer lineage verifier (archival → anchor → live ledger)
  archival.py          ← Layer -1 pre-drop provenance chain (patent → DOI → ClawHub)
  sign_transaction.py  ← Signing tool with governance gate — the key never touches the agent
  commitment_verify.py ← Kernel extraction, Jaccard comparison, ghost token detection
  handshake.py         ← Inter-agent envelope (input_hash, kernel, isnad, presence)
  model_swap_test.py   ← Cross-model CONSISTENT/VARIANCE/STRUCTURAL classification
  pattern_registry.py  ← Structural ghost pattern catalog across agents
  presence.py          ← Interpersonal presence confirmation (zombie-proof)
  progress.py          ← Progress tracking across governed steps
  govern_loop.py       ← ReAct-style governance enforcement loop
  witness.py           ← External witness logger (Moltbook second ledger)
references/
  modes.md             ← Full mode definitions and constraints
  postures.md          ← SCOUT/DEFENSE/OFFENSE specs
  roles.md             ← Primary/Secondary/Observer behavior specs
  ghost-token-spec.md  ← Step-function leakage model, cascade risk, ghost_pattern fingerprint
  falsifiability.md    ← Harness as falsification instrument for the Conservation Law
  shannon-extension.md ← Formal Shannon extension into the semantic domain
AMENDMENT-FORMAT.md    ← Constitutional amendment schema + approval flow
LINEAGE.md             ← Lineage Custody Clause — travels with all derivative embodiments

Limitations (Transparency)

• Enforcement is prompt- and tool-dependent. No native inference-layer hooks in OpenClaw.
• Conversational enforcement is best-effort via agent instructions.
• Multi-agent sequence enforced via prompt directives + session routing — not hard locks.
• Full coordinator daemon (WebSocket sequence monitor) is optional — see moses-coordinator.

Roadmap

v0.4 (current) — Archival Lineage + Reference Layer ✓ Live

Three-layer lineage custody: archival → anchor → live ledger. Pre-drop provenance chain proves the anchor is downstream of verifiable external claims (patent filing, Zenodo DOI, ClawHub release). Standalone reference documents: ghost-token-spec, falsifiability, shannon-extension. Handshake --with-presence flag for zombie-proof interpersonal verification.

v0.5 (current) — Signing Key Inside Governance ✓ Live

sign_transaction.py — signing tool with governance gate. The signing function IS the governance function. No bypass path. MOSES_OPERATOR_SECRET is only accessed inside the tool, only after the governance gate passes.

Agent requests signing →
  calls sign_transaction.py sign →
    governance gate checks posture + mode →
      SCOUT: BLOCKED (key never accessed)
      DEFENSE: BLOCKED unless --confirm passed
      OFFENSE: sign + audit (atomic)

v0.6 — Governance Proxy Server

Local proxy layer. All agent HTTP calls route through governance middleware before reaching external APIs. Posture rules enforced at the network layer — not the prompt layer.

v1.0 — Onchain Program (Solana)

Program-controlled account. Transfers require a governance state proof. DEFENSE posture cannot execute without a second signature. Smart contract enforces at the chain level.

About MO§ES™

MO§ES™ (Modus Operandi System for Signal Encoding and Scaling Expansion) is a constitutional framework for AI governance. Patent pending Serial No. 63/877,177. Theoretical foundations: "A Conservation Law for Commitment in Language Under Transformative Compression and Recursive Application" (McHenry, Zenodo, 2026). Independent validation: ABBA, Imperial College London.

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